The Euro / Scando / Benelux tour was a great success and once again promoters in Germany for instance, were scratching their heads and saying, they can’t believe how well this band does with the audience numbers. No other band, on this circuit, seems to be able to match us. The word up with the fans is “If it’s January in Germany, then it’s Wishbone Ash.” We’ve worked for years at this and it’s rewarding to have it pay off.
Anyway, Scandinavia and Norway in particular, were beautiful and it was a different experience to play to folks up there in the frozen North. The final date was in Bergen. This small, charming city of 250,000 inhabitants is situated on the rugged west coast, with a harbour and mountain overlook, which is reached by a small train. Fresh caught cod was the food of the day and the gig was in a really nice venue and I have to say the band and crew gave it the full monty for the final show. The band was totally cooking – it felt like we had the wind behind us. Fingers were flying up and down fret boards, and Joe Crabtree, with sticks spinning, at times looked like he was conducting the band. I had to laugh.
Kick back time now - to a degree - but as you know, Ash men are busy all the time. Daniel goes to his sailboat moored in the South of France, to start scraping barnacles and prepping for the hot summer days. Andy Clark, our lighting and projection tech, goes snow boarding in Austria, Joe flies to New York where he’ll be taking some drumming tips from some legendary old time masters like Joe Morello. Bob gets on with business ventures in London, and no doubt he will play some dates with the excellent beat group, Bad Influence. Olaf, was supposed to do guitar tech duties for Steve Morse in Deep Purple but I think that fell through. Muddy returns to a welcoming committee of 5 collie dog puppies. Seems he’s into the dog breeding business, suddenly. It’s all happening.
Me? I’ll be de toxing and shuffling around Powell acres and figuring out the plans for celebrating 40 years in this band. We will be featuring a somewhat different visual theme and I’ve recently been reintroduced, by fans, to some never before featured WA recordings that it might be fun to showcase live, especially with the guests and former band members slated to appear and help us out at Shepherds Bush Empire on May 16th.
Keep it Real ~ A.P.
