And so another leg of the Hand. Cannot. Erase. tour has come to an end, and although reasonably short (12 shows) there were some unforgettable evenings, concluding with 2 fantastic nights at one of the most special concert venues in the world, The Royal Albert Hall in London. A big thank you to everyone that came along to any of these shows. Special mention and praise has to be given to the 2 new guys joining myself, Nick, and Adam for their first European tour; Craig Blundell on drums, and Dave Kilminster on guitar, who not only had the daunting task of filling extremely large shoes, but had to learn over 4 hours of music in just over 4 months, which they then proceeded to play brilliantly and make their own. I’d also like to thank all my special guests at the 2 RAH shows for helping to make these shows such a memorable experience.

My personal highlight (among many) would have to be the performances of Routine – relieved of vocal duties I was able to step back, and the combination of one of my favourite songs, the band’s stellar performance, Jess Cope’s amazing animated video on the big screen, and Ninet Tayeb’s astounding vocal performance and charisma, all conspired to create a powerfully emotional moment that made me think maybe I did something pretty good with my life after all (-:

Next up for me is to assemble and record a mini album of previously unreleased material, mostly from the HCE writing sessions, including the fairly long piece My Book of Regrets that we played on the recent tour. This project will essentially be album “4 and a half”, a companion to the main album, but also a stepping stone to the next album proper. I’m proud of the pieces on it, which are by no means “leftovers”, more like pieces that just didn’t fit in at the time, and subsequent reworking and additional composition has taken place since. This should be released in January, at which point we will be back on the road for another major touring period that will continue on and off until the Summer, and take in a lot of countries for the first time.

I have also invited Ninet to join me and the band for this part of the tour, although exactly how many and which shows she will appear at will depend on her availability, as she has a very active career of her own – you can watch her new video here:

During this period we’re also planing to shoot a live performance film. These days I’m not so enthusiastic about the standard filmed live concert format, so myself and Lasse have been looking at a way to do something really different and to perhaps push the envelope a bit with regard to what a live performance film can be.

But the bottom line is that there will be a visual live document of the HCE era, and hopefully a very special and unique one.

Photo credit – Camila Jurado & Miles Skarin