Terminal 5 & Nassau Coliseum

 This latest North American tour was one of the hardest ever. After rehearsals in Reno primarily to put a show together for the Royal Albert Hall on April 10^th, we kicked off well but it wasn’t long before I caught something from the cold arenas we were playing, and soon we were all sick. Even the normally bullet proof voice that Chrissie possesses was in trouble. We ended up cancelling five shows overall. This is unprecedented in our history. I battled on against the cold drafts that distracted me and covered up best I could, resorting to wearing my robe whilst playing. Even with heaters behind me it was hard work.

 We ended up getting back to 85% for the Terminal 5 show in Manhattan on April the 3rd. When we arrived for the sound check for that one, we walked into the gig to see our sound man Pete Bartlett on Bass, my drum tech Davey Latter on drums, and John McEnroe on guitar playing ‘Purple Haze’!! It was a great way to start proceedings in NYC.

Photo: Valerie Simadis

  I had invited the legendary Seymour Stein who signed us to his Sire Records label all those years ago along with The Ramones, Talking Heads and Madonna (well three out of four ain’t bad). He was in attendance above stage left. He also hung out with us backstage after the show along with my good friends Johnny Mc, eminent photographer Bob Gruen, my former record breaking DJ friend Anita Gevinson and many more. It was a night to remember, especially as I may have been the only one who was aware that exactly thirty seven years earlier Chrissie was arrested by the cops in Memphis, TN (and thrown in clink for the night!!).

  On the 5th of April, we flew up to Manchester, NH for the

penultimate Stevie show.

Photo: Valerie Simadis

We were now all feeling a lot better after our illnesses and psychological trauma of letting down the fans. On the return flight to the Nassau Coliseum the weather was very bad and our flight was delayed for two hours. After a further delay, our trusty tour manager booked a private jet to get us to the show on time. The aircraft was small and the captain looked sober so we took off into the ‘whiteout’ for forty minutes and arrived safely just in time for a brief sound check.

After Chrissie and Stevie did the duet, which was the third song in the set, Stevie invited us lads onto the stage to take a bow because it was the final North American show. Stevie is truly a great girl. It was a pleasure kissing her in front of 10,000 people and thanking her band(and of course a special thank you to Ricky Peterson who helped us out on keyboards for a few shows.) Stevie loved my 24 karat ‘Vans’ I had worn for the shows!!
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Then it was back to the hotel for three hours sleep before our flight to the UK.
A special thank you to all our fans that came out to see us in North America on this troublesome tour. My humblest apologies for the cancelled shows and all your inconvenience, but over thirty nine years to have only ever cancelled a total of seven shows, I guess it’s a good average.We will always do our best for you.

Big love and thank you.
M.D.C.