50
Richard did his best to keep this quiet, and nearly succeeded. It was Richard’s 50th birthday on the Sunday 22nd July. May I wish you a happy birthday Richard on behalf of all in the band and crew. Joanne presented this cake last night on the plane home after-show from Cologne. It was another one of those miracle travel days. The band started the day in London (I was at home) and were transported to RAF Northolt to get on the Dornier for a 2:00pm take-off to Cologne. We arrived in Cologne 50 minutes later to do a sound check which was delayed because of time alignment problems with the extra PA. We need extra PA for this show as it is apparently the largest indoor arena in Europe with a 20,000 capacity. Did the show, which was a lot of fun mainly because of the excitable audience. For such a large venue, at times it seemed like a club gig. The crowd politely surged to the front and remained standing from Sultans onwards. After the show we ‘ran’ to the plane for an 11:00pm arrival slot at Heathrow. I was back at home by half-past midnight. The one hour time difference helped.
dinner
Right, we’ve now moved into the last week of the tour. There are a few things to be resolved. Firstly, the PyroMan bass auction. Details will follow in the next Diary entry (Copenhagen). Anyone still interested in owning a pretty beaten up old Fender Precision bass once owned and abused by the great Glenn Worf?
Last night’s bass drop was spectacular in that I assumed Glenn didn’t want to play the song anymore on the tour as he really tried hard to break the thing. But sure enough, all that happened was a string came off the bridge…otherwise it’s fine. He did leave white paint marks on the stage though. Here’s a picture showing the levels of concentration required in enjoying a pre-show dinner.
South Coast
Here’s a shot out the window of the South Coast (Kent) on the way to Cologne.
Oh, I nearly forgot. I’m running a little caption competition on my website. (thanks to a suggestion via e-mail)
Just go to guyfletcher.co.uk and click on CAPTION COMPETITION. It’s just for fun really. I’ll post all good captions below the pic, and I’ll add pics as we go through this last week.
