Nik Payton

The idea is simply to try and give you a brief insight into what it’s like being on the road - and the various obstacles that frequently pop up to make our life just that little bit easier. … In fact, the ONLY reason that we’re all here 2 days earlier than need be (the first show of the tour is Tuesday night) is for the TV show.

If, as quite often happens, the flights are delayed or the theatre has screwed up the sound check and we end up waiting around for hours on end or there is no food available ANYWHERE after the gig - well, then the posts might not be entirely suitable for younger readers!! … I can’t begin to describe the frustration of having to work SO hard just to get back to a reasonable level of proficiency, let alone anywhere close to level I was in June.

First of all, let me apologise for the lack of posts and newsletters. After my trip to New York I came down with pneumonia which knocked me out a bit - in fact I’m still getting over it almost 3 months later. Anyway, that’s no excuse. In fact, you might ask, if I wasn’t doing [...]

I’ve lived in Brazil now for 5 years. When I came here I spoke virtually no Portuguese whatsoever. Hello, please and thank you was about it. Obviously to make my self understood I had to learn, very quickly. After a year or so I could hold a conversation quite well and although my vocabulary wasn’t [...]

I’m taking a break from catching up on emails and I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about the band and the musicians therein because there are some names that you may not be familiar with. … That the band is going to be good, and put on a superb show goes with out saying - it is made up of THE best swing musicians in the world and led by the worlds leading stride pianist, Judy Carmichael .

I’ve just read an interesting article in the New York Times today on Juan Diego Flórez’ performance at the Metropolitan Opera House on Monday. He performed a solo encore after a standing ovation - something not heard there since 1994. In fact, solo encores were common in the 19th century but as the opera grew [...]