Quite an eventful evening this turned out to be.
Tonight, we flew from Barcelona and arrived at the hall at around 5:30. The crew were still setting up and after their line-check we soundchecked for about ten minutes whereupon the power failed. Repeatedly. I can't remember the last time that happened. (except Barcelona 2001 when the PA failed and the crowd sang 'ole ole' for 15 minutes until the problem was fixed) Immediately, Adrian and Colin were on the case. It turned out to be a problem with the supply from the hall. The in-house technician assured our boys that the problem was fixed. End of story?...you could be forgiven for thinking so. Anyway, dinner was fab. showtime was 8:30 and we went onstage to a predictably fantastic Spanish welcome. we made it all the way through the first half of the set and half way through the first verse of Rudiger, the power failed again. The sharp 'crack' in the in-ears sure left an impression. power came back on within a minute or so, so Mark launched off again into Rudy. halfway through the intro this time, another 'crack'. No follow spots now, and no backline power, including mark's amps and rack. Strangely, my keys stayed on throughout. That was until the 3rd failure. This time it came immediately as Mark re-started Rudiger. We had no option but to retire from the stage until the guys got to the bottom of the problem.

25 minutes later we took to the stage again in the hope we could finish the set. D'you know, the local electrician tried to suggest it was our problem. Um, I don't think so! It was eventually resolved by our boys isolating the feeds to the room and turning off the potential troublemakers...ie. catering, follow spots, 1st floor balcony all on-stage unnecessary items etc. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what they did, all I know is...

thankfully we made it to the end of the show after missing out Boom like that because of the delay, but not entirely without hitches. As I walked over to the B3 for Brothers in arms, Matt whispered to me "the Leslie's slow rotor speed isn't working. Hammond organ with no leslie movement is harsh..but I'm guessing no-one REALLY noticed.
Eventually, due to the voltage dropping substantially, the Hammond gave up, as did my Trinity which forms the basis of most string patches I use. It was on the blink for Money and So far away..I needed it for Local hero so I called Laurence over and he re-booted it and went away and did something miraculous because it worked when I needed it to.

It's just more of what we've come to expect from these guys. Cheers!



Here's a great shot of the stage just before we sound-checked. Look how the crew are totally oblivious to the impending disaster



As we banked out of Barcelona airport, we flew over the Arts hotel and marina. I couldn't resist this shot



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an F18 on the Zaragoza airfield

a fleeting memory of Zaragoza was the show we did here in '91 (or 2) which was the last show DS ever did.



"this water smells funny"...Mark experiences some steep banking on approach into Zaragoza