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C T O B E R 2 0 0 4
Saturday
2nd October 04
Crowne Plaza Hotel,
Liverpool.
Home town
corporate engagement for Britannia Rescue.
Nothing extraordinary about this gig, except at the beginning
we thought we were gonna totally bomb as there was a bit of an
exodus. By the end of the set though, the audience were going
mad for more.
Ade was on his own tonight, having been dumped by the rest of
the Spectrum crew in favour of an Elvis show in Old Swan, uh
huh!... hmmm... mustav been better grub at Old Swan
Conservative Club!!!
 
"A big, big thank you
for the fantastic performance of The Cavern Beatles at the
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Liverpool on Saturday 2 October
2004. They were our closing act and helped the evening
finish on such a high. The dance floor was full
throughout their performance and the sound was
brilliant. We were transported back in time to the
sounds of the Beatles and it felt like we were in the presence
of the 'fab four'. I would not hesitate in recommending
them for any event. Wishing you every success in the
future."
Corporate Events Coordinator
Monday
4th October 04
Four Seasons Hotel,
London.
Guess we must have
been lucky today, M6 not too heavy which afforded us the
luxury of a leisurely stop at Warwick Services for
coffee. Rather than the usual "splash and
dash", it was chill out time on the couches...
Eddie fell over at the counter, and Rick discovers that
cigarettes have gone up in price again since the last time he
bought a pack in the UK. With the cheap Spanish ones
from July now well and truly smoked... it is once again time
to consider giving up this filthy habit.
STYLE
UPDATE!!
It cannot go unmentioned, that 50% of the group have taken
to wearing 70's style, ribbed cardigans with a zip up the
front. Examples of these garments can be seen in TV
classics such as UFO, The Persuaders and Jason King.
At the sharp end of this fashion statement is Roy, fresh
from his recent triumph in the West Lancashire &
District Annual Truck and Tractor Fest competition for
best dressed male (over 25 category).
Rick also received comment today from Dirk, who described
his appearance as "smart!... if
un-coordinated". The CB's notoriously scruffy
member was said to be "chuffed" with this
accolade.
Calm day on the
roads, with little or no road rage, arriving in plenty of time
at Park Lane. We pull up right outside the hotel where we find someone just
leaving a perfect parking space. As if that is not
enough... they have left us enough money on the meter to get
us through to the free parking time. Dirk takes full
credit for this stroke of luck, of course, and even pulls his
"bastard" face for the camera. Well here's a
new one!! Never done this hotel before...very nice. We
are in SO much time that we actually get to see the stage.
But, not before we are greeted by "The Silver Fox",
Paul Baxter, who always seems to have a canny knack of knowing
when we are going to arrive and intercepts us before we get
into any trouble. We find out that the "do" is
for American insurance people who have just flown into
London.... Perfect!!!...they are all gonna be
jet-lagged. We
are whisked away to be fed downstairs as the guests are about
to arrive. Our meal is due at 7. By five past it
hasn't arrived and John sinks into depression (see photo). At
7 minutes past, the food does arrive and at 10 past John is
lighting his post dinner fag and furtively looking around to
see if anyone is likely to leave anything on their
plate. Paul asks us to be ready for 20 past
eight....Dirk goes to shave.....Paul asks if we can make it
for quarter past, and 3 minutes later brings it forward
another 5 minutes. As consummate professionals,
we are dragging Eddie out of the changing room at 10 past. 75
minutes later, Dirk and Rick are in the car waiting for
Roy, then Eddie....Can you see a pattern emerging here?
By midnight, we have arrived at one of our old haunts...Hilton
Park Services. We have our usual 10 minute moan about
the scandalous prices. Dirk resists the Ginsters
("because I can"), Rick remembers he has a
pork pie in the fridge so will wait, Roy chances his arm
(and carbohydrate intake) with a pack of Prawn Cocktail
crisps, but for young Ed.....the call of a microwaved pastie
is all too much, and he succumbs like a starving child in a
Dickens novel.
In a final moment of mirth, Dirk soaks Roy with his windscreen
washer after being dropped off at Knutsford.
 
Wednesday
6th October 04
Civic Theatre, Darlington.  It
always seems that there is more to write about when the four
of us travel together. Today, Dirk traveled up to
Darlington on his own....it just makes sense from a location
point of view.
It was our
first time at this theatre and we were all well
impressed...one of those lovely old ornate jobs.
Roy's reading material on this gig was as unusual as
ever.. "Fallen Eagles - A guide to Aircraft Crashes
in North East and Mid Wales".... how specific!!
A good turn
out for this show with the stalls and circle being mainly
full, which is great seeing as the show is in direct competition
with Coronation Street, timewise.
Got to give
a special mention to the "spot" operators at the
Civic who were fantastic, indeed, the whole crew were really
professional and made the show run slickly.
Thursday
7th October 04
The Cavern Club, Liverpool.
Back
home for a corporate engagement at the Cavern for the Cotton
industry. As we were reminded by Nick, the head of
Plexus Cotton, Maccas dad worked in the cotton industry for
many years so it figures that this was a great venue for their
party.
There was a bit of an issue with the "get in", as
Ade was sooooo keen to get the gear out of the goods
lift, that he opened the door before the lift had reached its
final stop....and.... arrrhhh
you've broken it!!! Of course... he hadn't, but
the security people were not keen to let Ade use the lift
again for the get out without adult supervision...he
he...scolded like a naughty child!! It was sorted out in the
end.
I don't think I've ever seen the club look so good, it is a
perfect venue for corporate events as well as being a great
rock n roll venue.
The stage in the back room being a box, makes the drums
incredibly loud and Roy really had to take it easy on the kit
cos he was deafening on stage. We performed for 90
minutes and at time s it was like pulling teeth, but by the
end we were going down really well. Corporate gigs are
just like that, the audience dips in and out of you as they
feel like. It's so rare to get a concert atmosphere
going.
Monday
11th October 04
Well...
we have been moaning about it for years, but this is what the
BBC say today about these bastards:-
New signs aimed at road
hoggers
A new attempt is
being made to educate England's motorway drivers to keep in
the proper lane.
 Messages
are being shown on signs on several motorways saying
"Keep left unless overtaking" and "Don't hog
the middle lane".
Highways Agency officials will be monitoring drivers'
reactions as part of a campaign to reduce accidents.
The messages will be shown on parts of the M1, M6, M18 and M62
in the north of England and the East Midlands.
Roads Minister David Jamieson said: "Poor lane discipline
causes frustration to drivers and can disrupt the flow of
traffic.
"We have all seen people on the motorway sitting in the
wrong lane and experienced the inconvenience and congestion it
causes."
Messages are being carried at various points on motorways in
South Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire,
Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire.
The results of the week-long trial will be studied by the
Highways Agency before deciding whether they should be a
permanent feature of the motorway network.
In August the RAC Foundation
said that drivers hogging the middle and outside lanes were
"stealing" up to 700 miles of motorway space from
other drivers in peak periods. That is roughly equivalent to
the distance from Aberdeen to Penzance. http://news.bbc.co.uk Monday
18th October 04
Pontins,
Lowestoft.
 You've
heard me moan before about how awful the drive is to this part
of the world so I won't labour it anymore, but it definitely
doesn't get any easier.
As a precaution against heavy traffic, we set off ludicrously
early and hit the M6 Toll without encountering much congestion
at all. There was obviously a good deal of psychology
used when they planned this 20 odd mile stretch of road.
To use the toll road, you carry on in a straight line, if you
want to keep on the M6 you have to "turn off".
I wonder how many people this has caught out? and how many
"three quids" they have obtained by stealth.
We, of course, always make a conscious decision to use the
toll. Even after months of vowing whilst it was being
built that we never would, the call of free flowing traffic is
all too much and every time their hoppers clatter with the
sound of our loose change being chucked into their pension
funds.
The
in car chatter must have been intense as we flew by Corley
services and our last chance of some decent coffee was
gone. We had to resign our selves to a stop on the A14
so it was going to have to be Burger King or Little Thief.
(McDonalds is never a realistic option cos we all think it's
crap... although they have made an effort lately with
the introduction of their "Big Tasty", a lame
imitation of the Whopper). So Burger King it was....an
hour spent with their truly dreadful coffee. We
arrived at Pontins at 7.30, still well early. The other
band, The Dreamers were going on at 8.30 and we had to wait
till 10.30 before we could do our bit. Dirk and Rick
went and chatted to Ade, Dave and John and found the cafe were
we sampled the "Fries Butty" and Pontins
coffee. The fries butty was one step up from "ships
biscuit" and the coffee tasted like warm washing up
liquid and UHT milk. It was interesting that we were the only
ones in the cafe. After our refreshments we went into
the main room to catch the last half of the Dreamers show
which included an entertaining drum solo involving all the
band, 4 dustbins and 3 hard hats. They went down very
well with the audience.
While all this was going on, we hadn't seen Roy and
Eddie. It turns out that Roy had gone on a bit of a
bender and had bought a pint of lager. I've known Roy
for what?......12 years..... I have NEVER known him to
drink a pint of lager. So it was a bit of a surprise to
catch him at 9.45 surrounded by "dolly-birds"
puffing away on a slim panatella, grinning inanely with the
words "this is me second". Eddie,
meanwhile, was busy working on his theory that if one drinks a
pint of water, it cancels out the previous pint of Guinness,
so God only knows how many he and sunk. He seemed happy
enough. Eddie
was keen to impress on us that we should start the show with
the short version of Twist & Shout, and spent 5 minutes
going round everyone in the dressing room to make sure we all
understood this. Imagine our surprise when he just kept
on singing when we expected the song to be coming to its
close. We didn't go down particularly well, perhaps it
was not cabaret enough for this type of audience...arh well! Ade,
Dave and John, didn't fancy driving back and so stayed at
Pontins, we as usual, hit the road and beat the traffic.
This was always a good idea, but these days one comes across
horrors like the M6 being closed between junctions in the
middle of the night, thankfully, the A50 is there to provide
an alternative. Roy slept off his hangover and Eddie
took up his new hobby of smoking 2 fags at once at a lay-by
toilet stop.
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