Forests Inlaws Woods & Squirels

So I am back home for a few days,then its a short drive down the road to Thetford Forrest out door gig in the UK cant be good ! And as its my local gig my wife her sister and the mother in law will be in attendance,you just know its gonna rain like mad.

The mother in law sixty years young, has loved Quo since the beginning and this is gonna be her first ever gig, holly shit its gonna rain in biblical proportions.
Well the Mighty Quo Rocked the branches of that Suffolk Forest and every one there was rocking all the way.
Mother in law loved it so Browny points for me with the missus. As for the rain well, it hardly came to anything at all,a great night was had by all.

OK so after rehearsal's at Shepperton working what, where and when, to fit in three new tracks off the new Quo album "QUID PRO QUO" (available in all good record shops and supermarkets especially Tesco) in to the set lineup, I am off to Gelsenkirchen Germany," I must just say at this point I think Two Way Traffic is possibly one of the best Quo songs I have ever heard and Lets Rock has grown on me to the point I believe this will become a Quo anthem.



Lost in Translation

 So I am driving in to Germany,saw this town name "Wankum" and would love to know what it means in German because in East London its something totally different.
I digress Gelsenkirchen nice venue set right on the side of a large canal,with even larger barges,its an out door amphitheatre as are many of the venues we visit on this German leg of the tour.

Guess what ? it rains not really hard not by Swiss standards but it was a wet gig, there where plenty of people who decided they where happy to hear the mighty quo from afar as the opposite bank of the canal was rammed with fans and there where gazebos on a near by bridge, shame as they are only getting a third of the experience at best,but still they came.

Whilst there I needed to get the Toll Collect box serviced, this is a box in the cab of the truck which electronically registers all road tolls incurred on German roads then your account is relieved of a few quid. I drop my trailer at the gig and bob tail to a local garage, on arrival I walk up to the first person I see apologise that my German is rubbish and ask if they speak English ? 
 I' lad said the Yorkshire man in front of me ! whats the chances.

Well I am now off to Dresden but the band and a certain merchandiser a Mr Grant Coleman they are off to the airport to get the Private Jet to Mallorca to appear on a show called Wetten Das the biggest show of its kind on Spanish TV and to make matters worse the poor loves have to share the sofa with Cameron Diaz & Jeniffer Lopez I don't know how they cope !!

So Dresden a Lovely German city in the North East of the country very near the Cezka Boarder.I was in Dresden last during the world cup touring with U2 and had the opportunity to have a good look around so was looking forward to a return visit, however the gig was on the outskirts of the city set in the grounds of a large imposing museum type building so I spent my day off in the woods,oh ! and it rained!! but I did meet a Red Headed bit of tail, totally Nutty though.



My Redhead total Nut's

Bit like the fans who braved the rain to be stood in the woods at eight am in the hope of catching a glimpse of their idols and stayed put until the gates opened.
The fans of "Status Quo" you have got to admire their tenacity and just total commitment to the band they love I really do take my hat of to them all.

The only other draw back to being parked in the woods for two days is ... well .... there are no loos.... I think we can leave that there.

The crew have asked me to try and get sixteen wheels fitted to our risers because we need to be able to roll all our set on and off stage, when we get to Munchen.
Well needless to say not a chance in the woods.
So the gig, well its was a wet show very wet indeed, but worse than that was the fact that the front of the stage had a large oval front to it,"this is a problem why I hear you ask",

Well status Quo know and love their fans, they recognise faces in the front and they love to get the reaction of the crowd up close, well with this large oval and then the barrier in front of the stage it meant that their fans where a good twelve meters away from the front of the stage,not the way the band like to work,but what can you do. 
Short of going at it with a JCB !!! so we just had to get on with it,not that the crowd seem bothered nothing dampened their spirits not even the rain and it was another great night.

Next stop Hamburg this time I have got another day off so I check with the local promoter "can I park at the gig" not a problem just park up next to the dumpster! he said, he never told me that the dumpster was on the side of a main road and it was not possible to park in the venue not even when it came to loading in,well another full day with no toilet !!
we have been there so I take myself off to the nearest Auto Hoff, so no site seeing got done and no wheels got fitted either !
Wet gig full house job done.

So I am off to MUNCHEN !! we need to roll last chance saloon,well while I am sweating about wheels the band and crew go to Bremerhaven and do a gig with the B.Rig which is basically a duplicate set to which I carry all the time, we use this when time restraints make it impossible to cover the distances involved in the time available.