Moscow, Russia

It was an 8 o'clock luggage call, a 9 o'clock lobby call and I'd only managed a couple of hours sleep before my 7 o'clock wake-up call. Everybody in the same boat, exhausted. Left Belgium at 10 for the flight to Moscow and with the time change we arrived late afternoon and went straight to the gig for sound check. The gig was The Kremlin!! I suppose it pays to look at the tour itinerary once in a while, no idea we were playing there. It was a first for all of us except Danny who'd played there with Bryan Adams.

The ride from the airport to The Kremlin was long and bleak, gray and depressing. Towering concrete apartment blocks, hundreds of them, thousands of them. We arrived and were held up by security for another 20 minutes before entering the grounds of the Palace. Communism may have fallen 15 years ago but bureaucracy is alive and well, the old Soviet feeling still lingers. We had to use the Kremlin catering which left much to be desired. Everything and everybody had an austere feeling about it. The theatre in the Kremlin Palace seats about 5,500, was full but felt like one of those "who you know" gigs, very formal suit and tie front rows. It didn't help that we were set back from the front of the stage by many feet making it difficult to get much going tonight with the audience. The people in the back were enthusiastic but it somehow it never reached us and the front sections were merely polite. No question the hardest show of the tour.

We went from the stage to the airport and flew to St. Petersburg where we'll spend the night and play tomorrow.

So long,

Richard