Re: John Varvatos' 10th Anniversary. We'll be going on early (9:30 PM) because Steve and Boschy have another gig later that night. It'll be 3 or 4 songs, as there are a lot of people on the bill. It should be fun.

Re: Stevie B's Benefit in Danbury. That will be a full set with the Rant Band.

George's mate, Mike Murphy, left us at 67, condolences to you and his family and the Sperryville Spiders.

Seth Purvin: 'If you're out having a few pints and doing karaoke, who's song would you sing?' I don't do that sort of thing, Seth. Enjoy November.

John Channing: The guys I would pick would make me look stupid so I wouldn't want to do that.

Mike Channon: Probably around the same time. I remember them vaguely. Read the book; a real trip down memory lane. I'm actually sending it to somebody else as we speak. Very thorough and well written. Congrats.

Steve: Nothing at the moment.

Paul Cavani says he's still waiting for a refund for his Rome tickets. I'll enquire for you.

Andy B: Tell her I'm slowing down a bit in my old age.

Pat: Don't know if I could get my chops around that one! Pat thinks I should have a go at 'If I loved you.' Actually, one of my Mum's favourites (as was 'Berkeley Square'). I can't win with you lot. People saying don't do 'Somewhere' so I think OK, I won't do it. Now I'm getting a lot of yes, do 'Somewhere'! I guess I'll just have to do it sometimes.

Bill C. says I f--- up on lyrics all the time. 'I thought it was age, but it's going on for years….' See, I don't see it that way. Sometimes, I prefer singing something else. Sometimes, I wish I could go back and change the words on the record. Sometimes, something else rolls off the tongue easier - and yes, sometimes, I F-up. I just don't see it as a big deal. My songs - let me play with 'em!

Robo from Black Flag: 'Women's Intuition' - the greatest Stones song the Stones never wrote. Ronno does Keef AND Mick Taylor! A criminally overlooked song!' Probably because it was a little bit too Stonesy.

Steve Baratta: Apparently Alejandro performed on Letterman (Wednesday, July 21), but I'm only just seeing this (I was in Europe on that date.)

Will Moore: 'N.C.?' Nothing at the moment.

Linda: We're trying to get to LA. Haven't talked to Frank lately, but I know he's working on it.

Bob R.: Thank you.

Ted Gartner: Craig Ferguson was extremely nice. Gave me his book with a little dedication inside.

Ross Murdoch: I was fortunate enough to play with some great sax players over the years. Unfortunately, economically it doesn't make much sense live, and you're right - I haven't written that way recently. Mmmmmm.

Jack: 'After all of these years, which guitar is your favourite to play?' There's a lot of great guitars out there. Different strokes for different folks. I'm very fond of Les Paul Juniors as they're so simple - two knobs - that's your lot. Acoustically, I like Gibson Southern Jumbos, but everybody's different. You play what suits you and the music you're playing.

Joejo: 'Hey Ian - I found a picture of you with me backstage at Lamours East in Queens, NY. I'm 51 now - how come I look older than you do now?' Move.

Sue Price: Sorry, Sue, this site doesn't do this, but you can wish him all the best from me. I never thought I'd reach 50. So he's still got a long way to go!

Jay Sciascia says the 'Tabernacle' is a great place to play.

Phil Huband: 1) We just did one single with Shadow Morton (which stiffed). I liked him a lot - larger than life. We had Stevie Marriott on that session. 2) 'Have I ever been touched up by the auto tuner' Yes, but just the slightest tad. You can tell if it's more than a tad.

Roddy Mclean: What's your brother's name? There are no guarantees!

Jeff Dickinson: Well, it was that and they'd done something to the room that made the sound horrible.

Tripp: I think we should all go back to vinyl. Vinyl was magic.

Bruce Leckie: I'm told the documentary about MTH (which contains Hammersmith footage) has just been accepted by the London Film Festival.

Adam: Doesn't ring a bell.

Chris Miller: I think High Voltage was a combination of errors all of which I had nothing to do with. They did apologize, but it wasn't all their fault. Like I said, it was a combination. I was annoyed because the stage sound was great and you never know what' it's going to be like on a festival. It's frustrating to ravel 3,000 miles - to rehearse for a 35 minutes set - which somehow becomes 10 minutes. I hadn't even started. I felt bad for Andy, who came with me and I felt bad for all those people who came to see us. The whole thing got blown out of all proportion. I got angry - for about 30 seconds - what can you do?

Bill McCue: 'Great RH pic of you with Pagey at High Voltage. Do you two get on these days? I remember bad blood between Zep and MTH at the Uris in the 70's. Re: age - what's your secret?' Jimmy came to a MTH gig at Hammersmith but I wasn't able to meet him as I was leaving the stage and going straight back to the hotel to preserve the vocals. It was great he popped down to High Voltage with Ross. We had a couple of chats before and after the gig - he was genuinely nice. We never mentioned the Uris. We were talking about the real early days. My secret is Ross Halfin!

Tony Day: I'm sorry Tony, that's all I can say. By the way, the London gig is with the full Rant Band - it'll just be more acoustical in content.

Chris Pearson: 'Do 'No Wheels to Ride' at the Stables'. Who's been talking to you?

Sue Vaughn: Who knows what will be in the set in November. I just hope you both enjoy it.

Ferd Kibler: 'Do you set out to write lyrics about a certain topic or do they just come to you?' It's all about the idea. The idea comes to you and then you get down to painting the lyric. 'Do you write lyrics first or music?' I have more trouble with the lyrics than I do with the music. Ideally - the best songs come together pretty quickly. 'Ships' took me 6 ears - so you never can tell. 'Any plans for Ohio, Kentucky or Tenn.?' None at the moment.

Harry Gregory: 'Wish you'd do more rockers!' If they come, they come - if they don't - they don't. A simple rocker is the hardest thing in the world to write. Anybody can write a rocker, but, for it to interest me it has to have a twist - and therein lies the rub.

Phil Grant: I don't travel as well as I use to Phil, so you'll find me in the States closer to home these days.

Bucks Burnett: That's a great, great song - but the man did it. I can't beat the man!!

Chris Balfe: You know, Chris, my whole thing is based around survival. So whether I do 'Win It All' or not - it doesn't really matter. If it's not that particular song - I'm sure I'll be saying the same thing in other ones we do. For the record, I haven't figured out what we're doing as of yet!

Jeffrey: It's a bit sticky today - Saturday was gorgeous.

Margaret: 'I just want you to know my 5 year old granddaughter knows 'The Great Escape' by heart. Too funny.' She knows more than me then. I always get the end mixed up!

Peter: Germany? Nothing planned at the moment.

Eric Law: Mr. Big were a band from Oxford - as you say - fronted by Dicken - a very talented chap - music oozing out of every pore. Stan Tippins asked me to produce them. They were in a mess. They'd had this hit ('Romeo'?) and now their label wanted a big, glossy corporate record. They'd tried it that way, but they hated it so they just wanted a plain and simple organic record. We did it. The band enjoyed themselves and EMI hated it. Years later, Mutt Lange told me he thought it was a great record. Such is the state of the world.

Pat: That's how I think.

Tim Smith: Lovely! Hope you go the distance! Congrats!

Dan Hartman: I ring JM - James effectively runs the 'Rant Band'. Tell him what I'm thinking of doing - he gets the songs out to them (if they don't already have them) and, hopefully, we're pretty much together by rehearsal time. I don't like to rehearse much. It's all about homework; if you over rehearse - it gets bland.

Stay tuned for Part 2 ...