Did I mention that it doesn’t really stay dark for long here in the Summer??
I was so tired, but when I briefly woke up at 4am it was already bright daylight
and I was in trouble! Once my eyes see light, my brain starts working (no
comments here please!) and, although I did manage to sleep a little more, it
wasn’t nearly enough.
I am used to getting up early at home to feed
the animals but there were no dogs in my room (unlike occasions in the old
days!) so I had to adjust. Made some tea, read my bible, said my prayers
and headed for the shower. Downstairs for a cold boiled egg and some peas
(you had to be there) washed down with Latvian coffee and the day was getting
started.
We had a long band meeting to go over details
for upcoming shows and then the promoter took us to a really nice restaurant
where we had lunch next to the river.
Next it was time for sound check but of
course that was late, although I’ll be kind and not tell you exactly why.
Nazareth was headlining and Latvia is two hours ahead of the UK, one hour ahead
of Spain. All went well and we were ready.
The crowd was massive and really up for this
show and I was excited because I had never played here before and we were
quickly up to speed and powering through our short set.
OUT OF MY CONTROL
BROWN EYED BOY
JULY MORNING
CIRCLE OF HANDS
JUST THE BEGINNING
WE’RE ON OUR WAY
THE WIZARD
THE LAST DANCE
STEALIN’
EASY LIVING
LADY IN BLACK
********************
GYPSY
They sang, they shouted and they screamed
along with us and the energy was massive, even for the new songs. We will
be including five songs from Blood On The Highway in future shows but this was a
short set and I wanted to make sure that my first show in front of the Latvian
fans gave them most of what they wanted.
Latvia is a poor country and, like many other
eastern European countries, the people don’t have a lot of money to spend but
they had paid to come to this show and we wanted them to get the most for their
money!! Sound check had prepared us for the show but we were not at all
ready for what happened during the third verse of The Last Dance. The front line
power went out and, this being Latvia, we were not at all sure how long we (and
the crowd) would have to wait!
It was eventually fixed and we quickly got
back into it until, half-way through Lady in Black, ALL of the power went out!!
The crowd kept on singing the chorus but this was a much bigger problem so we
reluctantly left the stage. Then the power in the whole city of Ogre went
out and everything was pitched into total darkness…. but they were still singing
the chorus of Lady In Black!!
All in all it was a bit frustrating, but
there was nothing we could do and we all felt a lot of sympathy for the audience
who had paid for a bit more than they got. Any time things like this
happens it’s important not to get down and I am proud of my guys in that
respect. We were all disappointed but a good team hangs together and
that’s exactly what we did.
And it reminded us to create a new clause in
our contract riders stating the all local electricity bills must be paid prior
to the band’s arrival….
Some good food was delivered and we signed
some stuff for a few very happy fans and then went back to the hotel. The
guys had to leave the hotel at 4:30am and I wanted to try and catch up on my
sleep too!
An
interesting day…. we’ll be back!!
