If you can remember what the last day of school before summer vacation feels like…that’s what the last day of tour feels like. It’s a good feeling. Especially when you know you don’t have to say goodbye to everyone forever since we’ll be back on the road in 6 weeks time.
I’m sure you’ve all heard rumors of Christine coming to the last show, and you might be surprised to know that even we didn’t know if she was coming. Late in the day we found out she would be attending the show, but not performing. She came early and hung out, watched the show and stayed for a while after the show as well. She and Stevie were like schoolgirls, giggling and chatting. She looks fantastic, might I add.
My personal victory of the day was at soundcheck. One of my favorite songs is Trouble, one of Lindsey’s solo songs. I beg and plead about once a month for him to play it at soundcheck, to no avail. But in London, I used the “as a going away present to the crew” excuse, and he finally agreed. So after the rest of the band left the stage, he stayed, along with the back-up band and I finally got my Trouble. It was so good. In September, Lindsey recorded a show in Chicago for PBS called Soundstage, and about 12 of our crew stayed in Chicago to help out. I was lucky enough to be one of them, because there was very little work required and we basically got to sit around and watch Lindsey and the back-up band rehearse and screw around. Stevie came for a few songs too. He performed Trouble, and a handful of other great songs. I highly suggest you check it out when it airs, if it turned out half as good as it was live, it’ll be worth your time. And that wasn’t a shameless plug, I swear, when he did Trouble at soundcheck it reminded me of the Soundstage show, and how good it was.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand. The show went well, the band gave thanks to Christine during the introductions, before we knew it Mick was on stage screaming “The Mac is Back” and our last European show was over. The band stayed late, being that Christine was there and that it was our last show for a while, but eventually everyone filed out, a few hours later load out was over and we also left. We headed back to the hotel where the hotel bar was packed with our crew. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning having our own little going away party, and for those of us with early flights (myself included) I think the decision was made at about 4:00AM to forgo sleep and just head straight from the bar to the airport.
Turned out to be a good decision, I slept for nearly 7 hours of an 11 hour flight. I had a 3 hour layover in LA, and at 7:00 yesterday evening, I touched down in lovely San Francisco, and was delighted to get home, get in my own bed and sleep for 24 hours. As I write this I am cuddled up in bed with my cats and a cup of tea. It’s good to be home.
I hope I’ve done my job of at least providing a little entertainment and giving you a window into our world. I can only hope that I’ve conveyed how much fun it is out here, and how thankful I am to have been a part of it. Until next time…
