i can hover

So the tour is a few weeks old and the shows have been great. Every crowd so far has been excellent and we’ve had a ball. Last night in Birmingham was a superb and joyous occasion.  Hearing some people couldn’t make it because of the weather is sad though. We of course can’t legislate for freak snow falls. Some folk on the message boards have been rather vocal about suggesting that we were insensitive to have played the show at all given the weather conditions.

Firstly WE were there. Fit, healthy and raring to go. And if that is ever the case we will never cancel a show (to be honest there have been many ocassions when we’re not any of those things and the show happens anyway….). Also 13 thousand plus paying fans made it to the show snow or not and we wouldn’t want to let them down plus there is no way the insurance would cover us pulling a gig if most of the ticket holders are in the building even if we wanted to, which we didn’t.

I once lost my voice due the polyps on the vocal chords in the middle of a US tour (2006ish) and we had to cancel (at the time, although we did reschedule the dates six months later) the rest of the tour while I recovered. I remember the feeling of helplessness and shame I was clothed in at the time. The thought of letting people down burns me like a hot blade. I vowed then to always take good care of my throat and voice on tour so as to never cancel another show. So the cries from some folk last night and this morning that we should have cancelled/postponed the gig rather than do it is very confusing to me. I hope you’ll realise that if our legs and arms are attached and I can raise my voice than we’ll do the show no matter what.

Now if the numbers were reversed and thousands of people couldn’t make it and only hundreds could then it could be argued that the show should be moved to a different date. I’m not exactly a trekkie but the old Vulcan proverb fits nicely here “the needs of the many outway the needs of the few”. Hope you understand that we needed to think about the 13 thousand people plus IN the building not the several hundred that couldn’t make it. This won’t help right now as you’ll be pissed off you missed the show but when the anger passes maybe it will. If it still doesn’t I really don’t know what to say other than I hope you’ll come see us again sometime and if you won’t then good luck to you. Love, luck and happiness always. gL.x