JamieCullum.com

Greetings from the tour bus in the grounds of the very civilised Denver Botanical Gardens. After having had three blissful (Wimbledon and World Cup-filled) weeks off in Blighty, we are back on the road in the US again. We're at the midway point of the tour now, having just finished a whirlwind stint of gigs down south. We been faced with some challenges, but 'the South' has shown us a great time.

If playing at Carnegie Hall, The Fillmore or a clifftop outdoor theatre in Costa Brava weren't enough to fulfil a musician's dream to play epic venues, our recent gig in a bus depot in Bremen certainly was. As with many of the gigs we do, we weren't sure what to expect from the 'German street gig', as it was billed on the schedule. I had pictured a quaint stage next to an ice rink and assorted stalls selling waffles and wooden stuff... I was wrong. We spent the day in the 'repair area' of the depot, nestled amongst countless jacked-up bendy buses.

Ahoy hoy.

Our hotel in Singapore was twenty yards from the corner of the Formula One Grand Prix track on which Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed his car to affect the outcome of the race. He has since been expelled from the sport for cheating, and rightly so.

Good evening from Illinois.

By this point, I should be describing North America in nauseating metaphors. I'm keen not to, mainly because it's predictable. And you would soil yourself with frustration and boredom. But there is a temptation to get poetic about this amazing place. Perhaps it's the best way to fathom it. The ever-changing locations, ample time spent wittering at each other, sporadic bursts of music and tonnes of food have combined to make my memory of the last week a rather brilliant
blur.