PAGE 17.

Post Script #2: Last entry

I spent the next few months commuting between the UK and Portugal. I was enjoying doing up the old farmhouse and planting orange trees, banana trees, all sorts of trees and just taking it easy and getting my hands in the dirt; very therapeutic after being on the road.

It wasn’t long before I needed to get back to work and start making some plans. I did some playing and writing for an album with Alan Hawkshaw and Keith Mansfield. When you’re on the road everything is planned upfront for you. All you’ve got to do is show up and play. When you work alone you need self-motivation or you're in trouble. So, after two tours it was time to start.

Later in the year it was the school summer holidays and we had Warren and the girls stay with us in Portugal for the first time. Lazy days on the beach and long lunches at my favourite restaurant, Do Garrao, where these diaries started just over a year ago. We went to Cliff's vineyard one evening and had a great meal with some old friends and just relaxed and told jokes. It was the time of the senior tennis tournament at Vale do Lobo. We try and go each year and, as Jonathan is a professional coach, we get the best seats. This year, however, he had had an accident and had broken three fingers on his right hand. It was very serious and he couldn’t teach for months. Not a good year for the Bennett boys and their fingers!

We all went to the finals and were invited to the players private party after the match. John McEnroe and Mats Wilander got out their guitars and invited me up to play. It was a great night and a good end to the holidays.

Later in the year Ed Bicknell and I spent some time at our favourite hangout, Ronnie Scott’s, to see some of our favourite bands: Yellow Jackets, the Georgie Fame Big Band and Steve Smith’s 'Vital Information'. Steve is one of the truly great drummers and, apart from us being friends, he is always an inspiration to me. Because of him I wanted to keep playing. Steve was the one I first saw getting an audience involved in clapping out rhythm patterns.

Since the Shadows were no more, I’d better start something soon! I’m not sure what it’s going to be. I’m still working on it.

So that’s it. Sorry the diary was late but I hope you have enjoyed my scribbling.

I hope to see you all in 2007/8 with CR and if I get a band together, I’ll see you sooner, somewhere ... BACK ON THE ROAD!

The Bennetts lunch at Do Garrao.	Cliff, Alice, Cilla and Georgia at the Vineyard.
Warren and Alice!	Summer Holiday!
My new guitarist.	Jonathan (with broken hand) & Mats.
Mac, Mats & me.	With Tom Coster and Steve Smith at Ronnie Scott's.
Grand Champions billboard.
Me, Jonathan, Mac and Margaret.
Hope to see you back on the road.