Radlett Centre Wed March 16th

If it’s Wednesday, it must be Radlett…..we played here last year just after the tour finished when we did a one – off charity show for our agent Alan Field, and I remember it as being a bit weird….no Rodders, as he’d gone off on Runrig or Gary Numan, and we had Ellie Leah back in the show to do four or five numbers. It was just near enough and yet far enough away from the tour to be really odd…things kind of clicked into place easily enough as we’d only finished the main tour a couple of weeks before, but then a new tune would come along, or Ellie would come onstage, and it was all a bit unsettling, especially as I’d had to go back to calling the lighting cues to the house, having been so used to Rodders handling all this. A year on and we’ve only seen Ellie once since, at Steve’s wedding, as she’d joined the cast of Sister Act in the West End, but other than that it’s business as usual for us this time round. Big John’s day hasn’t started well….he was slumbering like a baby ( if you can imagine a six foot four, bearded baby ) in his bunk when along came some Great British Workmen who wanted to dig up the road, right where he was parked. Now, normally, if someone asks Big John to move the bus once he’s parked up and asleep, the ensuing fireworks make the current shenanigans in Libya look like a vicarage bonfire night party, but he complies without anyone losing a limb or a head. The respite is temporary, though, as these doughty artisans set to with the old pneumatic drills, making further sleep impossible ( except for Jamie, of course, who is ensconced in his Magic Bunk, which sends it’s occupant into a slumber so deep we can only tell he’s not dead by saying the word “ beer” and watching his nose twitch ). When I arrive at the gig in one of the vans John is stalking around the car park looking for all the world like a grizzly bear in search of fresh prey, but luckily when he sees me he breaks into a smile….I’ll not be on the menu today, then. The only saving grace about all this racket is that we’re just a few miles up the road at Stevenage tomorrow, so John will have plenty of time to catch up on his zeds. The Radlett Centre is another cool little theatre, and the only slightly bizarre thing about it is that the extra row of seats they’ve installed in the front is about six inches away from our PA system….not a problem were we Metallica or similar purveyors of noise, because those fans actually want their heads inside the speakers. I mean, I know some of our fans are getting on a bit, and may be a little hard of hearing, but this is ridiculous !! Fortunately good sense prevails, and they’re moved out of the way, thus avoiding the possibility of death by Bootleg Sixties. Alan’s actually here tonight ( he was going to come to Harlow but realised it clashed with the Champions League match between AC Milan and his beloved Spurs….we’re still smarting from the rejection ) so we have a bit of a catch-up about how the tour is going, plans for the future, and some offers we’ve had for later in the summer. It’s always good to see Alan, and it’s especially interesting this time as he’s also agent and manager for The Searchers, who have been crossing paths with us all over the country. He tells us that THEIR business has been a bit patchy too, and that’s actually a good thing for us to hear…we just have to keep believing that any problems we’re having with attendances are not down to the show being a pile of wombat poo, but are the result of economic factors and other stuff we don’t really understand. We’ve done over half a house here tonight which is pretty respectable for a first “ public “ gig ( the last one was a private show ) but even though the audience are very appreciative everything seems a bit flat after the sturm und drang of Scunthorpe’s mentalists last night, at least until the end, at which point, as we’ve already said, resistance is futile. This is pretty unfair, however, as Scunny was a bit special, and by any other measure tonight would be classed as s really good gig. Go Now makes a welcome return ( though it turns out to be a One Night Only engagement ! ) and everything else is as bang on as ever…..it just doesn’t take off like last night. Afterwards, however, Alan is fulsome in his praise, telling us how much the show has improved since last time and how much slicker it is. He’s been round the block a time or ten so he knows his onions, does Alan, and it’s good to hear his endorsement. The only place where we differ is that he’s very much in favour of us bringing Ellie or another girl singer back into the show right away, whereas we see this as a possible development for the future, along with the dancers, banjo player and fire-eating dwarf ( I’m joking, of course….we’d NEVER have a banjo player ). It’s all very cordial, though, and everyone’s in a pretty good mood afterwards. The band have the option of another night at home so they all scuttle off into the night ( except Phil, who, being based in Sweden, can’t quite make it home and back in time for tomorrow’s show, so like some Flying Dutchman of the motorways, he is doomed to forever travel around Britain in this bus ). Arthur and Nick also head home, leaving just the crew and Phil to make the run up to Stevenage. We get parked and powered up outside the Gordon Craig with no problems just before midnight, and then we remember there’s a 24 hour Tescos just across the car park !! I feel a Doritos hot salsa sauce and cool tortilla chips frenzy coming on, and the other lads keep saying the word “ cider” for some reason, so off we scoot. These all – night supermarkets are SO weird….it seems like the only other normal shoppers are policemen and nurses, because everyone ELSE must be a total stoner judging by the huge bags of crisps, chocolate, biscuits and other munchies – satisfying snacks their baskets are piled high with. I get to the till and plonk down my basket, piled high with crisps, chocolate and biscuits…….oops….