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Terrible news. The shop that inspired the sketch is gone. Where will I get my motorcycle clothing now? (Looks like they might just have moved) Thanks to Andy Secker for the pic. This is like the fork handles shop shutting down.
When I first got the tour gig list sent to me I thought this week might be a slightly depressing one. I was playing a lot of venues that I'd rarely if ever been to, in smaller towns and thought I might be playing to 100 or fewer people a night, at a time when I was well into the tour and maybe a little weary with the material or tired out.
But I was very wrong. Numbers are good - only Barnard Castle has sold fewer than 200 tickets. Something's happening. Incredibly slowly. I only need to live for another 200 years at this rate. The show is still fresh and enjoyable for me (and getting better all the time) and my energy levels are surprisingly good. Tonight in Lancaster and last night in Carlisle have been two of the best receptions I've had and there hasn't been a bad one or even a slightly duff one yet (that's tempting fate, I know). It's very good to be back and this might well be my best show yet. Hooray.
Tonight was my last Ball Back show under a Tory government and tomorrow will be the first gig I have performed with one ball under a Labour government. It seemed certain that Labour would win and the exit polls confirmed it, though the spectre of Reform and the possibilities of where they might lead the Tory party hung over everything. Hopefully the Tories will learn that moving to the right is not the answer for them, but they are the kind of people who will think the problem is that they didn't go fascist enough, just as they believe the problem with Brexit was that it wasn't restrictively diamond hard enough. If Labour can stay in government for ten years I think the Reform lot might run out of puff, but will Labour do that? I am hopeful Starmer will steady and improve things, but he's got his work cut out and I am far from sure. But we've got a grown up in charge for the first time in a while and he might surprise people.
I won't hold my breath. But the cheer I got in Lancaster when I said this was the last gig under a Tory government got a huge cheer.
I watched the early coverage in my hotel room. The door out to the corridor and the door to the bathroom were right next to each other and at one point, going to the loo in the nude I opened the wrong one. I guess if I'd stepped out and the door had shut behind me I'd have been in the same (possible) predicament as the guy I'd seen last night. There but for the grace of God.
