Sorry, this is going to be a long one. It’s decided. I’m moving to Dublin. Immediately. I can’t imagine a better place to be. Okay, I’m probably not moving to Dublin, but this city is phenomenal. After load out in Kiel we drove to Hamburg, arrived in the wee hours of the morning and slept such a small amount that it Shouldn’t even be referred to as sleep. Then we all headed to the airport the next morning to catch our plane to Dublin. We were a tired bunch, the plane was near empty, it was a 737 with only about 40 of us on board. It was really nice, everyone
had plenty of room to catch a nap on the 2 hour flight. I decided to tick everyone off and walk up and down the aisle taking pictures of people sleeping. (I only did it because I fell asleep for a half hour only to be woken up by multiple people snapping my photo. And let’s just say that nobody looks his or her best while sleeping in an upright position on an airplane. Who knew I had a double chin?? It‚s
news to me.)
We arrived to a lovely day in Dublin. We took a charter bus to the hotel, and within 20 minutes of checking in people were already down at the pub across the street having a real Guinness. (Or two, or seven.) Having been sleep deprived and unfed, two pints later I was more than ready for a nap. I woke up just in time to meet the lighting boys for my first night out in Ireland. I’ll just give the Cliff Notes version and say that we had a lot of fun. I would hate to incriminate anyone by saying anything further. Moving on….
The next morning Kramer, our production assistant, and I walked around and did some shopping. We’re in a great area with lots of little stores and restaurants. We ran in to John McVie who was out strolling the town as well. Then about an hour later we ran in to Mick. Word has it there is nothing to do near their hotel so it’s no wonder they had made the trek to our neck of the woods.
I’m sorry to say that I did not make the trip to tour the Guinness factory. I opted for a day of walking and shopping instead. But I’ll try and get a few pictures for you from one of the guys.
The gig in Dublin was an old brick building that looked like a train station. There was a cat that lived in the arena and I spent about an hour through out the day on
my hands and knees trying to befriend it. No luck. We played 2 shows in Dublin, the first of which was fantastic. Best crowd yet. Possibly feeding off the crowd’s energy, Lindsey went crazy during “Come” and careened into Stevie’s microphone stand, knocking it over and nearly killing himself. The crowd loved it. During his solo in “Don’t Stop”, often times he crouches down close to the crowd, well tonight he got a little too close and received a big fat kiss from a girl in the front row. And then there was the cutest little girl in the front row that was sitting on her Dad’s shoulders, and I think Stevie had someone give them passes for after the show. So there you go folks, if you have a cute kid, just come parade them at the show and you’ll get a backstage pass! I think Stevie has a soft spot for kids, kids and dogs. Speaking of dogs, Stevie’s dogs usually come on tour with us, and they couldn’t come to Europe because there’s something like a 6 week quarantine period to bring animals overseas. I’m definitely missing the presence of pets out here.
We didn’t have to load out after the first show since we’d be there again the following night, and we didn’t have to go in until 3:00 the next day, so there was a keg of Guinness is catering that night. Yay for beer.
The second show was just as great, Lindsey ran into the microphone stand again (you’d think he would have remembered it was there) after all, it is in the same place every single night. So that’s twice he’s nearly killed himself on a ribbon and rose covered microphone (he’s 2 for 2). Pretty soon we’ll be placing bets on it.
And then there was a little incident with one of the girls on the crew. You all may be familiar with Carlos Rios and Neale Heywood (two of our guitar players). Well let’s
just say the spirit of the Irish got into one of our girls and Carlos and Neale got flashed during “Go Your Own Way”. I have a picture of their faces when it happened. Good stuff.
Ireland was nothing short of perfect for me. For more reasons than I can explain. We fly to Newcastle today, and I’ll be sad to leave. I fell asleep last night to the
sounds of drunk Irishmen singing drinking songs at the top of their lungs outside my window. What a great city.
