Tour Update -- November 3, 1998 Howdy Cats and Kittens,     How crazy things have been! My last tour update got lost in a computer crash.  That's one that will never be seen again. Our tour of the West coast was something like this.     Our show in Orange County was wicked (good). Social Distortion is from Orange County. The people there rock fully and freely.     We did two nights at the House of Blues in LA Brian Setzer showed up the first night and jammed. This guy is such a great guitar legend, I am always flattered when he shows up. Brian rips a guitar like no one, and, what a singer/songwriter/bandleader! Great. He's a word-class musician, and, a cultural icon. And, a nice guy.     We played the Fillmore in San Francisco. We saw countless old friends. Sold out show. Vice Grip and the Ambassadors of Swing didn't play but Vice came to the gig.     From there we played Salt Lake, Vegas, and a lot of gigs that I'm missing here.     Colorado was fun.     Oh, yeah. Very much thanks to the guys in the band Speedealer for opening up on this last west coast trip. Great band from Dallas. Very hard. Very fast. Funny guys. That's a hot combination for a band.     So much stuff happens that it's hard to remember.     We got off the West coast tour, had a few days off, and left for Europe.     First gig in Europe -- Lund, Sweden. What a fun bunch of people. The Interscope rep showed up. He was from England. There were no posters from Interscope/Universal sent to the gig.One person that interviewed me said that he called the Universal rep in Sweden and she said that she didn't have any information on us and that she didn't have time to setup any interviews.     Night two -- Hamburg, Germany. This really cool promoter named Carlos picked me up at the hotel in a Ford Bronco! Brand new and nice too! He was playing a Social Distortion CD. I asked if that was the radio or C.D. He kind of laughed and said no. He said even the Beastie Boys can't get airplay in Germany. Anyway, Carlos called Interscope/Universal to request some posters and support in promoting this Rev. Horton Heat show. The people there (our label) said that they had never heard of Rev. Horton Heat. So, Carlos called Interscope in LA to request some help in promoting our show in Hamburg. They gladly sent him one promo picture and one C.D. It was a great little gig anyway. The people are awesome. Cool little band called Velvetone opened up. The lead singer lost his drivers license the last time we were in Germany (four years ago), after a night of driving me around. Sorry. I told him that Jimbo just got his drivers license back. Check 'em out. Velvetone that is.     Night three -- Brussels, Belgium. Small but mighty crowd. Someone threw what I thought was a lit cigarette. It was a fire cracker. It went off in my hand. Luckily, it just gave me a little numbness and a jolt of well....concern. The people were loads of fun there too. Food at the gig was very nice. Thanks. Never ever throw anything at a show! Only rich kids do this.     Night four -- Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Crazy people. They were screaming. We hung out at the bar and felt very at home. It was good to see Arnold and Margeaux. I hung around and played my guitar all day at the club. Amsterdam is something everyone should see.     Night five -- London. Very much like New York City in as much as playing a gig goes. It's an important gig. The people went crazy. I didn't get to see Westminister Abby. I was kind of spent at this point. But, we truly love England and all of the wonderfully funny people in the British Isles. An older English gentleman said, "I don't understand you Americans and this Clinton thing," he said, "if he were the president of Italy, he would be a hero!"  Hilarious.     Night six -- Helsinki, Finland. This was a real peach of a gig! I've heard for years about the cool roots scene in Finland. This gig met our expectations and blew right on past! This place rocks. Finish people like music that is real. They're not as into that techno thing that seems to be eating our brains so much in the last ten (or maybe twenty now) years. Helsinki is a beautiful, clean city. It's smart, stylish, everything works, and they like rock-a-billy. Truly cool. The opening band was called the Flaming Sideburns, and, they were very good. The only downer to the gig was when the Universal Music representative who set up six interviews for us said, "I might come to the show tonight." I said, "I think that would be a good idea." At least he did something. However, I don't understand when these label people don't make the show. Anyway, thanks to all our wonderful fans in Helsinki.     Then we flew home.     In the meantime, we've been working on putting out a vinyl 45. It's going to be released on my own label. As a matter of fact, I have to work on that right now. Adios from Big D. Happy Trails, Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath