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Snow drifts and guitar riffs - December 10

24th November was a day off and a chance to catch up with Pete Gabriel at the Logan Hall in London where talented friend and designer Harry Pearce was giving a talk called The Schizophrenic Road. Harry backs Pete's commendable Witness programme. The camera is sometimes mightier than the pen - witness the Rodney King beating, which started the whole idea off.

Back to the world of music and our next stop, the town of Bath. Entering the place felt like the world of a chocolate box Charles Dickens novel coming to life - a turn back world. Fairy lights lit the whole area, sprinkled with Christmas decorations. I'm sure I saw the ghost of Marley shopping at Crabtree and Evelyn. The show at the Komedia was great fun. Van doors jammed, but the venue was rammed and the band jammed on...

We were concerned for our Holmfirth show as snow was threatening and the place nestles in the middle of the Pennines, accessible only by small roads. The Picturedrome theatre there has a charm all its own and of course we encored with Holmfirth of Fifth!

The crowd at Pacific Road Arts Centre Birkenhead was as lively as ever, while backstage a strange kind of silence prevailed over the old tram museum. We huddled in our dressing rooms for warmth beside one of these stately dowagers of a bygone transport age.

As the snow thickened we approached Newcastle where we passed a sign that read "Winter Wonderland closed due to bad weather conditions"! We were relieved to reach our destination, and the crowd at the Sage, Gateshead was as warm as the weather was cold. That night Nick in full Victorian regalia floated ominously like an apparition through frozen streets.

The following day heading back down south, the Robin at Bilston was yet another extraordinary gig. By this time, we were absolutely shattered but happy post gig and at that point a mug of 'British Rail' tea is nectar!

As we drove into London we hurtled through blizzards which had chased us down the motorways. It was an unforgettable homecoming at Shepherds Bush Empire. Special guests John Wetton and Steven Wilson became our brothers in arms for the night, axemen supremos under the stars. Hierophant raised the roof and Watchtower burned with a blue flame. It felt like we all had a 'visit', the gig went so well.

It's been a whirlwind of snowdrifts and memories of sweet stringbendy dreams. On to the final frontier of Cambridge, Milton Keynes and Farnham...