Paul Potts

The Tour Begins

Posted 14th September 2009

After a very busy, but enjoyable time in Asia, it was time for me to start my second World Tour.  We started in the beautiful city of Vancouver, and had a few days of rehearsal here.  We enjoyed walking around this area, and the only disappointment for Julz was that Twilight had finished filming for New Moon (those of you following Julz and I on Twitter will know how crazy julz is about the Twilight series).  There is something special about Vancouver that you can’t put your finger on. 

It was great to see Bob, Chris and Mark again, we spent so much of the last year touring, we have become firm friends, not just colleagues.  The second tour meant needing to learn some new songs as well as performing some favourites as well as a new Mario Lanza medley so we were kept very busy in the rehearsal studios. 

Our first performance in the Centre for Performing Arts in Vancouver came very quickly, and it was great to be performing there again.  The next day we were due to drive by tour bus to Edmonton, but there was a problem with the bus, so we got an extra night in Vancouver before catching the plane. 

The last time we were in Edmonton, March 2008, it was very cold, I remember having a heavy cold and a trapped nerve, so was hobbling around the stage while coughing!  This time I was in good health and able to enjoy the wonderful acoustics of the Winspear Centre, one of my favourite concert halls anywhere in the world.  We were well received as ever by the people of Alberta, Canada, and it was great to meet so many friendly people at the venue.

We stayed in Alberta for the next concert in Calgary, another place where the temperatures had been far less friendly the last time we were there!  It is great to see these amazing places in different seasons to see the contrast between them.  I’m yet, however to be in Canada in the Autumn (or for you North Americans, Fall).  I have heard so much about the falling of the leaves in Canada, I have to find time to be there in the Autumn!  From Calgary, we flew to one of my favourite cities, Toronto where we spent Canada Day in the city, and returned to our favourite steak restaurant yet again!
We were in the area to do a concert in a nearby town called Kitchener.  Ontario is a Canadian state I have spent quite a bit of time in over the years, and the friendliness of the state was well reflected by the audience.  After spending Canada Day in the city with plenty going on in the city, and going up and having a meal at the top of the CN Tower, we made plans to visit one of the wonders of the world:  Niagara Falls.  The last time Julz and I had been there was Valentine’s Day 2005, with lots of snow on the ground and temperatures of -25 degrees C!

Jake my tour manager was good enough to drive us down to Niagara on our way to do a TV appearance in New York City.  Although a very touristy place, we loved Niagara Falls the last time we were here, and it was no different this time.  We had lunch overlooking both the American and Canadian falls and just wondered about the enormity of it all.  We still had a fair way to go, and so we left for the Canadian/US border about teatime, passing Buffalo on our way to New York City, arriving in ‘The Big Apple’ fairly late at night, and went to bed pretty much as soon as we got to our hotel as we had a fairly early start to appear on the Early Show on CBS close to Central Park…....

More on that in a few days with news from the next stage of the tour!