Friday, May 20, 2005

No 22: Nottingham Rescue Rooms, 10th April 2005

Nottingham - my home town - or at least the place where I live - I must admit that I continue to hold a torch for Newcastle where I spent the first 18 years of my life.

Lizzy is not too well over both Saturday night and Sunday morning - we have a quiet day at home as Sunday night and Monday are due to be pretty gruelling. Its a nice warm day in Nottingham.

We drive into town and park up and then wander round to the Rescue Rooms. Mike is walking through the bar area, we stop and have a chat - I've printed up the picture of Coops licking him at the Irish Centre in Leeds and give him a copy, he thinks its great and plans to put it up on the tour bus.

In the main room, we spot Aake who's over from Sweden. He's flying up to Edinburgh the next day, on the same plane as us (Easyjet!) so we arrange to pick him up from his hotel in downtown Nottingham at 5.30 am the next day (a good reason if ever there was one for not drinking too much beer tonight). Aake is taking in Aberdeen and Glasgow as well before heading off back to Stockholm - a true fan if ever there was one!! My old Nottingham friends Paul and Pam are there as well, Paul has been a fan since the 60s - I've prewarned him that Arthur and Johnny are likely to be in a signing mood , so to bring his old album covers. We all take up position near the front. Another guy, Mark aka Barber John, introduces himself, he's travelled down from Leeds - having your picture on Torben's Love website is a guaranteed way to get your face known at Love gigs.

Its a different support band this evening - I can't even remember what they are called so they obviously did not make much of an impression. Then the band come on stage, all bar Arthur who ambles on slightly later...

I'm not one to cast aspersions, but lets just say his mind and him are going on slightly different paths this evening. He starts to play his harp, something a bit bluesy and rambling - all this time Troels is standing nearby holding his guitar, and the rest of the band are looking on. He gets his act together after a few minutes and they start the normal show -which is great. The Rescue Rooms is a small venue and standing at the front, you're within a few feet of the band, which is brilliant as far as I'm concerned. Paul and Pam are having a fantastic time as well, their first time in the front row so to speak, and they love it.

At the end of the gig both Johnny and Arthur wander out from backstage - and Paul gets his album covers signed. We don't hang around, its going to be an early start tomorrow - Edinburgh.....

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