Back in the UK

Our first UK show of 2016.

The Camberley Theatre, a new venue for us, and unusually, one I can be home and in my own bed in 30 minutes, quicker if it wasn’t for the restrictions on the M3.

A nice venue, we had our usual UK sound guy back. Andy Thomas, fresh from doing the sound for Eric Clapton, very proud of that he is, and rightly so.

Pete Tulloch on drums tonight. Pete, also from Liverpool, has one of the 1979 Knebworth Stainless Steel Ludwig, and knows how to play it. Pete is a genuine nice bloke, important that, when we spend a lot of time in each others pocket.

A few changes to the set tonight, we are including ‘The Battle of Evermore’, being joined onstage by the vocal talents of Silvia Perett, from the band Wild-Heart.

And nice to see Andy’s parents come to the show too.

Andy had been presented before the show with a pic of Les Howe, from the 1937-38 season, training with Tottenham Hotspurs. Who was Andy’s Great Uncle. The similarity is uncanny!

Weird one, before the show the bar was quiet and not looking good at all, Darren Reddick from Planet Rock Radio went onstage to introduce the band, the intro music started, and hundreds of people appeared from nowhere!

Maybe they were outside having a last smoke, but it was a really good turn out and a great show.

‘Battle of Evermore’ went down a storm, as it should,  a very popular song, and fits in with our ‘Tales of Storms’ theme for this tour.

Silvia got a good reception, and a few wolf-whistles.

And Darren again joined us onstage to play the bass for the encore of ‘Rock and Roll’

We all came out after the show and met the people who came, All very complimentary, and several who said they were 'dragged' by their husbands, but actually loved it, which, incidentally, is the most emails we have to our website.

From people who only came reluctantly to accompany a friend, and ended up loving the music, and the show, and are no big Zeppelin fans, and fans of ours too of course.

Many a time they actually were aware of the music, but just didn't know it was Led Zeppelin, or only knew one song (no prizes for guessing which) but where then impressed by the other songs they heard and are converted.

So here we are truly back in the UK and up and running, next up The Chiswick Invasion, a show for a charitable cause at Chiswick School, where I play 5-a-side football on free Thursday nights.

I say ‘play’ actually more like plodding along out of breath and fouling the opposing team, falling over, gasping for breath and occasionally scoring a rare goal, usually  a miss hit pass that creeps in when the 'keeper is otherwise distracted.

But I digress, ‘For One Night Only’ myself, Merv Goldsworthy, from the band FM, and other Chiswick music luminaries, have formed a ‘Supergroup’ called ‘The Griffins’ and will perform at the fund raiser for 30 minutes on Friday March 4.

And I can be home in 10 minutes to boot! Although, it’ll probably be the pub afterwards, in fact, it will definitely be the pub afterwards!

Ok…then....next up Liverpool Cavern.. coming home ….

18 shows in 24 days

Oh yes, and the gigs were good too.

In Algeciras we did a full acoustic show, being the first time we weren’t sure how it would go, or even if there would be sufficient interest.

It was actually a great night, sold out, and it went down a storm.

We will be repeating this in the UK, as another feather to our bow, I sent a couple of emails and got 2 gigs already.

Tonight, for once the hotel was right next door to the venue, a rare occasion, but I was staying apart from the rest of the band at a friend’s place in Gibraltar.

Which leads me to todays ‘Billy’s fact of the dayyyyyyyyyyyyy’

The locals in Gibraltar speak a language that is a mix of English and Spanish. And often use both English and Spanish in the same sentence.

Today we would call it Spanglish, but back in the day it was, and still is, known as Gibralterish, or simply ‘Gibberish’

So now you know.

Last night was Estepona, on the coast, the crowd was about 50/50 Brits and the locals.

Being a preferred place in the sun for the Ex Pats from the UK.

Typical, a late show, so we didn’t get to bed ‘til 3am, and up wheels rolling at 9am for a 6 hour drive to Toledo.

So just over 5 hours sleep, for a 6 hour drive and a gig tonight.

Our promoter sure works us hard.

Toledo is another beautiful place, and a World Heritage site, and tonight’s venue is an old Knight Templar Church. Really fantastic venue.

I mean, how often does any band gets to play in an old Templar Church?

It’s one of the reasons I got into music originally, to get to travel the world, and go to places I probably would never usually have seen.

Places like New Zealand, Venezuela, Brazil etc..

We have visited historical sites the world over,  we got to see Thermopylae on our tour of Greece, the last stand of Leonidas and the brave 300.

We have been to Red Square in Moscow, the Aztec Temples in Mexico to The Ancient Acropolis in Athens.

We have performed in major venues all over the world, and whether it’s 200, or 2,000 people, we always give 110%.

Always do the full show, and more,  until the promoter drags us off stage.

Toledo is famous, amongst other things, for its sword making.

I had to buy a sword last year, had to be done, everyone should own a Toledo blade.

Sorely tempted to add to my collection of weapons, but I really should resist, I’m running out of wall space for the ones I already have.

A decent collection I might add, including cavalry sabres from the Napoleonic War.

The rest of the band collect fridge magnets, I collect swords.

                                                    Toledo

And finally, at last, I have finally managed, in the 4^th week, to find a comfortable position in the van, where I can actually get some much needed sleep.

It takes a fair amount of manoeuvring, and using varies bags for support, but it is the most comfortable I have been in van.

Still 4 hours to go ‘til Toledo, so I’ll prop myself up with the baggage and continue later.

14/02/14

Happy Valentines day to all you romantics out there.

The  last 2 shows went very well, even tho’ some of the band, mention no names, where knackered from too much partying in Toledo, but a few refreshing ‘Hairs of the Dog’ and they are restored to their former vigour.

Toledo is such a lovely place and our hotel had great views of the historic city, good crowd too, some travelled some distance to be here, we did ‘Rock and Roll’ and ‘Immigrant Song’ as the encores, and then came back to do ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’ to leave the audience ecstatic.

The last show of the tour was in Badajoz, I’ll do more in depth later, as it was our promoters birthday, I got him onstage to get the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to ‘El Viejo’ - The Old One, or as I like to call him ‘El Feo de Cojones’ roughly translates to ‘He who is bollox ugly’

I  jest of course… honest.

Breakfast was interesting, as our waiter was completely useless, a cross between Manuel from Fawlty Towers and Mr Magoo, but without the comic charm.

We named him Manuel Magoo, or ‘El Rapido’ in ironic recognition of his lack of speed or urgency.

He wanted to serve the locals before us tourist and eventually, after about 30 minutes of patiently waiting to order, he brought milky coffee, that no one had ordered, and some bread plastered in a thick layer of margarine, which was disgusting.

I gave it back and walked out. 

Childish I know, but it felt very satisfying to tap on the window and flip him the V sign as we walked past in search of another place to eat.

It is in c/ Melendez Valdes, if you ever find yourself in Badajoz, do not go there.

Ok, now - van…Madrid…plane… home …..in that order, and see if the cat remembers me.

Espana…It’s been a blast,great venues, fantastic people, the band was on fire, everyone performed well every night,  muchos gracias.

‘til the next time…

Salamanca and Valencia

02-02-16

The drive to Salamanca was long, but well worth it.

Salamanca is a gorgeous town, the old town, with its winding streets, is full of fantastic buildings. The Cathedral, the library, and at the centre the Plaza Major.

Salamanca has a rich history, from pre-Roman days, being founded by the Celts, being beseiged by Hannibal, Through to The Peninsula War an the Spanish Civil War,
It is an inportant university town, and a UNESCO World Heritage sight from 1988.

Being a Tuesday night it isn’t exactly the biggest venue in our schedule, but is sold out.

And a really good, young crowd.

The owner is a nice guy and look after us well, even bought me a book of Los Aripiles, as the Spanish call the  Battle of Salamanca, Wellingtons fine victory over the French Marshall Auguste Marmont.

Wellington applied the oblique formation as used by Frederick the great, and caught the French as they overstretched whilst trying to out flank Wellington.

But The Duke was prepared for this and had hidden his troops behind a hill, so with rapid attacks on the overstretched French flank he defeated an army of 40,000 in under one hour.

Therefore making his reputation not just as a fine defender of a position, but as a fine attacking commander too.

We will visit the battlefield tomorrow on our 7 hour drive to Valencia.

Just heard that Barcelona play Valencia tonight, so the gig will be a late one, after the game finishes. Gonna be a long, long day.

04-02-16

The Battlefield was cool, hasn’t changed much since the action in the peninsular war. All the main points are as they were and we a great feel for how the battle progressed.

               The French position as seen from Wellingtons centre

Well so much for the rumour about the football affecting the gig.

We waited ‘til the end of the football, and needn’t have, the gig was packed, the wildest crowd so far, A stage invasions from ‘go go girls’ freaking out to Whole Lotta Love.

But our support The Golden Grahams did a fine opening set to keep everyone entertained, and also did a fine job of chasing the young girls after the show too, well there was a lot of them there to be chased, actually, they were chasing  during our performance too.

We had a few Brits in the crowd, from Newcastle and Yorks.

Before the show, after a long days drive, we said we wouldn’t do 3 encores like every other night but take it easy, well that didn’t happen , we did the full set and 3 encores.

A great show.

Got to bed at 4am, and here we are now, in our hotel for 3 days on the beach, the sun is out, the swimming pool beckons

AND!!! There is even a  medieval castle up the road to go investigate.

What a way to spend a day off.

I also hear that it is freezing cold in England today too. Ohhhhhhhh!

See ya later

Saints and Sinners

We have made it to the half way mark of the tour of Spain and we are all in one piece, well just, after the boys had a big night out in Santiago they all look a bit worse for wear. 

This is our 10^th major tour of the country, more than any other band, like, ever!

We left off at Eibar being the 1^st of 5 Sold-Out gigs on the bounce, so to continued on with Villadolid, our fourth time here in as many years, always a good show.

photo by FranCea

Oviedo, we have a support for a few days touring with us from tonight, The Golden Grahams.

A three piece from Barcelona, they drove 12 hours and slept in the car to be in Oviedo for the show.

Not a good sound engineer I am sorry to say, he never marked down our setting and failed to change them back after the Golden Grahams set, so I had absolutely nothing in my monitors all gig. The sound engineer being completely clueless.

This is when, as a vocalist, you really have to be disciplined and not to stretch the voice trying to be heard. Five shows on the trot is hard enough on the voice without the extra problem of not being able to hear myself.

but we triumphed through adversity.

Oh yes, and the keyboard monitor packed up, so instead on ‘No Quarter’, we played ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’,  the epic from Zep I, perfecty displaying the famous 'light and shade' of the music of Led Zeppelin, and Plant in superhuman voice. Reinforcing my thinking that this song should be in every night, a real favourite with the crowd, I think that most people don’t expect it to be in the set and are genuinely pleased to hear the opening refrain.

The next day we made our pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, to visit the relics of Saint James. After whom the town is named, Santi Jago.

Made a UNESCO world heritage site in 1985.

Legend has it the remains of Saint James are there, they built the cathedral on the spot where his body was found. And is a pilgrimage made for 100,000 people each year.

Santiago is a strong gig for us, and the hotel is right next door to the venue.

For once it was handy having a young support band, someone has to have the energy left to chase the girls at our shows.

After two and a half hours, I’m ready for bed, and live up to my nickname here of ‘El Santo’, The Saint, due to my good clean living life style.

Andy is El Guapo, and the one the crowd find most amusing is Simon, as Don Simon, turns out it’s also the name of a cheap wine here in Spain.

Our audience over here are mainly under 25, which shows the eternal appeal of the music of Led Zeppelin, in fact, you hardly ever see anyone out between the ages of 25 and 50 on the streets in the evening.

I think it due to getting married and having kids, so a generation disappears until the kids grow up, and reappear in pastel coloured clothing.

Again, tho’ on our more recent tours, I have noticed a change in this and we now get thirty somethings at our shows.

The times they are a changing.

Although, one thing that hasn't changed is the fantastic food and wine, massive big portions of good food, for a coupla Euro's. Bargain.

Sunday at a small town on the coast, in the summer, a holiday destination for the Spanish people, very authentic, and old Spain.

I have noticed a change from when we first arrived here is Spain, ten years ago or more now.

Back then, other than the major cities, no one really spoke English, and outsiders not often seen, and therefore we generated a lot of interest amongst the locals.

Boiro is still like that, people stop in the street out of interest at the strange long haired men.

Small venue, but packed and they really looked after us, a chance to try out some songs we haven’t played for a while, ‘The Song Remains the Same’ ‘The Rain Song’ ‘Black Country Woman’ all well received.

And now a much deserved day off in the little fishing town on Boiro on the northwest coast of Spain in Galicia.

My hotel room over looks an urban farm, where a local farmer raises chickens etc.. all very picturesque and all that, until the geese start kicking off at first light with their squawking.

It’s Monday and our day off, time to recharge the batteries, clean some clothes and above all - Time for siesta, Siiiiiiiii