Sunday, March 22, 2009

Landing At Heathrow

I landed at Heathrow around 7am. No real trouble at customs, although their system was down and I had to wait for them to verify my work permit – took an extra 20 minutes. Oddly enough, once I cleared passport control, no one even glanced at my bags. Compared to my trouble at an East Germany checkpoint in 1989- my experience here has not bad at all. I’ve had much worse treatment out of the Canadians – nothing like a Kayak on your roof to make you look suspicious.

Got some of my money exchanged, ouch! It’s about 70% of the dollar exchanged to pounds. Hopefully the money made in the UK and exchanged as I go home will make up for it. I determined that Starbucks is as over priced here as it is in the states, but the jones for an 8am cookie was too strong – I’m now UK invested!

I am waiting around for Robert (the tour promoter) to drop off an artist leaving the country and to pick me up. Briana is due in around 12 or 1, so we’ll be back to pick her up then.

I met a Hungarian blues player in the airport, named Little G. He is just back from a tour in the states, mainly AL, TN and GA – seemed to have enjoyed his time, but was anxious to return home. He first got turned onto the blues by listening to John Lee Hooker records. He said he didn’t know what the hell the words were about but he could feel the blues and the music spoke to him. I don’t know if it’s the camaraderie of the troubadour or the camaraderie of the impoverished artist that allows an instant connection – but it always seems to be an immediate bond. We exchanged cards and hopefully will stay in touch (although he was not optimistic about country-folk touring in Hungary). I’ve been touring with country and folk music for twenty years now and I’ve never been optimistic about it either – so I’m undaunted in my quest to play in Hungary!

Well, here’s a new wrinkle. I just checked out the guitar and the nut is cracked. It started acting up on me in NC – buzzing horribly. It looked like the first string had been digging deep into the fret. I rigged it with a piece of paper between the string and the nut and made Friday night’s gig work, but it looks like now that dug out part has completely cracked through the nut. For the moment I have pushed the nut back together and it seems to be holding and playing well, but who knows for how long. First order of business today is to find someone to fix it (come to think of it - probably not going to happen on a Sunday). We are playing tonight at the Robin in Bilston – opening up for Chumbawumba. It’s one of our bigger gigs on this tour – so something’s going to have to work. The good thing about jet lag is that it leaves you without the energy to panic. Stay tuned for the “cracked nut” saga (can’t pass that up can ya’)!

1 comment:

  1. Back when I was performing covers in Deutschland ('79-'82) they LOVED country music. They really liked The Bellamy Brothers for dancing. Unfortunately, the Iron Curtain was up then, so I wasn't able to get across the Hungarian border with (or without) my band. Break a leg!

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