Friday, 5th May 2006 in Tours & Gigs, Canada & U.S. May 2006.
The big breakfast at The Farm Café, just a few minutes down the road. Eggs, fried potatoes, bacon, mushrooms and black pudding which is blood and gore held together with lumps of fat as far as I can tell, but then again what do I know? Must be a boy thing. Seemed to set them up for the long road to Cox’s Yard Stratford-On –Avon. I had one of their famous king size scones which gave me a ‘rock in the stomach’ feeling as far as the M6 so I think the guys won on that one.
Cox’s Yard- we were here last year with The Rutles. A beautiful spacious green room (dressing/relaxing room) with glass doors leading to balconies overlooking the river with gaggles of geese, flights of ducks and swathes of swans making a cacaphonic noise well into the night. No boats drifted romantically through the bridge arches however – think it is a tad on the cold side to be caught coatless on the Avon. August’s the only safe time for that sort of thing.
Nice gig – good sound and a responsive audience. Neil doesn’t eat before a show but was promised something to munch as soon as the show was over. He never got it. The manager said the kitchen was closed. Meanness or what? The rest of the staff –sound and hospitality -were lovely but we have found that all it takes is a manager who has issues to give you a bad feeling. Some gigs cant do enough for you and others cant take enough from you. Talking about this a day later we were told about a very popular performer who turned up somewhere in the north after a six hour drive. He did the sound check and then had to ask for a cup of tea. He was told he would have to pay £2.50 for it!!!!! Roadrunner did us proud with the hotel – the Chalecote Pheasant. Wondered whether this was named in honour of a particular breed of bird or whether it was actually a cunningly disguised Travelodge- the Chalecote Peasant. (Nb Travelodges are a cheap overnight hotel – some Ok but most smelly and usually attached to a fast food outlet of the kind that is spattered all along the motorways in UK US and Canada.) But no, this hotel was good. JJ had the best deal. His room was damp so he was moved to a suite. Jealousy all round- rest of us wasted a few minutes looking for damp patches.