Well, we had our first snag (non-health related anyway) of the tour. We arrived at the Cotton Tree Pub in Bolton (between Manchester and Liverpool) for a 7pm sound check. The first thing out of the club owner’s mouth was, “I thought you guys had cancelled” (…right)! The second thing out of his mouth was, “I have the music room already booked out”. He went on to say, “I don’t have a contract on this gig – I don’t know whether I’m paying you or you’re paying me”. The loud side of my inner voice replied, “well it aint option two there buddy”! He went on to suggest that he had never received any promo stuff, so no radio or print promo had been down for the gig. After some “involved” conversation he suggested we could play in the smaller bar area, rather than the main music venue room. We met privately regarding this idea and after say……2 milliseconds, decided we would just move along. So we made the long journey back tonight to our home base in Basingtoke.
However, the day was not a total cluster$#@%! Earlier in the day we had a chance to spend several hours in Liverpool. Liverpool is a major port town on the Irish Sea. The wind coming off the water blew through like it was blowing through a tunnel, straight down the narrow streets of the downtown district. If I was cold, you now it was cold.
Liverpool has some aspects of Broadway in NYC- with urban hype and shopping, but also has that Old English, cobble stone streets, troubadours and ancient churches. To me it’s actually, very Youngstown, Ohio looking. I found it very interesting and beautiful in its own way. Robert says that “Liverpoolians (my word) have an almost secessionist mindset to them and even talk in a very different dialect. I didn’t pick that up myself, but it seems obvious to him. There is also quite the rivalry between Robert’s Manchester United Soccer team (to my new found UK friends, I can’t call it football yet – but I’m trying) and the Liverpool team. In fact, the sports rivalries here carry an incredible weight of emotion, passion and meaning to them, far more so than in the states. In a discussion in one pub, it was suggested to me that they can break along hard cultural and even religious grounds. Doesn’t everything these days!
Most notable about our Liverpool jaunt was a visit to the famous “Matthew Street District” and the “Cavern” where the Beatles first started performing. The original “Cavern” was torn down in 1972 to make way for subway venting shafts. Before you yell and curse about the sacrilege of it all (I did) know that it was rebuilt on the same site years later, using almost all the original brick. So, they say it looks pretty close to the way it did in Fab 4 days. There are several flights of stairs to walk down and it has a real Brickskellar feel to it - very cave or “Cavern” like. And like most legendary places (except for maybe the Grand Canyon) – much smaller than I would have guessed. I took pictures, mainly thinking of Jim Moran on this one. In fact, I have been taking pictures all along and had intended on posting them along with the text blog….but I forgot the usb cord. So, that may be a “post-edit”!
We are headed to Worcester tomorrow night – so far still all cough and no voice. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Maybe the night off tonight and a full day on antibiotics will help.
I think when the Beatles first hit America, I recall Ringo using the term "Liverpuddlians" (as in "puddle", as opposed to "pool")
ReplyDeleteI've had that some sort of bad experience with club owners before.
In Germany there were a couple of places that would book us with (it turned out) the intent of using us as placeholders while they continued to search for another group.
That didn't last very long...