Swindon Wyvern Theatre Tues Feb 16th

We head down to Swindon with the definite sense that the tour gears are slowly cranking us back up to speed. It's always hard to get back in the groove when you've had a break, enforced or otherwise, and we almost stopped before we got going at the start of the tour, so there's still a bit of ring-rust to be got rid of. It's also nice to be finally playing here.....we were all set to come down this time last year, but unfortunately Swindon was at the epicentre of what appeared to be the dawn of a new Ice Age, and the show had to be cancelled. Today is also Clive's birthday, and no-one's really quite sure exactly HOW old he is. He's been around so long we decide that like Bilbo Baggins, it's probably his eleventyth, though fortunately, unlike Bilbo, he doesn't slip on the gold ring and disappear. Instead he celebrates this auspicious occasion like the rest of us, lugging kit out the truck in the rain and generally moaning about what a pile of poo life can be at times, to heartfelt murmurs of agreement. The show gets built really quickly today, another good indication that we're getting back into the groove, and this gives us the time to catch up on the bits and pieces of running maintenance that we've been wanting to do. Most spectacular of these is undoubtedly the inauguration of Rodder's Magic Golden Box of Wonderment, one of our many stunning hi - tech stage effects. Don't be fooled by the plywood and spray - on paint....this is a masterwork of theatrical set construction, built with loving care ( on his day off, no less ! ) by a man at the very top of his game. We use this piece of splendid engineering in the build - up to " Wonderful Land " where Phil miraculously becomes Hank Marvin, and the Golden Box of Wonderment has finally replaced the Cardboard Box of Derision which Nick made yonks ago and which has been reduced to a piece of tattered detritus through repeated humping in and out of trucks and venues. We decided that as we were trying to increase the production values of the show we should finally retire The Box, and so it is ceremonially trampled a bit then hurled into the wings of the theatre, never to be seen again. The Golden Box has arrived, and you can tell immediately on seeing it that, in keeping with the rest of the tour, no expense has been spent. The show itself is a bit of an odd one...the band are starting to click again but there are a couple of glitches here and there and once again we're doing a different set, though this time it's only slightly different from last night and we all absorb the changes with no worries. The crowd's not the biggest we've had on the tour but they really enjoy it, and the band are visibly relaxing back into the tour routine. Arthur has made some notes on tonight's show so we head back to the hotel for a brief production meeting to talk things over and change some stuff around, but the general atmosphere is positive and some good developments come out of it ( it IS The Organic Tour, remember.... ). Truth is, we should have been in this position last week but the enforced hiatus has meant that we've just been firefighting lately. We've now got the basic show established and we're tweaking it rather than starting from scratch as we had to do in Hunstanton and Tunbridge Wells. We've also got a decent batch of shows coming up now, so ( whisper it quietly ) we could finally be up and running properly.....