Friday 13th October 2017

Up so early (6.45am, which for a musician is a total no-no) and had an excessive breakfast at the hotel. Met up with the other tour bands at the hotel and then we were driven to the venue for the opening ceremony. It had a bit of a school trip vibe to it, we were all a bit excited about playing such a massive, cultural event, yet we're all in our thirties.

The venue itself is a huge concert hall, bordering on being a stadium. Met Leo and Catherine, our translators/help for the whole run. Both 20 years old, both learning English very well, both became two of my favourite people ever - I loved their sense of humour, their willingness to help and the fact they were always there to help us. Soundchecks were long and mostly in Chinese, dressing rooms busy and the house drum kit was surprisingly okay.

The food was giving some of the band stomach problems; I barely touched it at all. The dress rehearsal for the opening ceremony was epic, frantic, dramatic and a huge, huge production. Our 2 songs (plus the finale) were such a tiny part of a ridiculously large event...I should have been flattered to be involved in something so epic, but was too tired to take it all in.

After struggling with two Chinese box meals, Leo took us out to Starbucks for a bit - I appreciated the normality of it all and had a lovely cake. Nanjing itself is a crazy, fast, sometimes frightening place (because the traffic laws are different) to walk around.

Back for the gig, I convinced a girl I was 8'2" and both Vix and Lachy were interviewed for Chinese national television.

The show itself was jaw-dropping; venue packed out, audience revelling in everything. Our two original songs stormed it, and then joining us for the finale were a jazz band from America. And lots of dancers. So much pressure - we're just a little folk/pop band from Cambridge, closing a national event in China, broadcast everywhere, in front of the biggest audience we've ever had, with an arrangement we weren't comfortable with. Not being arrogant, or anything, but we were totally cool with it - such composure, just got on with the job as all the chaos surrounded us. Biggest moment of my career? Yep, absolutely, totally.

Got driven back to the hotel and had drinks with a Belgian band for a bit, who were lovely and we all tried to take in exactly what had just happened.