I had finally figured out why I hadn’t been sleeping so well on this trip.
Coffee!! I carry my kettle, tea bags etc. with me but it wasn’t always
around so I had been drinking a lot more coffee than I normally do and, since I
stopped, the difference was obvious. (duh!)
5½ hours solid sleep was enough to make me
feel a lot better this morning and we were scheduled to leave for Prague at
9:30. It’s about a 3 hour drive and I have a big radio interview at 2pm so
here I am on the bus at 10:30 trundling up the “highway”.
To get to the main road from Zlin we had to
navigate some interesting country roads which always gives you a chance to see
how the folks live in the “real” world of a country like this. Coal trains
rattle through the countryside and through level crossings without gates and I
can’t help wondering what people actually “do” in these little villages. I
guess you have to be a part of it to really understand (assuming you want to) so
I will just sit back and smile at these pleasant Sunday morning musings.
I woke up from my “bus nap” just as we rolled
into Prague, a really beautiful old Eastern European city. We eventually
found the hotel and I checked in quickly so we could go to Radio Beat, the main
rock radio station here, for a one hour live interview and CD promotion.
This was a blast and we played three tracks from Blood on The Highway as well as
some ZZ Top and Who tracks.
I just felt a good buzz about this town and
about this show and when I got to sound check the venue was cool and everything
felt good. Back to the hotel for a quick shower and back to the venue
which was already packed!! More than 800 people ready to rock…. well, make
that 805, including us!!
What a night! Incredible energy, they
sang all the songs and it was pure magic…. easily the best show so far and after
the show we signed a million things, took a million pictures and generally felt
great.
I am not kidding when I say that this feeling
really reminded me of how it felt in 1972/3 and when I see the student energy
being released in places like Venezuela and Iran (for example) I can’t help but
be reminded of the changes that happened in 1969 and 1970 when youth found its
voice and real rock & roll was born.
Food for
thought…….
