L to R : Simon Kay,Kev Moore, Dave Sargent
Yesterday, I had waded through the fermented yoghurt that is the British transport system, and despite its best efforts, managed to see both my kids, and keep an appointment to collect my finished bass.
Now I stood, childless, bass in hand, back in the music shop, awaiting a lift. Almost immediately, my old mate and drummer from Tubeless Hearts and Christie, Simon Kay, appeared. he was never this punctual when we worked together! both Simon, and Dave Sargent were helping us out this weekend, as our drummer and lead guitarist were unable to make the gig.
It was strangely like old times, the days when we used to struggle to make a living, travelling together in a van to dodgy venues. it was almost as if no time had passed. but i must say, as a one-off - to travel over from Spain to do this “once more with feeling” with my mates was a lot of fun! it’s probably best exemplified by a moment in the truck on the way up to Scarborough. For the benefit of the road crew, Dave began re-telling one of the myriad of funny stories about playing a practical joke on Simon. (We used to call tours with him Gullible’s travels) It involved the night when he got hammered and we decided to put a breeze-block (enormous building brick) in his holdall. It was virtually impossible to lift off the ground. However, after the show, Simon manfully struggled and hoisted it over his shoulder, slurring “thish ish a bit heavy”.
We were in agony and in danger of getting hernias, trying to keep straight faces, as we all walked the half mile or so back to the hotel. The penny was beginning to drop. “Ash shumbody Put shumthing in my bag?” Simon asked, not unreasonably…”I’ll bloody kill you if you have!” We denied everything.
As the veins began to throb in his neck and he began hyperventilating, his alcohol-addled brain finally understood that the best course of action was to stop struggling and have a look. He found the breeze-block. turning purple with rage, he heaved it out of the bag with both hands and held it high above his head “you b*stards!” he screamed….before losing control, as it wavered beyond the point of no return and he fell over backwards. Complete hysteria ensued. We all fell on the floor in the middle of the street, helplessly crying with laughter. As Dave re-told the tale, the same thing happened. he set off with his infectious giggle, which just cracks me up., and I was laughing uncontrollably. He just lost it, he couldn’t stop laughing. Simon is sat between us, breathing a sigh of resignation, head in hands, and Dave is screaming at me to shut up, so he can get his giggle under control. The crew in the front think they’ve landed on another planet.
“Oh god!” I gasp, exhausted by mirth, “it’s just like the old days!”
“yes, ” said Simon ruefully “it certainly is.”
The gig wasn’t a good one, the crew didn’t really get a handle on the sound, and the monitors were pretty much non-existent, and the audience were expecting something a little more tame, I suspect, but we got away with it, and I still marvel at having a job where you can have a reunion with your old mates, play some songs and get paid for doing it.
The following morning, Mark, our guitarist, drove me from the East coast across to Manchester airport, where amoeba security services conspired to try and make me miss my flight by staging a “World’s longest queue” event for the Guiness book of records right there in the terminal. I could almost hear Roy castle tap-dancing.
A bumpy flight home, and then the drive from Murcia down to Almeria, back to Miki, and work on my forthcoming solo album. Some of the tracks can be heard HERE.
The slowly descending evening sun threw a beautiful gold blanket over the horizon, beckoning me.
Kev Moore
L to R : Simon Kay,Kev Moore, Dave Sargent
The hour long wait to get through the new ‘efficient’ manchester airport secuirty system….
