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St
Diego. No Baloney.
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Thursday,
5th November
After a Bento Box lunch in Port Hueneme,
it’s time to brave the Magic Mountains
of Valencia and the omnipresent Television
Rocks of Vasquez to amble up to what is
a new venue for us: The Bee Kay Theatre
in downtown Tehachapi. This turns out
to be an excellent show: a sold out gig,
great food, and a grand night.
The
Bee Kay is a marvelous theatre up in the
high desert near Bakersfield and Edwards
air force base. When I was a teenager,
rumour had it that Jim Morrison was allegedly
living out here with a gang of bikers.
Some say that if you go out at midnight
when there is a full moon you can still
see him changing his oil; provided you
have a sufficient intake of Peyote. I
have never given these conspiracy theories
too much credence. I am however, positive
that he shot J.R.
Friday,
6th November
Today we drive south through the desert
past the soap mines of Boron and the wilds
of San Bernardino (patron saint of slavering
dogs) en route to the border city of San
Diego (patron saint of blatant
and balletic hand balls, mazy dribbles
& the number 10), and a show at the
Acoustic
Music San Diego. There’s a great
turnout for the show and it’s a
fine night. Well done to Carey Driscoll,
who runs the show here; this is our first
time playing for Carey and he’s
done an excellent job so hopefully it’ll
be the first of many.
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Saturday, 7th November
Unfortunately we have never had the opportunity
to go South from here to play so we go
North past San Onofre (patron saint of
nuclear fission and very funny looking
fish ) to La Ciudad de Los Angeles for
a spot of dim sum before heading to Pasadena
- home of the Rose Bowl. However, being
more of an intellectual outfit than a
sports team, we opt instead for the California
Institute of Technology for our show tonight.
I
have played this venue a number of times
and it is without fail one of the best
large gigs that we (certainly I) have
ever played in the United States of America.
The crew is always fantastic and the audience
appreciative & plentiful, and tonight
is no different.
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...towels,
factor 45, geiger counter - lets go kids! |
Sunday,
8th November
It’s an early start today because we have
a long drive to Berkeley for our last concert
of this U.S. tour. As our flight back to Scotland
leaves very early we are staying next to the
airport of San Francisco (patron saint of animal
trainers). Unfortunately the traffic from Candlestick
Park (home of the
49er’s) makes us late for our first
show at the new Freight and Salvage. After many
years at its former location, this venerable
club has moved to the centre of Berkeley into
a fantastic new venue. The new building not
only has a larger capacity but also has a state
of the art PA and temperature control. It looks
great, and from an artist’s point of view
it is comfortable and easy to use, which is
just as well as we turn up late and have no
real time for a sound check. As always the staff
and tech are diamond geezers and all goes well
rounding off what has been our best tour in
this country for some years.
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Monday
9th – Friday 27th November
We have a good week or so until our next
show, which is on the other side of the
Atlantic in Edinburgh, so we opt for the
Jack
Lalanne travel option, which means that
Alan is going to swim across the Atlantic
while dragging us in a barge with his teeth.
This will keep his new body in shape and
give us the necessary wind burn to make
us look European again. We
return to Scotland: wind burnt and interesting.
And buff, in Alan’s case. We have
not played the Queen’s Hall for
many years and this is a really enjoyable
show, ably promoted by Kevin Morris and
the Fallen
Angels Club . We had a great house
and a cameo appearance on harmonica from
Mike
Whellans, a particularly dangerous
character with whom we have recorded on
several occasions.
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Kevin Morris is also promoting
our Glasgow show at the Royal Concert
Hall, which is a fine way to finish the
calendar year, so many thanks to him for
his hard work.
Next stop: Deutschland
in January. Pip Pip chaps.
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