Box News #261 – September 5th, 2017

Mick talks about The New Day festival in Faversham Kent, the Travel Lodge in Canterbury Whitstable, meeting Bernie and his family, the cab driver from my hometown Walthamstow, meeting people, Dave ‘Bucket’ Colwell and his missus, familiar faces in the front row, a great festival with a wonderful vibe, Starbucks and being on home turf. Mick also discusses flying to Prague in the Czech Republic, the liquid refreshment British Airways flight, Jon our monitor engineers lost bag, the fun fair at the side of the hotel, dinner in the hotel restaurant, the England match against Malta and Scampi programming the lights. Mick also talks about the Olympic size swimming pool, Football pitch, Water slides and the like seen from his bedroom window, the soundcheck, the German Twins appearing, a few gremlins to iron out, no sleep as the P/A felt like it was in your room, the fan with the ‘Boxmaker’ T Shirt and Coffee Mug, Police Vans, Blue Lights, Sirens, two shirts on stage, The Kladno Festival, meeting the Mayor of Kladno, fireworks set of to our music, Draught beers aplenty, my lovely Hutchins travel guitar, the BA twat and getting home to LHR Terminal 3.

A New Day Festival in Faversham UK – Saturday the 26th of August.

Marvellous a festival in England where our families could come and see what we do for the rest of the year. I drove down to the Travel Lodge in Canterbury Whitstable with my wife Sheila as we decided to stay the night, but unfortunately our son Romeo was at Reading Festival with his girlfriend and mates so he could not join us. Bernie met us there with his wife Radka, their two children Maddy and Tino and his Uncle. The hotel was only 2.5 miles from the festival site so it was a perfect location to stay at. I ordered a people carrier to take us to the festival but this never turned up and two cars came instead, so we jumped in them and we were delivered right to the backstage area by our dressing cabin which was great and unexpected. My driver was born in Walthamstow the same as me, so we hit it off and reminisced about the old days as he lived only a few streets away from me.

Once there I was met by loads of people who wanted to say hi mostly from the other bands, and I could not get to our cabin for ages, and those wanting to say hi were members of Barclay James Harvest, Wishbone Ash, and lots of other musicians and guys who I have known over the years, so I was trapped for a bit. Even the old drummer from Samson who we toured with in the UK years ago with Bruce Dickinson singing now of Iron Maiden fame. The drummer used to wear a leather gimp mask and sit on his drums in a cage on stage, so it was no wonder that after all of these years I hardly recognised him. He was known as ‘Thunderstick,’ and evidently he has a new solo album coming out.

Backstage especially in our area, it became the place to be and it was soon mobbed by family, friends and members from the other bands. At first we were told that we could not have anyone backstage at the festival even our families, but after some discussions at the last minute they were allowed. On arrival I could see their concern as they were running two stages side by side and there were trucks and vans driving to and from each stage at regular intervals with each bands equipment.

Bernie and I had to do an interview for the local area radio and then Bernie went off to eat. I was quite happy with a few nibbles that were in the dressing room but he wanted something a bit more substantial.

I did meet my old mate Dave ‘Bucket’ Colwell and his wife and had a drink with them. In fact they were on my side of the stage most of the night. Dave had played earlier with the Jackie Lynton band. Now Jackie and I go way back a long way as we toured America with ‘Savoy Brown’ in the 70’s and Jackie was the singer. He was a right old character and a lot of fun to be around.

Once we hit the stage we were straight into the mighty ‘Heep’ groove and it was a blast from the first note to the last. Amazingly the German twins Andrea and Claudia were down the front amongst a sea of very familiar faces that we hadn’t seen for a while. It was great being back in England and headlining the festival and I hope it is the start of many more shows to come in our home country. The reaction was super strong and I have to say the festival had a really fantastic vibe to it and was well organised.

Back in our dressing cabin the fun began and it was busy there for an hour before everybody went home. Sheila and I, along with Bernie and his family went back to the hotel and we went to his room for a nightcap and a laugh.

The next day before driving home we popped into Starbucks for a coffee, that was right next to the hotel and we met Mike Taylor, Claudia Leão Fracalanza and Pete Wharton doing much the same, so it was good to have a short chat with them, and I was pleased they enjoyed the show.

It was a 1hr 30min drive back to London and it was good to get home, and Iggy was delighted to see us. I really did enjoy the delights of playing an English Festival for a change I have to say.

On Friday the 1st of September we all met at Terminal 3 at London’s Heathrow Airport. I met Phil at the check in desk and most of the other guys were already in the airport lounge. We were catching a British Airways flight to Prague in the Czech Republic. The flight was two hours long which was helped along by a few wines and beers to while away the time along with watching our iPads.

At the baggage carousel we all picked up our bags except for Jonny our monitor engineer. This was a downer so he had to fill out forms and the like to try and retrieve his bag. We were met outside by our drivers and driven to the hotel in two vans which only took 30 minutes.

Once there we had the hotel staff standing outside welcome us in and we put our bags in our room and went down for dinner. This was all very nice and after a few drinks we all retired to bed. I think Davey stayed up with the crew as he wasn’t ready for bed yet. Scampi actually after dinner went down to the venue to programme the lights as the festival site was only a few minutes away. Actually on arrival at the hotel it looked like a huge fun fair by the side of the hotel in full swing but not a lot of people there. Later on Jonny’s suitcase arrived so that was a relief.

We were all very pleased with the England score of 4-0 against Malta, but it did sound like they had made hard work of it with most of the goals coming after the 80th minute. My Spurs man Harry Kane bagged two, so I was happy about that especially with his goal drought throughout August.

When I woke up the next morning for breakfast I opened my window and there was a huge Olympic size Swimming Pool, a Football Pitch, Red Clay Tennis Courts and a Water Slide Theme Park. This was definitely a sporting holiday place though the temperature overnight had dropped considerably, so I would not want to have ago at any of the above.

After breakfast we went down to the festival site for a soundcheck at 11.30am. It was a little too far to walk so they sent a Police van to pick us up. We could hear the crew in our rooms getting things ready as it was deafening. The sound really carried back to the hotel big time. In fact there were announcements going on from 8.30am in the morning.

At the soundcheck I was surprised to see, but there again I shouldn’t have been really, to see the two German twins down the front. Incredible. Half way through the soundcheck they came running down waving which was just amazing. How they do it I’ll never know.

The soundcheck went fine even though we had a few technical problems but our crew soon overcame them. We then went back to the hotel for some lunch, and after that we had a few hours to kill, but any hopes of having an afternoon nap were squashed as the P/A system sounded like it was in your room, and it was a constant din of shouting voices and various instruments being played loudly along with what sounded like a few badly performed ballads.

I went down for dinner and there was a fan and his wife waiting for my autographs. Wow this guy had everything I had played on, and I was there for 20 minutes or more signing. After this he kindly gave me a present of a bottle of local wine, a T Shirt and a Coffee Mug. He was especially pleased to give me the T Shirt and the Coffee Mug as they had the words ‘BOXMAKER’ on them which is where he worked. That was very nice of the two of them and really after signing all of that Heep product I should be giving them both a present.

After dinner we all went to the festival together band and crew. Our mode of transport were Czech Police Vans, and the drivers were Policemen in full uniform. The Blue light was flashing constantly and the siren was put on for a short burst when necessary. I thought we were at the start of a ‘Thin Lizzie’ show. Anyway this took a little under 10 minutes which made it even more of a laugh.

We had our tent backstage and although everything was catered for it was freezing in there, as the temperature had really dropped. So much so most of us wore two T Shirts on stage to keep warm. Once up there though when the adrenaline kicked in, it did not bother us much. Bernie had some friends/relatives there and after the show they told us that before we went on stage two announcers were up there on stage talking through the P/A telling the audience that although we were super stars we did not act like it, as most international artists stay in Prague and not locally in Kladno like the mighty Heep. They also said that we ate Czech food which of course we did.

It was the first time I think this has ever happened before our show and quite humorous to say the least and quite an unusual warm up act.

Well the show was tremendous and we had a great time. The audience were truly rockin’ to every song, and it was an amazing magic night especially as this was our last festival of the summer of 2017. There were lots of smiles and people on other peoples shoulders and generally a great rockin’ vibe and they joined in everything with us. We left the stage to exceptionally loud cheers and before they died down a huge firework display began. While the fireworks were exploding in the air they played through the P/A our song ‘Nail on the Head,’ and then ‘Lady in Black.’ Now when I say exploding I have never heard in my life such loud bangs. For one minute (scuse the pun) I thought we were in a war zone. They were that LOUD!

After the firework display back in our tent although we had Czech beer in bottles on ice, though to be honest it was so cold we didn’t need the ice, there was a tent adjacent to ours where they had draft beer on the pump, so we sent out a request for some of that instead. Well at least 30 pints turned up so it was a rockin’ tent there for a while and I personally was a happy chap as I was drinking beer.

There were a constant flow of people coming in the tent including the Mayor of Kladno who wanted me to sign his black and white picture of him studying years ago when he was in University, and behind his desk was a picture of Uriah Heep. He said he was listening to our music back then even though it was forbidden. We also had a picture taken with him which he loved. Also one of the support bands called ‘Other Way’ came in to give me their signed CD and the guitarist paid me a compliment by saying I played guitar like I was 20 years old. Well I took that as a compliment anyway! Ha!

The twins made it back for a quick drink and then we took the police van back to the hotel. I had to laugh as Vic wanted to take a crate of beer back to the hotel for the crew and he walked over to the policeman and asked if he could put it in the back of the van and asked if he could leave it in the hotel reception for when the crew came back. That was a funny sight with the Czech Policeman in full uniform carrying our beer to the hotel I have to say. My phone was in my gig bag otherwise I would have loved to have taken a picture.

I have a new travel guitar made by a company called ‘Hutchins’ who are in Germany. Graham Stockley who used to work for Hofner guitars now works for them so that is my connection. They sent me one to try out and it is really cool with a great neck on it. Well I went back to my room avoiding the bar and obvious continuing drinking session as I had enough, and I picked it up and that was me gone for a couple of hours lost in guitar world, and it had just gone 2am before I made myself go to bed.

The next morning we all went for breakfast before leaving for Prague Airport. We checked in and everything was going smoothly when I went to the gate ready to board the plane where they check your boarding pass, and I ran into Mr British Airway’s pain in the arse. He said that I could not take both my carry on bag and guitar on the plane, and that I had to check one of them in. I explained that the guitar was an instrument (well he was thick as a plank) and it was in a soft bag and it would get damaged in the hold, plus it was a travel guitar made especially to fit in the overhead compartment, plus my carry on bag had valuables and some fragile items in it. Also my carry on bag was specifically made to fit in the overhead compartments too. The reason being that I fly an awful lot and a lot of that on BA all over the world, so my carry on luggage is specifically designed to fit with the rules of all airlines.

Well he was getting quite stroppy and I could not believe it as other passengers were walking past us while we were arguing, all carrying two bags. Some much bigger than mine and he did not have a problem with that. To top it off Davey walked past with his shoulder bag and a full size bass guitar over his shoulder and this was no problem. I did point out that on Friday I flew on BA from London with my two items and there was no such problem so why was there a problem now. He was having none of it and neither was I. Luckily Russ walked past and he had no luggage at all so I gave the guitar to him so the problem was solved and the BA jerk could not say anything, and he left with his what I assume to be very small tail between his legs. I did take his name and will report him as it was all nonsense and maybe he did not like me or he wanted a notch on his belt saying he made Mick Box put his guitar in the hold. Either way he left with more than egg on his face and I was proud of how I kept my temper under control as I truly hate jobsworth people like that.

Anyhow the flight home once we were in the air was easy peasy and we all collected our luggage at LHR Terminal 3 and said our goodbyes.

‘Appy days!
Mick