Dear friends, quite some time has passed since my last letter – two months, to be precise. In the meantime I struggled with some health problems, nothing really serious, but too many things at a time to get along with, and so I had to slow down in some aspects. Finally my old computer broke down around easter, and it took some time to get a new one and especially to set up the eMail function. But now things are getting better, just as the weather does…so let’s get started again. Of course I didn’t do nothing. First of all I continued to work on the new album and recorded lots of guitar tracks, especially acoustic ones but also some electric rhythm guitars. Isabelle had her first recording session and added some wonderful keyboard tracks. Last week I started with the lead vocals then. It will take some more time to get everything finished; I’ll be happy if we manage to record the remaining vocals until the end of this month and then concentrate on the rhythm section with Chris O on drums and Chris D on bass. Whenever possible Isabelle will do the second round on the keyboards, and then it’s time for Albrecht and his trumpet as well as for Toni, member of Platform 6 and a multi-instrumentalist, whom I invited to join us for some special musical contributions with his accordion, trombone and harp. In the end we’ll see how much more special effects and guests we’ll include into the different songs; but first of all I’d like to have the fundaments ready, which means drums and bass. And then we can start to think about choirs and brass sections and so on. I don’t want to overdo it, but on the other side every additional instrument brings some new colour into the picture, and I want the album to be interesting and colourful. And I’m sure we’ll find the right mixture. Platform No 6 played the gig at the women’s day celebration some weeks ago, there were some 100 people attending, and we did our best and were well appreciated once again. Everybody knows we’re not a professional band, and especially when there are lots of colleagues from our company in the audience, the feedback is usually quite positive. But I think we really did a good job, and we earned 1000 Euros for the women’s house in Schweinfurt. Mission accomplished. Next thing to come with the Platformers is a gig at an After Work Party in Bamberg next Thursday. The event is organized by the Lions’ Club, and the revenues will be donated for charity projects again. Two of us cannot join the gig, and so we have to get along without Dirk (keyboards) and Toni (trombone) this time. It’s clear that our sound will be worse without them, and Chris D and myself will have to fill the gaps with our guitars as good as possible. On Friday, just after the gig, I’ll be heading for Eschwege again to do another weekend workshop with PAM, my old friends from former times in Stuttgart. We’ll prepare ourselves for our second gig since the reunion which will take place in autumn 2019. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but we meet just twice a year, and that means that we have just three rehearsal sessions before this date, and we don’t even have a set list yet. So we’ll be working on this issue first and then start to work on the selected songs one after the other. I am not intending to push my songs into the set list; Chris F’s songs are the better ones to be played live. I’d be happy to have “You keep on hidin’” and “Push the button” in the list, and all others are not that important to me. “The scars will remain” could be an option, “My child” is just beautiful and easy, and “Give it a try” is another good one, especially in the acoustic version with Lothar playing the accordion. Next weekend we’ll decide on the ones to work on. I’m looking forward to see my old mates and have an intensive and productive weekend again with nothing but music, music, music. Then there’s the Erratics, the blues rock band I’m playing with from time to time. There’s a rehearsal session next Monday, and a gig in the beginning of May at a town event where all shops will be open until midnight. We’ll be playing in one of these shops, owned by the former drummer of the band, and that’ll be fun again. I played a gig with them some weeks ago at a birthday party in Schwebheim, and it was great. Extremely loud of course, but while my ears were hurting I felt that this is just what I’m missing with the bands I regularly use to play with. These guys are not standing on the brake pedal with both feet but sing and play their music with energy and passion and consequently with a certain power and loudness. My part in the band is a bit additive since I’m not always there, and so I keep myself in the background in some of the songs. But there’s quite some solos to play for me, and a lot of second voices as well, and here I feel that I can just sing and play without any restrictions. And that feels damn good to me. And so I’m busy with my four bands again, and I love it. I’ll keep you posted about the progress and the next events, as always. Keep on rockin’! Yours schnoed