Friday 29 January 2016

Art and War in Lleida

Well we are just 5 gigs into the tour. And we have been spending our downtime wisely on our days off. Visits to ghost towns, art exhibitions etc..

We spent a day off in Lleida, one of the oldest towns in Catalonia, with settlements dating back to the bronze age.
Became part of a Roman Provence, named Llerda, under Augustus.
Later involved in many wars, being occupied by the Moors, involvement in the War of Succession, Up to bombing by the Condor Division in the Civil War in the 20th century.

In 49b.c. the town was besieged by Julius Caesar himself, defeating the 7 legions of Pompey the Great under Africanius and Petreius.

As a result of this, the Latin phrase ‘Ilerdam videas’ is said to have been used by people who wanted to cast bad luck on someone else.

We also saw an art exhibition by the Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, well worth going to see if you are anywhere near Lleida.


A big thanks to Mariona for her hospitality.

After a long drive, made interesting with many a  game of Cards  Against Humanity, we arrived in Eibar. A small Basque town, scene of fighting in the Spanish Civil War, where bullet holes are still visible in the walls of buildings.


Great show there at the Coliseo Theatro, being a theatre we changed the set around a little, to include another acoustic song, ‘That’s The Way’. Also  a return to  the set for ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’. This song has a tremendous effect,never fails, really a crowd favourite, and we do it real justice,  when you see the crowd reaction it makes me wonder why we dropped the song for this tour, may have to rethink that,
the start of 5 gigs on the trot. So I better get some rest
TBC.

The second show of the five was in Villadolid was indeeed a great night, great sound and everyone played really well, we tried out ‘Gallows Pole’ it could make a return to the set. Although El Gremlino, our driver I have warned you about previously, said he liked the song with the lyrics ‘Hangman, hangman, Hey diddle diddle wah’.
Well. At least he is good driver and does well selling the merch. OK.... well.... he sells the merch.

And we were incredibly sensible and weren’t out until silly o clock as usual, just the normal 2.30am.
We found out in Villadolid that we actually has 2 full boxes of the old DVD 'In Concert' in the van, yay!
Of course this meant we didn’t have as many of the new DVD, 'Live at Wacken' as we thought, so a bit low on stock there.
On the subject, Letz zep were the very first tribute to perform at Wacken and on the 25th anniversary of the event too, so a bit of a feather in our cap and a proud moment for us.

We met Michael Lang there, who was the man behind the Woodstock Festival, he still lives on the site of the festival. and also went to visit the Star Club in Hamburg, or rather the site of it as it is no more.

                               with Michael Lang at Wacken

A prestigious event for the band, about 12,000 people came to watch and gave us a great reception too, and it's all available on DVD, available on amazon etc.. oh, and the soundtrack on itunes, spotify etc.. shameless plug there!

Early start to the day, most of us missed breakfast, thank God we have a scorched Earth policy, bought a new pair of sunglasses and off to soundcheck.


Oviedo tonight – Letz Rock

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