Days off tend to be anticipated with a mass of good intentions and disappear before your very eyes before you’ve had a chance to do anything with them. Plans are made to explore the world’s great cities, catch up with friends or any number of things that mean you’ve actually achieved something. Inevitably, either hangovers, travel, or general exhaustion ensure that your 24 hours of freedom disappear before you’ve even properly yawned and stretched.

Today, I have a rather unusual aim. I have phone calls to make and research to do. I’m talking to Mike Hill, the technical genius who built Jonny’s mission control guitar rig. He also built a pedalboard for Guy’s bass gear. Now that Guy is taking photos almost more often than he is blinking, he’s devised a way of firing his camera remotely during the show. We’ve had it working in the most basic way possible for the past few gigs and now we want it posh-ed up a bit – and Mike Hill is the man to do it.

You have to love any phone call that begins with the line “Hiya Mike, I’d like you to build us something so that Guy can take photos with his feet”.  You also have to love the fact that the man didn’t bat an eyelid and proceeded directly to making plans. In fact, you have to wonder exactly what would phase him…

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