Up at the crack of dawn (before dawn, actually), and on the road. We made it to Dublin airport in time to get Jeff on his flight home. He has a gig the day after he returns! Then, the three remaining (JJ, Scott and myself), drove to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leahrie) to catch the Sea Cat to the mainland. The sea was as calm as a millpond. Our journey across the notorious Irish Sea was as smooth as I have ever seen it. In fact we arrived on the other side early, which helps with our mad dash back to Watford and my storage locker. We made excellent time to Manchester, where we dropped off some of the audio equipment (along with Alan’s rented Read the rest of this entry »

Back up the winding road to Monaghan…. by this time I know the route well! We met up with Sorla for lunch, and were then able to check into the B&B. Load in was up a tight set of stairs, but we were helped by a couple of strong lads, which made all the difference! This gig is so small as to not really need much miking up, but we plugged in whatever we could, just so Scott had an element of control out front. We are at one end of the upstairs bar, which is on two levels: we are on the highest level. It’s really Read the rest of this entry »

We took a somewhat circuitous route to Dublin, via Monaghan – the reason being that Alan and Vivian were going to come to Dublin with us, in the van, and they wanted to leave their car in Monaghan (where we play our last gig, tomorrow night). In fact, it was a most pleasant experience, as we were able to meet Sorla (sp?), a friend of Alan’s who was largely responsible for getting us the gigs in Ireland. He is heavily involved with the Arts Council of Monaghan County, and has run the Monaghan Music Festival for a number of years, so he is somewhat influential in town. We had lunch in a nearby pub, then bundled into the van and headed Read the rest of this entry »

Whoever arranged this part of the tour routing has a sick sense of humour! From one end of Ireland to the other, PLUS a gig at the end of it. We set off straight after breakfast. Swirling mist gave way to watery sun on the road out of Waterford. Ireland are playing Spain in a World Cup match at lunchtime today, which might help the traffic situation. As it happens, by the time we got to Dublin, the roads were definitely clearing. The N1 from Dublin, north to the border, was practically deserted, which was a blessing, as it is normally the most crowded road on the island, and much of it is STILL not divided highway (dual carriageway), making Read the rest of this entry »

I slept for about 4 hours, waking to the noise of the kid next door playing in their courtyard. It is hard to describe the feeling of disorientation when you awake from a deep dream state, in the middle of the day, after a night of sleep deprivation. It took a good hour before I could really piece together a full sentence. Until then, I answered all questions with grunts and nods. The load in was in the pouring rain (of course), up a couple of flights of metal (thus slippery) stairs…. but we did have a couple of people helping us with the heavy stuff, which more than made up for the inconvenience. Seamus, the local promoter is tireless in his Read the rest of this entry »

The day started quite bright and hopeful, but got steadily darker and darker, which does not bode well for our OPEN AIR gig tonight! The trip was a mere 25 miles, and we arrived in plenty of time, after a short shopping trip into Chester, too. The stage is on a bandstand in the middle of the local park in New Brighton. No sooner had we offloaded than it started to pour with rain. We took advantage of the shower to find our accommodation and settle in.

We are not here for long, as our ferry leaves Holyhead (100 miles West of here) at 4am. But there will be time to get a coule of Read the rest of this entry »

Our drive today is not far, so we had a chance to meet up with old acquaintances beforehand. On the way to Chester we stopped off at a pub for lunch, and were joined by Ralph and Gerry Ellis. Ralph was the original guitarist from the Swingin Blue Jeans, the group who gave the Beatles their earliest opening spots at the Cavern Club. Ralph and Gerry have become good friends of the band, via JJ, who met them a while back. They arrived in true American style – Ralph was driving his Cadillac!

A couple of hours later, we were replete with pub food and ready Read the rest of this entry »

At precisely 7.05am, the doors to the pub below opened, and the TV was on, a mere 6 inches below my sleeping head. It is the England – Nigeria World Cup match. I think I tried to ignore it and go back to sleep for about 10 minutes, but eventually I gave up and staggered downstairs. I sat at the bar, drinking coffee and munching on a sausage sandwich while my bodily functions tried desperately to come to grips with the early hour! As it was, the match itself was a frustrating disappointment, but England are through to the next round (where they play Denmark), so people seemed happy with the result. After the match, I managed to get Read the rest of this entry »

We were up and on the road early, as JJ had a radio interview in Northampton. It didn’t take long to get round the M25 and onto the M1 motorway. The rendezvous was at the Northampton College of Art, so the rest of us took advantage of the subsidised cafeteria while John did the interview. From Northampton, the drive was straightforward enough, although much of it was not motorway. Lincoln seems to have been passed by when it comes to good roads. So we trundled along the single-lane roads, behind a line of trucks. Despite the slowness of the second half of our journey, we still arrived in plenty of time. Nettleham is a Read the rest of this entry »