It’s that time again, time to go back to the ship and once again it’s the beautiful Celebrity Eclipse, I’m joining her in Civitavecchia near Rome. I left my house at 4am this morning for a 6am flight from Cardiff to Amsterdam and now I’m on the next flight to Rome.
I had a lovely week at home, we did loads of jobs that we have been putting off for months, we cleared the garage thanks to a wonderful chap called Finn from waste4U.com, he came out to take a look and we cleared the garage there and then, next day John from Projet.com came out and cleared all the guttering around the house and steam cleaned the patio and paintwork, so the house and garden looks fab now.
Today in Civitavecchia we will be in with quite a few ships, it’s a very busy port, in with us will be P&O’s Ventura and my friends Hughie & Dee are on, there’s also my friend from Swansea Lyn Mackay so I am hoping to see them later this afternoon, there’s a nice pizza bar in the town so I just might be able to see them and catch up and have a nice couple of beers.
My tour posters have arrived at home and they look great, so Ian my PA is working flat out to get them out to the theatres, I can’t believe we start the tour soon, 24th September to be precise and so far I have sold nearly 200 tickets, the pressure is on to sell out as I have done just that every time I have played there, so if you fancy coming to see my brand new show please book some tickets, I’d love to see you there.
I’m still in the air so to speak, and I have songs running through my mind for the tour like Go The Distance, I Write The Songs, The Way You Look Tonight, How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You, To Where You Are, Never Let Her Slip Away to mention but a few. You may be pleased to learn I intend to sing more on this tour, also I have a very special guest with me, it’s the beautiful and hugely talented Rhian Griffith who will be giving us the first half of the show although it will be quite a short first half at around 20mins and I will be on for about 1hr and 20mins. My band are the same boys you may have seen before, they are a great bunch of guys we have Michael Morwood my musical director and on piano, Paul Shepherd on drums, John Goode on Bass and Julian Tucker on 2nd Keyboards and woodwind and together they make a big sound, I have had the same band now for more than 10yrs and the same sound/PA hire from the brilliant Adrian Bamford and Ian Bamford of Neath Music, so we are in good hands.
The weather in Rome is supposed to be very hot around 27c so time to top up the tan again, Marie and Sam were supposed to be travelling with me again this time but it didn’t work out so I will miss them very much, Sam loved the Eclipse with its dancing waters and pool and the kids club.
In October this year I am back on another fab ship Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas and I’m taking my eldest son Tom with me on that one, he will love it, especially as he will get his very own stateroom.
See you later on the Eclipse!
Onboard and with a great big welcome back from the Guest Relations team and The Cruise Director Dru and Production Manager Heather, once settled into my stateroom and put my mobile phone on charge, I hate my phone low on battery, I met up with my friends Hughie & Dee as Ventura was in also the Aurora so another surprise two other friends turn up to say hi, Bez & Nat, it was great to see everyone, oh yes from Kool Blue Paul too, 3 ships and friends on them all, fantastic!
We sailed from Civitavecchia for Sardinia and for me bed early as I had been up since 3am, but before going to bed I caught a fantastic funny act a man called Gareth Oliver, a vent act and so much more, you may remember him from Britain’s Got Talent he was on when Susan Boyle was on, yeah, a great act, and now I have to follow him!
Today was Sardinia and 30c welcomed us, boy it was a hot day, I had my back and forth chats with Marie, Sam was not a happy bunny today, they went to Somerset to Marie’s Mum and he had a DVD of Inspector Gadget and when he went to watch it, Inspector Gadget was not in the box, instead it was a wildlife film, he was not impressed and played hell so to speak, a trip to the supermarket and Bee Movie had to do, poor Sam.
On board is another great act Gary Arbuthnot who is one of the best flautists I have ever heard, he just rang me and we going to dinner tonight at 7pm at the Ocean View Cafe, it is very nice there! Gary and I went to dinner; we didn’t go to the Ocean View Cafe we went to another beautiful restaurant and had a beautiful meal and more importantly a really good chat on fitness and diet, I start tomorrow morning with Gary as he has offered to train with me and get the diet and fitness programme started, so I’m off to bed as I am up early!
I met with Gary and we started with a 10min walk around the top deck of the ship, I wore a heart monitor and once my heart rate was up to 120 beats we started gently jogging until my heart rate was up to 130 then walked again then back to jogging and we did this for an hour, I can’t believe I did it, I fell much better for it too. I had fruit for breakfast and water with lemon, I am going to not drink beer and stay off sugar and carbs too, oh my goodness I’ve started.
My show is tonight and have the usual 7pm and 9pm slots, I hope it all goes well, I have the ever so funny Gareth Oliver to follow from the other night, he stormed them for both his shows, he is good, very good!
I have spent the last couple of hours working on the tour, now I have too much going on, so what do I take out, I have some great new songs and I can’t wait to sing them. I am going for some lunch in 20mins with Gary so he can go through with me what to eat and what not to eat, wow I have started my “getting fit for the tour” programme and it’s thanks to Gary Arbuthnot.
I’m just back from my rehearsal and sound check and it went like a dream, Steffen on sound is the best sound man I have worked with on ships, he has a brilliant sound on stage which makes me happy and if I’m happy the crowd’s happy, there is nothing worse than having to think about or worry about the sound, that makes you uneasy and then you take your eye of the ball and all of a sudden you are not going down well with the crowd, so thank you Steffen (and if you will excuse my attempt at an American isum...you rock!
My first show is in 1hr and 30mins, so let’s hope it goes well, I know I always worry, it’s the way it is!
My show last night was a great success 2 great shows, the 9pm was packed out. After the show Gary Arbuthnot and Steve Rawlings came back to see me, it is always very nice when your fellow pro’s take the time to come back and congratulate you, I was quite touched by their kindness. I did an impression of Dru the cruise director and the crowd loved it and so did he thank goodness.
Today we are in Cadiz in Spain and it a cool 32c, I was up at 8.45am and turned on the TV to be totally horrified by the awful crimes being committed in London and now Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol, I just cannot believe this is happening in our country.
On a lighter note, I had my run around the decks and a healthy breakfast and now have the day to enjoy, so looks like it’s going to be a sun bathing day learning my songs.
Well, it’s just too hot today so I didn’t sit in the sun; it has been a day sitting in my stateroom watching TV and the awful scenes of violence on London’s streets, unbelievable!
Last night Cruise Director Dru, ventriloquist Gareth Oliver and I took part in what we used to call Call My Bluff only this was an American version called Liar’s Club, it was fun to do but to honest I didn’t think it went that well, I was rubbish I couldn’t think of anything interesting to say about the words I was given, words like Pisonia, Numbles and alike, it was ok!
Today we are in beautiful sunny Lisbon; we dock right in front of the famous suspension bridge with a statue of Christ across the water, it really is an awesome sight. I still got up and had my hours workout which I enjoyed as I did half around the deck and the other half in the gym, fab gym it had an iPod connection on the running machine so I carried on learning my words, I’m learning a great song called He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother which I am going to sing for my brother Phill also The Way You Look Tonight for Marie, the words are going in slowly but surely.
After a lovely fruit breakfast I went ashore with my camera and took some great photos of the dock area in Lisbon, have a look!
Back on stage tonight 8.45pm and 10.45pm and its clocks on an hour tonight, I hope that doesn’t put the audience off coming to the late show. I share the stage tonight with an amazing act Steve Rawlings who I have heard so much about over the years from another great act Pete Matthews, Steve juggles stuff like golf clubs and tables, he’s a great act!
Tomorrow we are in Vigo Spain and tomorrow evening I have been invited to dinner with my mate Mark Tomley he is the Food & Beverage Manager so I am looking forward to that, it’s a quirky restaurant you order from iPads, how crazy is that?
Its 7pm now the time I would normally be going on but its late shows tonight, so 1hr and 45mins to go, I am looking forward to it as I left out some good stuff from my first show so I can put it in tonight. There’s a slight swell out on the sea at the moment I do hope that doesn’t get worse, at home Marie tells me it’s quite windy so we could be heading into some high winds which makes the sea rough of course, oh never mind I have been in real bad weather at sea in the past, one time on P&O Oriana just off Japan we hit a force 12 hurricane force and we even damaged the bow of the ship, we limped into Yokohama late but had a extra two nights if I remember rightly, QE2 was in at the same time, there wasn’t a scratch on her of course, I remember a fellow act and good friend Tricia Dusky ringing me in the middle of the night really scared and I went down to her cabin and let me tell you it was really bad we were rising out of the sea about 40feet at a time and crashing down hard, everything was falling off shelves, doors slamming in and out, we had most things like pianos chained down as everything was sliding around, yeah that was a rough night, do you in my 16yrs at sea I have only witnessed really bad weather and high seas about 5 times, so not bad really. I have Barry Manilow playing on my iPod, I know he’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I love him, a great singer and an even better song writer, I met him once at the Hilton Hotel in London, a really nice person.
Both shows went great once again and it was great to share the stage with Steve Rawlings a top act.
Today we are in Vigo, its hot and sticky and I don’t know where the morning went but I didn’t get to have my morning run, the phone rang and it was Mark Tomley inviting me to a seafood lunch in Vigo, so we met on the gangway ay 11.45am and went to a fab little place for a beautiful seafood feast, also with us was some of the ships officers and the bars managers wife and little one Tia if I remember rightly, a really nice afternoon was had by all.
That night I went to see Adam Scott he’s an amazing guitar player, he plays Spanish flamenco style and he is world class trust me, here’s a photo of him in action.
Today is a day at sea, we are now in the Bay of Biscay and P&O’s Ventura is just behind us off our port bow, it’s lovely to see her at sea she is a magnificent ship. I had my run around deck 14 and had my iPod flat out in my ears as I was learning my lyrics of the new songs for the tour. This afternoon at 3pm I am being interviewed by the cruise director Dru Pavlov in the Eclipse Theatre so I hope we get a big crowd, I hope to show some of my TV footage and photos of my family and so on. I have 80% packed my stuff and I’m now in “going home” mode, I can’t wait. Sam has cut his knee now and is causing such a drama and he tells Marie that he can’t walk now! The seas are quite grey today, you can tell we are getting near to home; Marie hates this kind of day, the last day, packing with grey skies and seas.
My interview was a great success we had a packed house, it went great and the cruise director Dru seems to be very happy, looks like we are going to do this every time I’m here now, I had my laptop onstage with me and I messed up the video presentation, it just didn’t work, it was out of sync, never mind it didn’t take anything away from the show.
Tonight I’m going to a funky little restaurant called Qsine where you order from an iPad, can’t wait. I’m nearly finished packing and home tomorrow; I am so looking forward to seeing my family.
No comments:
Post a Comment