"Wake up Princess" or "Wake up my princess". I don't remember which, but the words were de Witt's and they were down the phone and they were the first thing I heard today. This kind of personal touch is probably why de Witt works for famous people like REM. Me and him and Paul are off early to Chicago today.

Now it's 9 am and in the lobby, Paul is just checking out and he is worried the rest of the band will be left behind with "no responsible adults". We'll see ......

We set off. Paul and de Witt are laughing about yesterday. Paul's chuckling about the article in Get Real Detroit which describes Kimberley's accent as almost incomprehensble and Robyn as "indomitably gay". And when I told everyone yesterday that 'butterfly' is in fact a spoonerism that stuck, i.e. - "Butterfly is backwards, you know" - then "What 'Flutterby?" Michèle guessed "Flutterby" (correct) almost at the same time as Robyn offered "Flybutter" (wrong) .....

One bad McDonalds (hilariously out of sync and overweight plods all rnuning around arguing and laughing, and a line almost to the door being served by 10% of one of them) and one petrol station later, it is nearly 11 and we are still not far from the hotel, but we settle into a bit of undertaking as de Witt weaves through the traffic to make up time .....

Horror thought. My passport and $2000 in cash is still in the hotel safe, 2 hours away now. It is me that needs the responsible adult ..... Paul gets on the phone and speaks to the relevant people at the hotel, and de Witt has a friend in Minneapolis we can get the stuff sent to ..... the rest of the day is a bit on edge for me .....

We get to Chicago and go in on the interstate. It looks like Gotham City ...... and the Metro in North Clark looks like a great place to live, loads of sushi bars and thai/malaysian restaurants but not necessarily an easy place to find a toaster which is what I need next. Tracy, webmistress, is coming tonight and we have to get her a present. I find a second hand store and buy a toaster for $8.99 but it is not really good enough so I keep looking. I do not find one, but just as soundcheck is looming a guy called Erin finds me. "I recognise you from the show" (we are talking outside 'Disgraceland'). Oh, hi. I explain I need a better toaster and where could I find one? He's the toaster angel and offers to go off and see what he can find and I'll see him at the gig later.

Soundcheck and sushi with Tracy/Jake and with more horror I suddenly realise I've forgotten to put Marck and Richard, my nephew, on the guest-list. I have't heard from them for a couple of months, but I'm sure they said they were coming. However, I forget again before I get back to the hotel so they don't get on. When we get back to the dressing room there is a fabulous huge box with a bow on it and it is the most wonderful toaster you have ever seen.

(And of course there was the scalper outside the Metro who kept trying to sell Matthew tickets to his own show - ed.)

This is great. Robyn and Kimberley both on great form and Morris too. Even I'm pretty loosened up now, and there's lots of faces from the night before and other night, especially the jesus candle girl - we smile a lot but I still don't know her or her guy's name. And as usual, she puts up a balloon asking for "I've got the Hots for you" and as usual we don't play it - we rehearsed it once before the tour but we never got to the end. This time the balloon has a big please on it too. Sorry. Grooving a bit with Robyn on stage, and I'm sure I heard him say "yewah" off mike. We are loosening up. There are loads of pretty women about and de Witt tells me later it is John Wesley Harding the support group (who were great tonight) they have come to see. Well, it can't be us! (Robyn, maybe, I suppose - he has the features) but they all seem to stay and enjoy the show and it is a great night, we enjoyed it as much as Boston and what a nice crew at the club, they even got involved in the hunt for the toaster and when I did a re-run of my trying to throw the promoter out of the dressing room before the gig trick, he was great about it ...... great club, lovely people, great audience, we played good - good night.

We are hearing that live reviews are coming in and they are good incuding a great one from Boston. And the photographer, Marty Perez, shows us some brilliant live shots from the Irving Plaza. And total babes hanging round JWH. We are really really happy. Then back to the hotel room with Tracy and Jake, and we organise starting up the subscriptions. Find a hilarious soft (I think) porn site which has great FAQ's we can use for basic membership queries ........ sorry, time is short ...... Leaving the next day at 8am ..... I fall asleep on my face again for the second night in a row ....

— Matthew