“Lise - a very good question! Twin Peaks aka 'A' has yet to come up with the goods.
Tour HQ is most displeased. ”by Ria/Tour HQ on curiouser and curiouser...
“Blackpool still recovering from GREAT night with Jont, Garfield, Dave and the local gang. Was all quite special. Big thanks for coming and sharing your inspiring journey with us - we all now big fans and the CD is being played regularly throughout the borough (probably the nation!). Hope you all enjoyed the Big One x”by Jayne on Unlit live from Blackpool
“The Mini Jont doll is lovely and the mini guitar is perfect.
What an honor to have a doll handmade.
Is anyone out there going to make a mini van to go with it and a model map of the UK
Keep it safe. ”by Eloise O'Hare on mini Jont arrives at Tour HQ
Lucky Ben Yacobi took part in the hat poll - he voted deerstalker - and was entered into the prize draw.
We picked his name from a hat this morning (sorry Ben, it was a fez not a deerstalker!) and a Flip Video will be winging its way to him post haste. Well done!
As for the winner of the competition to find Jont's missing hat, we're still chasing leads so an announcement will be made once we've got to the bottom of this mystery.
One anonymous tip-off has suggested the hat is being held to ransom, possibly in San Jose, so Tour HQ is turning detective...
More news, as it happens!
PS... Jont and Dave are still in Blackpool after a cracking mini Unlit there last night at Jayne Morrissey's house. One too many shandies mean they have slightly sore heads, but despite this they are planning on hitting the Big Dipper any moment now. Watch out for the film of them braving the rollercoaster coming later today!
The Newsroom Bods at BBC Radio Leicester have come up with the goods for us (thank you Kay) and have cut us the phone interview that Jont did on Wednesday morning.
Jont and friends played a live clip from Thursday's Blackpool Unlit, right into this very post here.
The evening was hosted by Jayne Morrissey with seven or eight local musicians and singer/songwriters joining Jont - it was a great night.
The live stream worked like clockwork, but we've had to take it out of here now because just a few posts up, it will be working its magic at the Birmingham and Bristol Unlits!
Down the road rejuvenated and freewheeling in the lovely Maya, we go down the M1... meeting the woman serving us at Moto M&S (who had turned 50 the day before) and letting her make a wish with the magic shell...
Despite Tina the Sat Nav's efforts to take us back to Bettyhill we arrived in Leicester and parked up at Garfield's Mum's house, where we were making our camp before leaving for Leicester's first ever Unlit.
Our host Hannah is a journalist who had interviewed me last week and offered her house for an Unlit - an offer I clearly took her up on - also ran a local choir called The Fosse Singers and was tapped into some of the best music in town. She made a veggie chilli and baked potatoes, and as soon as they finished their weekly practice, in came the choir - all 20 of them!
They were joined by Na'im - the singer of Fatal Star and occasional guitarist for The Happy Mondays! - and Mike Sole, Leicester's answer to Keith Jarrett. What a line-up! I love Unlits like this... nobody really knew what was going to happen, the wind was lapping the makeshift gazebo, there were fairy lights and a small garden full of smiling faces and beautiful, eclectic music.
We had to make it brief as we got the music going at 10pm and had to finish up at 11pm for the neighbours, but that's always best anyway because it allows people to really focus on the music. The choir got us going with a couple, then Na'im played two great songs on acoustic. This was followed by one of the moments of the tour: the exemplary jazz skills of pianist Mike Sole, humming and whirring behind the keys just like Jarrett. Halfway through the first number, moving his left hand down the keyboard, he started to play double bass with his left hand too, then double bass with his right hand... no, not a real double bass but the programmed sound of one. It was such a shock and such a great sample, played with such dexterity that literally there was a gasp from everyone in the garden... sounds over the top but it's true.
He blew us away and then it was my chance to have some real fun! The choir got up and joined me for three of my songs. First they sang the chorus of Supernatural - the part that goes "fill the sky with love"... ah, it was nice to have some back up for once... and then they sang the chorus to Taking My Time (one of the first tunes I ever wrote) and the outro chorus to new tune Sea Of Stars
As the curfew approached, the back gardens of the terraced houses of Fosse Road North reverberated to 25 of us singing "there's something waiting, there's something waiting, there's something waiting out there for you and me..." and we left in to the night believing it was true.
