Shiny Bus…

Show Day 2 – It’s an interesting thing, being a support act again, as Mark so rightly pointed out in the dressing room last night. The pure fact that not everyone in the audience is automatically on your side from the word go, there some work to do up there to win the crowd over, which is a reminder of those days slogging it out in bands, trying to make it, doing gig after gig out of the back of a rusty old Ford Transit. We’ve all been there and it’s good to be reminded of just how we arrived here. (not of course that we’re exactly slumming it here) It’s noticeable from the stage that there is a large proportion of the audience here solely to see Bob and can’t wait for us to get off. There is however a contingent with the opposite loyalties and so far they seem to have relished our set.  It’s not something I’d thought about until we took to the stage for the first show. There’s definitely an added pressure up here, especially for Mark…. to work that little bit harder. The band does however seem to have instinctively risen to the occasion.

Today’s mission was to try and find a new Briggs and Riley suitcase, my old case has served it’s time since 1992 I think and is quite literally on its last legs and has no handles left. Also the wheels have a mind of their own, rather like a mad supermarket trolley that seems hell bent on taking the skin off the backs of the heels of unsuspecting victims. I went off in search of the only listed reseller reportedly selling B&R. I finally found the place inside the main train station, a tiny booth that just sold handbags. Dejected and beaten, I wandered through the Glasgow gloom back to the hotel to pack once again my stuff into the old case. Tomorrow, Manchester.

Show no. 3 and another setlist change. This one had me running across stage twice to man the Hammond B3, of which of course there is only one on this tour due to the physical constraints of our production size. So for two songs Jim and I squeeze onto his riser and on one of them Jim plays accordion AND piano, another new song as it happens. This one called Haul Away seemed to go down really well. It was a beautiful rendition with Mike and John playing some heavenly stuff.

Today is a special day as we boarded the band bus for the first time.

After our show we gathered our things and hopped on the bus for the drive to Manchester. Dirk is our driver and exactly four hours later we arrived. Straight to bed for us all.