Notes on a Coffee Cup

Last Update: 06. juli 2016


 

July 5, 2016

Notes from an Airplane:

Had a absolute fab time in Brighton last night. Just before the show, Glenn Povey popped in. Turns out he’d been down the road at the pub with Mike H. but I wanted to be certain that he was sorted for the show so I PM’s his wife, Jane, but it turned out all was well. Caryne did merch for us again, which was really fab of her. Thanks again! Saw Alun Morgan and his wife before the show and had a little gift for him (see set list!). Right before the show, we played a trick on Dave Chapple by giving him the wrong set list (oh why didn’t I take a picture????) but, but the 4th song or so I felt so guilty (plus I couldn’t stop laughing) that I had to fess up!

We took the stage about 9:30 to a tightly packed but room in the back kind of crowd, which is great. There was no barrier between band and audience and a 2 foot stage so people were like RIGHT there with their smart phones filming and everything. That’s when you can’t pick your nose, times like that. I don’t know if it was because it was the last show or if it was because this audience was extremely enthusiastic, but it felt really euphoric being up there and I was feeding off the energy of the crowd, especially John Etherington, who was dancing madly the whole time like a 16-year old! Caryne even took a break to bop around, as did Alun. We had some guests come up, including the singer of Proto Idiot, Andrew, who sang a blistering / screaming “My Flash On You” which would have either made Arthur Lee love it or ask him if someone stepped on his foot! After that, we got a taste of South Croydon’s finest, the one and only Frate Train, Nick Frater, who joined me in tandem through a Bo-Didleyesque, “Bummer In The Summer”, Rusty in the wings banging away on the tamborine. Later on in the set we had saxophonist, John Alton, come out for “Revelation” and also “Signed D.C. This Brighton show also featured the MOST songs in a set that were performed of all 10 shows, about 24 jams. That show felt like it clocked in at about 2 hours but i can’t say for sure. I know the staff were “Sup up and fook off’n” everybody and the bar closed almost immediately after we were done.

After the show, we signed things for all these really nice people who made the time to come out and hear some of their favorite songs and we did our best to play ‘em as best as we could. And everyone seemed to have their favorite show they’d seen with Arthur Lee. Now, when I first starte to play with him, as a 26 year old, these stories almost always took place from 1966 to 1970. Then, as time went on, the shows we played with Arthur became a lot of people’s favorites, more and more. Of course, this is not counting the Sunset Strip days (The Whiskey, Bido Lido’s, etc…). This seems to be almost exclusively in the UK. And hey, i’ll take it! I think we’ve done some fantastic shows in the states (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York) but we’ve played hundreds of shows in the UK and I’d say that none of them I would consider to have been a “bad” show. As a matter of fact, we have played, maybe, 8 “bad shows” ever, with Arthur. And all of them were due to him not being well. So, Brighton was sort of a nice culmination of this short 10-show, 12-day tour. Nicely wrapped in a bun.

Now, after we were all packed up we rolled out of there and an hour later we were in South Croydon, stopping for Kebabs! I got mine and walked to Gemma and Nick’s house, which was about a 1-min walk down the road. The other guys went to Steve and Sue’s house. I chatted with Nick for a little bit and then he was off to bed, no doubt knackered from the show and the travel. I finished off my kebab (trying very hard not to think about exactly what it was I was actually eating), washed up and got into bed, passing up the beer offer from Nick. I slept from 1am to about 6am, which seems to be my routine. I get 5 hours of straight, uninterrupted sleep and then I text the Lovely Lady and say, ‘Good Morning” and she goes, “Your up already?” ‘Cause, to her, we spoke at 5pm her time and then, there I am, up again at 10pm her time LOL! But then i get some more rest so i’ll sleep from 7am to about 9am. So that’s actually 7 hours rest, which ain’t bad, right? Nick made me a cup of coffee this morning after I showered and loaned me his Levon Helm book, which I’m totally digging the bits i’ve started reading. I told him he can have it back when he comes back to LA! (Gemma, are you listening???)

Steve and the other dudes picked me up around 9:30am this morning and by 10am we were hugging him and Mike H at Gatwick. There was no “USA” line whatsoever so we walked right up to the counter with all our bags and all Dave Chapple’s basses. Went into the duty free and picked up some Single Malt Irish Whiskey. The Lovely Lady informed me she’s picked up beer at the store. So, i’m already thinking about popping over to visit her. Not because of the beer (which is a bonus!) but because I really miss her and she is one top shelf gal and just an amazing all-around great person and a blast to be around. So, roll on, Los Angeles. Now, waiting to board my flight I bumped into none other than Leigh Milman who just happens to be Buddy Jones Randle’s Favorite grandmother! Turns out, she is going to LA to visit Hannah and Buddy and we are on the same flight and only about 4 seats away, ha ha! Once we’ve landed and gone through customs and gotten our luggage, we are gonna Uber over to Hannah’s place and see Buddy and Hannah and Brandon and hug everybody! And give Buddy a little gift i got him and then borrow Hannah’s car (mine, good lord, is still in the shop...or maybe it’s done? Maybe it’s simply awaiting a hefty payment? And then i’ve got to still Smog check it and THEN i have to do my past due registration with late fees n everything. Ah yes, no Pop Star red carpets at the Department of Motor Vehicles! So, after dropping my bags off i’ll take a drive just west of the 405...