Radlett Centre Sun April 18th

What an odd one THIS has turned out to be…..several months ago our gigmeister, Alan Field, had asked us if we’d be up for doing a one-off show in aid of Habad, a Jewish children’s charity which he’s involved with. As we were clear that weekend and it fell quite soon after the end of the tour we said yes, and then put it on a back-burner while the tour prep all took place. Well, the grunt and grind of the tour has been well documented elsewhere in this blog, so I’ll say no more about that, but couple that with the band scooting straight off to Germany and Sweden afterwards, and suddenly the charity show was right upon us. It was always going to be a BIT different as we’d been specifically asked to incorporate songstrel Ellie Leah back into the show, which was fine, but then became a LOT different when some delinquent cloud of Icelandic ash brought the airways of the Northern hemisphere to a sudden halt, grounding our guitarist Phil in Gothenburg…which was NOT fine, not fine at all. We’ve had to work without him once before, a year or two back, when Ryanair did one of their random flight cancellation things and he couldn’t make a show in Kings Lynn, but this is different. We haven’t worked with Ellie in over a year, so we were planning on using the touring show as a template and then just adding Ellie’s numbers. With no Phil we suddenly realise how much of the set we now can’t do, so Den gets to work on coming up with a Plan B. To be honest it’s still better than most people’s Plan A, but it’s nonetheless all a bit seat of the pants. He’s had to change a lot of the visuals, too, so I’ll have to go through all of those with Tomps
( who fortunately is being his usual cool, unflappable self ), and to really cap it off Rodders isn’t doing this show, so we’re back to the Stone Age with us doing the best we can with what lights we find, and me trying to cue a house lighting guy who has never seen the show before. We’ve been more comfortable before curtain up, I must admit….! The venue’s a nice, new little theatre, though, just perfect for this show, and it’s great to see Pug, Tomps, Nick and Lids again. I’ve kind of hoped we’ll just drop back into the touring groove, but everything’s so different, from the way we have to lay the stage out to the fact that there’s no Rodders bustling about with his MACs, and to make things even more fun we’re on a later get-in; this would have been fine when Phil was still involved, but now there’s a lot of work to do and a lot of rehearsal to get through, and losing that extra hour doesn’t seem such a clever idea all of a sudden. Chris and Paul, the house lighting guys, are helpful and quick, but we gradually become aware that there’s really not much in the way of lighting in here, and without the MACs we could struggle to make a visual impact. I also realise when I come to test them that only one of the two remaining flame pyrotechnics kept back from the tour is working, so that’s going to look a bit pants too. Things are stacking up….It’s odd seeing the “ four – piece “ Overtures line-up again after so long on the tour; Den should be centre stage as usual but he’s not, he’s on stage left and Jamie’s swapped over completely ! Weird that such small things can throw you, but when you’ve had two months of doing things a certain way, they do. There’s no Black Box Of Bafflement tonight either due to Phil’s absence, so Nu Nu the smoke machine is redundant, and sits looking forlorn at the front of the stage, until I take pity on him and plug him in under the drum riser. Poor little fella. The weirdness continues as the charity’s main man gets onstage to describe what the organisation does, how they’re looking to raise money and so on, then he introduces a DVD showing some of the kids the charity helps. It’s desperately sad, showing these poor kids who have been maimed by warfare or serious medical problems, and everything’s very sombre….then suddenly it’s over and the band are due on….not exactly the ideal warm-up to get people in a party mood, to be honest, but the charity is what tonight’s all about, so we just get on with it. Everything sounds different, too, but the biggest miss is Rodders and his lights; Chris and Paul are manfully doing what I ask them to but there’s no drama, no snappiness, and it’s all a bit lame, despite the guys’ best intentions. Ellie’s entrance sparks things up a bit; she absolutely wallops “ You’re My World “ right between the eyes, then goes for the knockout punch with “ River Deep, Mountain High ! She’s got a set of lungs on her, this girl, and no mistake…..The first half seems to take ages, but it eventually comes to a close and we can regroup. We do a bit of light-tweaking and I set out my sad, lonely little pyro, then we’re off and running again. As Den walks onstage in darkness to start “ Blowing In The Wind “ I tell Paul on the follow-spot “ When you hear the guitar start, pick up the centre – stage vocal and hold him “….except that there IS no centre –stage vocal of course…he’s over on the bloody left tonight, isn’t he ? Arsebiscuits ! It’s like searchlights during the Blitz for a few seconds as the spot sweeps the stage trying to lock on to Den, but finally Paul gets him and everything settles down again. It actually goes remarkably smoothly, even the two “ playback “ songs where Phil’s guitar really does come to the fore. The lone pyro in “ Light My Fire “ IS naff, but the look on the faces of the people in the centre front row as it bursts into flame and they feel the burn from it is worth the admission price alone ! Ellie’s back onstage for
“ Shout “ and from then on in it’s game, set and match, with the old show – closers of “ Surfin’ USA”, “ Mony Mony “ and “ Daydream Believer “ before the ubiquitous
“ You’ll Never Walk Alone “. This isn’t the noisiest audience we’ve ever played to, and the band have to be nippy getting back onstage for the encore, but they’re appreciative enough, and the main thing is that money gets raised for the charity. After the show we try to remember which cases everything goes back into, and it’s all taking a bit too long, but we’re not that far a drive from base tonight so it doesn’t matter so much. It’s been great to see the band, Jill and Sherry again, and it wouldn’t be a Bootleg’s gig without seeing Marilyn bopping around in her tour t-shirt ! We also hear that the band have been confirmed onto the festival in Majorca that the German TV bods wanted them to do after the triumph in Munich ( though it turns out it’s with Joss Stone , not The Rolling Stones …something lost in translation there, perhaps!) Ellie’s also landed herself an eight-month contract in the stage show “ Sister Act”, which is fantastic news, so there are plenty of positives….but it just somehow hasn’t felt right, and it’s not just because of Phil’s absence…they always say you can never totally recreate a tour “ vibe” ( and yes, I DO still hate that word ), even if you’ve got all the same people involved, and I think that’s what’s happened here….instead of going on to the next gig, we’re going our separate ways, and there’s a bit of an “ after the Lord Mayor’s show “ feeling about tonight. There’s also the very real underlying sadness that this could be Pug’s last ever show with us; the personal issue that dogged his last days on the tour hasn’t turned out well, and he feels the best thing to do is to get completely away, so he’s all set to head off to Australia on a one-way ticket. He’s been so much a part of the team for the past few years that I can’t imagine him not being there, so we vow that we’re definitely going to take the show out to Oz, and he can be our monitor guy when we finally get to that land of convicts, crap daytime soaps and piss-weak beer. So as we shut the van doors and say our goodbyes to each other, that’s about it for The Booties…..we’re back out on August 26th for sixteen days, all being well, but for now the Black Box Of Bafflement, Nu Nu and the pyros are all going into hibernation for a bit. I’ll still keep on posting the odd message from the frontline, though….who knows WHAT might happen between now and August….?!!!