Got back last night from our 'Promotional Visit' to.......................Las Vegas!

All went really well at the show we did with The Searchers at The Cannery Casino. We afterwards had meetings with the powers that be and are currently discussing terms for a tour, early next year. Hoops and Eddie took hundreds of pictures and I will tell you more when they send them for me to put on the web site.

Just a quickie to say that the show we were booked to play at The Lakeside Country Club next week with The Merseybeats at has now been moved to September 27th.

I was also made aware at City Hall Salisbury last night, that the gig at Durant House Hotel in Bideford was off! Apparently, ticket monies were sent back to people who had booked to go. I called the people at "Yesterday Once More" and was told that the show had been cancelled before Christmas and Rod must have forgotten to strike it off the list.

The new CD is going well and we hope to have it ready for mixing by next weekend. In the meantime, we are left with the delicate matter of getting the artwork done!

After a bumpy start, all is now well with The Fortunes and Eddie is fitting in extremely well. Things on stage are obviously not the same as they were but things are bound to be different................there was only one Rod Allen.

The Fortunes now have to move in a slightly different direction. Eddie and Rod are totally different personalities and performers. We are rehearsing constantly trying out different material to improve the show, and working on some great arrangements of classic songs to retain the 'class' for which The Fortunes are known.

We are going into the studio next week to start work on a brand new CD featuring the new line up. We haven't finalised what is going on the CD yet but it will be most of the songs we perform on stage, with a few surprises thrown in!

Eddie does his last show with The Dakotas on the 11th April at the Dovehouse Theater in Solihull. Bob and I will be popping along to see the show and to support Eddie in what will probably be a very emotional farewell to The Dakotas.

Just got back from our 'mini tour' of Holland. (See Alex van den Hoek's fabulous pictures here)

More pictures here from Michael de Louw!

We did our first show of the weekend in Michael Robinson's new club in Hengelo. Michael you might remember, is the singer/songwriter we collaborated with on "Heroes never Die" the CD we made in Holland a couple of years ago. 'Hengelo Classic' is a new bold venture for Michael, with loads of potential for the future and we were very happy to go and do our bit to help publicise the place.

The next day we were in Hilversum at the Cafe De Roozen, a very small venue in which we were squashed together on possibly the smallest stage we have ever worked! It was a great gig and we had a lot of very good friends amongst the packed audience. Thanks to Jos Boekhoult, Gerard de Hiep, and Jose Iriks who worked tirelessly to get it all together!

At 12 o'clock the same night, we were rushed off to 'Theater Jacobi' in Utrecht as "Surprise Artists". Again, a fantastic reception for The Fortunes and Eddie was on top of his game and I know for sure, relished every moment of his first trip to Holland with The Fortunes!

I on the other hand, was in a bit of a state all the time we were away with the worst tooth ache of my life! Two days after we got home, I was diagnosed of having a tooth with a crack right down to the nerve! It's out now and I can sleep again!

It was quite an experience for us last week at the Solihull Arts Centre as Rod's wife Margaret, did in my view a very brave thing, and came along to see the show.

It was with a certain amount of trepidation that we entered the bar in the intermission, but we needn't have worried. Margaret had nothing but praise for what we had achieved in such a short time and said she thought that Eddie "was the perfect choice." Margaret also said that she could "understand why Rod had asked Eddie" to stand in for Rod.

This was possibly the biggest test that the 'new' Fortunes had to face and we now know that we can move on, knowing that we are well on the way to fulfilling Rod's wishes.

On saying that, it is with great pleasure that we can now officially announce that Eddie has agreed to join The Fortunes!

Welcome aboard Eddie!

Moved house again last week and BT are doing their usual thing. It looks like I will have no broadband connection for at least another six days. £100,000 per minute and they couldn't organise a booze up in a brewery! It is taking me an age to get all my emails through a 'dial up' number so please bear with me.

Bad news I am afraid for all those going to the Thameside show with The Ivy League tomorrow. The show was cancelled as the theater, I have been told, is closing down.

I have started putting all the new shows in yellow on the Tourdates Page so you can see them when they come in. I will then leave them till the end of each calendar month, then start again. Hope this makes sense?

We are starting our annual tour with The Ivy League at the Huntingdon Hall in Worcester this Friday. This is the fifth year! Where does the time go?

We are frantically rehearsing a new 'section' in our part of the show, in which we go all accoustic! Hope to see a few friendly faces willing us on!