Virginia Beach tagged:

Virginia Beach

Posted by in 1997 Elton John World Tour

This is the only amphitheatre on the tour. The weather is, luckily for the crowd, still great. In fact, it couldn’t be better. Sunshine with fluffy clouds, and a cool breeze. The hotel here sucks, though, I’m afraid. The place is not very clean, the rooms are grimy, the staff are really not friendly or helpful. I went down to the cafe to try and get some breakfast at about Midday, and was informed that they ‘were not allowed to cook eggs after 11.30am’. Can you believe it?

Today’s sound check was as pleasant as yesterday’s was difficult. The sound in these places just goes outwards. There are no end walls to bounce off.Clive (the sound) seemed much happier, although I was still having kit problems. Just minor ones. Pete is very quick to fix them, but they shouldn’t really still be happening . And the new heads have not materialised, so Pete had to go out and buy a set from a local shop. They are not the usual Premier ones, and it shows. But they’ll do for tonight (hopefully ONLY tonight).

The Braves game started about 30 minutes before we went on stage, so we were getting updates on the score throughout the concert. The gig was great, but I had a hard time. My bass drum pedal felt like it was really sluggish. It wasn’t until 5 songs before the end that I realised it was because it had slipped forward and was actually brushing against the bass drum head. For the final part of the set, the pedal was back to normal. We’ll just have to keep tightening the bolt that holds it. More teething troubles!

Davey, Billy (Trudel), Clive and Steve (Cohen, lighting designer) have decided to take the bus to Charleston, SC. I really don’t fancy the idea of another all-night drive, especially as this one is 8 hours. I need to sleep in a stationary bed tonight. I’ll fly with the rest in the morning (not that I don’t want to leave this hotel as soon as possible!).