May I be the first to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! It seems appropriate today, our last day in Glasgow, as so many of us will be off in separate places for the next little while.

For the uninitiated looker-in to our Rat Pack world, we’re splitting off into 3 groups for the Holiday season. The Tour proper is returning to Zurich next week but, simultaneously, others of us will be performing RP Christmas shows in Birmingham and Cologne.

I hope that this site might come into it’s own over this period. We all have an opportunity, wherever we may be for the next month, to share the good and bad of our particular gigs and all keep up with each other. Certainly, this site was much busier at the beginning of the year when we were still away in Germany. I’ll be encouraging you all to get posting and keep the Rat Pack Gossip Mill at work!!

While I’m posting, I should say a couple of fond farewells to those of the group who are leaving us, or who (mostly) have just left.

Firstly, a big thankyou to Craig Oxley who left us this week to join the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang tour. Craig was with the tour all the way through from Frankfurt back in April 2004. Craig, amazingly in the face of all the depping going on, only missed one show (to attend a funeral) during the 19 months he was with the show, despite breaking his shoulder in a skiing accident at the start of this year! It’s been odd to not have him on the bandstand the last week or so. We will certainly miss his “rare” wit!!

Secondly, a goodbye to Henry Prego who quit his role as Frank Sinatra a few weeks back. Unfortunately, the problems he was having with the show producers became insurmountable and he chose not to return from his week off at home in the USA. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye in person Henry.

Finally, best of luck to Mark Crowe. Mark’s been playing Lead Alto since the 2005 Tour started in Belfast back in January. He’s taking a break from the road to take up a resident gig closer to home. He may not be with us but his catchphrases will certainly remain!!