I'm absolutely knackered today. It could be down to the heavy gig schedule or possibly down to the heavy Chinese Banquet we had last night to celebrate the Chinese New Year!

3 gigs took place in the past 4 days. 3 of mine anyway. To start with there was the gentle warm-up of Verve in Leeds. I played a handful of original tunes including 'Coming Up For Air' from the new Paradise Street album. (see below!). I also had my first play at 'Can't Stand Losing You' by The Police. We're putting it in with the band soon so I thought I'd give it a go. I think the song works but it was moving so fast I forgot quite a lot of the words. It went much better on Saturday night though. The other songs performed were the hardcore regulars 'These Eyes Of Mine', 'Whiskey Coloured World', 'Gods & Angels' and 'Your Shadow'. Not a bad do, reasonably busy too. 6 out of 10.

The Saturday show was at The Kings Arms at Heaton in Bradford. Following on from the recent succesful band gig it was a slightly different, quieter crowd for Saturday-until late on that is! This probably suited my solo set better and I really enjoyed playing a mixture of originals and covers what I like. Late on a crowd of Bradford City fans 'fresh' from a trip to Luton came in, and this at least meant later numbers such as 'One Of Us' and 'Hey Jude' went well. I also got an encore request of a song I actually knew-which made a change! 'Days' by the Kinks, what a nice song!

I'm making an effort to plan the solo gigs a bit better. Otherwise they just become an exercise in keeping going, waiting for the end of the night. I added in the new Police song again plus 'Can't Buy Me Love' as another ancient standard. I also played recent additions 'Learning To Fly' and 'Rosie' and had another crack at the Ben Folds Five song 'Battle Of Who Could Care Less'. It was a pretty satisfying night, so it gets a 7.

Sunday afternoon in The Grove at Leeds was another winner with the band. It's small but the room has a good sound and we can play more originals (7 in total) to a more appreciative crowd. I just wish it paid a 21st century wage! It's a tough call, there's more duff gigs on better money, so I guess it's down to priorities. I had a lot of fun there as with last time, so it gets another 7.

On the Paradise Street front, the album is in transit to the US, after which I'll be sending an email to all the victims on my e-mailing list telling you all about it. There will be the usual free download, plus links and strong HINTS of where to click to BUY it! I've revamped the myspace page slightly so that now there's 4 songs from the new album playing in full. More news to come.

This week it's a little quieter with The Primrose solo set on Sunday night and possibly an open mic visit to The Chemic on Thursday.