Simone and I drove down to Calw from Karlsruhe on Friday, the day of the gig. Id never driven in this area which is on the Northern edge of the Black Forest and on this 30 degree sunny day I couldnt have picked a more pleasant and scenic journey. My guys were just hanging around in the square waiting on our soundcheck as we arrived thanks to my Tom Tom as wed checked in the hotel 18 klicks away in the wilderness before winding our way through hills and forest to Calw. (However did we used to get around before Sat Nav systems?) The one very strange thing that happened at soundcheck was that Id noticed the clouds in a mostly blue sky had formed what appeared to be a giant circle and a looked like a hole in the heavens.What really struck me was that a twin vapour trailed jet seemed, because of the perspectives involved to be flying straight up through it. I was kind of mesmerised by this and called it to the attention of the other guys on stage saying that the airplane looked like it was aimed at the heavens. At the time I had no idea of what had happened the day before and was shocked when I received a text from a friend an hour or so later telling me as he had only just been told himself. The timing was very spooky and the tragic events seemed in another world. After soundcheck I had a photo session that had been requested a couple of days earlier by a photographer, Kai R Joachim. I checked his web site out and his galleries were really impressive. I agreed to go for it and we spent the first 30 mins after meeting drinking coffee and chatting as he wanted to get to know me before we started the session. He was great company and I was getting concerned we were talking too much and would run out of time for photos as he wanted to get some in the empty market square and doors were close to opening. I neednt have been concerned and Kai and his assistant, also Kai, had set ups in place and the 4 locations he wanted were covered in less than 30 minutes. I saw the photos on his Nikon camera screen and they looked terrific! Kai sent me the untouched results last night and I have to say they are some of the best photos taken of me for a very long time. He was great and so easy to work with and I think we both identified kindred spirits! Youll get see some shots when he has photo shopped my hair in! :-) I sacrificed my dinner until after show as we were on at 7 and I only had an hour or so left. Too close to eat before stage and especially in that heat as the sun was still beaming into the Marktplatz which now had about 3000 people in it who were grateful for the numerous beer stalls. Manfred Mann popped into the dressing room to say hi and told me his partner is a huge Fish fan and he knows all my music as its constantly played in his house! :-) He was really friendly and courteous and it was an honour to chat to such an immensely talented musician who Ive admired for a very long time. The entire backstage area had a great vibe with both Manfreds band and the Uriah Heep guys and their teams all very friendly. Its good to work with old school guys like myself! :-) We had an hour and ten minutes on stage and were first up to be followed by Manfred with Heep closing the night. We were never going to worry either band both who have great musicians and a barrage of hits to bring out. With no announcement we began Perfume River and I walked out wearing my German football 3 star strip to the expected roar of approval and we started to engage an audience who I knew were mostly going to be unfamiliar with the Feast material. I could feel the vibe grow in the Marktplatz as the song went up the gears and when the acoustic exploded with the lead out riff the hands were straight up and we were in there. Feast kept the tempo and the participation up and expanding the sea of hands further back into the crowd.The 2 new songs had hit home and we started Script to another roar of approval. It was weird having our images projected onto the huge backdrop, turning around to see a 10 metre high grinning Gavin Griffiths is particularly scary! :-) Script was perfect to play with cameras and apart from someone ( it was said to be the singer although Im not convinced) screwing up in the first heavy sections where we had to do some quick repair work we pulled it off. Crucifix Corner went down particularly well and then the stage emptied to leave Robin and I with Blind to the Beautiful. I dedicated it to the children on board flight MH17 and to the children of Gaza and the people approved. It was an inspired version and the entire square came with us all hands in the air, clapping in unison.It was a touching moment. We finished with a furious medley as I decided to drop Big Wedge then and there into an encore slot as I knew before we even started Assassin that we were going to get one. The medley was slightly lengthened as we could afford to let those choruses and handclapping sessions extend and when we tumbled it all down into the wall of sound in View from a Hill the reaction was incredible. Big big smiles! We left the stage and almost immediately ran back on to launch Big Wedge into a very happy crowd coming off a few minutes late but with a crowd reaction that let us off with the stage manager who also had a big smile on his face! :-) It was a fine result and Simone who had been manning the merchandise stand was well pleased as we had obviously recruited quite a few more fishheads judging by the sales of the albums. Congratulated by Manfreds band and the Heep boys on our way to the dressing room and much needed liquids it was a great feeling to know wed done a job and beyond and everyone was beaming. Manfred started his set just as we relieved Simone and Yatta and the 2 of us went for a nice quiet dinner in the nearby restaurant with his set echoing in the square. A chilled come down for a change! A bottle of wine and a fresh trout later we were taking down the merch just as Uriah Heep came onstage. Manfred had gone down a storm but Uriah Heep more than matched them. It was a great bill and the Calw crowd were more than happy. Some of the circus elected to hang on till the end but I wanted to get back to the hotel as Simone hadnt had a drink as she was driving and we both wanted to get some us time as I was only there for a few days. We headed off into the night Tom Tom glowing. Everyone had left for the airport by the time we got up. Coffee with Dominic and a discussion on the Autumn tour before we set the destination up again and drove off into the never ending Black Forest. I had another couple of days in Germany with a memorable show and it was a great start to a great weekend that belongs in another story.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 16:18:37 +0000
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