The Beast from the East

Upon arrival at our bijou hotel in Zaragoza, I am excited to find that my room comes complete with a washing  machine! This is pure manna from Heaven!
With a day off and time to wash some clothes. You have no idea how excited I am at this prospect.

Also by lucky happen-chance, the day we have off is 14th February, St Valentines Day.

Thankfully, for those who take an interest in this annual event,  Zaragoza can be a romantic city, beautiful cathedral on the banks of the river and is full of good restaurants, and we found a small Italian before heading off into the old town in search of the mysteries of the graffiti filled back-streets and the dive bars hidden therein.

After we drank several dive bars out of Jack, we decided time to retire for the evening and head back to our groovy hotel in the old town, the streets are eerily quiet at 4am.

This short walk inexplicably took a lot longer than the expected 5 minutes, more like an hour! The Police even followed us for a short while! God knows why, but we gave them the slip by using the hotel side entrance.

The tour of Spain finished in a blaze of glory, the final four shows culminating in a packed house on a Sunday evening in Terrassa, where I was invited up onstage with our opening act for the evening, Deaf Leppard, for a rousing version of ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’. Despite only knowing 5 words to the song I think I pulled it off?

After which it was the short drive to Barcelona and a well-deserved night off, ok we did drink one or two of the dive bars clean out of Jack again, before and after the essential visit to Caracoles, the best restaurant in this historic city.

                                   Amaretto Darling? Two?

The company in Barcelona was both charming and delightful, and a great pleasure to spend some down time with. 

We have only one day off then 2 more shows after one day in the UK, so it is 16 shows in 23 days with only 3 actual rest days. Of which none were actually spent resting, more like frequenting the many dive bars, well, ain’t they the best?

                                    Then the snow came.

Britain froze, the Beast from the East they so called it.

The biting cold froze the very pits of our souls. Yet it could not stop the Letz Zep juggernaut on its quest to bring the very best of the music of Led Zeppelin to the nation. We drove through the land of the ice and snow and fulfilled all our touring commitments, well done to El Gremlino our driver. He earned his crust those shows.
His gnarly little hands tightly clutching the wheel.

After such a hard-touring schedule the band are on fire! Playing every show with the same vigour and enthusiasm as the first. 

A big thank you to those who braved the inclement weather and attended the shows.

Onto Legends of Rock in Great Yarmouth, so many good bands, so many lovely people. Oh, and Eddie, great accommodation for the band this year! You pulled the stops out there! Please don’t tell me it was in error!

We arrived at Legends as early as we could to enjoy the occasion and meet up with friends old and new. We would like to spend more time checking out many of the great bands they have on the weekend event, but our tour schedule won’t allow that, so we take as much in as possible whilst there. Even found the pool table this year! much to our delight! Andy is a bit of a demon actually.

Nobby Mills our promoter from Spain has flown in to be in attendance too. so a small reunion there! 

We are also delighted to recive an invitation to the wedding of our good friends Jess and Debbie, a wonderful couple and we wish them every happiness.

As always, the band put in a sterling performance. A big thank you to the crew for the seamless running and the excellent sound. With so many bands these guys really knock their pipe out.

Sadly, we have to leave soon after breakfast for our show in Holmfirth tonight, the venue is opposite Sids Cafe from the popularTV series Last of the Summer Wine, Nora Batty house isnt far either. 

If you are consudering going to Legends of Rock, please book early as it regualrly sells out. 

The London show looms large, and the launch of our new range of merch, rather dashing too if I don’t say so myself. Wonderfully designed by Silvia Perett. As always only top quality gear, one of me, one of Andy, and I think one of Peter to follow soon.

Andy tee shirt come in both Black and (Andy) Gray, singer tees only in Black, the colour of my immortal soul.

The show is selling very fast and approaching a sell out on the night, also, by coincidence, the same day Led Zeppelin release the remaster ‘How the West was Won’ on all formats and for the very first time on vinyl. So, this show, being Soho, we name the show ‘How The West End Was Won’.

All went well, packed house, fantastic reaction from the lovely people, and we didn’t have to go far to find a dive bar.

A great night, even if I did manage to lose my keys and couldn’t get into my house ‘til gone 3am!

Next stop…….. Germany