What goes on tour don't stay on tour

It is available at last, my first book: Letz Zep backstage ‘What goes on tour don’t stay on tour’ is finally on sale.

And first reactions are good ‘All you wanted to know about the life of a touring band and more. Much more’ says Kris Gruber of Radio Dacorum.

The book was written on planes, trains and automobiles over the last 6 months and the odd hotel room.

The book tells the story of the bands journey from local pub gigs to some of the biggest stages in the world. From Madrid to Moscow, Lisbon to London and Barcelona to Brazil.

Tales of being ‘encouraged’ to perform at gun-point in Venezuela, had shot-guns pointed at us in Brazil. Facing a knife-wielding maniac in Morocco. Performing on amazing stages like the ancient Amphitheatre in Rhodes. The Paris Olympia Theatre and the Heineken Arena in Madrid.

What is it like to have Robert Plant turn up at one of our shows and performing in front of Jimmy Page.

From the early days of The Marquee Club and the St. Moritz Club, touring with Ozzy Osbourne and Roger Daltrey. Filled with lots of helpful advice on how to be a success in the notoriously cut-throat world of the music industry, and how to sustain that career.

Including all the amusing stories from back-stage of a hard working international touring rock band.

The book is available on presale right now:

https://newworldmusic.com/uk/downloads/bk724-rock-god/

and is flying off the shelves :D

And on general release from March 1. Or if you prefer, buy one at the shows. Then I can sign it for you!!

Hola Barcelona

Vitoria is a lovely place, historic town, wonderful atmosphere. I love just walking around the old town. Always a good gig here too, although tonight some idiot let off a pepper spray or something similar during No Quarter, I mean, who does something like that? Anyway, if the idea was to disrupt the show it didn’t work, we simply took a quick 20 minute break so the venue could open the doors and clear the air. The band went and stood outside with the crowd for photos and the like, until everybody came back into the venue again. We came back with a point to prove and performed one of the best sets of the tour so far, and a bit of a party after the show too!  Jack Paul Jones has now acquired the nickname here in Spain as El Nino Pollon.

So, onto Pamplona, another historic town, famous for the running of the bulls of course. But again, a lovely old town to walk around and sample a few local beers and tapas. After the show, we found a bar playing retro 50’s music and a few people dressing the part and jitterbugging all over the place. Got talking to a local geezer as he is the spitting image of Noddy Holder from Slade. An uncanny resemblance, he didn’t know who Noddy Holder is, but after a few rousing choruses of Merry Xmas Everybody from myself and Pete the Beat and it dawned on him of whom we refer.  However, we had to cut our interesting conversation short due to the fact that he kept farting and stinking the place out.

‘Did you just fart?’ Pete enquires of him. ‘Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiii’ he confirms with a broad Buzz Lightyear type of smile and has both thumbs up to signify his pride and delight in a job well done.

And now onto Barcelona and a few days rest to recover fully from our gas attack, I mean the pepper spray in Vitoria not Noddy Holder flatulence in Pamplona of course.

Being a big show we have many family and friends coming into Barca today for the gig on Wednesday. Including a star appearance for Le Chameau himself, our long-suffering guitar tech of whom regular followers of this blog will remember well, mainly for ordering a nice bowl of Nada. Nick is also the hero of my book ‘What goes on tour don’t stay on tour’ due out on March 1^st.

As tradition now has it. It seems we always play in Barcelona in or around the birthday of our promoter Robert ‘Nobby’ Mills. So tonight we will dine in the famous Los Caracoles restaurant close to Las Ramblas, the area of Barcelona famous for it’s shopping, bars and restaurants. A Mecca for tourists.

Nobby is famous for prowling Las Ramblas claiming to be a ‘big player’ in from The States, Texas Long-Horn they call him, and he is carrying a heavy load. Sadly for Nobby, he has been doing this for years and everyone is wise to him now, but this does nothing to deter Nobby from indulging in his favourite pastime, namely just harassing the girls of The Ramblas who are just going about their day trying to earn a dollar.

Well, it had to happen, the rain is come!

Sad Hill

Hello from Bilbao. We had a pleasant day off in Madrid, a fantastic show too, the biggest so far, before heading off to the Basque region again.

On our drive from Madrid to Bilbao we took a detour just south east of Burgos to visit Sad Hill Cemetery, Famous of course for the final scene of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The three-way gun fight was filmed on this very spot in 1966, and the last of the trilogy, following a Fist Full of Dollars and A Few Dollars More and directed by Sergio Leone.

We have our own El Feo with us, I’ll leave you to decide the Good and the Bad.

The place is right band in the middle of nowhere and not that easy to find, and strangely, not on a hill either, despite the name. But still looks pretty much the same as it did in the movie. Starring Clint Eastwood, Lee van Cleef and Eli Wallach. It’s apparent also what a good choice of location, isolated with different panoramic views make an amazing back drop.

We spent about 30 minutes wandering around, whistling the theme tune of course, I defy anyone not to, and recreating the gun fight.

Nice to be back in Bilbao, lovely city and a great audience., and last night saw the inclusion of Achilles Last Stand for the first time on this tour. Today. We drive just 50 minutes down the road to Vitoria, the site of a huge and decisive Napoleonic battle. And another victory for Wellington, defeating a full French Marshal.

The turning point was the capture and crossing of the old Roman bridge which caused the French to be outflanked and a relatively quick victory for the British.

And yes, we are also doing some gigs, we are two weeks into the tour and with only seven shows left to go, it has flown by.

More laters

Whisper tales of gore

It’s Monday, it’s Madrid and it’s the half way mark of the Spanish tour, and everyone has been well behaved with no tales of gore to report, well, none that the band will let me publish anyway.

Last time I wrote we had an epic race against time to make it to San Sebastian for the show.

Having booked flights from Sevilla to Bilbao, Vueling airlines cancelled the flight and dumped us in Madrid instead, claiming that Bilbao airport was closed due to high winds, however we got an alternative flight, from Madrid to yes Bilbao, and no the airport wasn’t closed, nor were there any high winds. A lovely day in fact. So we made the show, just, even though the airfare cost more than the nights fee, but y’know, the show must go on.

I reckon as the flight was late anyway, Vueling lost their slot in Bilbao and needed a plane in Madrid. So our flight was biffed off.

A stint of 4 shows on the bounce, San Sebastian was followed by Santander, then A Caruna and Vigo.

All good shows and well attended, we have a few new songs in the set to go along the theme, seeing a welcome return of Trampled Under Foot. Always a crowd favourite.

                                  The late nights are taking it's toll

Then a long but pleasant drive south to Madrid, the capitol of Spain, placed at the heart of the city. Nice spot of tiffin en-route of course to break up the journey. I do like the Spanish cuisine, the wine ain't bad either come to think of it!

We have a couple of days off in Madrid before the show here, the boys wasting no time in getting out on the town. Jack Paul Jones asking where is the best place to go for to sample the night-life in Madrid. On a Monday night? I don’t think there will be much action, but if there is, then those boys will find it.
Peter on his eternal quest to collect a fridge magnet from ever city we visit on our travels.

Myself? I’m having a night in doing me laundry. Yeah!!!! Rock and Roll Babys!!!

But also, today is a red-letter day! My book is now proofed and off to the printers and is on schedule for release on March 1^st. Called Letz Zep backstage. ‘What Goes on tour don’t stay on tour’ full of amusing stories from behind the scenes of the biggest and best tribute to Led Zeppelin in the world! What? like me doing me laundry in Madrid on a Monday night? Nope, a bit more colourful than that. with tales of gore aplenty!

I’ll keep you posted
Rock on

The rain in Spain

Hello All.

We arrived on a beautifully sunny day for a show in Murcia. Great to see so many people returning to see the band again. Then onto Grenada and for the first time a show in Cordoba, a very beautiful place. It has the second largest Old Town in Europe, complete with Roman bridge and lovely gardens. another warm day, still out in the evening in Tee Shirts, in January!
it's great to get back playing again after a 3 week winter break, Jack, the new JPJ has settled right in and is enjoying his first visit to Andalucía.

8TV, the local Andalusian TV station come to film our show in Jerez the next day. They interviewed Nobby, our promoter. Spending our day off in Gibraltar, although Nobby forgot his passport and they wouldn’t let him in.

Much to our amusement.

                            I need a passport to come to the UK?

After our show in Algeciras, again, so many familiar faces, oh and did they feed us? The restaurant attached to the venue was amazing and the food, and the wine, kept coming, necessitating the need for a pre-gig snooze.

Rather than drive our day off the length of the country for our show tonight in San Sebastien, instead, we had a glorious day in Sevilla, enjoying the sun and the Flamenco. We thought it a good idea to catch a flight to Bilbao in the afternoon after breakfast in Saville.

And then the rain came.

Pouring rain. torrential rain, and driving winds. And so we find ourselves still sitting at the airport when we should be sound-checking in San Sebastien. Our flight cancelled due to the bad weather.

It’s very quiet now in the terminal waiting room, I’m the only one here, everyone else has got a voucher for a sarnie and a cup of tea. Whereas, I’m frantically trying to make alternative arrangement to get the band to the show on time. At least Peter will get me a cuppa tea. Thank God it’s a late gig tonight.

11pm onstage. There is still hope, maybe we should all play a song of hope… just to make sure.

The race begins…………