Yesterday we played the Parklife Festival in Manchester, England

Yesterday we played the Parklife Festival in Manchester, England. It was freezing, rainy, and wonderful. We were joined by legendary guitarist Johnny Marr of the famed band The Smiths (and Electronic, The The and others).

Johnny and I have become great friends. He's named his son Nile, after me, and the other Nile's a pretty damned fine guitarist too, and Johnny gave me one of his signature Fender Jaguars the night before.

I don't know how to explain Manchester to people who've never been here, but for a freezing rainy city, the people are warm and charming - and they're serious music fans. When I stepped onto the stage to take a few photos before our set I was greeted by massive sea of humanity, all ready to get their groove on.

We only played half of our two hour show because there were many acts on the bill and we're never disrespectful of other acts. We're all in this together and it's the audience that counts. But around forty-minutes into our show my body was finally starting to warm up. And when we performed "Le Freak," I was Ready to Play My A$$ Off.