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JOUR DEUX
It's going to take me a while to get used to sleeping
on the bus! It does move around a lot and, for the first few nights
that's going to be weird! But we are in Belgium now, headed for
Germany and it's a beautiful day. Our progress is quite slow, partially
because we are pulling the trailer with all of our gear in it, but
we are on schedule.
There's a lot of excitement around too. Not only are we taking this
show on the road again but the novelty of being on the bus and watching
everyone bang their heads as they try to make tea while the bus
is moving etc… It's a lot like a school outing actually! It's
a good thing I am here to bring a level of discipline and maturity
to the proceedings!!
As we cross into Germany (seamlessly of course as there are no borders
or controls within the EU) the weather is still beautiful and the
countryside is lovely! Wetzlar, our first stop, is a small town
about 50 kms north of Frankfurt and we arrived at 2:30pm…….
a little bit ahead of schedule. So we took some time to stretch
our legs and enjoy the sunshine for a while until the club ("Franzis")
was opened up and we began the setting up process.
This was a bit chaotic as I had to have some work done on the Hammond
and Leslies (Chris Heule of the Swiss Cheese and Chocolate Factory,
accompanied by his lovely lady Miriam, drove up from Switzerland
to help with this). Also, we have a new guitar tech for this tour
as Lee went off to sing for "Budgie"! Paul Kennedy has
joined us for the European dates and we are happy to have him. He's
actually one of the studio engineers at Liscombe and a good guitar
player so he knows his way around and we all know him too.
We took our time and we needed time too. There were quite a few
set up changes and we needed to re-write the end of one song so
it was nice to have a long sound check. Then it was a mad dash to
the hotel where we had two rooms just for showering and a mad dash
back to prepare for the show.
We walked into the club and, for some odd reason, Ade was playing
Charlie Mingus (or something equally meaningless… sorry if
there's any Mingus fans out there). When I asked him about it he
said it was his strategy to add impact to the beginning of our show!
Hmmmm…… as long as it doesn't send people home……
I guess we'll see if it works.
Well, I don't know if it worked or not but this was one of the best
shows we have ever done! Everything sounded great, my voice was
working well (God always answers prayers!) and the crowd was into
it! Towards the end of the show (where Ade uses another of his cunning
strategies) the energy level went up and up and we could have done
several encores. I think we may have to learn one or two more songs
if it keeps going like this! But it is a one hour and fifty-five
minute show and although it doesn't feel that long we were all pretty
tired by the end!! A great and memorable night and another step
toward our goal. I am not exactly sure what that goal is but I am
sure there's one and I am equally sure we took a step towards it
tonight!!!
After a quick TV interview and our usual "meet and greet"
session (it's always so great to meet people after a show and share
stories and memories) it was back to the bus for a small celebration
and to wind down. All in all this was a great way to start the tour
and now it's time to hand over to "Bob the bus driver"
for the overnight drive to Berlin. Tomorrow is a travel day only
so we can relax and hopefully watch England kill Sweden in the World
Cup!!!! (if this actually happens, our friends in Sweden can blame
it on the coach!)
Next day...
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