We are proud to announce that Marcel Jacob will give us a daily updated news about the Talisman Farewell Tour.

We got the gear set up, did a very quick check of each instrument to see if we had sound, I walked over to the monitor guy to tell him what I wanted. But by the way I felt in my hands I knew I was going to have a difficult time.

The show was announced, then the intro started; this is a little weird, I wanted the intro to just start and not be so obviously a taped Intro...anyway, we have a tight set and we got through it fine, it was more than a little rough here and there, but it was basically a rehearsal anyway :-)...I played terribly, but my hands were aching from the band rehearsal the night before...that, and it was a little hard getting into it because the audience was a little comatose, hopefully because they were unfamiliar with the songs more than because of how we actually sounded :-). The other guys did fine, especially Jamie who's always on top of things.

As we walked off we met the guys in Y&T, they jumped at us with the question off what song they should start with - of course I instantly said "Open fire" ! They sounded great. The bass player, Phil, we joked a little about him being "Yngwie" on bass, his appearance is a bit flamboyant :-)...and the drummer looked a little like a cross between the Appice brothers, but he was really good ... Dave Meniketti, I never heard him play as good.

Vodka, hanging out with Y&T, Arjo & Erik, some other people; then Deep Purple started...I got started on Deep Purple, if you haven't already caught on :-) ... I'm not too keen on the contemporary version, but they have it together, (Ian) Paice is steady if not as frenetically energetic, (Ian) Gillan sounded surprisingly fresh, Don Airey was cool...overall I give them two thumbs up...what bummed me out though was that after after refreshing my drink I wanted to go back up behind the stage, but my pass clearance was inadequate...either the festival people should have given us better passes, or the people there more familiar with who was working there ... I don't like feeling like a newbie who hasn't been in the business 23 years like I have :-) ... oh well, there was still vodka left in the dressing room, so that's where I went!

Thanks to my friends I was led to a car where I proceeded to fall asleep, only to wake up in the garage in the apartment building where Alex and Evey (Philippi) lives. They're our hosts for a few days, and they are too good to us. Today, the 21st, Evey took Brian and I to the movies, we catched "Fracture" with Anthony Hopkins ... I give it a weak 3 out of 5, decent acting but a weak story ... tonight we had dinner with Peter de Wint who's working with WASP but was supposed to do most if not all of our tour ... Jeff had issues with the tuna carpaccio which I suspected he would, but hey, he`s a big boy, he should know what to order ;-).

And to think we should have done 2 shows in the UK by now ... fucking sucks ... we lose money by not doing them not too mention the silly travel changes that ensued... I'm sure a lot of people are disappointed and have lost money on travel and whatnot ... UK immigrations-Talisman 1-0... wish I'd been there to explain that by doing their job too well they shafted fellow Europeans like myself as well as their fellow countrymen promotors and event goers, just because, not that I think it would have made a difference...I sincerely hope noone thinks we didn't want to do them, they wouldn't have been booked otherwise ... if we're allowed back in and anyone wants us, we're coming. Still, the mood is good, we're laughing at every twist and turn.

Another day of Antwerpen, then we're going to Greece. Despite the horrendous travel, Bri and I are leaving Antwerpen just after lunch to go via the UK, arriving 3 30 in the morning the next day :-), I am positive it will be good and fun, and my hands will be in better shape. I' ll keep you posted - if I survive the flights :-)!!!