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Wednesday - April 23rd 2003
Up at 4am, out of the hotel at 5am and on the plane
for a 7:30 departure to Moscow. This was always going to be a long
day but that's the way it goes sometimes!!
The flight took 1 hour and 20 minutes and at Domededovo airport
in Moscow we had to say sad goodbyes to Tim and Romi. The
Moscow concert was for another company so it was a new set of people
and circumstances which began with the journey into Moscow centre.
This took longer than the flight because the traffic (as always
in Moscow) was dreadful. Looking out of the window I did reflect
on the fact that we had hardly seen any rain on this trip…
just an observation really.
We had time to check in, drop our bags and then head for the Kremlin
for the first rehearsal with the Presidential Orchestra.
This was quite a procedure, bearing in mind that President Putin
has his offices here but first we drove to a courtyard just outside
the Kremlin where we were transferred to an "official"
vehicle in which we drove to the gates of the Kremlin itself. Here
our credentials were checked and we were held there for about 15
minutes while the guards did their job. You have to bear in mind
that while the public is an allowed "tourist" access to
the grounds of The Kremlin (rather like Buckingham Palace) the place
where we were rehearsing was within thie "inner sanctum"
so the procedure was quite different.
Eventually we were cleared and we began the fascinating journey
inside. It was really cool having soldiers salute our car and I,
like a complete moron, saluted back a couple of times!! My Dad would
have liked it though!!
I met the orchestra and conductor Pavel Obsjannykov and we
spent about 2 ½ hours going through the songs we had chosen
for the show. They had really done their homework and the new arrangements
("July Morning", "The Last Dance", etc.) were
very exciting. We had to finish at 3pm so we left and went to lunch
before going to the press conference which was big and busy.
The historical significance of being the first "Western"
rock artist to rehearse inside the Kremlin was a big topic of conversation
but it was (thankfully) generally quite painless and the next item
on the agenda was a TV interview which "passed without incident"!!
We turned down the invitation for dinner preferring room service
and sleep!! Tomorrow is another early day!!
Next
day...
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