My Little Office, Geddington, Wed Aug 8th

So, next week, then.....only seven short days until our band of merry pranksters reconvenes for our second assault on the tender sensibilities of the British theatregoing public. I have to say that it's all going quite pleasingly well so far....so much so, in fact, that we've not only been able to lose the band and Arthur out to Fuertaventura for a week to celebrate a landmark birthday for Arthur's partner Anthea, but also to let me go in to hospital for a quick op on the cartilage I tore on the LAST tour. Sadly the two events co-incided, so while they were out there doing the old sun,sea and sangria fandango, Billy No-Mates here was enjoying sitting at Edith Cavell hospital in Peterborough for ten hours waiting to go down to theatre whilst wearing nothing but a backless theatre robe and a deeply attractive pair of disposable underpants.The only comfort to be drawn from the whole experience is that by me NOT going out there, everyone avoided the sight of my capacious backside stretching a pair of Speedos to the very limit of their endurance. Just think of all the trauma the inhabitants of the island have been spared as s result....Any road, despite these distractions we've pretty much got it all in the bag. Hotels are booked, minibus is ready to collect, pyrotechnics are all set to go, extra lighting's just waiting in the warehouse ready to be put on the vans, and all the crew are locked and loaded. In terms of the dramatis personae, it's pretty much the usual suspects, though Rodders is still on tour with Scottish chooglers Runrig, his place being taken by Damian Goddard. Going some considerable way towards making up for Rodders' absence, however,is the surprise presence of Pug, who has deferred his Great Orstrilian Adventure just long enough to take in these shows. This is a much happier Pug than the one we saw on the last show at Radlett. You may have read between the lines on those last posts and realised that the trouble he had on the last tour was all to do with a GURL, so he'd opted to do the honourable thing and either go to Australia or join the Foreign Legion. As he's allergic to both sand AND camels, Oz got the nod, only for the aforementioned Sheila to then recant her original decision and reappear on the scene. Amid much wailing and gnashing of teeth ( not to mention close perusal of the small print on his air ticket to see how much he'd lose if he cancelled it ) a happy compromise was reached...he's still going out there and she's....err....not. But he says it's alright, really it is. Whatever the story, though, we're just made up to have him back with us. He may smell a bit, but he's got a heart of gold. We still don't actually know exactly what form the show will take as we haven't yet sat down with Den and Steve, but for those of you who may be coming along, the basic structure will be the same as the spring dates, with the notable exception of Liverpool, where we'll lob in a few more Beatles numbers in deference to the fact that it IS the Beatles festival, after all. In short what I'm saying is that isn't a new show....THAT will happen on the next tour, where we're looking to change things round quite a bit. It should be great....Den's got loads of ideas for different songs, there'll be new lighting, and the auditions for the trapeze-artist dwarves are coming along very nicely, thankyou....