"Into The Great Unknown"
"The 'Book of Songs' tour goes to Russia"
Day 4-5
The boys
partied a little too hard last night and were very tired this morning. But they
seemed happy so
My attitude is
that the job comes first, get that right and youīre free to do whatever you like.
The flight to
Moscow wasnīt too bad and it was mercifully quick, much faster than the ride
from the airport to the hotel in the centre of Moscow. I have rattled off enough
in the past about Moscow traffic so Iīll leave it at that.
I have to tell
you about this hotel, The Golden Apple. It is named that because the architect
placed a giant, golden-coloured apple in the lobby. It actually contains three
seats but for me it just seemed like a huge waste of space. The entire hotel is
very new and modern and some of the staff seemed to think they were more
important than the guests but my room was great.
I had a
personal sauna(!) and, for the first time in my entire professional life, there
was a packet of condoms in my room
. I really donīt know what to say about this,
but hotels in Russia do sometimes turn a blind eye to the prostitutes that hang
out in some of their bars! I am not saying that this particular hotel has that
problem but this was just
. weird!
We went to the
meet & greet at one of the Soyuz record shops and it was crazy! I donīt think
they (or we) were expecting so many people but more than 350 people showed up
and some of them had 20 or more things for me to sign.
This made us
late for the interviews and we never really recovered from that.
We went back
to the hotel and checked out. Thatīs correct
we didnīt even get to stay there!
My solo shows
work best in small clubs or theatres but this was a rock club and it didnīt work
at all. The ladies who prepared our food were cool but I couldnīt escape the
feeling that everyone else would have been glad if we simply left!
I met two
priests and a nun backstage who had grown up on my songs and who gave me some
nice presents but, by now, I actually wanted to get this show over with and get
on the train to St. Petersburg.
Because of the
train schedule I had to cut the show short and the audience didnīt like that too
much either so this wasnīt the best experience at all.
I hate being
late (I also hate being lost and I hate metal coat hangers
) and we really
rushed to the train station, making it just in time.
We calmed
ourselves with a glass of wine in the (very nice and comfortable) cabins and
discussed the various things we would do to avoid these mistakes again and then
it was time for bed/bunk.
