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 10th major tour of the country, more
than any other band, like, ever!
We left off at Eibar being the 1st 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
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