That means really cold in the German vernacular. You can get the idea. It’s official: Europe is in deep freeze. Temperatures reached -33 degrees Celsius last night in some areas and guess what? Wishbone is on the road. One thing about touring this time of year, there’s no competition – bands fear January but we are happy in our little cocoon of creativity, plowing the autobahns and bringing warmth and good cheer to the clubs and denizens of the fine little frozen hamlets we visit.
In Belgium, Verviers, to be precise, we had a night with no heat in the hotel rooms – Aargh. That was pretty rough. The experience was added to by the single sheet and blanket supplied on the bed. No matter, we’ve got the skis loaded on the truck and we’re ready for anything. Talking of hotel beds; I’ve noticed a big increase in the beds coming complete with incontinence sheets on them. I really hope this isn’t a sign or something. Have you ever tried sleeping on one of these? Not something to look forward to folks, I’m telling you.
I worked it out, that I’ve played this particular venue in Verviers, 11 times over the years and in each case, it’s the same duff old Chinese takeaway meal supplied in Styrofoam boxes, along with this strange glutinous rice cake that appears in the dressing room, which itself is a cradle of filth like no other, situated in the bowels of this particular musical haunt. The graffiti is award winning with notes that I myself posted there some 10 years earlier. What a strange world we musos inhabit. BUT Belgium has the best chocolates in the world and super fans, Bruno and Nathalie, bought us a bushel of ‘em. (I’ve upped my cholesterol tablets as a result!)
For a short time we are in Holland before hitting Germany, Norway Sweden and Denmark. The Dutchies get the added bonus of hearing a full rendition of the Argus album performed live on all the dates here. We’ll do a rockier set in Germany, but with a good dollop of Argus material thrown in for any of you who must have been living under rocks and havn’t heard songs from this 70’s classic in a while.
Great to see Nick DeJong and Big Harry last night. Thanks for all your help and please enjoy that amp, Nick! Musically, I’m currently enjoying music from two former Ash guitarists who’ve recently released CD’s - Ben Granfelt and Roger Filgate. We’re all addicted to YouTube, of course , and guitarist Guthrie Govan, has been commanding my attention of late. He’s a very accomplished player. I recently read an editorial in Guitar Techniques magazine where there was a lesson in twin lead guitar playing. The editor’s note stated that they weren’t going down the obvious Wishbone Ash / Lizzy route and that struck me as odd since many aspects of our style are not that obvious, like the guitar breaks in the Pilgrim or the Way of the World or the mixture of scat and twin lead stuff in Vas Dis. We are now in a strange world where these copiests and guitar teachers and technicians are actually like professors and in some cases actually playing in well-known bands themselves. It all gets a bit sterile. Where’s their own style, their flare their contribution? It certainly ain’t rock and roll in attitude (he says curmudgeonly).
Rock on and Be warm (Hot even ;-) ~ A.P.
