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July 5, 2016
Notes from an Airplane:
Had a absolute fab time in Brighton last
night. Just before the show, Glenn Povey popped in. Turns out he’d been down the
road at the pub with Mike H. but I wanted to be certain that he was sorted for
the show so I PM’s his wife, Jane, but it turned out all was well. Caryne did
merch for us again, which was really fab of her. Thanks again! Saw Alun Morgan
and his wife before the show and had a little gift for him (see set list!).
Right before the show, we played a trick on Dave Chapple by giving him the wrong
set list (oh why didn’t I take a picture????) but, but the 4th song or so I felt
so guilty (plus I couldn’t stop laughing) that I had to fess up!
We took the stage about 9:30 to a
tightly packed but room in the back kind of crowd, which is great. There was no
barrier between band and audience and a 2 foot stage so people were like RIGHT
there with their smart phones filming and everything. That’s when you can’t pick
your nose, times like that. I don’t know if it was because it was the last show
or if it was because this audience was extremely enthusiastic, but it felt
really euphoric being up there and I was feeding off the energy of the crowd,
especially John Etherington, who was dancing madly the whole time like a 16-year
old! Caryne even took a break to bop around, as did Alun. We had some guests
come up, including the singer of Proto Idiot, Andrew, who sang a blistering /
screaming “My Flash On You” which would have either made Arthur Lee love it or
ask him if someone stepped on his foot! After that, we got a taste of South
Croydon’s finest, the one and only Frate Train, Nick Frater, who joined me in
tandem through a Bo-Didleyesque, “Bummer In The Summer”, Rusty in the wings
banging away on the tamborine. Later on in the set we had saxophonist, John
Alton, come out for “Revelation” and also “Signed D.C. This Brighton show also
featured the MOST songs in a set that were performed of all 10 shows, about 24
jams. That show felt like it clocked in at about 2 hours but i can’t say for
sure. I know the staff were “Sup up and fook off’n” everybody and the bar closed
almost immediately after we were done.
After the show, we signed things for all
these really nice people who made the time to come out and hear some of their
favorite songs and we did our best to play ‘em as best as we could. And everyone
seemed to have their favorite show they’d seen with Arthur Lee. Now, when I
first starte to play with him, as a 26 year old, these stories almost always
took place from 1966 to 1970. Then, as time went on, the shows we played with
Arthur became a lot of people’s favorites, more and more. Of course, this is not
counting the Sunset Strip days (The Whiskey, Bido Lido’s, etc…). This seems to
be almost exclusively in the UK. And hey, i’ll take it! I think we’ve done some
fantastic shows in the states (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago,
New York) but we’ve played hundreds of shows in the UK and I’d say that none of
them I would consider to have been a “bad” show. As a matter of fact, we have
played, maybe, 8 “bad shows” ever, with Arthur. And all of them were due to him
not being well. So, Brighton was sort of a nice culmination of this short
10-show, 12-day tour. Nicely wrapped in a bun.
Now, after we were all packed up we
rolled out of there and an hour later we were in South Croydon, stopping for
Kebabs! I got mine and walked to Gemma and Nick’s house, which was about a 1-min
walk down the road. The other guys went to Steve and Sue’s house. I chatted with
Nick for a little bit and then he was off to bed, no doubt knackered from the
show and the travel. I finished off my kebab (trying very hard not to think
about exactly what it was I was actually eating), washed up and got into bed,
passing up the beer offer from Nick. I slept from 1am to about 6am, which seems
to be my routine. I get 5 hours of straight, uninterrupted sleep and then I text
the Lovely Lady and say, ‘Good Morning” and she goes, “Your up already?” ‘Cause,
to her, we spoke at 5pm her time and then, there I am, up again at 10pm her time
LOL! But then i get some more rest so i’ll sleep from 7am to about 9am. So
that’s actually 7 hours rest, which ain’t bad, right? Nick made me a cup of
coffee this morning after I showered and loaned me his Levon Helm book, which
I’m totally digging the bits i’ve started reading. I told him he can have it
back when he comes back to LA! (Gemma, are you listening???)
Steve and the other dudes picked me up
around 9:30am this morning and by 10am we were hugging him and Mike H at
Gatwick. There was no “USA” line whatsoever so we walked right up to the counter
with all our bags and all Dave Chapple’s basses. Went into the duty free and
picked up some Single Malt Irish Whiskey. The Lovely Lady informed me she’s
picked up beer at the store. So, i’m already thinking about popping over to
visit her. Not because of the beer (which is a bonus!) but because I really miss
her and she is one top shelf gal and just an amazing all-around great person and
a blast to be around. So, roll on, Los Angeles. Now, waiting to board my flight
I bumped into none other than Leigh Milman who just happens to be Buddy Jones
Randle’s Favorite grandmother! Turns out, she is going to LA to visit Hannah and
Buddy and we are on the same flight and only about 4 seats away, ha ha! Once
we’ve landed and gone through customs and gotten our luggage, we are gonna Uber
over to Hannah’s place and see Buddy and Hannah and Brandon and hug everybody!
And give Buddy a little gift i got him and then borrow Hannah’s car (mine, good
lord, is still in the shop...or maybe it’s done? Maybe it’s simply awaiting a
hefty payment? And then i’ve got to still Smog check it and THEN i have to do my
past due registration with late fees n everything. Ah yes, no Pop Star red
carpets at the Department of Motor Vehicles! So, after dropping my bags off i’ll
take a drive just west of the 405... |
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