I'm on Singapore Airlines Flight 222 with the other "ABSENT FRIENDS" who are...

Wendy Matthews - lead/vocal

Sean Kelly - lead vocal/guitar

Michael "Mick" King - lead guitar/vocal

Ron Francois - bass/vocal

John Mackay - drums/vocal

Geoffrey Stapleton - keyboards

With tour manager Malcolm Williams and stage guy Dave Brooks, we're about to support INXS on an eight week tour of Europe.

It's dark outside, but we've been passing over scattered lights which I guess is Europe. We left about 2.30pm Thursday (Sydney time), and stopped over in Singapore for about three hours at the huge Changi Airport.

Here's a bit of the background leading up to this point.

We first heard of the possibility of doing this tour about four weeks ago and it came as a complete surprise. I'd been playing with Absent Friends for about three months touring Australia and the whole project had pretty much come to end. Wendy was about to release her first solo album and the other guys had been touring for about eighteen months (apart from Ron who had joined about three weeks before me.)

Ron replaced Garry Gary Beers who had to go back to INXS to get ready for this very tour. Garry had co-produced the Absent Friends album and since both bands share the same management I guess that has a lot to do with why we're here. I didn't really take it all too seriously as these things so often have a way of falling through but I couldn't help thinking, "What if it actually happened?".

Then it did!. At 9.00 am. I was awoken by Gary Grant calling from Sydney (I was at Mum's place in Adelaide) to say it was on! We had to leave for Europe now! From that moment all hell broke loose! I dived into the shower in a bit of a mad panic, alternately cursing and elated. I finally got through to the airline and booked the next flight to Sydney. Mum was also in a panic as she had to leave for bowls!

My sister Dawn saved the day. Either by luck or intuition (I suspect the latter) she dropped in to say hello, and then she and Aaron (my nephew), raced me to the airport. Ten minutes before boarding, I realised I'd left my keys, cheque book, everything in fact, back at Mum's. What followed was like a surreal dream.

I raced back to the ticket counter and cancelled my flight and moments later an unusually helpful guy from Australian Airlines and I were digging through the cargo hull of the plane looking for my bag, moments before it took off. Unbelievably I found it. We went back to Mum's, I grabbed my things and was back at the airport for the next flight out.

I had so many things to tie up in Sydney before I left including moving house. I packed that night and Neil Wright, Robbie and Gyan, and Mark O'connor all came over and bought the last of my musical paintings.

The next day was spent moving my belongings to a storage space in Rushcutters Bay apart from a brief visit to my publishers "Gilbey/MCA" to pick up yet another advance to help pay for a few petty debts I need to tie up before I left. The wonderful Joanne Peterson took me out to lunch and gave me the money ($1,500) and a few vallum she thought I could use for the 23 hour flight to London. I did.

Wendy and Sean picked me up at Kings Cross at about 11.45am and we drove to Sydney International. The rest of the band arrived and we checked in our bags, had a coffee and boarded. The flight to Singapore took about eight hours. Mick had bought some pastels and sketch book, and Ronnie some pencils and the three of us spent a fair amount of time drawing. I slept for about an hour.

Ron and I had photos developed at Changi Airport of paintings we'd done and went and had a look at each others work over a few Tiger beers. I had a shower at the airport. I went to sleep about an hour into the flight to London, and slept for about nine hours. I woke up feeling remarkably well considering the amount of alcohol they serve on these flights.

I woke up to the vaguest hint of a sunrise on the horizon and the amazing pattern of lights scattered over the landscape of what must've been hundreds of little towns. Perhaps Russia or Northern Europe because we had detoured to avoid the Gulf crisis (Iraq had invaded Kuwait).

Malcolm (our tour manager) has just given us the envelopes with the info for customs. We land in about half an hour.

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