Back On The Road 2005

PAGES: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

PAGE 13.

Friday 13th May

Arrived in Birmingham to a beautiful sunny day and as our truck with all the lights, sound and equipment was on the ferry from the Hook of Holland we had a day off.

Birmingham had changed a great deal from the old touring days of the fifties and sixties. Every time I’m here I visit the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery which houses the finest collection of pre-Raphaelite paintings in the world. You can spend hours here and discover something new every year.

Last year part of our final UK tour included two nights at Symphony Hall which was a sell out and our final London gig sold out so fast that we had to extend it to another show at the Palladium. Even then it sold out in hours and so this year although we had said our final farewells to the UK we decided to do an encore at the large NIA centre as it was central for most people to get to. The hotel was very comfortable and within walking distance of the venue.

We booked JJs Indian restaurant, where on last year's tour we had taken Tim Rice and his first band, 'The Aardvarks'. So here we all were for our last supper with the whole crew, their families and friends. In fact, by now we were all family.

The day of the show was spent relaxing and wandering round part of the Gand Union Canal system of waterways. They have been restored magnificently and Bruce and I spent a quiet time reflecting on what a great tour it had been.

My son Jonathan flew in from Portugal with my wife Margaret. Two of my best friends Ed Bicknell and Steve Jenkins came up to see the old boys strut the boulevard for this, the last one. Phil and Susan Jarvis came backstage as did John Humphrey who has taken some great photos of the band over the years.

I spent some time trying to find out how far to take the solo and, still leading with the left for most of the time, worked out my sticking for the final evening.

"Half an hour gentlemen..." came the call from the master of making every thing run smoothly, the great Roger Searle. A few friends came back stage to wish us well for this very last one. It was good to see Jim Carne and his wife Carole. Jim you may remember was my driver and looked after me on last year's tour and had become a good friend.

I was on auto pilot for most of the show. This was it then, a combination of emotions, enjoying playing with the boys for the last time, the end of a happy tour and the end of a large part of my life, in and out of The Shadows.