Chicago, Illinois 2 October, 2015

Yesterday, October 1st was a day off in the windy city which iived up to it’s name.  Standing on any intersection that led to Lake Michigan you could really feel it’s force.  

The gym at our hotel is on the top floor with a great view of the city and the lake and is by far the best we’ve encountered so far on this North American tour.  It’s large and fully decked out with everything except a rowing machine, so Guy F. will no doubt knock off points in the ‘best of’ department.

Later in the afternoon Jim and I walked to a favourite haunt, The Jazz Record Mart on Illinois St.  Located there since the early 1970s, it’s a world of jazz and blues vinyl, shellac and cd’s.  Owned by the founder of Delmark Records, Bob Koester, this place is will consume at least two hours of your time and put a dent in your credit card as well.  Check them out at www.jazzmart.com

Before braving the record store, we stopped at Downtown Dog for a miraculous charred hot dog with everything including pickle relish that was a startling shade of green and some kind of nuclear orange cheese that ended up everywhere except in your mouth.  A glorious and delicious mess.

I did some shopping along Michigan Avenue, the Miracle Mile and later in the evening took myself off for a splendid Italian dinner of Chicken Milanese, pasta and a couple of martinis.

Back at the hotel I was in bed with my book by 10.  Very un-rock and roll.

The show tonight was in one of our favourite venues, The Chicago Theatre.  This Chicago landmark was originally built as a movie theatre.  It was renovated and restored in 1986 and is not on the National Register of Historic Places.  It holds 3,500 and every seat was filled.  I’m always proud to play in this theatre, in this town as it’s my hometown… born here in 1951.  Tonight’s audience was terrific, I always say that about the audiences, but really we haven’t had anything less than that.  Loads of fun playing tonight, lots of laughs, relaxed and on it at the same time.  On Every Street sounding like we’ve been playing it for years.

A runner back to the hotel and a Friday night scramble for somewhere not too noisy for a drink.

Tomorrow we fly to Indianapolis for a show.

So long,

Richard