I stayed in Leeds overnight on Saturday 2nd April - Keith was away in Dublin watching Leicester Tigers play Rugby and Jim wanted to have a party, i.e. he wanted me out of the way, so I booked myself into a hotel. Good time shopping on Saturday pm and Sunday am - Leeds is a good shopping town!! You can even buy Burt's Bees Foot Cream, previously only spotted in the US of A.
I set off for Sheffield early Sunday afternoon - and what a difference from Leeds. Even the weather is a lot colder, and the whole place has an air of decrepitude (sorry any of you out there who live in Sheffield - but you must know it's true). Lizzy and Chris were arriving from Newcastle at about 5pm, so I did a quick tour of the city centre - the Millennium Gallery and Winter Gardens weren't bad I must admit - and they did a nice afternoon tea in the cafe there.
Lizzy and Chris arrived at the station car park at about 5pm - after giving Lizzy a gift of the aforesaid BBFC, we set off to try and find somewhere open to get some food / drink - and after about 5 minutes we ran into Scottish Keith and Caryne, near the Leadmill where the Love tour bus was already parked. Time for a quick drink with them, then Lizzy, Chris and I headed off to Pizza Hut for some nourishment.
We had arranged to meet various folks at a pub called the Rutland Arms, and when we arrived there at about 7pm, we were greeted by Old Man and his daughter Lorna in addition to SK and Caryne, closely followed by Gill and Colin. Lovely pub, lots of artefacts from around the world and some unusual music - something like the Shadows play Queen's greatest hits. I had a call from Chris Jones, who then arrived at the Rutland just as the rest were about to leave to pick up the support band, Primary 5. We hung around with him for a drink then we were all off to the venue, calling back at the carpark first to pick up our old vinyl album sleeves as we had heard that Arthur and Johnny had been coming out after performances on this tour and signing autographs.
Into the Leadmill and Primary 5 were already playing their set - and very good they were too. Shades of Neil Young IMHO. Kose and Troels then came out and set up for Love - we managed to attract Troels' attention, which is pretty difficult when he's focussed on getting the stage ready for the band, and we said hello to him and Kose.
During the interval our party all got into position at the front - there were quite a lot of us so we could fend off all comers. I was feeling no little apprehension by this stage - remember that my last gig had been Liverpool, which was not one of Arthur's best performances. Out came the band, smiles and waves from Mike and Rusty... and then there was Johhny Echols, looking cool in leather trousers and what looked like two pairs of specs (prescription glasses then shades over the top)...followed by Arthur, in baggy T shirt, bandanna and some sort of army cap -looking a bit tired but pretty alert.
And I was not disappointed - the band were great, Dave Nolte fitting in really well, covering Dave Chapple's paternity leave. Arthur's voice started off a bit weak, but he got into his stride and gave a really fine performance, with no funny business whatsoever. A fantastic relief - here was the band I'd come to know and love, back on form again. Johnny looked like he was really enjoying himself, and appeared to be a man without an ego - and he played his guitar behind his head at one stage, note perfect.
After the performance, both Arthur and Johnny came out to the merch stand to sign autographs - and I had my Da Capo vinyl sleeve signed by both of them, and made out to me, not some friend or the other (see previous gigs passim). Great. I drove the 40 plus miles back to Nottingham still buzzing, looking forward to the week ahead and four more gigs to follow.
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