PSP European Tour Part 1
Posted Thursday, November 12, 2009 by Simon

It's Thursday November 12th and I am writing this in the back of our "tourwagon" - an Audi A6 Avant 2.7 Quattro Diesel - Philippe is driving and we are on our way to Munich. It has already been a busy morning due to our customs issues coming into Switzerland on Tuesday - but more of that later.

We played last night in Aarburg our 9th show of this debut PSP tour and it has been going great. Right from the first show in Worpswede the band has sounded tight and it has been feeling great on stage everynight. Of course we had a few technical teething problems but that is to be expected for a new band, but every gig as been warmly received by everyone who has come out to listen and give us support.

We have a fantastic crew - Pascale "Miss Reg" Hardeman, our tour manager and pretty much everything else, Simon "Thud" Hardiman, our sound engineer - both having worked with Toto for the last few years - and my drum tech, Ralf "Raaly" Schirmer. This is a multinational band and crew: Miss Reg is Dutch, Thud is Australian, Raaly is German, Philippe is French, Pino is Welsh and I am British. In addition both Philippe and myself are both US citizens so this really is an interesting hang!

I am sure some of you have been reading Raaly's diary on www.simonphillips.de so I'll leave the tech stuff to him. We had a wonderful time at the Ingolstadt Jazz Festival which started with check in at the hotel. No sooner had we picked our keys and some "Jazz Money" (which is how payed for food and drinks with there) in walks Lenny White followed closely by Stanley Clarke and Chick Corea. So the next 10 mins was spent in the lobby introducing Pino to the guys and chatting away.

The next day I happened to walk into one of the dining rooms and bumped into Will Kennedy and Wolfgang Schmidt. Later that day Tower of Power arrived and I met up with David Garibaldi. We did our soundcheck at the venue, which was in the hotel, with both Will and David there and then Lenny came by just before going off to his show in a nearby venue. A definate Kodak moment!!

It is quite a different experience playing with the audience so close. Also I am set up stage left facing across stage so I am much closer to the audience especialy when they can get to the side of the stage - which would be directly behind me.
We had just got over half way through the set and I happened to turn around when I saw Lenny standing there. He stayed for the whole of the set from then on sitting on the back of the stage; How cool is that?? Someone I have admired for so many years and in fact sat behind back in 1975 when the band I was in supported Return To Forever at Exeter University. Tres Cool!!!

We had a great show - great audience reaction - and I also learned the next morning that both Don and Dave Grusin and Lee Ritenour saw the set too.

The next jazz festival was in Aalen - a beautiful town - and another very small venue. In fact the stage was so small that Pascale and the boys had to build more staging around it but due to the semi circular shape it was a bit awkward as I found out. I stepped behind the kit to soundcheck but was talking to Thud and didn't look to see where I was stepping. Well there was nothing to step on and as I was falling I just grabbed onto my 16" floor tom and that broke my fall although I did hit my ass and elbow on something. That gave me a very sore backside for a couple of days!! However the gig was great and a lovely vibe and I believe we closed the festival.

So now to our adventure ....

We were driving to Aarburg and about an hour passed since we crossed the border into Switzerland when I received a call from Pascale. They had been stopped at customs and told that the truck was overweight and they could not drive any further. There was no choice but to turn around and drive back to the border. I called a friend of mine, Serge Olar form Tama Switzerland, and he found a van rental place very near the border in Stadt Thaal. The next vision is one of me driving a Renault van to the border with Philippe driving the Audi.
We must have spent well over an hour there while the crew emptied out half of the equipment from the truck to the van and the rather stern customs woman in a yellow cardigan and jeans crossed her "T"s and dotted her "I"s on the carnet and finally we were back on our way. Next stop - Aarburg.

Not so fast Messrs Palladino, Saisse and Phillips!!

Another call from Pascale "er Si? We've broken down!!!"

It seems the brake pedal got longer and longer as Raaly was driving and there was a rather unsettling knocking sound from the left rear wheel. They had pulled over on the autobahn just north west of Zurich in a treachurous spot. Somehow they had gotten ahead of us, maybe because we just spent the last half hour in a gas station drinking cappucino and eating Ovalmaltine Chocolate! Now imagine that in a gas station in Sherman Oaks!

Pino was at the wheel now and it was dark outside so all eyes were peeled for flashing indicators somewhere outside of Zurich - I really hoped that we were on the right road. There they were up ahead - we had found them. They had already unloaded the Renault and repacked the truck and we had to think about our next move. We managed to get the rental company to organize a recovery vehicle and once again, after another hour of waiting, we were on our way. That night we had a lovely dinner in Aarburg and thankfully a night off.

However there was the question of getting back across the border into Germany without the same scenario. We thought it prudent to rent another van for a couple of hours so we could distribute the weight just in case customs decided to weigh the truck again.
I volunteered to drive the van and we left Pino and Philippe as the rental office - which just so happened to have a bar with beer on tap, a cappuccino machine, semel und shinken, gipfil, wine and prosecco. A very happening little hang with a regular clientele.

I followed the truck to St Margeritathene Zoll and entered Austria and parked up while Pascale went to get our carnet stamped. It was only then I reaized that my passport was in my bag which was in the Audi which was in Switzerland!! Oooops!!

Well - there was no choice than to continue with our plan. Once across the border with all the "T"s and "I"s crossed and dotted the crew drove off to Munich and I turned around and headed back to the border.
I latched on to a queue of cars hoping that I wouldn't get noticed but of course they spotted me. I rolled down the window and the officer said something in German. I said "English please" and he asked if I had some papers for the contents. I said the van was empty and that I was returning the van. He repeated the word "empty" - I nodded - he waved me through. Danke very much!!!

No problem - and now I managed to find the rental place and found that Pino and Philippe were now best friends with Sacha, the owner of this very cool gas station/auto repair/service/rental and bar hang!!!!

We are a few kliks outside Munich now - I wonder what the next few days hold in store for PSP!!!

Stay tuned ......

Posted Friday, June 26, 2009 by Simon

Now sitting in München airport awaiting my flight back to Los Angeles and thought this a good time to write about my trip. I started off in Bordeaux at a wonderful festival called Drums Addict. I had a day off to get over the lag a little bit and had the chance to walk around the beautiful town of Bordeaux. The weather was amazing apparently one day claiming the hottest in France. It was good to be in France again and the food, wine and spirit of the place was just incredible. The only problem encountered was a missing 10" Tom Tom that DHL managed to lose on the way from Tama Holland. How does one lose a whole drum? Amazing? I believe it has now been found - thankfully!
Interesting playing the kit without that first tom tom but once in the thick of the performance I didn't think about it and maybe it made the sight line easier for the audience at stage left to be able to see more of what I was doing.
Great to meet up with old friends Patrick Rondat and Alain Gozzo too.
Next up were 2 TGV trips to Nancy and a clinic at MAI - a wonderful school run by Hans and Monique Kullock. I managed to fit in an impromptu lecture (for want of a better word) after lunch which was an opportunity for the students to ask me some questions in a more casual atmosphere. The clinic went great and again it was past midnight before we all sat down for dinner.
Another early start - TGV to Paris - taxi to Charles De Gaulle airport and then a flight to Milano. A night off there and a quiet one too. It turned out that the representative from Mogar Music had some family issues to deal with and therefore could not "entertain" me that evening. That was fine with me as just sometimes you need some down time. Some time to have a quiet dinner and some private time to oneself.
We drove the next day up to Montebelluna and set up for a clinic outside at Lenzotti Music Store which I played back in 2004. Back to my old BRG Maple Starclassic kit for these 3 clinics in Italy.

It is interesting to note the difference of feel in playing a Bubinga shell kit and a Maple shelled kit. The clinics I played in France were using my 30th anniversary kit which is a combination of Maple and Bubinga and when I sat down to play my Italian kit, a Maple shell, I could instantly feel the difference. A softer feel and it seems the stick goes into the drum more. They all sound great, just different.

We had some technical problems and so were a little late getting started but as soon as I started playing the first song I knew there was something terribly wrong with my main bass drum mic. Strange as by the end of soundcheck it was all sounding great. And then towards the end of "Kumi Na Moja" my in ear monitors went off. Dead battery! I whipped them off and could hear the PA a little bit and also turned round to my mixer and raised the gain of the click channel so I could see the peak meter for time! No way of hearing it as I don't use stage monitors when I do clinics. As soon as that song was over I was able to hear the kick drum in the PA and it sounded dreadfully thin. Looks like the mic took a dump. That is the fist time I have had one of those go down in 12 years, or however long the Beta 52 has been in production. I decided to take the time to replace it as it would be horrible to put up with that for the rest of the clinic. So that added about 15 mins and therefore by the time I was done it was pretty late. Hence having to leave without an autograph session. Again my apologies to those that were there.

Off to Modena the next day and the place of Lambrusco! A great clinic at Esse Music store. Great audience and a wonderful dinner with all the people who helped put it all together. And another late night!!

Next a wonderful drive thru Tuscany to Firenze and an interesting venue for a clinic. Play Drums & Percussion set up a stage in a field in the town with 3 bars and a restaurant, tables and chairs and umbrellas. After the clinic it turned into a disco and was rocking - pretty cool! Great audience and I even had a request to play a song called "Manganese" which I just so happened to have on my hard drive. Hadn't played it in a while so I made a few mistakes but there you go!

Earlier in the afternoon a friend of mine brought his rather special car along for me to have a drive in. A dark blue Ferrari 360 Spyder. V8 engine with semi auto gearbox and just over 400bhp on tap. The sound of this thing is incredible. I was very gentle with it mainly because I don't know the roads and it takes a bit of getting used to and probably best not to throw the thing into the armco. I thought I had induced the wrath of the Firenze police as at one point there was a blue and white car with blue flashing lights behind us. Very hard to keep to the speed limit in that machine, however they were Penitentiary police and weren't that interested in me. Thanks Giorgio!!!!

A big thank you to Eric Thiesen and Alain Gozzo of Mogar Music France and Mario Antonazzi and Mattia Signo of Mogar Music Italy for making everything go smoothly. I hope to be back again to play more clinics.

I took the next couple of days off and flew to the UK to attend the British Formula One Grand Prix. My good friend David Sears, who owns and runs GP2 team Super Nova, very kindly invited me to Silverstone to see their race in the morning and then the F1 race in the afternoon. It was great to be back at this circuit where I used to race and test at occasionally and also to see and hear those amazing cars again. A real treat and a great end to a wonderful trip!

Simon Phillips Jun 2009

Clinic Tour France & Italy Part 1
Posted Friday, June 19, 2009 by Simon

This is just a quick post to say something about the clinics I am playing at the moment in France and Italy - I will write more later.
However I just wanted to offer my apologies to those that came to Montebelluna for my clinic at Esse Music and who might have wanted an autograph.
As you know I always spend time after the clinic to sign autographs but on this occasion we were running so late that I could not stay. We have a pretty tight schedule on these clinic tours. So I hope no-one was too disappointed. Even though I had some technical problems I really enjoyed the evening and to those that were there - you were a great audience. Thank you!

Posted Tuesday, April 7, 2009 by Simon

OK - it has been way too long since I posted an update - apologies for that. I am not really sure where the time goes but it seems since last Fall I have been busy non-stop - but not really .....

To carry on from where I left off or thereabouts - after my return from New Zealand I spent some time in the studio doing various projects. Next up was the Modern Drummer festival in Purchase, NY. I was able to bring my band along for that one and we had a really good show there. It is always fun to meet up with fellow drummers and hang out and hear them play. Then I was off down to South America - first stop Chile. The guys there really looked after me and I had a great clinic there - the audience were so warm and welcoming and technically everything was very together. Then it was Sao Paulo - wow - what a city. It takes so damn long to get anywhere the traffic is so horrendous. However I still had fun until it came time to do a soundcheck. Oh this was fun - NOT!!!!

Basically the PA system was non-existent. And not only that the console (which believe it or not was a gazzillion channel Yamaha) was about 3 flights of stairs up and in a booth - real theater style. I was running back and forth like a maniac. The system would reach about 85db and only the left hand channel worked through a center cluster - and a sub which was pretty useless.
What to do???

Thankfully there were 4 JBL wedges for stage monitoring and as I don't use any monitors for drum clinics we set those up as a PA and I routed everything through those from the aux sends. Oh and the other thing - no phantom power and most of my mics are condenser - ha ha ha!!!

There was another stage box that DID supply phantom, but much further away so we had to extend every mic cable and were running out of those. Anyway we were ok and in the end I think I hit the stage only 2 hours late. Considering everything it was amazing the clinic could go ahead. I would have just played acoustic drums anyway.

Back to LA and more work in the studio. Next it was a flight to Barcelona, Spain for some clinics. That was a nice change of pace.
The only problem I had was my little Powerbook G4 failed and thankfully my old friend and Bass extraordinaire Gary Willis turned up to say hello - he is a whiz when it comes to Macs. We tried everything to no avail. But - it just so happens the club had a fully blown Pro Tools HD3 system in a control room up above the stage which they use for live recording so we configured it using my drive and lots of extra mic cables and we were ok!

The audiences were fantastic in Barcelona, Madrid and Seville - the last time I was there was for the Guitar Legends concerts in 1991. The food, of course, was wonderful!

Next was Portugal and a small town called Braga. Some PA issues entailed but this was to do with a digital desk that kept crashing!!!
Of course the console was a brand I had never heard of before.

A few early flights to get to Austria and a lovely town called Gmunden - where the crockery comes from - Gmunder Keramic.
This was a drum festival in a lovely hall and the other drummers included Will Calhoun, Jeff Hamilton, Wolfgang Haffner, Benny Greb, Thomas Lang and the amazing Jim Kilpatric. Very enjoyable!

Back to LA for a few days and then it was off again - this time in a different direction. Up to Montreal, Canada, for the Montreal Drum festival. It had been over 10 years since I played at this festival and it was great to be back. This is the one festival that is run on time due to a very precise stage manager who runs the event like a military exercise. But it works and we all get on and off quickly.
However I was suffering from a bad tooth infection and was on anti-biotics and had to take Vicoden for the pain. Not the best thing to take when one has to play - ha ha ha!!!! The whole performance was a blur but I think I pulled through OK.

After Montreal I played my first clinics in Canada - Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton. The audiences were great and everything went smoothly. Just not much sleep!

Back to LA - some studio stuff - and of course dealing with tooth issues.

Next up was the Big Bang Festival Tour in November. I flew into Amsterdam from Los Angeles and met my fellow musicians for dinner that night. The next day we were thrown into a rehearsal room with the task of putting together a set for this tour.
I really was curious how we would do this seeing as we had to write everything - there was nothing we could adapt for a line of basically just percussion.
Baba Sissoka was the only person who played a tuned instrument and luckily Arto Tuncboyacian sang as did Carlo Rizzo. Pete Lockett sang his Indian percussion parts so it was a true mixture of vocals and percussion. This really helped in making the set a more varied and musical one.
We had 2 days to get this together and I was amazed how it did come together as the end of the first day we didn't have too much.

It was wonderful meeting all the different musicians on this tour all from different countries and was probably the most different tour I have ever done and quite a challenge for the crew and the sound guys. Certainly not your usual rock and roll set up. I really enjoyed it!

I flew directly to London from Amsterdam for a couple of days off, a masterclass at ACM in Guilford and then the Zildjian Achievement Award Concert for Ginger Baker. I got together with my old friend Ray Russell to arrange some songs and then it was into rehearsals with Tony Levin (who flew in from Tokyo), Gary Husband and Ray and also a brass section with Courtney Pine, Gerard Presencer and Pete King. It was great to spend some time with my old friend Jack Bruce and also interesting to rehearse in London too. It's definitely a different vibe from LA.

The concert was on Sunday Dec 7th and although my set seemed short I think it went down well. I invited Keith Carlock to play double drums on an arrangement of "Can't Find My Own Way Home" - it worked out wonderfully. Thanks Keith!

Back to LA to for a break and unfortunately I was suffering from some health issues throughout xmas and new years. But at least it slowed me down and forced me to rest.

2009 is a milestone year for me as it is the celebration of 2 anniversaries. Tama Drums and Zildjian Cymbals.
I had met with the Tama guys a few months ago about producing an anniversary signature kit and had received some prototypes to try out. The real thing arrived the week before the NAMM show and what a gorgeous kit it is.
Hoshino had planned a 30th year anniversary concert at the NAMM show in Anaheim and we started rehearsals on the Sunday before. I had put together a set of music which featured a drum circle with drummers John Tempesta, Ronald Brunner Jr, Charlie Benante and Brian Frazier-Moore, a set of my music with my own band with Steve Weingart, Melvin Lee Davis, Everette Harp and Andy Timmons and then a "retro" set with Mike Szuter, Chris Broderick and singers Robin McAuley, Chris Propper and Frank Casciato.

The only problem for me was I had been quite ill over the xmas/new years period and hadn't played drums since the ZDAA concert in London on Dec 7th, so it was straight into the deep end.
The set list was pretty vicious too. Songs like East Of Asteroid (801), Dissident Aggressor (Judas Priest) and Space Boogie (Jeff Beck) - not the easiest of songs to play.

The concert ended up being almost 3 hours long but I think it went down really well and surprised a lot of people with the songs we played.
The next day I woke up and could not move - ha ha ha!!! I decided to cancel the NAMM show and go home and rest up.

Some more studio work and then off to Japan with my new band PSP with Pino Palladino and Philippe Saisse. We only played 3 shows at the Billboard Live in Osaka and Tokyo but they were fantastic. I will be mixing a live CD from these shows very soon.
It was a real surprise when Jeff Beck walked into the dressing room - he had just come to town for some shows and it was really cool that he came to see the band.

It's March and a long trip to Jakarta was next up. 29-1/2 hours door to door - LAX to Taipei - layover - Taipei to Jakarta - and then a long drive to downtown and the hotel. I was there with my band for an amazing Jazz Festival and I met up with so many musicians I knew. I don't think I got to bed before 5.00am any night as we were in the bar jamming and hanging out. It reminded me of the Montreux Jazz Festival in the late 70's, early 80's. I met some wonderful musicians as well as old friends.

We played one show (on stage at 1.00am .... !!!) and then I took my band to Japan for 7 shows. The line up this time was Mitch Forman (Keys), Mike Miller (Gtr), Everette Harp (Horns) and Melvin Lee Davis (Bass) and we had a great time - thank you Naoju Nakamura!!!

I am writing this in the hotel in Helsinki just before my clinic here and the start of 3 clinics in Scandinavia. The Frankfurt Music Messe was blessed with the most wonderful weather - I think it was warmer than Los Angeles!!!

It was great to hang out with so many musicians and especially with Steve Lukather who was there with his band playing everyday. I have to thank everyone who came to my 2 performances - absolutely packed out - amazing!!!

That's it for the moment ........ SP - April 2009

Italy, Far East & New Zealand Clinic Tour
Posted Saturday, August 2, 2008 by Simon

I am writing this on my long flight home to LA – courtesy of Air New Zealand and one of their lovely Boeing 747s – still my favorite plane!

Back almost a month ago I left LAX with my family for Munich and took a few days off to drive through the Alps and stay at some wonderful places in the north of Italy. My first clinic was to take place in Milan.

This was really more of a masterclass than a clinic and it was good to see my Bubinga Cordia kit set up ready for me. That is thanks to Sergio – Italy’s drum tech to the stars!

The next day’s clinic was near Verona and in a great little club called Jameika. My 2 year old son actually made an appearance walking up on to the stage just as I was about to launch into “Indian Summer”. He had this cheeky little smile as though he knew he really shouldn’t be up there. However, he came around the back of the kit and I lifted him up on to my lap. He then took out one stick of the stick bag and handed it to me. Then he handed me another. Somehow he already knows I only need two!

Next stop – Palermo - to start my week at RockCampus with Andy Timmons and Billy Sheehan. I had no idea how this would work out and I was met at the airport that evening by Fabio, who was also my interpreter for the week, and driven in the dark to a resort near Palermo called Citta Del Mare.

I met up with Andy and Billy who had been there a few hours and were jamming in one of the bars there with some of the students.

I had a wonderful time with my 35 students. I was concerned as to how I would fill the days but it just came naturally and I had a blast and I hope they all did too.
For the last day I think Billy, Andy and I were running out of topics to talk about so we thought it would be fun to put an impromptu concert on for he students.
We worked up some Jimi Hendricks songs and also an old Lifetime instrumental that I used to play in the Jack Bruce Band.
It was the first time we had played together as a band and it sounded great.
I hope we get the chance to play some more one day.

The flight home was long – Palermo to Rome – a night at the Holiday Inn – Rome to Washington DC and then DC to LAX, and one lost bag – the one with all my mics/computer/audio interface etc etc!!!

I was under the impression I had 5 days at home before I left for Taipei but I was wrong.
Firstly because of the time difference the flight leaves LAX at 12.55am. Well that means in reality leaving the night before. And then I get an email of my itinerary from Japan only to find out I had been booked on a flight a day earlier and it couldn’t be changed. So 3 days to get over the European time change and then on another plane to cross the dateline and go ahead 15 hours.

The one thing I have noticed in the last few years is the difficulty of getting over jet lag as one gets older. It IS true!!!

I arrived in Taipei very early in the morning and was whisked to the hotel in time for breakfast. My traveling partner for the tour, Happy Yoshida, arrived from Nagoya in the afternoon and we were able to just chill for the rest of the day and the next day.

I love this part of the world and the hospitality I received from the guys at Sea Fortune (distributors of Tama here) was wonderful. I finally managed to see the 101 tower in all it’s glory - not covered in cloud – and managed go up it too – four hundred and something meters in 37 seconds in the elevator which is roughly 60 kph – and hardly feeling it!

The clinic was really well attended with about 1000 people there.

Next stop was Bangkok and then Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately we couldn’t go up the Petronas Towers – that’s something you have to get up real early for – and anyway after the tallest building in the world (for the moment the 101 in Taipei) it was fine just to look up at it’s architectural bliss. An amazing building, which really looks like a hundred 50’s style diners stacked up on each other – to me anyway!

Indonesia was up next and the first town was Medan on the island of Sumatra. Indonesia is certainly an interesting place and is made up of thousands of islands. It’s main produce is coffee and as I am a big coffee drinker I was interested in learning more about it.
I am amazed at how many people turned out for my clinics there and it’s a great feeling to walk out to play solo drums for 800 people or so each night.

This was the tough part of the tour – 3 nights in a row and travel each day. Bear in mind that each day I have a new drum kit and that has to be prepped and tuned which takes about 3 hours total. Then there is the PA system “du jour” and thankfully apart from a few dodgy DI boxes and cables they worked well.

A lazy day in Semarang after the clinic there and then off to the airport to catch a flight to Singapore. It’s always interesting leaving Indonesia. Usually entering a country is an issue – not leaving!!!

After arriving at Singapore Changi airport which has to be the most amazing place – it’s more of a city than an airport, Happy Yoshida from Tama and myself checked into the flight down to New Zealand the night before the flight and stayed at the Transit hotel in the terminal. This means when one gets up all you have to do is walk to the gate, picking up a cappuccino on the way. Sheer luxury!!!

We arrived in Aukland at around 11.00pm and after a grilling by immigration I went up to the customs officer. Well – he wrote something on my landing card and steered me away from all the other passengers towards my own private customs officer.

His opening line was “this won’t take long mate!”

I hate that line!!!!

I had the most thorough search I have had in 30 years of traveling. He asked what instrument I played (he knew I was a musician – I had to fill that in where it says “occupation” on the card).
He asked if I played in a band. I pondered for a second but answered yes. He asked if it were anyone he knew and I said Toto. Not even a glimmer of recognition on his face. So I thought, well, time to raise the ante and told him I had also played with the The Who. His reply was “who?”.
I sighed!
He then admitted that he was into drum n’bass.
I really was at a loss!!!

He did ask me some questions to which I replied “no comment!!!”

Anyway – off to see his superior and upon his return a very different approach – he and his superior (an older woman) had looked me up on the net!

I left the customs hall at around midnight.

The clinic in Aukland was held at a girls grammer school in a lovely little theater and everyone there made me very welcome and it was a great evening. A mention about my sound engineer that night, Paul Crowther, who also engineered my clinic there 20 years ago – very cool.

Next morning we flew down to Christchurch, my first visit to South Island, and to Al’s Bar where I was welcome by Al himself as soon as I walked in.
The last kit to set up and tune on this tour – that made 8 kits total – 16 hotel towels (damping for the bass drums) and a wonderful night with another great audience. I guess I got carried away as it lasted almost 3 hours – sorry – I didn’t notice the time go by!

I’d like to thank all the guys and gals who planned and organized these clinics in the different countries I visited – Sea Fortune in Taiwan, __________ in Thailand, Bentley Music in Malaysia, Bahanna Music in Indonesia and The Music Store in New Zealand.

Special thanks has to go to Happy Yoshida from Tama for doing such a great job covering all the bases and being such a great drum tech/tour manager.

Time for a break and some home time.
That’s it for now!

SP – August 1st, 2008

News from Indonesia
Posted Friday, August 1, 2008 by Simon

I am writing this on a flight from Semarang, Indonesia to Singapore and finally have a chance to post an update of the continuing adventures of my clinic tour, which is fast turning into a World tour.

However I realize I never had a chance to post during my solo tour in Japan so I had better rewind and start there.

The first show with my new band formed part of the Hoshino 100th Anniversary and took place on the second night. We followed sets by Kokomori’s band and Nori’s band (the 2 Japanese drummers that performed with Pat Torpey, Tommy Snyder and myself the night before). There were a few loose moments but nothing horrendous and I always say that a performance is worth a week of rehearsals and could see that this line up would sound amazing in a short time.
The next day we were off – bullet train to Sendai and then a quick lunch and then to the club for soundcheck. However it was at this lunch that the theme of the tour was cemented. I was ordering my food and trying to do so in Japanese. Funny that my food came last and something that I ordered just never materialized. Hmm – what did I say in my fledgling Japanese?

Well it was time to order an Espresso and this is a pretty simple thing to order in the local language. The waiter made all the right facial expressions and I thought I was doing great. He came back with a jar of toothpicks!!!!!!!
I asked our promotour, Naoju, what toothpick was in Japanese. Let me tell you it was in no way remotely similar to “Espresso kudasai”. Even he was perplexed!

The club in Sendai, ENN, was tiny and therefore so was the stage, but there is something I really like about setting up close to each other, even with that huge kit. It’s like playing the Baked Potato in LA – the time is so immediate and the interaction between everyone is fabulous. We had a great gig to a small but mighty audience.

From there we “bulleted” back to Nagoya for the next show and the band was getting into it’s stride. 3 shows down – 4 to go. Next stop Hiroshima.
We had a day off after the show there so we opted to stay and visit the Peace Memorial museum as a couple of the guys had not yet experienced it.
This was my 4th visit and every time I learn something new – some more information about what happened and how it happened – the first atomic bombing of a city!

If I had my way I would make it imperative that every politician in the world should pay Hiroshima a visit before they start their term in office!!!

The next show was in Osaka at the Big Cat club followed by 2 sold out nights at STB139. Of course I paid my favourite shot bar, Geronimo’s, a visit our last night in Tokyo and ended up making Margeritas and hanging out with one of Toto’s previous tour managers who happened to be there with Riverdance.

The flight home was smooth and quick – really quick!! Thanks to the jetstream, which blows towards America from Japan, we did it in 9-1/2 hours. The in-flight map pointed out that we were cruising at 733 mph – that’s over the speed of sound – I didn’t know a 777 was capable of that!

And that was the end of my five week round the world trip.

SP - July 28th, 2008

Japan
Posted Sunday, June 8, 2008 by Simon

The flight was wonderful and I managed to sleep for most of it - thankfully!
Happy Yoshida from Hoshino met me at the airport and we had a cappuccino and waited for the flight from LA to arrive with Pat Torpey and Rob Nishida (Hoshino USA) on it. The drive into Tokyo was pretty quick (that can be a rough one) and checked in the hotel and went out for some Korean BBQ and a few beers.
Next day was a setup day - yes you got it - another new kit to prep. Same kit as in Europe (Bubinga/Cordia Starclassic). Always a challenge when jet lagged.
Pat was working on his kit and Tommy Snyder on his. The next day was a rehearsal day for the 5 drummers playing at the Hoshino Centenerary party - Pat, Tommy, myself and 2 Japanese drummers - Nori and Kokomori. Pat and I came up with a little composition for 5 drummers which was to dovetail out of an opening video with Kodo drums and Flutes.
Everybody did really well and by the end of the day we were in good shape - there were a couple of tricky little bits in there - ha ha ha!
My band flew in from LA and we travelled en mass to Nagoya that evening.
The next day I woke to the sound of my phone ringing and I knew instantly that I had done it - for the first time in years - I had overslept. The guys were waiting for me in the lobby and a very nervous Japanese voice was wondering where I was. Well - I needed the sleep and I also knew that there would be much hanging around at the venue - so I sent them on and asked them to give me 30 mins to get up and ready.
I managed to get coffee and cornflakes at the gig so no problem there. However Paul Gilbert and his band had flown in from London that morning and went straight to sound check - that's tough!!!!
We sound checked and rehearsed and suddenly the show was upon us.
The drummers opened the show and that went well and the rest of the show went amazingly smoothly for such little rehearsal. I have to mention Happy Yoshida from Tama and the wonderful crew that he put together - an amazing feat.
The next night was the first show for my band - a little under rehearsed but still sounded great. That was the start to our short tour and the next few days were action packed but wonderful.
More later .......

Nederlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg & Germany Pt2
Posted Sunday, June 8, 2008 by Simon

A little bit after the fact but here is part 2. As soon as I left Europe for Japan time just seemed to vanish and it's only now, back in Los Angeles, that I can write more about this trip.
This was the first time I had played any clinics in Switzerland, as far as my memory serves me, and I had the most wonderful time. Firstly the day I arrived in Zurich the weather was perfect and myself and Atsushi, from Hoshino BV, met up with Serge Olar whom I was about to spend the next week with driving all through the country. We had dinner outside that evening - in May!!!! Pretty cool for Europe.
Some spectacular drives were had going from town to town and I managed to start each day off with a coffee and a croissant outside at most of the hotels.
It had been a long time since I had driven through Switzerland and taken in the sights. It's just not the same in a tour bus - you just never look outside much. And for the most part you travel at night. So this was really cool and honestly, even though I was playing every night and doing a set up and sound check each day, it felt like I was on vacation.
Aarau, St Gallen, Morges, Brig, Altishofen & Basel were our stops on this tour. I hope next time I can get down to the Italian part of CH.
An early flight to Luxembourg and a day off - time to catch up on some rest - oh and watch the Turkish GP!!!
I had never had a chance to really "see" Luxembourg since my first visit there in 1978 so I took advantage of the time I had and walked all over the town. I never realized how spectacular this place was until now - and of course shot loads of photos.
I even tried speaking a little Luxembourgish at my workshop - interesting language!!!
My old friend Stephan Haenische joined me with a rather cool Audi Q7 which we would use to "beam" ourselves from one town to another. And the weather held amazingly - going on 2 weeks - quite an achievement for Europe.
From here we went to Sulzbach, Maintal, Hamburg, Bochum & Treppendorf and, as always, great audiences. I believe there were over 600 people at the Hamburg workshop which was held in an amazing WWII bunker, maybe the largest in existence. Of course I had to get up onto the roof and check it out. Amazing to look around over Hamburg from that viewpoint. The last couple of days in Europe the weather broke and lots of rain came pouring down but still an amazing run.
Next stop - Japan - and Stephan dropped me off at Frankfurt Airport and I flew that evening to Tokyo.

Nederlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg & Germany Pt1
Posted Sunday, May 18, 2008 by Simon

Finally I have some time to write about my recent trip to Europe for my clinic tour! It has been a whirlwind from the time I landed in Schipol 3 weeks ago.
This trip has been so enjoyable and I have to contribute part of that to the weather - Europe with sunshine is just so wonderful.
The day I landed I went straight to work at Hoshino BV and prepped 2 drum kits. One that now lives at Adam's Drumworld awaiting a permanent owner and another one which is my new kit in Europe that will live at Meinl in Neustadt. It is a lot of work prepping a kit the size of mine and always interesting when tuning new shells - ones I am not familiar with.
The first clinic of the tour was at Adam's Drumworld and I believe the audience count was 1145. It is a wonderful feeling going out on stage with that kind of audience there so I thank everyone for turning up and listening to my Dutch speaking - ha ha ha!!!
This was followed by 2 master-classes which I really enjoyed. The first one lasted about 4 hours - sorry about that but I guess there was rather a lot to talk about.
The next stop was Leuven - a beautiful old town in Belgium - and I had the pleasure of meeting Patrick Dorsean who opened the show. A great drummer playing with bass player Daniel Romeo. I also got to practise my Dutch again!!
First week done and it was off to Zurich and a part day off. Certainly needed it as I was suffering from almost terminal jetlag!
I then played 6 workshops in Switzerland where I practised my German and French a little bit. Great audiences and some wonderful drives.
To be continued ........

Another New Year
Posted Sunday, January 27, 2008 by Simon

It's 1.15pm here in a very rainy and overcast Sherman Oaks and I am recovering from last nights wonderful gig at the Baked Potato with Jeff Richman, Mitch Forman, Abe Laborial and Brandon Fields - wow - what a band. Such a pleasure and honour to play with these guys. Also a great turn out in spite of the miserable weather.
So - another start to the year which has been quiet so far. I have been doing some work to Phantom Recordings - updating a few things and renovating the place - but more importantly working on my new solo venture. it has been a while and I have had many people ask me whether I am going to make another solo CD. Life with Toto has been so busy these last few years that it has been impossible to concentrate on any solo material. However towards the end of last year I got inspired and finished off 3 songs that I have had for a while and managed to book some sessions in NYC with some great musicians. So - the first 3 songs are recorded and time to get writing for the next batch, the idea being to record over the period of this year and release early next year.
There will be various musicians featured on this one and some different styles of music too - not just my brand of Fusion.
As for Toto - we are getting ready to depart for Mexico this Wednesday for 7 shows and then after a short break a nice long trip down to the other side of the World - New Zealand to kick off our Far East tour. It will be great returning to OZ as well as Indonesia and Japan. That will bring us up to April and I time to put Toto to rest for a bit - we have been going solid these last few years and we are all exhausted. Time to embark on some other ventures - one being my new record and also some Drum Clinics around the World. Running the studio is also takes up quite a bit of time and energy - so it's going to be a year of change and challenge.
That's all for now. See some of you out there on gigs and clinics.
- SP

Live from Amsterdam
Posted Tuesday, March 20, 2007 by Simon

OK guys and gals - in Amsterdam once again and having a lovely relaxed morning after our show at the Heineken Music Hall last night. The last few days have been really busy as we are working our way towards Paris and the shooting of that show for another DVD. As well as capturing our performance on that night we are going to work on a wealth of "Extras" material. One of the things I love to watch on DVDs, whether it is a music video or a movie, are the "Making Of" and "B Roll" segments.
I am getting more involved in the shooting and directing of these parts this time. Mike Porcaro did such a great job last time on our "B Roll" footage and the editing, we have to follow through and make more footage available. Sadly he is not able to be with us on this tour but I am hoping to get him involved with the editing of all these extras.
We are recording these shows with slightly different technology than before as we now use all digital consoles out front and on stage. The Digidesign Venue has proved itself to be an outstanding console and our sound engineer, Jon Ostrin, has fully embraced this technology.
So, my job does mean that I have to be at the venue much earlier than normal but at least I don't get bored waiting around in a hotel room - not that I ever did - but it's actually a lot of fun hanging with the crew more.
We are constantly thinking of ways to improve our show and I speak everyday with Andy Doig (Lighting Designer) about the show from his perspective. He is tireless and never stops editing footage to use on the screens and making changes to his light plot. It's a work in progress all the time.
I read that there was some disappointment about us not playing "Home Of The Brave" on this tour. Well - we have played it quite a bit on the last few tours and we have so many songs to choose from that we like to mix it up a bit. Also we have to consider what we are filming too and that song was on the "Live In Amsterdam" DVD. We had many requests for "Drag Him To The Roof" and so I thought it would be great to bring that one back for this tour.
It's good to be playing in Europe again especially with our full production - lights, screens, our choice of PA and of course the full Acoustic Set Up.
I want to make a mention of some fans that flew all the way from the US to see the "big" show. It is a shame that we cannot play the US with this production and so fans over there never get to see the real thing. So it's fantastic that this family made the effort to come over to Stuttgart to see us.
I'll be answering some more Masterclass questions so check in soon.
For those of you who have seen the show on this tour - hope you enjoyed it - and for those who haven't - come out and see us.
All the best - SP

Last 4 shows of this year
Posted Saturday, November 11, 2006 by Simon

Hello from Orlando - or to be more precise Altemonte Springs (where??). Well - exactly. We are in a glorious Embassy Suites Hotel (never much cared for these - soul less places) and just chilling today after last night's show in Ft Pierce. A great little theater with a good, nearly sold out audience - and it was the first show since Guatamala City last month. A lot has happened since then and it has been tough and emotional time - however - life goes on.
The band sounded really good and although it was hard to actually remember how some of the show went I managed to get through it relatively unscathed - ha ha ha.
I believe that after completing these 4 shows that brings our yearly tally up to 80 shows - that's some touring - for us anyway.
So - check in to the message board and let me know what's happening around the world.
All the best to ya'll - SP

Toto on tour in the US ....
Posted Saturday, July 1, 2006 by Simon

Well - hello again - and today from a wonderful Country Inn & Suites in or near Jim Thorpe, PA. Another hotel that doesn't actually have a restaurant or bar!!! I don't get that one - seems to be a new trend. To me it would be akin to a recording studio without a tape recorder (or derivative thereof).
This is an odd scenario - Toto playing the states - very different to anywhere else in the world. It's a mystery to me (and us) that we are not more well known here. So many people know the music - but not the band that plays it. Last night in Seven Springs the lack of audience was disheartening - actually the term should be "audient", but those that were there, and I know some people travelled quite some distance to see the show, really enjoyed it. It's hard for us to "get it up" when you look out onto an empty ski slope - but we always do our best. I know it's great for some fans here to be able to see us but I really am looking forward to getting back over to Europe again. A bittersweet experience for us.
You really have to experience the band in a full festival or arena setting with production. It's so different.
Apart from that we just try to stay healthy, get enough sleep and enough to eat. This is a long tour - one of the longest this band has ever done - probably since '92 - so I am sure there will be some interesting developments and stories to tell.
Until then - keep checking in.
All the best - SP

Toto on tour again ....
Posted Friday, March 17, 2006 by Simon

OK Cats and Catesses - as most of you know Toto is back out on tour once again - this time promoting our new CD "Falling In Between". I am sitting here in Marseille overlooking the harbour filling some time before we leave for soundcheck and tonight's show, and thought I would just post a message letting you know some of my thoughts on this tour.
It seems our new CD has been received very well - we spent 10 hard months working on it and it always felt like it would be a strong record. I am pleased to say we play 4 of the new cuts in our stage show as well as some new arrangements of older songs. This set is fun to play - almost plays itself - and I think the band is sounding the best ever. We changed a few tech things - new PA system - a V-Dos line array with a Digidesign Venue digital console which our FOH engineer, Jon Ostrin, absolutely loves. We have had really good comments about the sound. Our usual LD, Andy Doig, is doing a stunning job of lighting the show and running the video screens. If any of you have not seen the show yet you are going to love it. I am always interested in reading your thoughts and critiques of the show so please feel free to post on the message board.
Quite a few fans have asked when I am going to make another solo CD - well, that may take a while as Toto will keep me busy for the next couple of years - however there is a brand new DVD-A I have just released - Vantage Point - Resolution on AIX Records (www.aixrecords.com). It features my straight ahead jazz ensemble with Jeff Babko, Walt Fowler, Brandon Fields and Alphonso Johnson. Filmed in HD, recorded in HD and mixed in surround! Might be tough to get a hold of in Europe but go on to their site and check it out.
I wish you all the best - stay tuned and I'll post something towards the end of the tour.
Thanks for your support - SP

Zildjian Clinics in Asia
Posted Thursday, November 3, 2005 by Simon

Finally I have found some time to sit down and write about this whirlwind of a tour of Asia playing drum clinics - courtesy of Zildjian Company.
Some of these countries I had visited before but some were totally new to me and I really did not know what to expect.
Firstly the places - Shanghai, Beijing and Guanzhou in China; Hong Kong; Taipei, Taiwan; Manila, Philippines; Singapore; Kuala Pumpur, Malaysia; Bangkok, Thailand; Seoul, Korea and now Tokyo, Japan.
11 clinics in 15 days
That means that a couple of these places I only spent around 18 hours in total so as you can imagine I didn't see much other than a hotel, some streets, a venue, a restaurant and an airport. However I got to meet many people that I would not normally meet if on tour with Toto.
I was accompanied by Bob Wiczling and Tina Clarke from the London Zildjian office and also Kim Pang who is in charge of Zildjian Asia.
Most of the time I had an interpreter - or as the first Chinese guy said " ... yes, I am your interrupter!"
You can imagine my confidence growing in that one dude. Actually they were all great - even sometimes 2 at the same time.
I really did not know what to expect in terms of questions and audience reaction as I was told that in these countries people tend to be much more shy than in the West. However there was never any problem getting the audience to ask questions - and they were all good and valid questions too.
There were some interesting moments of course - mainly with PA equipment, but nothing I couldn't sort out - however at times I did get frustrated, especially with the language barrier.
It was great to play solo drums nearly everynight and wonderful to have such appreciative audiences.
It is interesting to me that for the most part questions I am asked at clinics are very similar the world over - it seems no matter which country, whether a seasoned clinic country like the US or one that very rarely has them like China, that drummers want to know the same things about playing or tuning or miking techniques.
So - to those of you that read this that were also present at one of these clinics - thanks for making me feel welcome.
I had a great time - and there is still one more to go tomorrow.
A big thankyou to Zildjian for organizing the tour and Tama for supplying a brand new Superstar kit in every town and Remo for supplying the heads.
Stay tuned for more updates ...... SP

CAB Show last night ....
Posted Saturday, June 25, 2005 by Simon

I am sitting here on a beautiful morning in LA reflecting upon last night's gig with CAB at the Baked Potato. What incredible musicians they are: Bunny Brunel (Bass), Tony MacAlpine (Guitar) and Steve Weingart (Keys).
I have known Bunny since 1980 when he was playing with Chick Corea and I was with Stanley Clarke - we were playing the "Live Under The Sky" concerts in Japan. Tony played with Planet X so I met him while producing their records, and Steve I met while he was playing with Dave Weckl - however I had only played with Bunny previously, and that was on a pop session!
So this was the first time we had all played together - and it was magic!
We had a short rehearsal the day before and that was it. The music is far from simple and I had been listening to the CDs and following the charts in between the Toto recording schedule - I even called Dennis Chambers (who played on the CDs) to tell him how sick his playing was on these songs - and to tell him this was tricky stuff to play. He disagreed of course - ha ha ha!!!
Anyway, we had a great show - a lot of "big ear" listening, and a chance to play in a way I haven't done for a while - and we get to do it again tonight.
So - if you live in LA and have nothing to do tonight come and enjoy some real cool hardcore fusion with some deep pockets.
If you don't live anywhere near LA but have a friend who is in town - give them a call and tell them to get down there tonight!!!!

I'll also be updating this section more often than I have been in recent months.
All the best - SP

Back from the clinic tour
Posted Saturday, October 30, 2004 by Simon

Hallo everyone,
I am sitting here in LA in my living room jetlagged, hence up early, and just recalling my recent tour of clinics.
I had so much fun playing these shows. It was quite a tough schedule (it always is) but it was no problem and so great to play everyday and meet a new audience, chat about drums, drumming and other things.
What a trip to go to Poland and Moscow - you guys made me feel most welcome - thankyou!
Germany always makes me feel welcome and some great evenings were had. The last time I played clinics in Italy the tour was not so well advertised - however this time they did a great job and we had 4 really well attended shows.
However Tilburg and Moscow were the largest - both at around 1100 people! That's amazing.
So I want to say to everyone who attended - thankyou so much for making this last 3 weeks a most pleasurable experience.
Now I have some time off to get married on an island somewhere and then it's back to Toto. We are playing a show in Panama just after Thanksgiving and then a couple of shows in Mexico near Cancun. There maybe some other shows but probably not too much - we have done quite a bit of touring in the last 3 years - and it's time to get down to making another record.
It will be interesting which way the music will go on this one - I am curious to hear the other guys' material. We are scheduled to start in January.
Also - I will have a new website up and running very soon so check this site out and be ready for a surprise.
It's getting light here - time to try and sleep a bit more - I hate this jetlag - aaaargh!
Take care everyone - I'll try and check in soon. Thanks for all the kind comments on the guest book page.
Bye - SP

Long awaited update
Posted Friday, June 25, 2004 by Simon

Hey there everyone - I thought it was about time to put a little message up on the site. I know - I am really bad about doing it but somehow time just passes by so quickly! It's actually only when I get on the road that I have time to take a look at the site and read the postings. When at home life is pretty full.
Anyway - I am sitting in my hotel room in Oslo after playing a TV show - yep - live lip syncing as I like to call it - not my favourite but nevertheless a requirement of TV companies around the world. However, what I really want to talk about is our new set. We have played 2 shows - quite small venues just to get warmed up for the larger festivals, and they really went well. We didn't have a lot of time to rehearse but I was adamant about playing a new set for this tour. The band worked really hard and 4 intense days to learn the new (old) songs was all we had. I love it when the band plays "on it's toes" like that. It's pretty busy up there with no time to relax - but so much fun to play some different songs and it seems that, so far, our audiences love it.
I do wish we had some better weather over here - I guess my blood has got a little thinner since living in Los Angeles.
To those who haven't seen the show yet - watch out - it's quite intense.
Looking forward to visiting all these places in the next couple of weeks.
By the way, I am doing fine healthwise - in fact better than for a while. Thankyou to all concerned.
Tallships Festival in Larvik tomorrow night - better get some sleep. I'll try to do another update before the end of the tour.
All the best - SP

News from Chile
Posted Monday, February 23, 2004 by Simon

Hi Folks,
Well - we just finished our mini-tour of Chile and I just wanted to say that these last few shows (the first since my illness) have been some of the most fun gigs ever. It's just so good to play again and feel well. I'd seriously have to say it's been a couple of years since I have really felt this way. Health is really the most important issue in life - without that everything becomes much harder to deal with.
As usual touring in South America is interesting, to say the least! The attitude to organization is just perceived so differently to what we expect and are used to. I think our bus trip from La Serena to Vina Del Mar says it all - the driver stopping every few miles to pick up someone on the side of the road and give him a lift to another abandoned part of the landscape and dropping him off. One of our uninvited guests was a policeman!!! Go figure!!
However I notice so many smiling faces here - looking out of the window of the bus at people walking by in the streets (yes - they were walking quicker than we were driving) and just looking at their demeaner. I have always liked Chile - or what little I have seen of it - it's just the vibe. And the audiences were incredible - last night they were so loud we could hardly hear ourselves at times. So - a big thankyou to our friends in Chile for making us feel so welcome. Hope it won't be too long before we return.
Next stop - Mexico

My first gig back with Toto
Posted Monday, February 9, 2004 by Simon

Hey folks - it's high time I posted something and I think this is the best time to say that we just played Jakarta and my first gig with Toto since my illness. It feels real good to play again and I had no problem getting around the USS Phillips and it was business as usual. Actually I feel better than I have felt in a while. Our trip here from LA was a 30 hour haul via Honolulu, Manila and Singapore so it's fair to say we were rather toasty when we arrived. However I think everyone is managing to handle the 15 hour time change well and the gig was a welcome event for all of us considering the last few months.
Due to the time change my birthday fell on the only day that we were in the air and it was a short day as we flew through the international dateline - however our wardrobe/teleprompter lady, Pascale, did not forget and presented me with a lovely present and card on the flight - very sweet!
I want to thank all those who posted "get well" messages and please accept my apologies for lack of response. I am hoping to update the site this year and have some interesting ideas up my sleeve.
We have more shows in S.E. Asia and then we fly back to LA for a day and then fly down to Santiago, Chile for 3 shows. Next we have a 10 date tour in Mexico, so it seems another busy year with the band. I hope to be able to play some clinics in various places and as soon as they get confirmed I'll post the dates. Until then, bye for now and I'll post something again soon.

Birthday Update
Posted Friday, February 7, 2003 by Simon

Well, I know it's been a long time since I posted anything to my site, but as I sit here in my hotel room in Milan on a much needed day off, and feeling the effects of the first day of my 46 years I felt it necessary to write something.
Those of you who were in Mannheim last night at the Toto show would have seen the theatrics of what went on to celebrate my birthday. I believe there may be some photos going up on the Toto site in the next few days. Well it was quite a night - the show lasted 2-3/4 hours - which is probably an extra 25 mins. I was stunned at the amount of production that went into it - a big thank you to all the Toto team.
It has been a very busy last few months - we started our tour back in September in Brussels and since then have been all across Europe and Scandinavia - over to the Far East playing Japan, Korea and Bangkok - arriving back in Los Angeles just in time for Xmas. I took a break with my girlfriend to French Polynesia for a couple of weeks and no sooner had I come back we had the NAMM show in Anaheim and then on another plane to Paris to start this leg of the tour. We have 9 more shows left to go and then I'll be back to LA to start mixing the DVD that we'll shoot in Amsterdam on 17th Feb at the Heineken Music Hall.
We have some shows lined up for the US in April - check the Toto sight for details - and then we looking at some touring in the summer.
On a more serious note - there is a lot of unrest in the world at the moment and I am sure all of us have an opinion as to how they feel what should be happening. When I am on tour I read the papers every day and of course every hotel room has CNN and/or BBC World plumbed in. My personal stance is I really hope that diplomacy will rule - war maybe inevitable, but still avoidable and all avenues to prevent it should be pursued. I have faith in Hans Blix and his team but I do feel there is an enormous game of cat & mouse going on in Iraq - and Colin Powell is trying to prove that without showing his hand. Wouldn't it be enlightening to be a fly on the wall of the Oval Office, NORAD or the Pentagon - and even Iraq's opposite offices of strategic planning. I think one would hear a very different story - but unfortunately you wouldn't live out the rest of the day to be able to tell your mates given the short life expentancy of a fly!
I have had requests to finish my biography so I will endeavor to do so when I get home - it's just amazing how time flies on by so my apologies for not getting on that one yet.
Thanks for all your support and I have some more Q&A answers to post soon.
Caio for now - SP

Back in LA
Posted Monday, July 30, 2001 by Simon

I know it's been a while since I posted an update so I thought as I am awake at 5.00am jet-lagged what a good opportunity to do so. I just returned from London which is enjoying an absolute heatwave at the moment. I went to Hyde Park to see an old mate of mine, Jeff Beck, play. He is supporting Sting on his European tour. Well needless to say Jeff was awesome - great band too. Shame that the audience were mostly Sting fans - it reminded me of the tour Toto supported Tina Turner in England in '96. Looking out at the sea of people at Wembley stadium there were small clumps of people who actually knew who we were - the rest I think were just plain baffled!! However it was a great show - wonderful weather - and Hyde Park was full of people.
Great to chat to Jeff and others from that "camp". It's over 20 years since we played the "There & Back" tour!
My reason for going to Europe was to record in Belgium at the most amazing studio set in a small village called Mol.
We tracked the whole session in 5.1 surround - pretty cool. Skin was in the next studio recording her solo album.Then, as my ticket was routed through London I stayed in UK and visited family and friends.
What's next on the horizon - well - I have some mixes to do - a couple of projects. More work with Planet X on their new record. we have a couple of Toto shows - Sun Theater, Anaheim; Canyon Club, Agoura and a private show. It will be good to play with the cats once more. Then at the end of August I have a trip to Mexico on behalf of Tama to play some clinics with Paul Gilbert - should be fun! I just answered some more FAQs - some on the plane - so you should expect those to be up on the site very soon. To those in Europe - enjoy the sun while it's there!!
Bye for now - SP

Toto in Vegas
Posted Wednesday, May 30, 2001 by Simon

As I said in my last posting I just returned from Las Vegas after playing 2 shows at the Hilton Hotel with Toto. It was the first time we had played together since our last show in Sofia, Bulgaria last August and in fact the first show that Dave has played since our shows in Laughlin, NV last May. We spent a few hours on Friday rehearsing - not the greatest rehearsal band in the world - I don't know anyone who really enjoys rehearsing! Most of the songs played themselves however half way through "Better World" and after much faffing around I stopped, stood up and respectfully asked the band to stop! There were relieved faces as all of us were fumbling through it. Like Bill Bruford says - when in doubt roll - it really works!!!! We had to play the CD. It's amazing how one just simply forgets how some songs go. Anyway, after a good rehearsal we all went to see the Cirque Du Soleil production "O". Wow - we were stunned. What an amazing show - I highly recommend it to anyone who may be going to Vegas.
The next day we had a short soundcheck and before we knew it we were on stage once again. We had a great show. I love the way bands play when they are not used to the music - anything can happen and it's really fresh. The audience were fantastic with a few familier faces who must have travelled far - some from Holland too!!!
Another great show on Sunday and that was it.
I have to be honest - Vegas is not my favourite place - I don't gamble so there really isn't much for me to do - however I had fun this weekend. We have some more shows booked in August around the LA area and I'll keep ya'll up to date on what's happening with the band.

Clinics in CA
Posted Monday, May 28, 2001 by Simon

I've just returned from Las Vegas after playing 2 nights at the Hilton Hotel with Toto - more about that in my next posting. However I wanted to jot down a few thoughts about my recent clinics in Sacramento, San Jose and San Luis Obispo.
I started the weekend off with an early flight to Sacramento - not as early as originally planned as when I checked my ticket the day before it actually had been booked for April 18th!!! Well since I was flying May 19th this ticket was clearly wrong. A panic call to Tim Komonchack of Tama who was sweating over assembling my drumkit at Skip's and all was OK - I even managed to take a later flight. Hey to have another hour's sleep is never a problem!
I arrived to a very hot Sacramento (106) from a cloudy and cool Los Angeles and suggested to Tim that we drive directly to Skip's to check out the kit. Damn good job we did - poor guy - having never set this kit up before he got into a bit of a mess. You see the rack is very logical - BUT if you start the wrong way it turns into a huge domino effect. Anyway we sorted that out and Skip was very accomodating with time. I haven't performed a clinic in a while and it is always fairly nerve wracking. Well the performances were held in a tent - and a surprisingly good sounding tent it was too - and I had a ball. Great audience and great questions. As I came off I met up with David Garibaldi from Tower of Power who were playing next. I signed some autographs and met some of the people who had attended and then went back to catch ToP's set. It was so good to see and hear those songs again. I am a big fan of ToP. The evening finished with a Japanese meal and a few Sapporos with Tim and Paul Holdgate, the Tama rep.
The next day I gave 3 private lessons which I normally don't do - it was interesting and fun and I hope they enjoyed it too.
Then we took a drive to San Hose and to Lemmon Percussion. The clinic was held in the store so was a little tight spacewise but another great audience guarunteed another fun show. When I came off "stage" I was told that Louis Bellson had been standing for the whole clinic - that's 2 hours!!! It was great to see him again - what a wonderful guy and of course a wonderful player. I was lucky to sit right by his kit many years ago at the London Palladium when he was playing with Pearl Bailey - and then many years later we got to play together for a TV show in Germany called Superdrumming. Thank you Louis for coming out to the clinic.
Next day we drove to Morro Bay - checked into a lovely little hotel - grabbed a quick lunch and then off we drove to San Luis Obispo.
The clinic was held in a church and the PA was the house system. Well we had a few problems getting it all worked out as it was wired for only 16 inputs - I use 27!!!
19 for the kit, 7 for the DA-88 and 1 for vocal.
Thanks to a chap called Dan who owns a music store we both managed to get everything working and Paul (the Tama rep) did sound with one arm - he bust his left shoulder playing Ice Hockey 2 days before!!
I would say that the San Luis Obispo audience was a little more reserved than the other audiences (probably due to the venue) but we had a good clinic. We ended up in a late night restaurant where I downed a few Margheritas - yeeha!!!
The next day Tim and I drove to LA and that was the end of our mini-tour. Thanks are in order to Tim who did a wonderful job setting up the kit, Paul Holdgate who drove me around in his lovely Lexus SUV complete with satellite navigation - I AGREE - damn it!!! And also all the guys from the stores who helped put this together. - Thanks ya'll!!!!