Bristol Gig & Nottingham Diary - Gaz Whelan
Thursday 19th April 2007

We meet late morning at the rehearsal room in the Cheshire satellite town of Stockport. We are greeted by our new Tour manager 'Gus the bus' as he is commonly known, although we have already adopted two new names for him. A pleasant man with lots of bon 'homie' and geniality. A man from the old school style of tour managing, which suits us, hence nickname number one 'SAXENDALE'. He has in his possession the most tranquil whisper accompanied by a husky hoarse, smokes-3-packs-a-day voice. Think a heavily sedated Lois Armstrong with flu crossed with a condescending, psychiatrist (is there any other type?) and you're half way there. Hence name number two, 'The HOARSE WHISPERER'. We love him!

The bus driver can only be described as 'Textbook'. He looks like a retired 'ultimate fighter' fervently abiding by 'the blue collar male code of behaviour' as well as being the proud unabashed owner of the largest collection of Gentlemen's Revue in the north of England.... He turns out to be a lovely bloke!

We spend a mellow uneventful journey to Bristol passing time watching DVD's, Bill Hicks, (an old favourite) and a documentary on The Band, which I've personally seen 20 times. Having said that, this was the first time I had noticed (due to extremely tight 70's trousers) that the late great music god that is Rick Danko tends to keep all 'his eggs in one basket' so to speak, and that he dresses to the left (somewhat un-orthodox). This was something I hadn't notice on the previous 19 viewings. Unbelievable.

We arrive at the venue for 'pre-production' (rehearsal in an empty room) and duly notice that situated next door is an Indian restaurant...result. Also next door to that was a Chinese Shaun's favourite... double, double good!!

We finish rehearsing somewhat prematurely and 'bounce' next door for our curry fix only to be informed it was closed due to a private function, the out-of-towner's worst nightmare. To add insult to injury the Chinese restaurant was a Karaoke buffet... very annoying. In the past we have struggled through wasteland, frozen wilderness and burning deserts to find a good curry house and this one looked like a 'no-brainer'. It felt like winning a gold medal only to fail the drugs test. Intoxicated with failure and weakened by despair (a bit much I know, but we LOVE curry) we head back to the hotel for a nightcap and bed.