Hyde Park and GAY

[michael]

Hyde Park London and of course G A Y

I’m skipping about a bit here but its fair to say that if I didn’t catch up with myself at some point then I’d begin to forget the very things that I intended to write about in the first place and who wants to read the memories that have become rose tinted?

So I leap from the London show of the tour, past the brighton and paris shows and onto the hyde park concert…….if that’s ok.

On Wednesday I got a call from Johnny to say that we’d be leaving a day early to have a meeting regarding the upcoming proms show in Antwerp, we’d be travelling on the train to London and the boys would be flying down the following day to meet up with us. This in mind I packed the additional pair of socks I hadn’t accounted for and made my way to the station the following morning. Thursday following we met with an extremely pleasant Belgian man and talked over possible songs to perform and listened to some of the other acts that were due to appear on the bill alongside us. I left shars house and made my way to the hotel for a shower and a lie down. Then I called ally.

On Friday I woke early. My head was sore, my mouth was dry and my clothes were strewn across the room. I met up with ally and his wife in hampstead and somehow had managed to convince them to come back to the hotel for some drinks……I knew I would be away for over a week and had that insatiable urge to get the ball rolling early. After a bit of breakfast and a cool shower I went to the bar for a coffee and met eddie, tony and neil there fresh from their flight down. They dumped their bags and we made our way into the oppressive London heat and to the rehearsal studio.

When we arrived there a group of young girls were waiting outside peering at the blacked out windows of our van, I couldn’t help but pre-empt their disappointment when they would see four guys they wouldn’t recognise or care for. Although in saying this one girl shouted and pointed out the fact that tony looked like preston from the ordinary boys…….but smaller.

The crew were already in and had all the gear set up and ready. Rehearsals are strange because we rehearse on a full stage with all the gear set up just as it is in a gig and to stand, or in some cases sit, and play with just the crew watcing is weird. It makes you realise how important it is to have the vibe from the audience. There were two gigs to rehearse for today – hyde park and the GAY night at the Astoria. Two completely polar opposite sets. It takes a while to get going as everyone goes through the hello process and we watch some videos of a strange Chinese man being launched from water rockets on PK’s computer.

The set is run through and the songs for GAY are planned and tried out in various formats, tony is reluctant to sing sleep as he can already predict the state he’ll be in by half past one in the morning following the hyde park show. He gets told to do it.

Back to the hotel, pizza express and into town for the Astoria soundcheck. The Astoria is a cool venue – I like it a lot. Its got a kind of shabby vibe that I only really ever feel in small run down venues so to feel the same way in a bigger venue feels great. Everything looks as though its been painted black until chipped and then painted black again, this process lasting until it falls to pieces and is then taped up and painted black. The crew are there and have a look on their face that syas they would really love to get out of there as quickly as possible so we speed through the soundcheck and make our return journey to the hotel where we get ourselves into all sorts of trouble. And I have a fight with Kevin our tour manager…….but that’s a whole other story.

The following morning I rinse my mouth out from the tap and wish that I’d a) not picked fights with our tour manager….. even if I was right
b) not signed so many rounds of drinks to my room

but I live and learn. Its still dark in my room but I know that behind the heavy cream drapes is a blistering London heat and two shows to be played, and I can’t do that whilst avoiding booze.

As usual I meet neil and head out for lunch in shepherds bush and after a quick greasy bite and a shower I sleep again for an hour before getting ready to travel to hyde park.

The car has to stop on the outskirts of the park and wait for a small golf cart to lead us through a path full of weird looking people. There’s a guy on rollerblades acting up big time and everywhere you look there are semi naked women (and men unfortunately) the driver tells us that on more than one occasion today he’s nearly ploughed the van into the trees while watching the ladies go by. As we pull towards the gates the football starts on the radio and I feign interest and go with ally and neil to the catering tent to watch the first half.
Andy dockerty and young Kenny (marks assistant today) are in the catering watching the football and have a genuine interest in the game as opposed to the majority who like me seem to be faking it a bit. Within ten minutes andy and Kenny have to leave to rig the stage and I’m suddenly reminded of the fact that we’ll be on stage soon. Time for a beer.

The backstage area is pretty cool today and there’s a lot of folk hanging around – I can never recognise anyone though. One time last year I was with shar and Johnny in London when Johnny thought he’d spotted keira nightly in a deli. I was sure it wasn’t her and I headed in to pretened to buy a can of real lemonade (which was disgusting) and stood right beside her. When I came out I said “no – no way its her” and it was (ok …..crap story but it makes a point)

Not long after I settle I’m pulled up again and we’re on our way to the stage. It’s a big stage today and walking on feels great – until I see the big screen at the back of the park and realise the football is still on. But its not going to ruin an amazing experience for us all and in the front row some real texas fans spur us on in the heat.

The gig goes as would be expected and just before nevermind England lose and are out of the world cup – I feel a bit for them but remind myself its only a game and whats all the fuss about. During the last song I take in the sight of at least 60,000 people as I walk back to my drumkit for the end of say what you want. Then some twat throws a shoe at shar and it all kicks off. I’ll be honest and say that I think the whole shoe incident was reported in a typical tabloid way – shar didn’t storm off stage and throw down her mic – she just acted the way anyone would if someone randomly threw a shoe at them. The guy looked like an idiot – I could see him from where I was sitting and despite his girlfriend trying to calm him down (who he later pushed to the side) he swore back and stormed off in a huff. I wish that PK (production manager) had been able to get over the barrier he was trying so hard to get over (security guys) and beat him up. Actually no – I wish the guy had got on stage and I could have seen tony doing his kung foo for real. Now that would have been funny. Like an angry Ronnie Corbett

When we came off stage little was said apart from how good the show had gone. We had time to relax and while some headed off to shower and wind down others stayed to watch the most boring show of all time. I stayed to drink and snooze briefly.

Before long the time had come to gather everyone together. I was sitting eating a burger kindly purchased by neil when tony and eddie stumbled towards us. Tony looked a little lob sided and I started to fear for his performance at the Astoria. We got ally and a few others backstage and headed in convoy to the Astoria. It wasn’t as easy as usual, the roads were blocked off for the euro pride marches and we were forced to walk at least 100 metres to the backstage door. It doesn’t sound that bad but the smell of pee could have made anyone of us sick and while tony was rattling from wall to wall I was sure he would be found lying in it were he left unattended.

The dressing room finally beckoned after six or seven flights of stairs and we hung around eating jelly sweets and drinking vodka and red bull until we got the call for stage. Backstage the heat was unbearable and I’d started to wish that I’d wore a little less clothing. Perhaps the tank top and tie were more of an autumn winter get up. As the music faded down I walked with eddie onto the stage and to our keyboards. It had been a good day and by the reaction of the crowd it looked like things were only goind to get better. (oh and while I wanted to finish the entry there I must add that tony performed without fault)