More Heat
More hot weather and today’s trip was a relatively short drive to and from Zurich across the Southern German border and on to the small town of Lörrach which is famed, if that’s the right word, for being the home of the ‘Milka’ chocolate factory.
The venue was slightly odd in that it was a town square which wasn’t really square, more ‘L’ shaped. This meant the audience was split into two sections. This didn’t dampen spirits in the slightest as the reception was once again, spectacular. The temperature during the day on stage reached an unbelievable 52ºC, that’s 125.6ºF. The thermometer gauge actually went black so it could have been hotter. All I can say is that the crew dealt with it amazingly well. It was still 29ºC when we went on stage! The dressing rooms were almost half a mile away and we drove to the stage ten minutes before showtime in the fleet of Range Rovers, which was unique.
It was great having our caterers back in business even though the actual kitchens were so far away they had to communicate via radios. George serves up a cracking Sunday Roast..
pic Martina Weselowski
With the sun still shining on parts of the stage, sunglasses were in order, I wore mine for the first two songs. I could feel the residual heat on the keys of each keyboard which made me wonder how the guitars were faring. Then when we started up ‘Privateering’ Mike’s pipes were a little sharp. To be honest, it’s amazing how he gets them to co-operate in these extreme conditions. They’re a real beast at the best of times. The guitars seemed fine, as did the rest of the instruments and Kerry, Simon and Dave did a great job with what was yet another local system, both PA and lights.
We came off stage after our encores just over 2 hours later and headed back to Zurich across the border once more.
