Tonight we played "Brook" in Shouthampton, another fine show with a lovely audience and the best door staff I have ever seen. This is the city which has the dubiuos distiction of hosting the port from which the Titanic sailed. There's a stone memorial about that here.
The day began as a comedy of errors. We left the London 47 Park Street hotel with a perfect plan for our next check-in and evening plans. Basically, everything that could have gone wrong, did.
I checked into the hotel and was to expect to be collected by our driver in 45 minutes. At the same time, Al began some interviews at the BBC nearby, however they added extra interviews and even had one going on when he arrived at the hotel. Now, it was going on so long that Al was in danger of being late for the sound check.
At this point time was running very short and in all the confusion I was simply forgotten. Al and everyone arrived at the sound check to come to the horrible realization that none of the drivers or crew had remembered to take me there. I am back at the hotel, after having made several phone calls and exhausted all my efforts to make contact. The only thing I could think was that there was some disaster on the road or something.
Finally our car arrived, and with no time left to do a sound check we went directly to the restaurant. On arrival, Al is not there, but his parents and closest friends are all there. So, disjointed and dangerously close to show time we still have not checked the sound.
By some miracle Al arrived and the decision was made for me to do the sound check without Al and I would return to the restaurant later. At Brooke, I hastily dialed in the sound with Ed (an excellent sound man). It is now too late for us to get back to the restaurant and then return to Brooke, so 3 of us go to a pub and have fish and chips while the rest of the group is finishing a fine meal at a lavish indian restaurant.
The dinner went quite well though, and I understand everyone had a good time and it was especially good because Al's mother was there. What a sweet lady! She came to the show later and for the few minutes I spent with her it is easy to see where Al got so much of his wit and good humor. It's safe to say that none of us would be at the gig if it weren't for her so it was quite an honor for her to be there.