The last time I posted on here was before Christmas so I thought that maybe 2 months later I should do a quick catch-up of what has been going on!

I spent 3 weeks at home and taking a break over Christmas and New Year which was really nice. When I got back, it was back into full swing with the Dreamboats Tour rehearsals. I was more involved in this process than I was last year which was cool! Not only did we have 11 new cast members coming in, but quite a few of the instruments changed as well – I was busy traipsing round London to find reeds, stands, strings etc before we loaded in to our first venue which was a fairly new build in Guildford (G Live).

There were also some quite considerable changes made to the staff on the show. We said goodbye to some great people and gained a few more! Marcus (my previous number one) has moved onto another show, and has been replaced by Ollie who was mixing the show in the west-end. Luckily we get on well which is always a plus!

The cast and crew seem to have settled well into the new tour. We’ve done 6 venues so far – we started off with some quite large stages, but we seem to be visiting a few really small ones in the coming weeks so we’ll have to wait and see how everyone copes with the vast drop in wing space!

Last week, I had a chance to do something a little bit different to our normal day/show. Myself, Ollie and Andy (our LX) worked on a press launch for Wonderful Town which is coming to the Mayflower, Southampton in a couple of months. They had chosen to do it during the week and therefore needed the use of our PA and LX rig, and therefore us! It was nice to do something a bit different for a change and I actually really enjoyed watching it from the wings. They pulled a grand piano out onto our set and Connie Fisher and a couple of other cast members sang a few numbers from the show. They were joined by the show’s director and producer who spoke about the show and how it came about. All in all, a nice easy morning!

We’ve got another 5 weeks left (Lowestoft, Scarborough, Brighton, Cheltenham and Torquay) before I believe we have a 2 week gap in our tour schedule. I’m hoping to get back home for a week and back to Liverpool for the second to have a good catch-up with some friends and work colleagues! If you’re around, give me a shout at the beginning of April! Then we will have 4 weeks of this leg left, one of which will be spent in Luxembourg. It was confirmed earlier this week that we’d be taking the show over there for three performances on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings! Again, something out of the norm which should be quite exciting – and I can say I’ve taken a show to Europe!

That’ll do for now I think. I’m off to bed before tomorrow’s load-in to Lowestoft! Here are a couple of pictures – whilst we were in Sunderland I celebrated my 22nd birthday. This is what the cast chipped in to get me; they clearly know me too well! Ace drum skin too! Also a quick shot of the Bristol load-in.

Thanks,
Dan