Well that was a fantastic if a little tiring weekend, followed by a fortnight of Gigs with no less than three Bands - oh what a Tart I am! Started with the Ultra successful Kat Men, peppered with a few Big Boy Bloater and the Limits and garnished with the Mental Hipbone Slim and the Knee tremblers, Twas a Joy, alas no pics from these gigs, my camera went up it, I've knackered so many cameras during this blog its unbelievable........I don't deserve nice things.

WAHEY!!!!!!

Wowzers!!!! I gotta say Loch Ness could be the most beautiful place I've ever seen, slogged it all the way there and pitched my tent, thats me there in the corner, maybe it wasnt the best plan to camp but I loved it, I've been waiting for this moment for over a year, for tomorrow I run the Loch Ness Marathon!!!!

Yep, time is upon us, Kat Men tour starts in a weeks time. Oct 4 - The Brook, Southampton. Oct 5 - Coalition, Brighton. Oct 6 - Thekla, Bristol. Oct 7 - Ruby Lounge, Manchester. Oct 8 - King Tuts, Glasgow. Oct 9 - The Cluny, Newcastle. Oct 12 -* Oct 13 -**. Oct 15 - Dingwalls, London. Them the dates, come along, here's a lovely pic of the Kat Men, its like one of those magic eye pictures, if you stare at Darrels expresso Bongo shirt for roughly 15 minutes and go slightly cross-eyed an image of me swimming with Dolphins should appear, very clever, keep trying as it can be quite difficult.

*/**sees me playing with Big Boy Bloater promoting his new Album * Blues in the Bay Festival, Falmouth ** Roadwater Hall, Somerset

Well, well, well, Just had a lovely week rehearsing for the Kat Men tour with Darrel & Slim Jim, sounding good and we're ready to get out there! It was also great to catch up with Imelda and little Violet too, lovely family. At the weekend I did an unusual Gig for London fashion week! I played Bass for Ben Gunne and his band of social misfits, they're great, drummer uses an upturned tea-chest as a bass drum and a snare Dustbin lid - yep, It does sound exactly how you'd imagine! Anyhoo a very posh doo it was and myself and the lads were provided with all the water we could drink.....anyway heres a picture of a pony.

Aaaaaaah the lovely, adorable wind machine that is Violet xxxx and just like her lovely Mum she's like a human but smaller x

Hello again, So this particular post is for anyone that may be interested in taking the time to do this running thing, I appreciate it may be boring for some so please if this is the case move on to the next entry. When I first started (a year ago), I thought this would be a doddle, my first run I couldnt even run to the end of my road (honest) so I briskly cacked my pants about the whole thing and joined a Gym straight away, I'm not a Gym person but found it helpful talking to people there that live this 'other' life, anyhoo at the crux of it- talk is just talk and my running on a treadmill was labourious and boring and just made me wonder why i wasn't doing something else more enjoyable, even though the treadmills had tv screens showing Jeremy Kyle ( is this supposed to enhance your running experience?). I tried everything from ipod playlists to spoken word books, I found the whole experience mind-numbing UNTIL a friend of mine advised me to get out in the fresh air, I had about 6months before my dreaded Marathon date and had nothing to lose, about a mile down the road there is Sutton Park, a beautiful park which boasts 7 pools, wild horses, woods, swans, ducks - you name it, very La-de-da and is roughly 15 mile around, I gave it a whirl, it was something I should have done long before, I loved it straight away, such a fantastic place to have practically on my doorstep, I'd look forward to going every morning and my distance and time changed drastically, before long I was running 10k every other day,I then moved out of the park having heard of the National Cycle paths and Greenways, these are a network of cycle paths and walkways that are all over the UK, look em up, you'll be suprised how many there are and how close they are to you, this along with the website walkjogrun where it shows you all possible routes from your postcode, it's never been easier! anyhoo I'm going to jump ahead now as I'm starting to bore myself, I'm now running 12 - 15 miles each run (one day on, one day off) and pretty much look forward to each one, The timing is no longer important to me, I have a few weeks to go before My Marathon now so I'm going to up the runs for the next 10 days, I'd ideally like to run 18/19 miles then wind it down before the big day. ok, thats enough of that for now, Beer swilling and Buffalo wings devouring will resume shortly but for now enjoy this pic of Sutton Park, how could you tire of seeing that each morning!

Sshhhhhhhh..........I think we're alone now,there doesn't seem to be anyone around. Ok, I'm back, most of you may know by now that Imelda and Darrel are the proud parents of a bouncing baby no-tail called Violet, Mother and child are healthy Just Father is suffering with wind. More on that when I can over the next couple of Instalements. Lots of Stuff happening since July, Re-release of the Pete Williams Album 'SEE' with a few particularly choice gigs, knockout Big Boy Bloater shows and just recorded an Album for The Kat Men which is Darrel Highams side project with Slim Jim Phantom on Drums, release date for the Album is early next year with an extensive tour but we have a few taster gigs coming up in the UK from Oct 4th, check the facebook page for details or I guess the dates will also go on Imeldas site too. This Blog however over the coming weeks will be lending itself to my Marathon training progress - yep thats right, Just over a year ago Imelda and I filmed the roadrunner video, I had already drunkenly signed up to the challenge of running a Marathon a few weeks before which is why I was chosen for the video, nobody believed I would go through with it. Anyhoo, its because of that very reason that I have embraced the challenge,believe me, I've doubted myself more than 217 times whether or not I can finish it, I really am the 'from couch to Marathon' guy! I drank like a pig and ate like a fish and was clearing almost 20 cigars daily, Eeeewwwwwwww! SO, my Marathon date is September 30th 2012 at the beautiful Loch Ness, I know, only 1 month to go! don't get me wrong, I have been training all year, I quit the smokes without a hitch and now wish I had done it long before, my eating is also healthier, however I still happily drink like a pig. I shall update a lot more frequently now, It may be higgledy-piggledy and may not be in the right order but isn't that part of the charm?

Ok ok ya big softies, Blog will restart in the next couple of days, I've been busy with Imelda and gang, Pete Williams,The Toy Hearts and of course my lovely family over the past few months, I have no excuse for not regularly updating, Its just something you are going to have to accept x

Today to celebrate the release of the Ripping Yarns series on DVD, Monty Pythons Terry Jones and Michael Palin had the genius idea of organising a Hopathon, 400 metres on one leg AND enter the Guinness book of Records! I signed up and had a great day, completed the track in less than 20 minutes! It's harder than you can imagine.......and hilarious, me and a coupla mates even got a cheeky pic on the winning podium!.........now I can hardly walk.

A week in the Life....
Apart from doin the doo with Pete & Co, Family Time was spent visiting the Dr Marten Factory, just outside Northampton, a village called Wollaston, Wellinborough, great sleepy little place that has been the home of this factory since 1960! with an amazing outlet where you can pick all the classic Doc designs up for 25 English quids! Bargain!!! ( thats my brother John in one one of the photies)
Drove out to Gressley, Derbyshire to eat in the '50s American Diner' This is a real American Diner that started life in New Jersey U.S, I don't know the full story but rumour has it that there was a murder in it, whether that has anything to do with it being moved I don't know but this place is unbelievable, The Owners Trish and Trev are completely dedicated in making it as authentic as possible - great fun!
March 1st was World book day, all the school kids were encouraged to attend school dressed as their favourite literary character, Tallulah dressed as Max from Where the Wild things are, she won an Easter egg for having the best costume! Thats my girl, mind you, Saff made the costume and thats what she does so maybe we should've given the prize back because we had an unfair advantage........yeah right.

Fantastic sellout homecrowd gig at Birminghams Glee Club with Pete Williams, just fantastic, and a right old knees-up ensued at the Pub after.....Fantastic!

No rest for the wicked - Hightail it into the smoke with the Williams boys where we played a superb set at The Lexington, Islington in front of a star studded audience, Josie Lawrence, Kevin Rowland, Nick Talbot etc was good to see Oliver Darling there too who gave us ample support....

PEPPA PIG WORLD!!!!!! ROCK 'n' ROLL !!!!

Great day today, rehearsals have gone super smashing great with the Pete Williams Band, great bunch of guys and great music, we're only doing a few gigs but I'm really looking forward to them.
I also heard from the Imelda May camp that our Royal Albert Hall gig has now sold out! Does a day get any better!?

Wonderful to get back home, here I am with beautiful daughter Tallulah relaxing in the garden...

Ok, we finish off in L.A for our 4th appearance on the Jay Leno Show, the main guest was first Lady Michelle O'Bama, so snaps were frowned upon, straight from the show we skiddaddle over to LAX Airport and enjoy our 10 hr journey home, It's good to be going home for a decent break, here are some leftover snaps from our trip....

I can imagine to anyone reading this blog that It looks like I'm in the states twiddling my thumbs - I can't argue with that, to a certain extent thats exactly what I'm doing, It's a promo tour which means as a band we get to play a couple of songs every couple of days, Imelda and Darrel have been rushing about doing acoustic stuff but for our part it's the waiting game, Promo tours are crappy but have to be done, I'm aware that sounds spoilt but nothing beats actually gigging.
In Denver now, 1 mile up in the mountains doing a very important radio show that I can't remember the name of,....Wow the people here are irritatingly enthusiastic about everything, very annoying, saying that, everyone had a great time.