'sorry it has been such a long time since i wrote something. there has been all sorts of stuff going on, family life, writing and recording and live shows and various other, day to day things, that all take up more time than they should.
anyway, i have been having a really good summer so far; there have been some great gigs, the first one was in naples in italy in a beautiful old opera house. it was absolutely amazing and a great honour to be invited to sing and perform there where so many amazing stars/divas have sung over the centuries. we also did a show in the square in fabriano in italy, another beautiful location and i really enjoyed that. right at the end, just as i was going to start the final song of the encore section, suddently there were flares and flags and horns and ole ole oles from the top of the square; turned out it was inter milan fans celebrating their victory in the champions league final that evening. they were heading through the audience for the fountain behind the stage so there was no point in spoiling their fun and we ended the show.
then, in early june, i got a really really nasty dose of bronchitis and had to cancel a show in gran canaria. it was terrible i had to do that but the doctor said i could seriously damage my voice if i did the show so i had no choice. i was looking forward to the show cos i had never been in gran canaria and i know a lot of people were going. apologies to everyone and i hope you can understand why i had to cancel. after that, i had to rest for a while, no talking and no singing and, eventually, the bronchitis cleared up. since then, i have been in the czech republic for, i think, a really good show and a great audience and in genova, italy, last weekend where i had the best time singing. for some reason, i can feel my voice getting stronger and stronger these days, i have more control and, as a result, i am really enjoying singing and playing live. tomorrow, we head to suzhou, near shanghai, in china for my first ever show there. we will be there only for a short time but i am looking forward to seeing what the place looks and feels like, even if it is only a glimpse into life there. at the end of july we go to spain for a series of shows, then to bratislave, slovakia, in the middle of august, and the last show of the summer is in sardinia on aug. 28, i think.
i have been doing vocals on a whole lot of tracks for the next record. i am really excited by the out come so far, i was recording with john reynolds in london and i love working with him because he always seems to be the best at recording my voice. there is still lots of work to be done on the tracks but everything looks on course for the record to come out sometime early next year. its a real mixture of material, electric, acoustic, soft vocals, tough vocals, beats, atmosphere, rawness, all that stuff combined together. who knows, we might get some other artists in to do some bits and pieces, collaborations, on some of the songs. anything is possible.'