Welcome to the FOURGOODMEN 2006 America And Canada Tour Diary! Before you read the diary entries, here is the list of dates and venues for the tour...

November 25th - Toronto Opera House, Canada

November 26th - Club Soda, Montreal, Canada

November 27th - The Knitting Factory, New York, USA

November 28th - Jammin' Java, Vienna, VA (Washington DC), USA

November 29th - The Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, New Jersey, USA (As Special Guests Of The Pretenders)

November 30th - Paradise Lounge, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

December 2nd - Theodores, Springfield, MA, USA

December 4th - The Knitting Factory, Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA

December 5th - Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach, San Diego, California, USA

December 6th - Brookdale Lodge, Brookdale, Santa Cruz, California, USA

December 7th - 12 Galaxies, San Francisco, California, USA

Diary Entries

Sunday 3rd December 2006 - Last night, when Yvonne and I checked into our room, as soon as she put the room key into the door and we step through the door.... the “Room Key Ghost” took our key again!!!!!! The “Room Key Ghost” has now followed us through 4 States! Its rather spooky ,our ghost, for he just wont stop following us!!! And taking our Room Keys!! It’s still dark outside this morning and there is an eerie fog across the parking lot as well. I feel like we are in the Blair Witch movie .. That’s how it looks outside.Spooky! It’s 7 am and I give the boy’s their wake up calls. Yes its too early and we all have had about 4 hours of sleep.It’s also very very cold outside. I walk outside and around to the other side of the hotel to see the sun rise! Hues of Gold and Amber streak across the sky as the sun comes up on this heart of winter morning. A beautiful site to behold. Mick, Bruce and I grab some coffee in the lobby and I’m feeling a little sad this morning,for this is where I hop off the tour to go back to Boston for a few days, to man the phones and handle the tour from there. And the lads are flying to California today!

We talk about how much we WILL miss each other..for we will. We walk out to the parking lot, when my sleepy knights are making their way into the cars.With hugs and kisses of “see ya soon Kel”.. And” its been awesome! Mick and Bruce ride with me to the station and with a smile on my face, and more kisses and hugs..I slowly turn back and look at them.... I would like to thank All the lads and Yvonne for making me feel right at home and a part of this amazing family...

“To be Continued”... (indeed!) Kelley Pope

Saturday 2nd December 2006 - We never made it to Cheers this morning, for we are all busy running

errands...picking up dry cleaning, doing laundry...see what a glamourous life we lead!

John, Bruce and Mick are on their way to pick me up.. and we'll head to Springfield for the show tonight.

Ha Ha.. John gets lost in downtown Boston with our Big Dig debacle! No worries, even us Bostonians cant find our way around the Big Dig anymore in this fine city. But at least the lads will see the Water front on their site seeing detour now! Tick tock..time goes by so slowly... Clippy clop.. Sorry.. a horse drawn carriage just went past me.. Oh how I wish I was in that carriage riding around the city this morning on this brisk afternoon! Who’s this pulling up... why its John , Mick and Bruce.. Yeah.. My knights in shining “Amor’e”.. have made it to me. We are on our way to Springfield!

Wow this place Theodore’s is rather cool venue. It has loads of painted blues figures on the walls, ,old hand Bills of Howlin Wolf shows and other Blues artists whom has passed.. Load of pool tables in another room.. Just a very cool place. Mick and I are exploring Upstairs, is an old pool hall with its original lighting and its over 100 years old. I love this place, its steeped in history and memorabilia!

We play a little pool before the show , James and Bruce are in fine humor form ..nutters!! Haha.. Making all sort of unwanted sounds as I take the pool table with Smiley. See film footage of Yvonne, Smiley and I splitting our sides laughing..one day. “Boys will be boys of yes they will”.. Remember that I said that.. Okay! HAHA

The show was Rocktastic again tonight ..as the lads took the stage to a fine crowd! They are ripping it up on stage and having a blast, giving another amazing performance! And the crowd is loving it!!!

After the show , we hang out with everyone , the lads are signing their CDs and we meet some very cool people. We dine on some lovely food and drink and chat about anything and everything.

Mick and I have code now, you cant figure it out! It’s ok.. cause Derek and Mick have code and sign language too. Hope that made it on film,for its very funny. Kelley Pope

Friday 1st December 2006 - Allo to everyone across the pond, we are having a great time on the road. The fans are rocktastic with their enthusiums for seeing FOURGOODMEN and we are making new friends along the way! We had a Spinal Tap moment, when the van broke down in DC ..LOL.. thumbs up to the Ford Dealership who sorted the van out in under a an hour and we speeded our way to New Jersey to open for The Pretenders. The show was Amazing and the band again were in fine form. We played to a sold out house with a couple of thousand people and made some

new fans/and friends! And we had a lovely gathering backstage after the show

with The Pretenders and it was a GRAND time had by all. Its all going great with the gigs..

And we are having many a laugh about many things.. on this journey!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh day off.. nice nice!

Ian, Mick and I walked around Downtown Crossing in Boston, doing some site

seeing and shopping. We found an internet cafe where Mick and Ian were able to do a bit of catching up online! Then we walked and shopped around in the pouring ran. Darting in and out of stores. We found some very cool used book stores and we looked for a tartan skirt for me. We found one which I had to try on but the zipper was broken.. DRATS .. its was cute and had little punk safety pins on it... adorable!! They want me in a tartan skirt! So we went on a quest to find on but at last.. we couldn’t find one! It wasn't long until Derek and Bruce made their way into town and met up with us.

All 5 of us piled into a four seater cab, yours truly on Micks lap!!!! Woo hoo.. ride em cowboy..We'll have to do that again..LOL.. these lads are always making me laugh.. it's so great. Aww they are so lovely! We are now on our way to Kashmir Restaurant.... where we ate like Kings and

Queens! We feasted on so much food and it was tasteeee!!! It's mid evening now .. and we are walking along when the skies opened up and completely soaked us ..LOL..My umbrella got tanked by 60 mile an hour winds that whipped us around. I was a little concerned I would take off in the air like the flying nun, LOL,, so I had the lads tugging at me coat in these winds! Wow.. we were soaked .LOL. I put the lads in a cab and the cab driver took them back to their hotel. Since I'm at home.. Im sleeping in me bed you see! Smiley, Yvonne, James ,Steve and John.. have gone down to see The Who tonight.That’s where they are and I'm sure James will fill you in on their evening. Kelley Pope

Thursday 30th December 2006 - Boston - home sweet home.The ride from New Jersey up here was a lot of fun . Steve our "Tech of Everything" and a great guy.. is driving the van and we are riding with John and speeding up the highway, playing "catch me if you can" with one another! LOL..

We dusted the van by 2 miles in Conn. and I had to call Steve and let him know we had past him. He asked where We were and I gave him the mile marker. He replied Im going to catch you guys...and he did! Then we came to the Mass Pike and we dusted the van again this time by 10 miles !!

Hahahahaha!! We have are always amusing our selves.. aren’t we! LOL

We arrive in Boston at the Paradise.. the Marquee reads Four Goodman. I wonder if he is related to John Goodman for we would like to meet him!!!! LOL, See more humour! LOL

My friend David is here tonight to shot the band. I have arranged several photographer to shoot the

band on this trip and its been Grrrrrrrrreeeat. We took the band outside th club right before the show to shoot some individual shots and group shots... oh yes more humour to come and cutting

up, we are always laughing and cutting up aboutsomething. These photos shall be amazing.. I'll send them as soon as David sends them to me.The show was great with an enthusiastic audience which included Gordon the drummer of theband " Ruby Horse" from Ireland. George Harrison played on their CD, before George passed away.Gordon was blown away by the band and just loves them too!

We have made a new friends along the way and Brad , an airline pilot for a major carrier over here, who has been to one of the Canada shows and is coming to Boston tonight. He's a fine chap ! Check this photo out that he has on his myspace page! Amazing isn’t it. That is in the cockpit of his big jumbo jet!! Fly it .. Brad. Hey Brad an we banner your plane?! LOL.The fans have just been amazing so far and the contest winners are so sweet and nice!

Wednesday 29th November 2006 - The shows have been great and nobody has been arrested yet….but there’s time. We’re taking bets on who will be first. The Knitting Factory in New York turned out be the night of the drummers; Mike Ogletree who played on New Gold Dream with Derek and Mick came along to catch the show. So did Liberty DeVito, Billy Joel’s original drummer. We resisted the temptation to turn into The Glitter Band. What a good night it turned out to be, not least because of Bruce’s new tour suit. We’re on our way to The Starland Ballroom in New Jersey to open for Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders. More about that tomorrow.  Ian Donaldson

Bruce Watson diary entry...

Sayerville New Jersey

Venue; Starland Ballroom

Support slot to The Pretenders

At long last the concert we have all been waiting for. Supporting the Pretenders at the Starlight in Sayreville. It was a breath of fresh air getting decent backstage facilities and catering after spending four days on the road eating junk food. Met up with Martin Chambers whom I haven’t seen since he played drums with Big Country on the ‘Alone video’. Both Martin and I smoke the same brand of tobacco so we spent most of the evening rolling ciggies at the stage door. Great to see that he still wears the ‘gown’ before he goes onstage. Tonight he was wearing a gorgeous navy blue teri toweling affair.

Since we were performing to a full house of 2000 people I thought I would unleash my new suit on the general public.The offending garment is made entirely from Scottish Lion Rampant flags and from a distance James tells me that I look like an epileptic banana. I decide to call it my Rampant Loin costume. As we were special guests we did our usual 45 min festival set. Yvonne got a great reception as she came on to perform her solo spot and looked radiant in her pink mini kilt and thigh length leather boots. The sound onstage was top notch and the packed house enjoyed every moment singing along to ‘Chance’ and ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’. Mick and Ian looked absolutely fetching in their black shirts and pants, (think Adolf and Hubert, those hilarious Hitler brothers) whilst Shelley Winters over on stage left was trying his hardest not to burst out of his overstuffed kilt.

Later on in the evening we are joined by our east coast promotions girl Kelley. Kelley is along for the first half of the tour setting up interviews and selling swag. She is stunning, witty and full of fun. Both Kelley and I share a common bond, we both like soup. According to Kelley the number eleven is the most powerful number in the universe. She is a bit ‘touchy feely’ for my liking but nothing a good hard kick in the throat won’t sort out.

After show we drive to our lodgings in Piscataway, a town so good they named it once. As I look out of my window a family of unicyclists drive by me. That is all.  Bruce Watson

Saturday 25th November 2006 - We got to Toronto, Canada just after midnight, after a good flight where I have to say the Zoom airline staff were great with the us. Once we were settled we enjoyed a few beers with Rick Shoor, our manager, and later everyone finally got a sleep. In the morning Ian, Smiley, Yvonne and my good self decided to try and see a bit of Toronto, and how better than at the top of the worlds highest building - the CN Tower. However, when we got to the top, some singer bloke then tells us he's scared of heights, but we did get him to stand on the glass floor at the top of the tower. We got back in time to meet the rest of the guys, who had been chilling out at the hotel, and headed to the Opera House. The gig was great, with everyone singing and dancing and wanting more, but hey, you will get a full report on each gig, the set, and Dereks legs! James Newall

Arrive Toronto at around midnight with just enough time to get a couple of drinks at the bar before ‘kicking out’ time. Rick Shoor who is taking care of business on this tour meets us inside. He has acquired us a hotel slap bang in the middle of the gay district and all the beautiful people are out cruising. Tonight’s theme is ‘World Of Leather’ meets ‘Mister Fister’

On leaving the bar both Derek and I are accosted by a fat Indian hooker who tries to play ‘Touch Bobby’with him whilst dipping my pockets. All she got was a plectrum, some chewing gum, a used bus ticket and half a Lee’s Macaroon bar.

We make our way to the Opera House and are greeted by a very enthusiastic fan called Keyvon. Keyvon follows all the Scottish bands when they come to Toronto and apart from signing his entire record collection it is the first time I have had to sign a pair of golf balls.

The back line equipment is misbehaving itself with both Mick and I having technical problems. His accordion keys keep sticking while my Marshall amp simply blew up at the sound check.

On the transportation front the mini bus is very tight. There are ten of us on the road and only seats for eight. Also we have to put our backline and luggage in the back as we can’t get a trailer till we hit the west coast. Mick and James have to travel by train to Montreal while Rick and Ian are simply strapped to the top of the bus. That is all.   Ian Donaldson

 

Sunday 26th November 2006 - Mick and I headed to Montreal by train while the rest of the gang went by bus (there had been a bit of a mix up with the transport), we had a fantastic journey and we also had time to walkabout the city before the guys arrived. Club Soda is a very cool venue and all the guys there were great, FOURGOODMEN again had them jumpin' about and the response after the show was fantastic, then off to the curry house. The guys travelled overnight to New York which is where I will meet up with them, Im flying, so need to get moving. Speak soon...  James Newall

 Friday 24th November 2006 - We arrive at Glasgow airport in readiness for our flight across the pond. Before boarding our flight we relax in the departure lounge with a drink or two (tea and biscuits of course!) James Newall

Tuesday 21st November 2006 - Another tour rehearsal under our belts, the band have never sounded so good! Not long now and we'll be flying out to begin the tour, everyone on top form and raring to go.Can't wait for FOURGOODMEN to get on stage! James Newall