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Thin Lizzy Tour Blog - 1st date: Nottingham As requested and promised here are the blogs from last years Thin Lizzy tour... After the show at Hard Rock Hell on the 10th of Nov we all parted for a Christmas and New Years break... I went home with my folks to their house in preparation for flying back to New York on the 12th... I arrived back home in New Jersey around 2-pm on the Monday and prepared to unwind from the tour and the previous weekend which had seen the band shoot the 'Skin on Skin' video, myself have an all day recording session with Jimmy Lea one of my school boy idols and the band play the inaugural Hard Rock Hell show.... The day past quietly... I awoke early on Tuesday the 13th due to the fact that I was on UK time and proceeded to have breakfast and check my e-mail... While alternating between coffee, corn-flakes (yes they are Kellogg's) and scrolling through my e-mails I noticed a priority e-mail from Lloyd who is our Italian connection, Merchandise man and very good friend of the band. . He had heard from Live Nation regarding a possible support slot with Thin Lizzy due to Queensrych pulling out.. They needed an answer ASAP. I immediately called Brian to see if he was up for it and the rest of the guys...I had the thumbs up from everybody although it was going to put stress on a few households... It's tough being in a band on the road with a family... If your super star status it's a little easier as you can afford for your families to travel with you.. When it's the band and crew in a van and your away most weekends while the family is at home it can be a little stressful...So this is an official Diamond Head thank you to all the families..Thank you. We had a problem with the first three shows however due to Eddie already being gig-tied. This problem worked itself out as the 'Stone Gods' were to do the first three show and join us for a couple of other shows...After many e-mails with Live Nation we were confirmed as support and the 30th anniversary of the 'Live and Dangerous' tour was only 13 days away.. Our first show was to be at Nottingham on Monday the 26th of November...It was a shame we missed out on the major promotion for the tour We hired Lollipop (one of two trust worthy vans, Choc-ice being the other) again from Bri-Hire. I flew into London Heathrow on the 25th where I was to meet Brian and he would drive me to Mom and Pete's home... It was difficult to hide the excitement we were feeling ....The year couldn't get any better, could it??? The first show was at Nottingham Royal Concert Hall... this was a first for me and I think for most of the guys...Brian picked me up at my mom's place Eddie was with him and the three of us headed up to Nottingham..Nick would be traveling up with Abbz and we would meet Andrew at the venue. The venue was spectacular..Not quite sure it was Rock venue but was nice place to put on the CV Upon arriving at the venue I proceeded to find Mick Roberts who was the Live Nation production manager.. Mick was a real gem for us on the tour and we had a great time with him.. Andrew was at the venue a few minutes after us due to the limited availability for parking.. We loaded in and proceed to the dressing room...Once we were given the all clear by the Thin Lizzy stage manager ( whose name escapes me..all I remember is that he was a miserable dude) we started to set up... The PA company was Stage Audio Services from Stourbridge and owned by former Diamond Head Monitor guy Peter Moberley. The crew were local, new Brian and had heard the band; how fortuitous for us.. Thanks to Stan who did front of house for us and Mark on monitors....The tour was another karmic episode for the band..Dave Nichols AKA 'Shirt' who produced the 'What's in your head' album for us was the FOH guy for Thin Lizzy before he was offered the Marilyn Manson tour... And here we are doing the UK leg of the tour with a PA company owned by a former Diamond Head crew member. I mean, what are the chances of that...?? Obviously I had a look at Tommy Aldridge's Kit.. It was a Yamaha; very nice with Paiste cymbals. He was using Yamaha sub mics on the kick drums. This is to pick up the low frequencies from the Kick drums; more on this later.. We were told what we could not move and to work around these instructions.. We set up and sound checked and quickly made our way to catering, we asked if we could eat after our show. We have found out if you don't eat at least two hours before the show you can easily end up with food on the snare drum or over the mic, thankfully they agreed although there were some long faces. Brian was scheduled to give an interview with a local paper which Nick and I also joined ... Eddie politely said "Up the Villa" and left while Abbz went for a stroll around the venue. Andrew was checking the stage for us and making sure everything was copasetic. While heading down to catering I bumped into Tommy Aldridge and John Sykes we nodded and exchanged hellos before they hit their dressing room, they seemed pre-occupied.. I would meet Scott Gorham later before our set.. Brian's brother Dave was coming to the show he was to help out on Merch for us as well as see the show along with long time fan Owen from Leicester (thanks guys) Rich Ward our web-master was also coming along to take photos.. The venue was slowly filling up and it was an all seater.. It felt odd to be playing in a venue like this..Don't get me wrong it was a wonderful venue. It felt more like a theatre..Although I remember going to see bands as a kid in venues like Birmingham Odeon which had seats, however I thought this place was a bit too swanky.. We arranged our set and went through our warm-ups and pre-gig rituals.. Andrew took towels, water and set lists down to the stage for us along with a few beers.. He came back and gave us the thumbs ups and let us know the intro was rolling... We headed for the stage, hit the huddle and away we went.
Before I knew it we were into 'Am I Evil' we left to great applause and quickly headed for the dressing room in order to head to catering for dinner as we were on a strict dinner curfew. Dinner was waiting for us and it felt really good to eat.. After chowing down, we washed our utensils and plates as promised and made our way to the side of the stage. We watched a few songs from Thin Lizzy before loading out and heading home... We said our farewells.. Abbz and Nick set off. Andrew headed back to Chesterfield while Brian, Ed and I headed home in Lollipop. The mood was good in the van.. Birmingham Tomorrow.. Peace. Karl |
