Had an interesting talk with the promoter there, though. He told me he had been approached by a UK agent who told him that he had quote, “booked the wrong Wishbone Ash”. This was funny, we all thought. What’s going on here? Apparently it’s not enough that you’ve been a band for 40 years with an uninterrupted lineage and a registered trademark for the name. No worries – he already knew the score, along with all the other bona fide promoters, thankfully.
The numbers have been very good at the shows though and the touring economics are panning out. People seem to know that if it’s January in Germany, then it’s Wishbone Ash, foul weather notwithstanding. We’ve had some great audiences and the value for money factor with Jimmy Bowskill’s blues skills on the bill can’t be beat. Jimmy is 18 years old and his singing and guitar playing kicks my butt each night and I told him so, but he and the band are great guys and it makes me think back to what I was like at his age when I was getting ready to join forces with (endearingly) a couple of yokels from Devon and a wide eyed Brummie to start this long story called Wishbone Ash. The blues are indeed ageless.
Gotta watch out today for Swiss customs people with the merchandise. We take only what we need into the country since they nab you for duty or worse, make you pay a bond to take the stuff through, sometimes pulling the whole vehicle apart to price and inventory everything. It makes me remember the old days of touring Europe with all those tedious border crossings and carnets and searches and so on. It’s so much better these days, in general. I wonder if the U.K. will ever go for the Euro. The Pound is so devalued at the moment, I believe all the Brits are fleeing Europe from their retirement homes since the figures just don’t add up any more. No more living high on the hog for quite a while it seems.
More later…..
~ A.P.
