Justin Currie - Wolverhampton 31/1/11

Monday morning I went solo...first stop, a train to Wolverhampton to see Justin Currie! I found a hotel for just $28 per night that was less than half a mile from the train station and less than half a mile from the venue. The heat worked fine but I don't think it had been dusted in a while...

Also, my room had a trouser press. I'm not really sure if people still use these, but it gave my room a nice vintage feel.

All in all, the Britannia Hotel served me well. The location was perfect, the price was right, and I felt very safe. Free wifi in the lobby allowed me to skype call and check in at home, and catch up on emails before heading out to the pub for dinner and the show.

Wolverhampton is not far from the industrial town of Birmingham (where Duran Duran is from!)

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and from what I could tell, there wasn't much going on there, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that there are some great shows coming through...

Of course, that's why I was there. I was a bit disconcerted (no pun intended0 to find that the venue had moved so I got a little turned around, and when I finally found it, I couldn't help but notice that the block was mostly adult book stores. Although I really like traveling alone, I did not relish the idea of walking home late by myself on this block. I sent up a prayer for reinforcements.

When the doors opened, we raced to the front, and I felt pretty alone up there having experienced a slightly cold shoulder outside from the strangest looking set of fans I've ever seen (and you have presumably just seen my Gathering photos! We're not exactly a normal bunch).

Then, Jen & Ben arrived...having a conversation very much like one Randy and I would have. She wanted to be right up front; he wasn't sure...it's hard to describe but felt instantly familiar. We became fast friends, and I found out they had been married 10 years with 2 kids and Ben was a worship leader. They insisted on walking me "home" after, and I recognize this as yet another prayer answered.

Justin took the stage and everyone sang along. The set list was pretty different from when we saw him in July in Denver. Justin is a bigger star in the UK since his band Del Amitri had more hits and sooner over there. It was fun to hear unfamiliar songs and feel the energy of everyone knowing them.

We hung around for a bit afterwards and were invited to a meet & greet with Justin. He was fairly accessible in Denver, but I wasn't sure if he'd be in the UK; Jen was truly shocked, and it was really fun to witness their first meeting. I'm stealing a pic from her FB page...

...and Ben took one of me & Justin, this time NOT BLURRY!

The next morning, I met up with Adam Dacey, a couchsurfing contact who has just embarked on his own musical career. We discussed playing in the States and life in Wolverhampton over coffee before I headed to the train station for my next adventures in Bath.

More Gathering...

I missed this photo from the first night...hanging out with Tim & Kelly at the Queen Vic:

and the Mastermind Quiz...our team, the Wasters!

Saturday, the big show was great. (Former Sex Pistol) Glen Matlock & The Philistines opened up. I downloaded his new release before going and have been enjoying it. It's pretty straight ahead punk rock. There were three backup singers -- two larger and older blonde ladies, one who reminded me of Blondie, and then a skinny brunette who looked like maybe she was on something or had an eating disorder. I'm always fascinated by a three-backup-singer lineup and it usually makes me miss being a backup singer lots.

After Glen Matlock, the Alarm took the stage and for the second year running (a Gathering tradition), I found my friend Mick from Manchester to hang out with on the edge of the mosh pit. Mick is great fun and good protection too!

The Alarm takes the stage:

I stepped away from the crowd after the encore--in my opinion, there is nowhere to go after

"68 Guns" followed by "Marching On" (or was it the other way around?). BUT there was another encore featuring members of The Skids, Big Country, Sex Pistols, and the Alarm. They did some old punk songs and there was a mad rush back in during which I got soaked by someone's beer.

Also, I bought Randy a souvenir t-shirt, but wound up wearing it myself...

On Sunday morning, we all took a walk to the beach to sing some songs together with Mike Peters. Last year, we didn't even make it to the beach since we had to leave a bit early, but this year the weather was great and it felt nice to walk off some of the greasy food we'd been eating all weekend! Here's a shot of our shadows on the shore.

At the Meet & Greet on Sunday morning--we said hello & goodbye to Mike.

...and then we were off to Manchester where we had a great Italian dinner with other American & Canadian Gatherers, and stayed at the airport Hilton to rest up for everyone's flights. In the morning, we returned a complete unscathed "people mover" to Avis, and I said goodbye to Mitch, Kelly, & Emma. Another great Gathering!

28 January 2011 Travel Journal

28 January 2011 - Prestatyn & Conwy, Wales UK

Welsh rock - it's what we came for!

Mitch, Kelly, Emma, and I got up and drove to Conwy to see the castle ruin there. After stopping in one cafe for lunch where the overwhelmed young server said he "wasn't taking orders" right then, we moved to a small cafe that we assumed was good because it looked crowded but actually just had a large group in that was running the staff pretty ragged. It wasn't bad though--I had a full breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, fried bread, toast, tomato, tea, and sometimes beans, but not this time). You really can't go wrong with a full breakfast in the UK.

Emma tries on the plastic helmet.

Back at Pontins, just as I was asking one of the Scottish guys if he knew Doug Watson, Doug appeared on the lawn below the balcony where I was standing. Hooray for perfect timing. He was duly showered in Broncos gifts (an oven mit from me and some cups from Kelly) which he received joyfully.

Doug & me

Singalong - Every Friday night at the Gathering, Mike Peters comes out and does an acoustic set in the round which every sings along to at the top of their lungs. (That's me on the bottom right of the screen--please refrain from dancing jokes.)

Mitch & Emma at the sing-along

This year it was a bit different. The whole band joined in about halfway through and they did most of the Strength album. The new drummer Smiley played with the Skids and a couple other punk bands that I'm not cool enough to know. He seemed like he was having a great time and definitely lived up to his name.

Singalong in the round - note scary dude dead center has made his own t-shirt of himself singing with Mike and worn it to the show. Real or Photoshop?

Big Country - was fun but the sound could have been better. Mike did a great job fronting the band (the original front man Stuart Adamson died in late 2001) and there was a lot of energy in the room.

Most Americans don't realize how many hits they had in the UK, but there were two busloads of Scottish men in the front that sang louder and pogo'ed higher than the rest of us. (Later they nearly got expelled from Pontins and turned over to the police for their late night party with their own light system, sound system, dj, and bonfire by the gocarts but Jules Peters intervened on their behalf.)

Don't think this rule got followed.

Kelly & I didn't even get a chance to visit before they got shut down. Instead we stayed up talking until 4am. I like Kelly--for not knowing each other very well prior to deciding to be roommates, we had an easy time talking about anything and everything. She's very cool.

Me & Kelly in flannel for Big Country.

PS - It was on this day that I met a real live soccer hooligan who has not just been ejected from games, but literally banned from the entire country of Luxembourg. He seemed like a teddy bear to me.

Travel Journal - 27 Jan 2011

27 Jan 2011

We got to Manchester about 11:30am and it took an hour before we got our car due to some billing confusion a lack of "H class" vehicles. Leave it to me to wind up behind the rental car counter working the guy's computer to straighten out the confusion! I think I scared him. He gave us an upgrade to an automatic transmission, which made us both feel safer; however, it was a large minivan. I was terrified but determined not to sweat in front of my other four passengers...Mitch, Kelly, and Emma...and adopted Canadian Lynn Lyons. I'm sure that my hands firmly planted at 10 and 2 and my stiff back was probably a giveaway.

The Renault "people carrier" -- too big for Welsh roads!

Mitch & Kelly are brother and sister and I met them last year at the Gathering. This year, Mitch brought his daughter Emma for her 16th birthday present. They were all great traveling companions and very supportive of my driving adventures. Our mantra was "All we have to do it stay alive!" and later, after hitting the windshield wipers instead of the gear shift a number of times, "Beki is a stickler for a spotless windshield." Since I am here writing this now, I'm sure you figured out that I stayed alive.

Mitch & Kelly at Gathering 18 (2010)

After arriving in Prestatyn, we settled in at Pontins and dropped Lynn at her room, settled into our apartment and hit the town for some sausage and mash at the local pub and a trip to Aldi for some basics. Pre-Gathering at the Bells of St. Mary Pub was pretty dead for a while, but picked up later and then moved to the Queen Vic (the on site pub at Pontins), where just Kelly & I stayed on until about 12:30am.

We would have left sooner but Kelly inadvertently entered a dart contest and I met a tour guide, humorist, and travel writer named Dave, his partying stuffed moose Sven, and his Norwegian "host brother" Maurice/Marius(?) from exchange student days. Dave and I talked tour guide, and Maurice told me about his recent winter stint as a doctor to a crew of 6 in Antarctica. Since there were so few patients, he said he wound up working on a human waste disposal project...interestingly, he said he'd like to go back, but not for the winter.

Sven, the world-traveling moose

On our way back to the room, Kelly & I sneaked through the big empty performance room...

Big Country's drum kit

Kelly takes the stage!

Bags packed!

well the purple suitcase is all packed and i leave tomorrow for wales. just testing now to see how my phone will do for on the go blog entries...

sso far nto great. pix dont work. looks like its facebook for me.

Travel Bug - Biting Again

I want to couchsurf my way around the world. I get the impression that this is something Randy thinks I will grow out of, but this desire never goes away. Stupid day job and medical issues. I wonder how other people get around this stuff to make it happen.

Pike's Peak Photos

Oops! I am very very very late in posting these photos from the Pike's Peak climb. It went much better than I thought. I made it in the first half of the group and although it was very hard, it was very beautiful!

My day started with a 3:30am wake up and a van ride to the trailhead. Miles Zuniga (Fastball) who had played a set for us in the hotel lobby the night before (much to the chagrin of the wedding party who had reserved the adjacent space in the bar), sat next to me in the van and we chatted about guitar practice discipline and songwriting stuff and a bit of personal get-to-know-you kind of stuff. It was kind of cool to have a rock star conversation when I was too sleepy to be nervous about it. If I had been smart, I would have gotten a picture...but did I mention it was not even 5:00am?

At lunchtime, I arrived just a few minutes off the leader pace--at least that's what they told me. We had a nice long break here for food and rest and music. A folk singer played a few familiar songs and then John Common and Blinding Flashes of Light played. I was soooo impressed by them. They are really fantastic and to see a cello being played in the middle of nowhere with a beautiful view is an experience I won't soon forget.

I left with the first group from lunch because I knew I would need to go slower and didn't want to fall to the very back. When I couldn't keep up with the leader pace, I fell back but was still quite a way ahead of the next group. I was all alone in between and it was very solitary--in a good way. I put the Alarm on the ipod and thoroughly enjoyed that phase of the climb.

Speaking of the Alarm, I am in this video though you can't see me. I can make out Mick Thomson who was standing right next to me during this show back in January at the Gathering.)

When we got to the summit, Chris Carraba from Dashboard Confessional played us a few tunes, and it was pretty good. "Vindicated" was my favorite since it's the hit and the one I recognized. I confess that I'm not too familiar with DC.

The ride down was actually the hardest part. I made the mistake of sitting in the back seat of a large van on a long and winding downhill climb. My new friend Alan, who grew up in Wales til he was 9 and the only other Alarm fan on the trek, offered support, but I was just trying not to embarrass myself by hurling. I must have looked greener than my shirt.

I went to the after-party at Red Rocks and admit to being "not disappointed" when Brett Dennen could not perform due to the late arrival of the party bus and his impending stage time as opener for Michael Franti. We were entertained by an 8 year old named Jordan, who plays very well! After the party in the Rock Room, we walked the prayer flags down to the stage through the crowd where they were hoisted up to fly just before Michael Franti and Spearhead took the stage.

This was a fascinating experience for several reasons:

1. It was quite a trip walking through the crowd at Red Rocks at a Michael Franti show where many people's experience was, um, enhanced. They thought the pretty colors of the flags were irresistable and were dancing around us touching the flags, etc.

2. Usually, when I sneak through the crowd at Red Rocks to get closer to the stage, security gets involved.

3. It is fascinating to look up at the crowd from the Red Rocks stage. I felt a sense of sadness that I probably will never be able to sing from there to a full house, but it was nice to see what it might have been like.

4. Most importantly, it was moving to know that we were carrying the names of so many cancer survivors, cancer victims, and those whose fate is still undetermined to send up prayers for them.

That's the report, folks. Thank you again for all your support and encouragement. I can now say I've climbed a 14'er in memory of my friend Bryan and for a great cause.