Today was the last gig of the tour and what a way to end it, in The Metro, Chicago where The Ramones and Iggy Pop have all graced the stage many times!
We decided to make the most of the day and got up at about 10am. We pottered about for a while getting ready and making use of the free wi-fi. A huge tour bus and trailer pulled into the car park of the hotel at about midday so that kept our nosey minds busy as we speculated as to who it may be!
At about 1pm, Frank drove us to the beach! It felt like I was on holiday the only problem being that the rest of the Hedrons were there. There is absolutely no way I would go on holiday with them. Touring is bad enough. Gill has been making threats about us going to Tenerife sometime. That would be a bad combo. Rhythm and Booze hitting the bars there would end in carnage. Someone at our management company once got wind of this talk and said absolutely no way! Ha ha ha! They know us too well!
The beach we went to was at Lake Michigan. When I say lake, it’s more like a sea as you can’t see the other side. We stayed there for a couple of hours sitting on the sand lapping up the sun. Another tough day at the office. The other 3 Hedrons are quite fair skinned so they were raging that I managed to get a good bit of tanning action!
We had to leave the beach at about 3pm and head over to the gig. We managed to get our sound check and everything out the way by about 5pm so we went for dinner along the road where we sat in the sun some more! The venue was quite stunning. It was a smaller version of the Barras back home. The stage was massive and there was a balcony looking right onto it. We had quite a big crowd which we were really chuffed about since we wanted to make sure the last show was full-on, using up every last bit of energy we had! There were actually 2 people there from Chicago who had seen us play in Whistlebinkies in Edinburgh over 2 years ago when they were there on holiday. They couldn’t believe that we were now playing in their home town and brought loads of friends with them which was great.
We spoke to a lot of people at the swag stand after the show and even managed to get rid of all the t-shirts! I ended up taking the last 2 t-shirts out to the street where loads of people from the gig were still standing about. I wooed them with my sales patter and within a couple of minutes they were snapped up. Result! The next batch will be a different design so anyone who has the black t-shirt with the white logo has a limited edition one.
Many lovely people bought us shots in the the bar before we were herded into the bus by Frank. The madness was starting up again. Ach well, it was the last night, why not?! We got to the party room (Frank’s) and set up the bar from the sink which was filled with ice. Just as we got the tunes on the go, the huge tour bus we’d seen earlier in the car park, pulled in across from our rooms! The bold Gill and Tippi went to investigate. By the time I’d poured a gin, they’d disappeared. I guessed they must’ve been on the tour bus so I opened the door to it and climbed aboard! Gallus or what?!
I could hear chat from the back in the sitting room so I walked in and there they were - quite at home - drinks in hand blethering away to a couple of musician type chaps. The band had just headlined the stage we played at the Chicago festival the previous day and were called Mofro. They were very hospitable and glad of different company, as we were too! I would compare their sound to that of Bill Withers, which is no bad thing at all.
I’m a big fan of Mr Withers so their sound was quite appealing. Rosie and Frank joined us and we took over the place! We always manage to find a party! The acoustic guitars and harmonicas came out and we had a good sing song, making up nonsense words and generally making a racket.
It was about 3:30 when I got in....according to Rosie. Not good as I had to be up at 9am. I must learn to go to bed earlier before my face starts to look like Keith Richards’! There’s nothing Oil of Olay can do for you once wrinkles like that set in.
Soup x
