If You’re Going to San Francisco...

We spent seven nights at the Fairmont Hotel in Nob Hill, San Francisco. Getting acclimated to the eight hour time change, we ran up a couple of new songs for our sets across America at SIR studios where Norman the little dog kept us company. The Fairmont Hotel had bee hives near the gardens and I was witness to the honey harvest.

 

This hotel has quite a history. It was hit by the 1906 7.9 earthquake, but the structure survived and was rebuilt. In December 1961, Tony Bennett debuted the epic song ‘I left my heart in San Francisco’ in the Venetian Room. The room just reeks with the atmosphere of those days.

We did our first show at the Masonic three hundred yards away from the hotel and all
was well. It was a welcome change to hear the sound come together at sound check and the evening was great. We were lucky to have Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express opening
the show for us and I had a good ear full of that before I got changed and settled my anticipation of the evening. It’s all about good songs and Chuck has written quite a good selection over the years. After a few stretches and exercises I was warmed up and ready.

The following morning we flew from Oakland to Burbank and went straight to the Arroyo Seco Weekend in Pasadena. It was good to see Clem Burke at the show and swop a few stories.
After the show I saw a few friends and was happy to meet up with Jeff Goldblum and his wife Emilie. We had been on an adventure along with a couple hundred other guests cruising in the South China seas in 2016. Jeff and I had serenaded a few Proboscis Monkeys in the mangroves of Borneo with some old time songs. He was performing at the Arroyo Seco weekend but we had arrived to late to see him due to a delayed flight.

After Jack White and just before Neil Young finished his set we got out of there and I got an early night. The highlight of the day were the Specials who are from Coventry in England. Sadly, Brad died at the end of 2015. We had done some gigs with them in 1979 and they were just great guys to be around. It’s great to see them still doing it.

I was up at 5am to watch the 2nd England game in the World Cup against Panama. We beat them 6 - 1. Then as if by magic, I watched the F1 Grand Prix live from the Paul Ricard Circuit. The Englishman Lewis Hamilton won that one. A great start to the day and a flight from Burbank up to San Jose for our Mountain Winery show in Saratoga.

I sit in my dressing room writing this blog and realise what a privilege it is to do these performances and having done them with one band or another for the past fifty-one years.

Tomorrow we fly to Philly.

M.D.C.

Here We Go Again!

 At the end of April underneath the concrete of the Westway (a major carriageway heading west from Central London) we performed at a PETA gig in the newly appointed club Subteranea . It was surprisingly good even though it was a bit of a squash on the stage. It was both a promotion and a nod to Chrissie’s association with the organisation for the last 30 years. There were balconies above me either side so I could look the audience in the eye. It made a nice change. Everyone was pleased and I quickly disappeared back to my home in the ‘shire’.

 My time off consisted of a lot of physical work which helped keep me in shape. One job of many was shifting and scattering 6 tons of 20mm Hereford stone which helped lift my boots out of the Silurian clay/mud in the barnyard and give me a clean run to my new door. This was hard work but quite satisfying. After some final decisions on the barn build interior, there was a quick scramble to get my bag together, and in a few hours I was at the Heathrow airport hotel ready for next mornings flight to San Francisco.

 A few days previously, I had received a phone call from Johnny Borrell of the band Razorlight about getting some photos done for their new album that I had played on earlier in the year.

The photos were shot at the hotel at Heathrow, as (due to my flight in the morning), we needed an easily available location.

 Johnny told me the album was mixed and mastered and ready to go, so a few pictures were needed to put the finished package together for it’s release.

 

 The flight was uneventful and I dozed a little in between films. One notable film was Michael Caine narrating the film about the sixties called; ‘My Generation’. A must see.

 The sky was clear and blue as we flew over Hudson Bay and down past what was left of Mount St. Helens and on into the Bay Area. Today being the 16th of June and the 36th anniversary of James Honeyman-Scott’s untimely death, I looked down on the icebergs and continued to miss those days whilst enjoying every second of these.

The world cup tournament had started in Russia. This caused most games to be played in the morning hours here in the U.S.A. Good.

Mexico beat Germany 1-0 on the Sunday and England play their first game tomorrow (Monday 18^th).

All to play for.

M.D.C.