November 26 - December 3, 2011 "Busy but fulPhiling Week"

SWITCH, SWV, Lenny Williams

What a week this has been from November 26 - December 3, 2011. First of all SWITCH had been in rehearsals for a few weeks for an upcoming concert with SWV, and Lenny Williams. On November 26 we had the concert. It was a smaller audience than anticipated, but the ones that were there definitely enjoyed themselves.

SWV sounded wonderful, then Lenny Williams performed followed by SWITCH. We performed to an audience of about 350 who jammed until the last note. A little before SWITCH went on stage we ran into Bunny DeBarge backstage. As you know Bunny is the sister of both Bobby and Tommy DeBarge. I asked Bunny if she didn't mind coming up to sing a little bit, and she said she didn't mind. I didn't quite know where we were going to bring her up, so during the show I went to Akili and let him know that I would bring her up just before our last song, which is "I Call Your Name". As we ended a medley that we do in the show, I walked into the audience and pulled up Bunny to sing with us. Greg gave her a mic, and she took the first verse, Akili took the 2nd verse and then the three of us did ad-libs and it really solidified SWITCH'S November 26th performance. Some say 'we brought the house down'. 

Phillip, David, Raina, and Earl

On Monday November 28th I left for Japan to do some shows with Sheena Easton. We flew into Tokyo and then took another flight into Nagoya Japan, where we performed 2 shows at the world renown Blue Note on Wednesday November 30th. As you can see from in the picture on the right, this is right before we were going on stage.  Next to me is Dave Hart, Sheena's guitarist and Earl Campbell, Sheena's drummer. Raina was our host for the Blue Note and she did a great job of taking care of us while at the Blue Note

Our first performance was at 6:30 pm and the 2nd performance was at 9:15 pm. Since 2007 Sheena Easton has been asked back to Japan every single year, playing at either the Blue Note, Billboard Live or the Cotton Club. We start off 2012 going back to Japan again performing in Osaka and Tokyo at the Billboard Live.

Bullet Train

On December 1st we took the 'Bullet Train' from Nagoya to Tokyo where we were performing 2 shows for Harry Winston Jewelers. Both of these shows were private affairs.  The 'Bullet Train' is a smooth high-speed railway with maximum speeds  of 149-186 mph. We reached our destination of about 274 miles in about an hour and a half. We enjoyed some nice Japanese countryside scenery and probably one of the most smoothest modes of transportation I know of. This is our 2nd time riding the 'Bullet Train' in our travels in Japan.

We performed one show on December 1st and the 2nd show on December 2nd. Again these were private affairs with some of the most gorgeous jewelry your eyes have ever beheld. Sheena had on some jewelry from the Harry Winston collection. It was understated, beautiful and worth about $1,000,000. Both of these shows went well.

On December 3rd, we left Tokyo and arrived back in LA on Dec 3rd. 5 shows in one week from Culver City, California to Tokyo and Nagoya Japan. This definitely was a busy but very fulphiling week.

Until Next Time - Phillip