Box News #233 – December 1st, 2015

Mick talks about Wizzair, Carl Martin guitar pedals, Warsaw Poland, the Progresia Music Zone venue, equipment problems, the journey to Krakow, niggly problems, fantastic shows, Cottbus Germany, meeting Claudia and Andrea, meeting Carsten and Caren Turner, shopping, New Yorker, and the fire alarm at the hotel.

Mick also discusses, the hired amplifier, Marco the guitarist with 21Octayne and Engl amplifiers, Leipzig, playing a concert in Barby and the absence of Barbie & Ken, Chris Stenzhorn and ‘Rebeligion’ jewellery, and meeting up with Bif and the boys in Saxon in the hotel bar. Mick also talks about Stuttgart, the funky hotel, the Irish Bar, the Theatro venue in Ulm like an Apple shop, the lift with outside buttons, plastic room keys, real room keys, and being half way through the ‘Rock the Haus’ tour.

“Rock the Haus” European Tour 19th November – 13th December 2015

On Monday the 16th of November the band met at Luton Airport to fly by Wizzair to Warsaw Poland where we began our European tour up to Christmas. The crew had gone a day earlier by sleeper bus. The good thing is that Wizzair allow you 32kg weight on your suitcase, and you are allowed a lap top case, as well as a carry on bag. On a long tour like this that was good news. Previously we had sent our stage clothes with the crew in our dressing room wardrobe case, that was on board their bus, so we were set.

I had been sent a lot of guitar pedals from a Danish company called Carl Martin to try out, and so I put these all in my suitcase, and put some clothes and bits and bobs in my carry on case, so all was cool. In fact Davey was kind enough to carry this bag for me. These Carl Martin pedals are really good, and extremely well made, so I would recommend any guitarists out there to try then out. Here’s the website. http://www.carlmartin.com

We arrived in Warsaw and were met by Vic our driver who had driven from England to meet us there. It was good to see him and we loaded up the van and went to the hotel in time for dinner.

This was a really nice dinner, with a really excellent selection of wines, and just what we needed to chill after that journey.

The next day we had a bit of time on our hands until the sound check, but it was raining quite heavily, so we were not inspired to venture out of the hotel. It gave me a chance to catch up on a lot of work that I needed to do, so it was most welcome.

We went to the sound check at the usual time of 5pm in the venue called the Progresia Music Zone. This was a big place, and it had a huge stage, so we were really looking forward to the show.

Well once down at the show, we could see it was packed and the atmosphere was electric. The huge roar when we walked on to the stage, made us feel it was good to be back in Poland. The audience did not let us down, and they were fantastic, enthusiastic, loud and just amazing. We had a great night. I had a little trouble with my guitar equipment, but I overcame that and soldiered on, fuelled by the adrenaline of the audience.

After the show we celebrated that it was the first show down, and what a first show it was. We had tinkered with the set list and for the most part it worked really well. The promoter was bringing into the dressing room an endless line of friends that wanted albums signed, and pictures taken, but this was all cool.

The following day we drove to Krakow, which was approximately 4 hours 30 minutes hours’ drive. Sitting in the van for our first long trip started with a lot of Heepy banter, that kept us laughing for a good while, before we turned into nodding dogs.

The Rotunda venue in Krakow was another big gig, and this was packed too. Even the balconies were full to the brim. Well we thought the reaction in Warsaw was a good one, but in Krakow it was up another level, and it really was a magical night. My guitar problems continued, but we knew we had a day off the following day, and it would give us time to find out what the problem was. It was one of those niggly problems that’s not easily identifiable, so with a bit more time, it could be stripped down and found. It was making the whole of my equipment microphonic, including my guitar, and was very difficult to control.

Still once again the audience were so good that the problems disappeared into the ether. It was truly a brilliant night, and it was time to celebrate once again when we were back in the dressing room. Our adrenaline was at a high, and it felt really good to be back in the saddle after a couple of weeks off.

The following day was a day off, and we drove to Cottbus Germany, which took approximately 5 hours 30 minutes, and once at the hotel we received a text from Scampi saying meet in the bar at 7.30pm, as he had booked an Italian restaurant a short walk from the hotel for dinner that night. The crew had already checked in, as they had driven overnight. As we checked in we met the 2 sisters Andrea and Claudia who were in the bar having a glass of wine. They will be with us for most of the tour, which is incredible.

Well we all met in the bar at 7pm to have a quick pre dinner snifter, and it was lovely to meet Carsten and Caren Tanner there too. When the party was complete, we all headed to the restaurant. To be honest the meal was average, and so was the wine, but it was good that we were all together chilling on our first day off.

The Stadthalle where we were staying was just across from the hotel, so we could walk to the sound-check. During the afternoon we went shopping and we found a shop we frequent quite often in Germany called ‘New Yorker.’ We also went in search of a music shop as Russell had an enormous blister come up on his hand from the previous gig, and he wanted to buy some drumming gloves. Well we were lucky, and he found some. It also gave us a little chance to buy all the little things we had forgotten to pack at home, or that we had run out of it. Then we walked to the venue for a little lunch, and went back to the hotel to rest.

Once back in room, I was just starting to do a little work when the loud beeps from hell came into my room with a message saying we had to all leave the hotel by the fire escapes. Well I was on the 11th floor, so it was a bit of a journey down, especially as I was having a bit of a bad day with my on-going leg problem. I grabbed my computers, phone, passport and wallet and left the building post haste. We all waited outside in the cold until 5 minutes later it was called off as a false alarm. There were 5 fire trucks, and firemen all over the place, but to no avail. There were no complaints from me, as had it been a serious fire that would have caused a whole lot of trouble, and being on the eleventh floor it could have been nasty, but all was thankfully okay in the end.

Well our crew stripped down my equipment, and it was decided to hire an amplifier for that night’s concert. The sound-check was wonderful with the new amplifier, and all of the problems I was experiencing disappeared. It felt so good, and I could breathe a sigh of relief.

The concert was great and we had a good time, and the new amplifier was rockin’. That was the good news. The bad news was that I will not see that Amplifier the rest of the tour, so I enjoyed it to the max when I could. After the show we walked back to the hotel and had a drink in the bar, before crawling off to bed.

The next day after breakfast we drove to Leipzig where we had a lovely lunch in the hotel before catching a nap before the sound check. The sound check was quick even, though I was back on my original equipment. Brian had stripped it down and put it back together again and it was working, but still not as nice as the amplifier we hired the other night.

Because of these amp problems I got in touch with Marco the guitarist with 21Octayne. They supported us on our last German tour. He has been an endorsee for Engl Amplifiers for a long time, and they are made in Germany. It is a family run business, and I like that, plus they have Ritchie Blackmore and Dave’s best mate Richie Falcon from Judas Priest as endorsees too. Well the good news was that they were coming to our show in Oberhausen the following Saturday and bringing me some amplifiers to try. Saturday could not come quick enough.

However the show in Leipzig was a really good one, and the audience were quickly into the music, which was cool. We had a good time and the new show was bedding in nicely. We still have a couple of ideas to try out, but the main body of the set works very well.

The following day we had a 1 hour 30 minute drive to a place called Barby. We were told ahead of time that it was sold out, so that was great. The hotel was in a place called Magdeburger, which was 30 minutes from the venue. On the drive to Magdeburger we had our first heavy snowfall, but it only lasted 10 minutes before it disappeared. This happened a few times on the journey, and even when we were at the hotel. It was very strange.

The sound check was over pretty quickly, and we stayed down at the venue. The dressing room was quite big thank goodness, so we had dinner and chilled before the show. Well the place was heaving when we walked on to the stage and they were seriously ready to rock. It was a fantastic night, and the energy was flowing back and forth to the band and audience. It was a really sweaty gig, but a good one, however there was one complaint, as I did not see one Barbie or one Ken there the whole night. How disappointing!

The next day we were in Frankfurt and we had arranged to meet a Jewellery guy called Chris Stenzhorn and his lovely lady at the sound check. They have a jewellery business called ‘Rebeligion.’ They had some really cool rock n’ roll pieces, and they gave us some to wear on stage, which was very nice of them. We heard of them originally from Paul Anthony of Planet Rock Radio, and he gave us their brochure back in England, and Bernie got in touch with them. They were really lovely people, the jewellery was rockin’ and classy, so it was a win, win all round.

Well Frankfurt did not let us down, and we had a fantastic gig, and it was pretty full for a Monday night. The set list was bedding down nicely, and we were really getting into our stride. The consistency of the band has been outstanding, so I am really pleased with that. We also have new technicians on board, with a new Front of House mixer called Angus, a new drum tech called Rich, and a new guitar tech for moi called Danny. We still have Brian and Scampi on board and of course Jon on the monitors.

After the show we met the Saxon boys in the hotel bar, and we had a drink with them. Bif kindly picked up the bar tab which was good of him. They are out on the road with Motorhead and Girlschool on their yearly Xmas shows, and had a day off. It was great to catch up with them and we did have a laugh.

The following day Saxon continued on with their tour and we drove to Stuttgart for a day off. Before leaving we had a bit of time to wander around the Shopping Centre across the road from the hotel, before making the relatively short 2 hours and 30 minutes drive to the hotel. We checked in and the crew were already there. Their bus had broken down, so they were quickly arranging a new one for the rest of the tour.

That was quite an amazing hotel, and we all had huge rooms with 360-degree views over Stuttgart. It was also in the middle of theatre land. There were any number of musicals from ‘Thriller to ‘Rocky’ and everything in between. All of the artists and crews were staying in the hotel, so it was a pretty busy place.

The rooms were funky with a huge double bed, 2 large Plasma TV’s, a separate lounge, and Projection screens that projected the TV on to the wall in front of the bed. You could also change the colours of the lights from Blue, Green and Red. They had funky Do Not Disturb signs on as well that read ‘Do Not Disturb, Sex in Progress.’ On the white bathroom door was stencilled in black, ‘FKK Zone-Nudists Only.’ The Movie Channel and Porn Channel’s were free so all in all a bit of modernist funky hotel.

To have dinner we all met in the Irish bar which had some good basic food, and a couple of Guinness’s to wash it down, then most of us made use of the early night. I have a studio on my laptop and a guitar in my room, so I stayed up until the week hours playing guitar and writing songs. Bif sent me a text after their show to say hi, and we exchanged a few funnies, before he went to bed, and I carried on rockin’ out.

The next day we hung around the hotel until the sound-check time. We went down at 5pm, and because of the journey we stayed down. The venue was called the ‘Longhorn.” We have played it many times, and it is always a blast. In fact for many years we held the record for the attendance. This was no exception and they were a terrific crowd, right from the first note. It was a really good show and we fed off of each other’s energy. Afterwards we met a number of VIP’s and that was a lot of fun. We signed all sorts of stuff and had loads of pictures taken, then we had a few drinks and went to the hotel and bed.

The next show was in Ulm, which was only a short 1hour 30minutes drive from Stuttgart. This show was a sell out, so we were happy about that. We played the Theatro venue on the ‘Into the Wild,’ tour, so we remembered it. The inside of the venue is all white, including the bar, so it looked like we were playing a show in an Apple shop.

The dressing room was in another building opposite the venue, which did not thrill us, as it was very cold, and going outside is always dodgy, because we worry about catching colds, as we sweat so much on stage that a quick blast of cold air going back to the dressing room is a bit dangerous.

Well it just seemed to get better and better as the audience were fantastic. They sang so loudly it was amazing, and there was definitely an electric buzz in the air.
It was another great show, and we really enjoyed it. After the show we met a VIP and then we went to the hotel while the crew took over the dressing room and were happily diving into the left over drink and pizzas.

It was a short 2 hour and 30 minutes drive to Mosbach, so we left the hotel at 10.30am and arrived at 1pm for lunch. The hotel had a lift I had not seen before, as the floor buttons were on the outside of the lift. If you do not notice this then you get in the lift and stare at a blank wall. The other thing was that the room key was just that a key and not a piece of plastic. Usually you have to put your plastic key in the slot to activate the lights, and we all carry spare plastic keys that we always use so that we can keep the electricity on to charge all of our devices while we are having lunch or down at the gig. Well with the key in this hotel you have to put it in a slot in your room, and then turn the key to activate the lights, so this hotel had truly found a way to beat us. I must say that at the last couple of hotels, the people working there have been extremely nice, and upbeat. It is always good to see this, and always makes your stay so much more enjoyable. As my darling Mother used to say ‘a smile does not cost anything, and goes a long way.’ Boy how I miss her!

The concert in Mosbach at the Alte Malzerei, was approximately half way through the tour, and it was a good one too, so we were really on a roll, and the new show is going down just great. We are very happy about that as you can imagine, and there seems to be a real buzz about the band in Poland and Germany that feels so good.

‘Appy days!
Mick