Paul Potts

Sweden to South America

Posted 9th October 2009

After a few days at home, it was time to hit the road again.  Jake picked me up late on a Sunday afternoon for an early flight to Gothenberg for my performance on a popular singalong show in the Liseberg gardens in the centre of the city.

When we arrived, the weather wasn’t looking too promising, but brightened up when I had done my soundcheck.  When the show started, however, the heavens opened, and it rained virtually the whole night.  This didn’t dampen the 15,000 strong crowd’s enthusiasm, however, and they willingly sang along with every song.

After a while, it was time for me to perform.  First of all I was to perform La Prima Volta, and I had been wondering for much of the day whether I was going to end the song in a different way from the way I recorded it.  I knew that what I was thinking about carried a huge risk and that if it went wrong would be disasterous.  I still hadn’t made my decision when I had started the song, and this was live television!  There could be no retakes if it all went wrong.  I finally made up my mind on my last breath before the last phrase, that I would go for it. 

The high C has always been considered to be special, and so I decided that I was going to make this performance extra special.  I felt in good form and the approach to the last phrase I was happy with.  Thankfully it all went right and I really enjoyed the note and I think the audience loved it too!  I also performed Piano (Memory) again in the rain, and took part in the finale singalong of an Abba classic.  We left to return to the hotel close to LIseberg, and left fairly early the following morning for London where I again had a couple of days at home.

On the Sunday, Jake picked me up to make our way to Heathrow as we had a 7 am flight to Bogota via Madrid.  I had started to come down with a cold, and by the time I got on the plane, it was starting to take hold.  We had enough time to get to the second flight from Madrid to Bogota, and I made myself comfortable.  I was feeling anything but comfortable as the cold led me to cough an awful lot on the plane.

After a total of 15 hours flying time, we arrived in Bogota, where I was greeted by three TV crews.  I gave a quick interview to each of them, and then we made our way to our hotel. 

I had started to feel worse, so a doctor came around who took my temperature which stood at 105 degrees (F). Bearing in mind that we were now at altitude (8000m), I took things very easy for the next few days and with the help of the medication given to me by the doctor, I made a pretty fast recovery.

The next day, feeling a little better Jake and I met up with colleagues from the local record company and had a lovely lunch in a traditional Colombian restaurant that was owned by a local musician.  After a lovely meal we made our way back to the hotel, for me to rest and recover further from the cold, as I had a busy day of interviews the following day. 

After a press conference, I had a number of TV interviews and local press interviews.  It was a busy day, and after all interviews were done I made my way back to my room for a rest until it was time to have drinks with some VIPs and the sponsor for the concert.  I didn’t stay for very long as I still had to recover more for the following night’s concert.

To my relief, I had recovered incredibly quickly, and was fit enough for the concert, and felt much better on the morning of the concert.  Later in the day we made our way to the venue where I enjoyed performing for an enthusiastic audience.  It was great to meet so many of the audience at a meet and greet after. 

The next day, it was time to make our way to a new country for me, Peru.  On arrival in Lima, I gave a couple of interviews and we then made our way to the hotel where we met the local promoter.  After catching up a bit in my room, we went out for dinner.  The promoter took us to a lovely seafood restaurant that was on a structure that was designed to look like Brighton Pier.  It was some of the best fish I have eaten including ceviche, raw seabass, pacific salmon, and raw scallops.  It was unbelievably fresh!  We were the other side of the world, and yet we were sat in a little piece of England!  We also had a taste of a local speciality, pisco sour which is a lemon based spirit cocktail. 

I was now feeling completely recovered and I was back to normal wandering around the city down to the area by the sea with a fantastic view down to the coast that was effectively a desert by the sea. 

Lima has a great feel to it with mixture of modern buildings and colonial buildings.  The food in Peru is also outstanding!  Even the fast food outlets had great food, so I was absolutely spoilt for choice!

After a Press conference we made our way to lunch and explored the city some more, and then met up with the local team for dinner before making our way to a local bar for a quick drink.  The bar would have been heaven for Julz and her best friend Becca, as it was non-stop rock with plenty of Guns & Roses and Bon Jovi!  The concert was the following night, so we didn’t have a late night and made our way back to the hotel. 

The next morning came, and after breakfast I went for another stroll.  After feeling too ill to wander around Bogota, I decided I was going to make up for it in Lima. 

Later in the day it was time to make our way to the venue which as it wasn’t far from the hotel, we went to on foot.  We arrived in good time and I had one of my most enjoyable concerts so far.  The audience were very receptive and after the uncertainty of the cold that I had had before, I was very happy with my performance.

After the concert Bob Willis, Chris Taylor, Jake and the rest of the team had a drink with the promoter and he very kindly offered to show around the city the next day. 

The next day we went to the beautiful Cathedral in central Lima, and wandered around the central area including the railway station that was built by the British, and which ahs one train a day running into the Andes from it.  It is a stunning structure.  After the railway station we went to an Inca Temple on our way back to the hotel before leaving for the airport. 

It was incredible how the whole temple was built by hand made mud bricks.  In places you can see the indentations of where the earth had been taken and formed into bricks.  It was fascinating and really quite awe-inspiring that people were able to build such a structure thousands of years ago, all by hand.

We had just enough time to grab some lunch in the restaurant at the temple, after meeting some of the llamas and other animals.  We had a lovely outdoor lunch with the whole team in Peru, and I really enjoyed my time in Lima, and I would really love to return to Peru again very soon.

We then made our way to the airport for our flight back to the UK via Madrid.  For Chris, Bob, Mark and Bradley it was time for home.  For Jake and I however, London was merely a stopover on our way to Tokyo….

More about that in a few days…..