"'especially'…….
A journey to Germany, Bulgaria and ….. wait for it ….. Iceland!!"
Day 2
Beate picked
me up for a live radio interview which was okay and then we went to the music
shop and the gas station and…. towards the venue.
Already we
were getting a sense of what today would bring as just getting around Hamburg
was especially difficult because of all the Harleys in town for this festival.
There were some really amazing machines around and the estimate was that the
average value was around 20-25 thousand Euros with some worth a lot more than
that. The heavily customised ones were especially amazing and radio was saying
that they expected more than 50,000 Harleys for the weekend of events.
We were
headlining this concert so we were sound-checking early and it was good to see
the band guys when Beate and I finally battled our way to the stage area.
Like all of my
previous Harley event experiences this was very well organised and our
semi-public sound check went especially well.
The promoter
bought cheap flights for the band which not only sent them to the wrong airport
but resulted in Ken and Sid losing their luggage in Copenhagen due to a far too
tight connection.
The promoter
found Ken some effects pedals and Scandinavian Airlines coughed up €1,100.00 to
each of them to buy some new clothes. Sid never looked so good on stage!
After enjoying
some especially tasty backstage catering we went back to the hotel. Me for a
siesta, the guys for a stroll and, when we went back to the venue, there were
even more Harleys so it took us a while to get backstage.
I didn´t find
out how many people were actually there but it was a lot, probably 8-10 thousand
and they made a lot of noise.
It took us 4
or 5 songs to convince them but we did it and from that point they came along
for the ride… (get it?...... ride?..... Harley?..... knew you would!)
After Gipsy (the
encore for which we got a standing ovation, which is not surprising as there
were no seats) we had a little celebration backstage. Catering was still around
but I eventually had to scoot because I had an especially early start the next
day.
This concert
was special (you know something magical has happened when you come off stage and
the stage hands and backstage crew are all clapping and congratulating you…. I
hadn´t experienced that in a long, long time!) and I want to thank Nils and the
guys at the production company, Michael Krauter and everyone else involved.
Live Fire
is such a great band, especially at festivals and it scares me to think what it
would be like if we played together more often!
