Just boarding at Paddington I get a tweet saying the Jazz UK mag is out.  I am on the cover for the first time, and  thank all at Jazz Services for their great work!  Then onto a cab from Chippenham.  I think the frequency of having more genuinely cool chats with cab drivers is definitely going up!  He had taken Peter Gabriel several times, and with Real World studios being just a few miles away from this venue, wish I could have had time for a tour of it! Having had a great time at Steve Winwoods place in December (see this blog), Wiltshire must be proud of the super successful musicians living in their midst..

Ah – I knew I didn’t book the trains with enough time to take account of delays…!The bus from a fantastic rehearsal at Southampton Uni to the Central rail station left me 7 mins to get the train back to London and onto Shadwell.

The prayers paid off. No snow (on the lines anyway) so …  good to be able to get on three smooth  trains to St Leonards Warrior Square. I had been to Respond only once before with the trio last year – and that was after meeting Pablo and JC (the founders of the Academy) at Hastings Jazz Club several times beforehand. We had a amazing time , and i vowed to return. The work they do with young folks – is phenomenal (the media has definitely started to catch up with this – as i witnessed seeing them on BBC2 Newsnight last year. So deserved. Honors list soon please?).