After the UK leg of the tour Europe now beckons at last, over
the Easter period we have a 5 show stint, three shows in Germany and one in
Switzerland and a return to La Belle France. all arranged by our wonderful German management company. We thank you.
We have brought few
new songs into the set, which is now dangerously approaching two and half hours
for a this return to some of our favourite venues and some new ones too.
We arrived at our hotel in Germany just in time to catch the
second half of the Champions League Semi Final, and then the highlights of both
exciting games.
I afforded myself a small beer at the hotel bar followed by a shot of Jack with Pete 'The Beat'
The venue Z7 in Switzerland is just fantastic, and our biggest
crowd there to date. Once again the in house catering excelled itself once
more and kept us very well wined and dined.
We brought enough of our new range of tee shirts to last the
tour, however, so popular is the new design proving we actually sold it all out
on the first date and have hardly any left for the rest of the shows.
Quite a bit of driving on this leg of the tour, after Switzerland
we drove through Austria and Lichtenstein, around Lake Constance and through the
town of Friedrichshafen. Where Ferdinand von Zeppelin established his dirigible
and the Zeppelin was created quite apt I thought.
From hence onto our show in the beautiful medieval town of
Memmingen in Baveria. The old town has many courtyards, castles, palaces and
fortifications is one of the best preserved in all of southern Germany. Simply Stunning.
Peter and myself went out in search of fridge magnets for his ever-growing
collection, and refreshed ourselves with a local beer, well… when in Rome and
all that. Known as the town of human rights, this refers to the Twelve
Articles, considered to be the first written set of human rights in Europe,
which were penned in Memmingen in 1525. With the biggest historical
re-enactment in Europe. It commemorates the invasion of Wallenstein and his
troops in 1630. We met one of the re-enactors during our restorative beer in
the towns old Square. He kindly kept us engaged informing us all about the local history.
Anyway I digress, the show went very well, the eager crowd demanding a full 4 encores. The next day another 4 hour drive to Dresden, our first visit to the venue
and the great city. A Sell Out crowd to boot!
We are welcomed to the venue by and old friend and promoter who is the man behind this show, he has a few requests for the set tonight that he would like to hear. As there is no curfew so we can let rip a little. The Rain Song once
again brings the house down. We will be flying home for a couple of days before
flying out to Paris for a Sold Out theatre show.
Leaving from Londons City Airport for the short hop to the City of
Lights.
Thankfully, free booze on the flight, now there is a novelty
nowadays, and a reunion with Le Chameau, The Camel, our famous guitar tech.
Chameau is famous in France and has his own fan club with
large cheers from the crowd whenever he enters the stage, and rightly so.
Chameau reminded me of the time we were in Geneva, where he
bought his lovely lady wife a beautiful turquoise ring as a gift, however, he
managed, by deciding to spend his day off in London rather than with his devoted wife, to incur the wrath of his good woman and was not entirely welcomed
home with a loving embrace.
The day after our return I had a phone call from Mrs Chameau,
I of course, in order to gain some grace with the charming wife of Chameau, enquired as to the reception she gave to the lovely gift from Geneva, ‘Oh’, she replied excitedly ‘he hasn’t given it to me yet’.
The voice of Chameau could be clearly heard in the
background shouting from the other room ‘That’s
‘cos you told me to stick it up my arse’.
How I larfed, anyway. also a reunion with Michel, Mr. Rock n
Roll
himself, and also a dear friend. We are fortunate to have him as our tour manager and tonight, he will also be utilising his sound engineering skills. There is not a man
of more rock n roll on Gods green Earth than Michel, the man they call Le Machette. The Machete.
As we arrived the night before the show give me tme before soundcheck to grab a taxi into the centre of town for lunch in the George V hotel with
our lovely latest member of the SKA Music Ltd entourage.
There is a public transport strike in Paris today so stage
time is held back to allow for latecomers to get into the magnificent Theatre
De L’Allegria.
The sell-out crowd were well up for it from the start and
got right behind the band, and the house packed despite the strike. The show is
going well and all the songs received with vigour, until Moby Dick,
highlighting the skills of our drummer Peter Tulloch. Which was rudely interrupted
by the fire alarm going off inexplicably. Bit harsh on the ears, but then I ‘spose it needs to
be.
One of the French crew cam flying down the stairs 5 steps per
stride!. It took about 10 minutes for the alarm to be turned off and the
further 5 minutes for the power to be restored to the stage.
We finished the show to some suprise pyromania from our wonderful
French crew, even more of a surprise as we hadn't yet finished the set and still had a good few minutes to go and then still had the encores to play yet!
Large strips of silver strips still falling from the ceiling as I belt out the opening refrain to 'Immigrant Song', whilst coughing up the tinsel which continues to fall onto the stage,
Standing Ovation
A great evening, thank you to all who came, the band are in a celebratory mood so just time for a
few after show drinks before retiring for the night. As we depart the hotel at 9am for our flight home to
London.
Well, meant to be 9am
but our cab driver was a bit of an idiot and parked blocking all the traffic
despite there being several loading bays, so we set off to blaring horns and dirty looks from other road users who seemed to think their inconvenience was all my fault.
Only a short drive to Orly and the quick flight back to Dear Ol' Blighty,
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