Earlier in the year I was lucky enough to be asked to play on DJ Johnnie Walker’s Radio Two show. I knew he was a bit of a legend and had heard him several times in the past few years when I’d been a man in a van. I always thought he had the most amazing manner on radio: incredibly cool and relaxed.

Well, I turned up at the studio to do the interview and play a couple of songs, after a couple of pints in the next door pub, and we had a right laugh. Afterwards he told me a little about his life in music – from DJing on the offshore pirate radio stations in the 60s, to his time at Radio One. He told me about his time on the road in America, working on non format radio in San Francisco and being part of the punk scene in the late 70s on the West Coast of the States.

I’d talked to him then about maybe doing an Unlit at his house sometime and he’d said him and his wife Tiggy may well be up for hosting one.

I called him last week when we were passing through near where he lived and, true to his word, he invited us over to his house and hosted an amazing gig. It wasn’t quite like any of the other Unlits and not the easiest gig I’d ever played, but it was a challenge, and a beautiful experience.

Basically, three weeks ago Nick, the son of his friends Lizzie and David, had died in a tragic accident leaving his parents, brother Tom and sister Zoe, and their whole circle of friends and family utterly shocked and distraught. Johnnie had thought maybe it would be nice for the gig we did at his house to be a tribute to Nick, who by all accounts was an incredible kid... an effervescent outgoing boy who had been adored by all who knew him and whose death had now devastated them all.

I felt a little bit like an outsider to begin with and didn’t know whether it was suitable for me to be playing a tribute for a boy I had never met, but Lizzie and David assured me it was something they wanted and thanks to the openness and warmth of them and their children Tom and Zoe, plus the other friends and family there, I forgot my doubts and we all shared a beautiful evening together.

I sang songs, we talked and laughed. Tom wore my flowery jacket for most of the gig, one of his mates wore my blue hat and Garfield, Dave and I were blown away by how incredibly bravely all of them were dealing with what must be the worst situation you can ever go through.

When we were done they even let us stay at their beautiful, incredibly run B&B. Their generosity and grace in the face of their sudden and tragic loss was an inspiration to us and we left next morning moved, uplifted and with a razor sharp understanding of what things in this life are truly important.

Thank you Lizzie and David, Tom, Zoe... and Johnnie and Tiggy for letting us celebrate Nick’s life. Soon, when Dave has had time to properly do the footage justice we will put up a short piece about the concert.

Newquay...

Loved the surfing...

Loved meeting Alison and everyone at the party...

Would like to have a word with the chav that took offence to Jont's fashion sense...

G x

We thought we were starting the tour on the Saturday in Penzance and that Thursday and Friday would just be a little warm up to help Garf and Dave get used to using the gear: uploading, using all the gizmos Orange have provided, which makes this tour so different to the last ones we’ve done. It's so much more all-consuming and interactive.

Then we arrive in Bristol and are totally blown away by the seven or eight performers who turned up to Jason’s shop.

Then the next day we have an enchanted steaming hot tub concert in the middle of the Devon countryside and after the Penzance Unlit, we arrive in Newquay on Sunday, pretty exhausted already by the last three nights.

So you can imagine Dave’s reaction when I phone him excitedly from the centre of town, half an hour after him and Garf have gone back to the hotel saying,

“Oh my God Dave, we’ve got another gig tonight! I just went in the pasty shop and the woman there was so friendly and effervescent and I said so and then we started talking and basically we’re doing an Unlit at hers tonight and apparently it’s a real party house and there are some local musicians coming.”

The person I’d met was called Ali, and her and her husband Chris – who just turns out to be ex-Ireland footballer Chris Morris! – run a family business of Pasty Shops in Cornwall called Morris Pasties. The best in Cornwall!

I’d been hoping to make something happen out of the blue in Newquay, especially because it was my birthday and it seemed suitable to be doing some sort of impromptu musical celebration of some sort in someone's house... and now the universe - or namely Ali and Chris - had provided.

A couple of hours later we were round at their rather grand pad, Ali behind the bar making cocktails, a bunch of their friends and their friends' kids playing pool, just sitting around. Soon enough there was a set of music from a young local band called Proving Katy Wrong. We’ll put up some little films soon...

It was a lovely vibe, everyone seemed to dig the spontaneity and bizarreness of the situation. I talked with Chris about when he met the Pope at the 1990 world cup, when I met the coach of the Netherlands bobsleigh team who then got up and sang a Sinatra song acapella, while performing a dance routine with his wife...

... before half of us piled in a taxi and went down to the dodgy disco in town and I almost got my hat nicked and drank too much tequila and stumbled home in the early hours... not quite a day off then, but who wants a day off when the days on are like this??

So during the tour, as we roll, we will be posting as many performances as we can in our Performers Gallery so you will be able to check out at least one song from all the people who play at the official Unlits or at the little Unlits we do during the week in places we find along the way. I’m also gonna put up my performances in a separate Jont Performances section.

Most of the time so far I’ve been performing spontaneous sets with the local bands. It's fun to have a bit of unplanned and unpolished stuff in the set and I'm looking forward to playing with loads of the musicians I meet along the way. If it gets any better than what Slow did on Candlelit and Supernatural I’ll be very surprised!

They were amazing... didn’t know the songs at all and we played like we were a band! Was wicked.

So yeah, the Performer's Gallery will have as much music as we can get up there from people we meet on the road. Sorry in advance if we don’t get everything up there: there are certain time constraints as we keep on having more and more footage to digitise and upload.

Then at the end of the tour in mid September we’ll be asking you to vote on who your fave five performers or bands were, and then they will play at the massive finale Unlit at the end of September.

So stay tuned... and remember... we are doing this right now! If you want to come and play in our motor home (she’s called Maya) or help us create some spontaneous adventure, musical or otherwise, that you think would suit the vibe of this tour, then get in touch! We like cake!

xxx