We have just done 5 gigs in a row and this is my first lazy morning in what feels like an age, so I thought I’d say hello. I’d like to tell you about my crazy life but it’s all completely unbloggable so you’ll have to make do with the heavily censored version until my auto-biography is published in twenty years or so. Don’t get all excited now, it’s not been one blazing orgy after the other, it’s far stranger and complex than that.

For now I will just titillate you a little, I spent a sizeable portion of my week tied up in someone else’s basement. Quite an experience, all captured for you and coming to utube pretty soon I should think. Just need to run it by a few people to make sure I don’t get into any trouble over it. We’ve played all over South Wales this week, from Cardiff to Skewen to Bridgend. I love playing all these different places, the vibe is so totally different. From civilized bars with beautifully turned-out people intently listening and gently applauding each song to riotous bars, full of nutters, singing along at the top of their lungs and cheering in a way that only a jubilent Welsh (we just beat the English at Rugby) can muster.

A different singing and performing style is needed for each gig, I try to adapt to every situation. Sometimes I need to be delicate and inviting and sometimes I need to just rock and scare people. Sometimes we take the whole band out to play and sometimes it’s just Seb and me and an acoustic guitar. I used to be afraid that unplugged couldn’t rock hard enough but Seb always knew better, he persuaded me to give it a go and I loved it and then, the icing on the cake was seeing Tenacious D play the NEC. Two guys, two guitars, rocking the house down?! I realised that what you have to give in spades in a paired down version of your set is passion, you have to go out there and take some heads off and without all that amperage, you have to do it with your heart, with your love of what you’re doing. I love it loud and stacked to the rafters but I’ve got to have a bit of nakedness in my week to make me feel I’m really convincing you that I mean business.

We wrote and recorded a new song recently, we’re just applying the fairy dust and shooting a vid to promote it, then we’re going to release it as the first Ridinghood single. It’s going to take a few weeks to get the marketing wheels in motion but I’m thinking of sticking the video up first on utube, get you all interested in pre-ordering the single. What do you reckon?