After our last tour together in 2013 and what turned out to be the last tour of his career, I told Joe I would archive the update emails I had sent from the road and post them.
He said, "That's a good idea, Nick."

About halfway into what turned out to be thirteen years in his band as keyboardist and then music director, I started writing regularly—first to family and a small group of friends to digest the experiences that constant travel can sometimes wash into a blur. Over the years the list expanded to almost a thousand people. The first twenty posts here are the original update emails in chronological order.

I post these to honor Joe and all who worked with him. There are more stories to write. I will continue to gather them and post from time to time and to invite others to contribute.

Come visit frequently, hang out if you want and get to know my experience of this great artist and true gentleman, Joe Cocker.

In Respect, Gratitude and Love,
Nick

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

New Zealand-Australia 2011

Greetings from the continued chronicles of The Hard Knocks Tour, now 2011.

On the 30th of January, the tour landed in the city of Cairns in northern Queensland, Australia, after completing seven shows in seven New Zealand cities in nine days, a whirlwind of a run so far.  The first show was in Dunedin, on the southern part of the South Island, arriving from Los Angeles three flights later on January 20th.  

The view out my Dunedin hotel window, the morning after our first show

Then we worked our way north. Christchurch and Nelson (a lovely coastal township on the northern tip of the South Island) directly followed and then we took a day off, in Wellington, the nation's capital. After the show in Wellington, Auckland, Taranaki and Napier filled out the New Zealand leg.  

In tours past, we would stay in a city like Auckland or Christchurch for a few days and do multiple shows, but through the years the tour Down Under has been built on winery gigs which host a bigger venue.  More people—less shows. Also, this year we have George Thorogood and his band, The Destroyers opening throughout the tour, so we are playing bigger venues, like the Vector Arena in Auckland, rather than two or three nights at the downtown theater.



Oneida, our bass player and resident Groove Goddess, enroute to the airport in Wellington


Auckland, last week

We played our first show of the Australian leg last night (February 1) in Cairns.  The audience was packed into the Cairns Convention Center downtown even as the cyclone warnings were already up for the next day.



Last night in the hotel lobby in Cairns

It had been a stressful day for everyone on the tour, especially management, as they were assessing the situation from hour to hour.  When we got off stage last night, we were told that a 2AM flight had been arranged, bypassing Townsville, our next stop on the schedule, which was also within the path of Cyclone Yasi, and flying straight to Brisbane.  As I write this on February 2nd, Yasi is slamming into the Queensland coast north of us, a category five cyclone.  (It was category three last night.)


Yesterday morning, the day of the Cairns show, I opened my curtains of my hotel room window and had this view:


All the best,
And, don't forget to Love,
Nick


(For past updates, visit the What's New page of www.Milomon.com.  You can check in there in the coming weeks for more photos and related links. 

And, if you don't wish to receive these emails, just reply to that effect and you will be relieved of any further ramblings.

Yes, the album with Rocky Maffit will be out this Spring!...
Peace.)
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