30th of November 2005

To the core

I'll never forget it.

I never truthfully thought of myself as a romantic person but I feel now like I will always remember this moment as a little punctuation in my frequently bizarre existence. It had been a great tour. I had finally got to a point with all the new tunes where I was truthfully reinventing them night after night and when I get there, I am happy. And so I was faced with two sold out nights in one of the greatest concert halls in the world - The Royal Albert Hall. Blenheim Palace was special, Ronnie Scotts terrifying, Glastonbury was epic and badly behaved, the first Irving Plaza was a blast but there was something about this circular building that seemed to present a culmination of all that had gone before. All three shows (including the concert for schools) were brilliant, bearing in mind that I am ruthlessly critical of myself after a show. The combination of the audience reaction and my own satisfaction with my playing were, for once, in alignment. When I closed the third show I felt truly happy that I couldn't, at this stage in my career, have done any better. But this is not the truly magic part.

When you perform in a big hall like this your crew are normally in by 9am setting up the production - normally until soundcheck which starts generally at around 5pm. So there is always activity in the hall. However when you do two nights there is a point on the second day where there is no activity and the hall lies dormant waiting to be filled with music and bodies. I had a sleep after the concert for schools because I had shamefully decided to party the night before and was feeling the traditional affects of a late night. But after my catnap I went out onto the stage in the late afternoon. It was empty and airy. I sat at the piano and played. The unamplified sound of the piano soared through the hall and I soaked in it, a warm bath of notes and echoes. So there I was, shamelessly and romantically enjoying a priviledge so few would be allowed - The Royal Albert Hall and me having our own little private concert. And that is something I struggle to describe and will never forget.

It's been fantastic getting out there and playing the new record and rediscovering all the new tunes for myself and revisiting some old ones. As the repertoire grows it becomes even more exciting to throw in a completely new tune, or an oldie or something I made up in the dressing room two hours before. It is also very interesting for me to hear and read the comments about the record and how it is understood and misunderstood in equal measure as any piece of work will forever be. I, as ever, am completely overwhelmed to be making music for an audience who will listen to it. Unfashionably grateful I think that is called, but it feels *** fantastic.

Mind Trick reverberates round my head constantly as we are, in fact, playing it constantly as it is the new single. For those interested in the single available, the b-side contains an aborted version of Jump for Joy that I attempted for the Catching Tales album. My Mum sings in the Silver Ring Choir of Bath and as I really love choral music I wanted to use this choir as a texture on the song Jump for Joy. Having never written or arranged for a choir I quickly got out of my depth and bit off more than I could chew and we ended up with lots of parts that didn't amount to a whole song and rather obscured the simple beauty of my brother Ben's song Jump for Joy. What we managed to do was edit together the choir we recorded in Bath with some of the instrumental part of the song Jump for Joy and came up with a new piece which I named A Night in Bath. It is an interesting little vignette which I am glad has seen the light of day and represents a mere toe in the water of what I would like to do with choirs some day. For those of you hoping to hear me release the same old thing I am afraid you're on the wrong train.

I am wearing out Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine, Babyshamble's Down in Albion, Brad Meldhau's Day is Done, Lali Puna Faking the Books, Doug Wamble's Bluestate, Pharrell's In my mind (yes I am on it!), the sublime album from French artist Camille and finally brilliant Japanese Hip Hop from the Teriaki Boys, absolute GENIUS!

As Christmas draws near I remember how much I like cold days and cups of tea. Despite my exotic roots I am English to the core.

With love, thanks and best wishes

Jc

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