Hey everybody, Nick here. I am finally back from the EU. What a fantastic and long trip. Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who came to the shows. We had such a good time playing for you all. Tiffany had a great time too. Hanging out and talking to everybody. Thanks for showing her a good time. Tiff and I stayed on in England for 5 extra days. I showed her around London for a couple of days. Then we drove down to The Isle of Wight and stayed at a little B & B over looking the English Channel. Very cool.

Tiff got to go horse back riding while I took the ferry over to Southhampton to do a session with Rob our sound man. He lives there and has a great little studio. The funny thing about that, or not so funny in Tiff's case, is that after Tiff went for her ride she was supposed to take the bus back to the hotel. Which was on the other side of the island. There was bus stop right down the street from the riding stables but she didn't take the paper with the bus number and times that the lady at the hotel had got for her. So she stood at the bus stop for about an hour, which she had already prepared for, and then a bus came by. She asked the driver if it went to Ventnor and he said yes. The only problem was was that the bus was going in the opposite direction then the way we came. Basically around the whole island. What was only supposed to take an hour took 3 1/2 hours. Tiffany saw every town, street, church, and tree on the island. Not by choice. She got back to the hotel finally and looked at the sheet of paper and realised that she got on the bus going the wrong direction. She took bus 7B instead of 7C. Just one thing in our little adventure around England. The other was me driving on the other side of the road on the other side of the car trying to navigate the roads in the country. Needless to say I took the wrong turn a number times.

Another thing that was crazy and frustrating was being 6000 miles from home and seeing our town burning on the BBC news. The town we live in was right in the path of one the fires here in So. Cal. Luckily we are far enough down the hill the we only got a very messy yard from soot and ash, but Tiff's parents came very close to losing everything. They had to evacuate their place with our kids and come over to our house. It was nuts. It wasn't a very good feeling not being able to do anything about it, but we made it through. I have cleaned up my yard and now have to get ready for more Spock's gigs. Unfortunately, a lot of people were not as fortunate as us and lost everything. The fire is still burning in some places. Life can definitely be cruel sometimes.

About the Spock's gigs in the states. There had been some confusion about some things and I apologise for that. We had to cancel the Buffalo and Montreal gigs, but everything else is on. Oakland, Los Angeles, Lowell, Sellersville, NYC, and Metuchen. I do apologise to all of you in Buffalo and Montreal. It is not that we didn't want to play there. We want to play everywhere if we can, but the finances just can't make it happen right now. We will do our best to get back there soon for you. It is amazing how much it costs just to do a few shows. So we had to consolidate it down a little. We are already trying to plan out some other things for the near future and we will do our best to make it up to you who are going to miss up coming shows. For those of you around the other cities, we really hope you all come out and rock the house with us. See you all very soon and all the best, NDV

Hey everybody,

We just finished our last gig of the tour, the Mean Fiddler in London. We had to do a short set for the same reason that we've had to do a short set before. . .the dreaded disco party. . . this time it was a gay disco. We only play the nicest places. :-)

Actually, the Mean Fiddler is the room we play whenever we're in London, sometimes called the Lower Astoria, and one of the grottiest venues we've been in, but also always one of the best gigs of the tour. We had an absolutely great time tonight, and the London audience was amazing as usual.

When California Guitar Trio was doing their version of Bohemian Rhapsody almost the entire audience was singing along. .. and singing all the words and all the parts. Quite impressive, actually. But it's a well documented fact that the Spock's Beard audience is typically extremely intelligent and quite often musically talented, so I guess I should have expected nothing less. :-)

But alas, it's all over, and after packing up our gear and some tearful goodbyes, we're off to Heathrow Airport tomorrow morning to fly back home. And the wake up call is in less than 5 hours, so I'll sign off now.

Thanks to everyone who attended any of our shows, and thanks to everyone who were interested enough to read this tour diary! We appreciate your support more than you know.

Dave

Hey, dude! Beautiful day in London, cold but clear. A day off, and a hotel room, Woohoo! Went through the Chunnel last night, that thing's amazing. Drove the whole bus onto this train car that goes under the English channel. It's bigassed.

Rockin' good show in Tilburg last night. Was going to go out in the audience for the end solo, but didn't have time. Ryo wore some Spock ears, pretty nutty. Was going to wear my fake beard, but I figured Ryo's were enough for one night...

Great club, big stage, very clean, everybody very friendly. Met some people in town & chatted a bit. What's not to like? Many thanks to John Boegehold & Stan Ausmus for helping write some great material. Next time you guys have to come along & join the fun!

Off to enjoy London, last gig tomorrow night. Whoa, that was quick. Time flies when you're on a bus with 16 smelly dudes I guess...

Cheers, Al

Dude, we're in Holland, in Zoetermeer! Cool place, nice weather, nice people. Hope you're all having fun, I certainly am. Paris yesterday, great club, great time. Running around like lunatics, quite crazed. Tilburg tomorrow, then London. What a gas! What could be more fun than this? Well... Anyway, we're having a blast thanks to everybody for coming out and making this an awesome tour.

Later, Alan

Couldn't get a phone line out last night, so now it's Saturday afternoon, and we're at the venue in Paris. Really cool old venue, but the load in was a bitch. All the equipment up a huge flight of stairs, one piece at a time. I haven't been working out as much as I'd like so I used it as my workout for the day.

And poor Eike, our bus driver, navigating down narrow streets made worse by double parked cars, then parking in front of the venue for just long enough to frantically unload everything before jetting off in search of a parking spot.

He's amazing, though... never gets excited, just always gets us from point A to point B.

So that's the update for today so far...

Once again, thanks for your support, and I'll check in with more tour updates as we wind into the home stretch.

Dave

Had a pretty wacky night last night at Z7 in Pratteln, CH. Either it was because it was the 7th show in a row, we're suffering collective jet lag and colds, or maybe it was just something in the air, but both us and the guys in Enchant felt kind of strange all day.

It seemed like we were all very anxious before we went on stage. Then, even as we started the show there was still a weird distracting nervousness for no reason at all, really... just one of those unexplainable things.

It was like we couldn't get a solid reading on the audience, even though the response was quite positive. It is that feeling that you get when no matter what you do it doesn't seem like quite enough. Then the "committee" starts going in your head, having little discussions about every note, every arrangement.

So, after a minor trainwreck in Sid, and in typical Spock's Beard fashion, instead of just gritting our teeth and stiffly playing through the set, we went into power / party mode.

There were some pretty silly moments throughout the set, but also some very cool moments, things that wouldn't normally happen in our set. Definitely a wild ride. I think that ultimately we each individually did what we needed to do to have a good play.

So...today was a day off in Paris. A bunch of us took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower and hung out there for a while, which was pretty fun. But basically it's a day to just chill out, relax, and do something besides the daily ritual of doing a show.

Met the German fan club in Aschaffenburg. Really great people, thanks to everybody.

Backstage at the Z7 in Pratteln Switzerland now. Things are going great, really hitting our stride now. Last night Jimmy "rode the audience" to the back of the hall & back up to the stage. Very cool. That was Munich. Great hall, great crowd. Had some good Indian food, too. (They call it Indische Kuche, still tastes the same.)

This is a big hall tonight, big stage, lots o fun. Plus they have a washing machine backstage - very important at this point, believe me. People were starting to get woozy when I walked to the front of the stage!

Rock!

HALLO!!!

NDV here. I just wanted to give a huge thank you to everyone who came to our German shows. We had our last German gig last night in Munich and it was a blast. The band played really well, and the crowd was even better. Ryo broke one of his keyboard stands rocking so hard. Jimmy went surfing the audience ala Peter Gabriel. A first for a Spock's Show and it was awesome. This tour is really turning out great. I was worried about the 7 gigs in a row but tonight is the last of the 7 in a row stretch and my voice is actually holding up. We will get a day off tomorrow in Paris and I am looking forward to that. But first, it is tonight's gig here in Switzerland. So let the rocking commence people!!!!!! - All the best, NDV

Hey Beardites,

Reporting to you from Aschaffenberg today, a really beautiful little city, and another gorgeous sunny day. There is a LAN connection in the production office, and really good coffee, so at this moment my life is perfect! ;-)

Paderborn was a pretty killer show last night. The place was only about half, maybe 2/3 full, but the audience was great. We had a really good stage sound, and a really good energy level. Also, we got to do almost our full set, which was fun.

Al is feeling much better now, too. There seems to be a two-day cold going around that's quite nasty. A few of the guys have come down with it already, and I'm praying that I don't get it. Getting sick on tour is a miserable experience, and unless you're in the hospital, you can't take a sick day and stay home, so we're all keeping our fingers crossed and taking our vitimans.

And drinking Jagermeister, of course, which is made from herbs so it's very good for our health (just kidding...)

Our crew is just completing our stage set up in Colos-Saal. It's so good having them, and they are doing an amazing job. We're getting lazier and lazier every day. I usually try to help with load in and set up, but it's totally not necessary, they handle it all flawlessly, every day. And it's a LOT of gear to deal with.

Well, there's the call... sound check time, so I'll send this off and check in later.

Dave

Hallo from Berlin,

Just pulled into Berlin a few hours ago... it's a gorgeous day...cool but sunny. Perfect Fall weather. I went for my daily jog and now we're just waiting around for the venue to open at noon. I need coffee... soon!!!

Interesting area of Berlin...we're right across the street from the former Berlin airport, Templehof, which I think is still in use, but mainly as a municipal airport. They have a couple old fighter planes and cargo planes parked outside like the ones that brought supplies in during WWII.

And the two halls across from the airport which are now concert venues used to be movie theaters and entertainment centers for the GI's. Columbia Halle is the larger venue, and we're playing in Columbia Fritz, the smaller one.

So that's our little venue history lesson for the day, kids.

Should be a good gig tonight. We always enjoy playing at Columbia Fritz. And I think there is no curfew tonight, which will be a big giant relief... we can actually play a normal length set for a change!!

The last couple of places we've played have had disco night after our shows, so with the three bands on this tour, everybody winds up playing abbreviated sets.

That's why we've been leaving off Carry On, Ghosts of Autumn, Feel Euphoria and Onomatopoeia on certain shows. We even cut our Doorway / Go The Way You Go encore medley a couple nights ago.

We had a rough time hearing ourselves on stage last night at Zeche, but the show went really well anyway, gauging from the audience response. It was one of those days where we had everything perfect at sound check and when we got back on stage for the show the was all kinds of wild stuff happening in the monitors. That can get pretty distracting.

So... that's my two cents worth for today. Just one more comment: To everybody who has come to our shows. thank you, thank you, thank you!! We couldn't go on a tour like this without the support of you good people!

Dave

Hallo!!! NDV here.

Just thought I would write in to say Hi, and to give a big thank you to everybody who has come to our shows so far. It is great to be back in Germany. We always have a great time playing here. The show in Hamburg was great. We played at the Grosse Freiheit. I played there with Tears For Fears back in 1996 so it was fun for me to play there with the Beard. Made me feel like we have achieved something.

The gig went great. Very enthusiastic crowd who seemed to have a good time. The funniest part of the evening for me was after the show when Dave told me I had to go and check out the transvestite bar across the street from the club. See, the Grosse Freiheit is right off the famous Reeperbaun in Hamburg where bars, casinos, and sex shops line the street. So, I go across the street with Dave to see the man/women or whatever they are but I couldn't stay. In fact I got kicked right out by a 6 foot man/women because I had a bottle of water in my hand. She/him/it wasn't very pretty either. Dave told they were all beautiful man/women but I didn't think so. Maybe if she was a little nicer to me...

So we left and got on our way to Bochum. No sex shops in Bochum as far as I can tell. There is the Zeche though. This was our 5th gig there and it is always great. Again, a fantastic audience. The place looked packed to from the stage. I went down to say hi to the people after the gig and everyone was so nice to me. I always love that. No we are here in Berlin. I am getting ready to do soundcheck and looking forward to another great gig. Thank you again to all who have come to the gigs so far and I look forward to meeting a lot more of you in the days to come. I just want to clarify something before I go.

We have been checking out the message boards and reading peoples opinions of the gigs. I totally agree with Dave that all your opinions are valid and welcome. Somebody posted something about making the devil sign with our fingers at the gig and wondered if it was something against Neal or something like that. I don't have the exact quote in my head but let me say this, that is the universal ROCK sign and we are just trying to play our music, have good time, entertain all of you, maybe make a few dollars, and most of all ROCK! All of us wish nothing but the best for Neal and his new record. I hope all of you go to his concerts when he goes on the road. I personally like his new record quite a bit. The way the second disk starts off with the strings is fully rocking, and the acoustic piece a couple of songs later is awesome. So lets get past this competition thing between us. There is none. We're just living life trying to make the best of it. He is my friend and always will be and I am sure all of the others in the band would say the exact same thing. I have to go soundcheck now and get ready to ROOOOOOOCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!!

All the best to everyone, NDV

Hey People,

Greetings from Europe!! A little cool and wet, but not a problem. . .in fact I love this weather.

First of all, I'd just like to thank everyone for all their support. I've been reading the message board and talking to a lot of people at the shows, and it's all very encouraging and inspiring. Most of your points, both good and bad, are very valid, and it's always great to get that immediate feedback.

We're fighting off jet lag valiantly, and managing for the most part to get a good night's sleep on our nighliner bus.

The shows have been really fun. I think Utrecht was OK, but we really started to click in as a "band" last night at Spirit of 66. Part of it was that we re-organized the set list so that the songs flow a little better. Part of it was that we could hear ourselves a lot better than at Tivoli, which is always really loud and non-distinct on stage. And of course a big part of it was that the Tivoli show was our first gig in two years and our first gig without Neal, so it was bound to be a little stiff.

But last night rocked! Everybody is kicking complete ass. Jimmy is just cutting loose on the drums, and singing like a bird! We are very lucky to have found him. The new material is working really well live, too.

As far as our set list goes, we decided to stick to mainly stuff that hasn't been done live yet, which is Snow and Feel Euphoria, but still throw in some songs from the previous five CDs. We had put together a huge set list, but due to time constraints we had to make the decision to cut a few songs from our original plan.

California Guitar Trio is sounding amazing. . .acoustic guitars with electronic effects and "C" tuning, sounds excellent, not to mention their virtuoso playing.

Enchant is as excellent as ever and are really fun guys to be around as well!

It's a pretty big entourage... counting the crew, drivers and band members, we're numbering 22 bodies! And we all somehow manage to get a turn in the single, funky. semi-functional shower that most venues have. Ah, the glamour of it all!! ;-)

Well, I could write more, but this is a night off and I'm in Hamburg, so I'm going out for a Doner Kebab and a stroll down the Reeperbahn to check out all the hookers and transvestites. Woooo hoooo!!!! ;-)

Cheers. Dave

Hello all!!

We played in Belgium last night at The Spirt of 66. Had a great gig with an incerdible audience. The rust came off a little bit, you know. For me personally, I wasn't as nervous as the first gig. Just more relaxed. I think everyone in the band was. I sweated as much as I ever have. Just rocking too hard, I guess. We didn't have a curfew so we just went for it. There were many highlights, but one of my favorites was Dave's bass solo in "Go The Way You Go". We didn't have time to do it at The Tivoli because we were getting kicked off stage. Not really kicked off, there was just a hard curfew and we had to be done by 12:30, or they were going to cut the power. Back to Dave. It was a blast to see him going off like that. Hopefully, you will all get to see it someday. Thank you to everybody who came to the Belgium show. We had such a great time playing for you all.

We are in Hamburg for a day off, my voice needs it, and then we play here tomorrow night. I will write again soon y'all. All the best to everybody!! Nick

I am in an internet cafe writing this and they are playing the worst song I think I have ever heard. Here is chorus off the song I am forced to listen to right now: "I TASTE JUST LIKE CANDY, SO DANCE WITH ME" over and over and over and over and over and over...apperently she tastes just like candy and really wants to dance:)