Man, the world is smaller than it once was. No doubt. Less than two days ago I was in the winter in St John’s Newfoundland. I am about 2 hours away from touching down in summer on the other side of the planet. I did nothing to accomplish this travel but sit down and watch movies and read a Wayne Johnson book. Truly amazing.

Now, I confess that my previously mentioned Million Mile Status with Air Canada afforded me a very reasonably priced Executive Seat so I could lie down when I wanted, and I can smell them cooking my posh breakfast as I type. Hmm I wonder if I would feel so good about this if I were sitting in Seat 56K? I’ve done the flight to Aus many times is many different ways and travel classes, and can never really recall hating it.

I travelled to Australia for the first time six or seven years back to work with Russell and the TOFOG guys on a CD. I remember sitting with Russell and some of his gang in Toronto as they were working on the Cinderella Man film. Russell’s long time friend and fitness dude Spud asked me if I’d ever been to their home country. I explained that I had not as I feared the flight would be too hard. ‘What do you mean hard?, asked Spudd. ‘Its not that hard. You ever had stomach flu? Well its not that hard’.

I’ve never forgotten that advice. ‘Hard’ or ‘too hard’ are terms we throw around too easily. They will always be very relative terms, and that’s all. I flew to Aus on a puddle jumper of a flight in the cheapest class available a few months later. I think my itinerary was St John’s, Toronto, Calgary, Los Angeles, Fiji, Sydney. And Spudd was right. It wasn’t that hard. It was harder than taking a bath, but way less hard than hauling wood in Maddox Cove at 6 am on Saturday mornings on two hours sleep in the middle of February. And I did that many many times.

I’m not sure what my point is, and trust me I realize that the guy sitting in Seat 1K who just chose pancakes over the omelets, is probably not the guy to be talking about what is hard and what is not. But I think I’m just wondering if our perceptions of what is hard and easy, possible and impossible, likely and doubtful, are all too often skewed to the wrong side.

Anywhoo…yeha..GBS is finally getting to play in Australia. I really hope we go over well at the shows, as I’ve long thought that the kind of night-out we often deliver would be very welcomed here. I hope I’m right. If you are in Aus, please check us out in Melbourne on Tuesday, Sydney on Thursday, and Byron Bay over the weekend.

Much ado in the hours before I got on this plane as I sat with the guys from Universal Records Canada to plan for some marketing and promotional strategies for the release of the CD. I also spent a bunch of time at CMT with the amazing Joel Stewart and his team reviewing the ‘Live at Revival’ show set to air right around the CD launch.

Got a nice email from Sonic Entertainment folks saying that the presale tix for the Tour in May basically Sold Out right away. I am very grateful for this. The Public Sale would have happened five or six hours ago while I was on this flight. So I have no idea if it went as well, but my fingers are crossed. Love to see you at the shows in May as me and the Alan Doyle Band (Jaysus that sounds weird) make our way across much of North America. Thanks so much for all the advance hype about the shows and for those of you who’d like to pick up tickets, you can follow some links at

www.alandoyle.ca/tour

Kinda bummed that Russell will not be here for this GBS’s first trip to Aus. He’s been such a big supporter and it’s a shame he won’t be here to sing a tune with us. Looking forward to seeing some of the TOFOG cast and crew while here. Great fellas one and all.

It’s Saturday for me and Friday for many of you back in North America and Western Europe. Have a wonderful yesterday.

Cheers,
Alan