After all the letters, calls, meetings and discussions this was it! A few friends at the stage door to wish us well. My old mate Brian Locking came round and as always we just had a laugh. Phil Jarvis came back to see the Ludwig’s. He has a magnificent web-site called Brian’s Drum Kits and he knows more about my drums over the last 45 years than I do. Warren came up on the train. He had been working with Cliff Hall on sounds for the past few weeks and has been a great help.

“Five minutes gentlemen.”

No point in working on the practice pad now. You would think that after all these years you would not still be nervous, but not so. We gathered at the side of the stage.

“House lights out.”

On we walked ... to a standing ovation! The roar was deafening, the loudest I have ever known, it felt good. I was on auto-pilot most of the set and when the adrenalin is pumping you can’t be too clever, there can be a tendency to rush things so I concentrated on keeping the beat solid and steady. 'Little B', my drum feature came up. We had only practiced the tune at rehearsals so I didn’t know what I was going to do during the solo. My technique was nearly up to scratch so it was just a case of how and where to take it. It’s instinct mostly, that and daring to take the dynamics down to almost nothing. Some of it came off and some didn’t but at the end, the audience rose to it's feet and let me know they liked it (big time!) I was very happy. The same reaction from the crowd at the end of the set and in minutes we where back at our hotel.

It was worth all the hours of rehearsals and all the hard work that everybody had put in.

We are back on the road!