THE ANSWER guitarist Paul Mahon has issued the following road report:

"The last show in Bilbao was great, the most passionate Spanish crowd and that’s saying something! We had to leave right after the show to go to Japan. This involved driving from Bilbao to Barcelona, flying to London and then to Tokyo!

As with all connecting flights, one is always at the risk of missing the connection, it only takes one slight delay and you’re fucked, as we found out much to our chagrin a few years ago and ended up sleeping on the floor of Luton airport for a few days but that’s another story! Anyway, it looked like we were about to miss the flight to Tokyo, the check-in was closed, our luggage was in the process of being off-loaded and it looked like we might be going home early, but by the grace of god they opened the gate again and we got upgraded to business class! It's a nice way to fly! I watched the Thrilla in Manilla again. I think Joe Frazier is probably my favourite heavyweight of all time and I think Ali got lucky in that fight! I somehow always end up watching Everybody Hates Chris and get looks from everyone for laughing so loud, just like when I'm watching Early Doors on the bus. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button managed to take up nearly three hours of my life, but was actually pretty good and well maybe I got a little emotional watching it! Ha ha.

I'm now sitting in Narita airport - three hourrs into a six hour wait for a flight to Osaka and unfortunately for the second time in a year, British Airways have managed to lose my luggage. So if you see me wearing an oversized I Luv Japan or Hello Kitty t-shirt at the gig in Osaka, you know why! It's all I could find in the airport!

A few hours later... we finally made it to Osaka and had been told to check out a bar called Rock Rock, which we duly did and it was exactly our kind of place! Imagine The Crobar and you wouldn’t be far away. My luggage arrived on the day of show thankfully. We were playing club Quattro, it’s a cool venue and we had the fantastic ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK opening up for us. They are definitely worth checking out. It's great getting to play a full set again. The album has been out in Japan. We knew the crowd would be familiar with the material and we could play mostly new material. The set was: 'Demon Eyes', 'Too Far Gone', 'Never Too Late', 'Tonight', 'Cry Out', 'Come Follow Me', 'Walking Matt', 'Why’d You Change Your Mind?', 'On And On', 'Preachin', 'Highwater Or Hell', 'Comfort Zone', 'Under The Sky'.

The show was fantastic as were the crowd. The new stuff went down really well. After the show, James (Heatley, drummer) noticed some pain in his hand. With the way he hits the drums, after a full set his hands always ache to some extent. But he seemed to be in a bit more pain than usual. But anyway we headed back to Rock Rock for a few drinks and bumped into SUM 41 and Axl Rose, well the best Axl impersonater you’ll ever see!

The next day we hit the bullet train back to Tokyo for another show in Tokyo’s Club Quattro. James had gone to the hospital to get his hand looked at. It had swollen up quite a lot and he wasn’t sure if he would be able to play. But with a few painkillers and lots of grit and determination, he managed to play the show and did a great job. After the show we got some sushi had a few quiet beers and got an early night as we had a full day of press coming up.

I got to do my favourite interview in the world for Young Guitar. It's an amazing guitar magazine in Japan, probably the best in the world! After a long day of interviews, our trip to Japan was nearly over. We had a fantastic time as always. Thanks to all the people who came to the shows and for the presents which were greatly appreciated, especially the t-shirts as I had lost my luggage and needed all the clothing I could get! We all can't wait to get back to Japan!See you guys soon!

Cheers,

Paul"