Wow! what a gig, Freiburg didn't disappoint. I don't know if it's sitting in the van for that length of time but we exploded onto the stage like a rocket from a bottle set free.
It was hot it was hard work but it worked so well. We started with a selection from the Shirley Lee album, people smiling and gently swaying from side to side, a false start on the instrumental, "London ghost stories" stop then starting again, my absolute pet hate but it didn't matter we just slipped straight back into it. "Traffic in the street" was a highlight for me, so full of life, poppy yet littered with all those crazy jazz chords. I hit the solo on the nose, best I've played it since the recording.
We came off stage and showed a short film about "a week away" we all sat backstage feeling very uncomfortable, its amazing how long 5 minutes seems when you are feeling self conscious.
Somewhat inevitably when we returned to the stage to play "a week away" we had problems getting the slides working. Ronan spent a long time setting it it up but in the moment we couldn't escape the technical problems reminiscent of a school teacher grappling with an overhead projector. Rather than causing a problem it just forged a closer bond between us and the audience. The film started again so we stopped it and then it stated once again, when the picture of Si's son Toby finally came up there was a cheer and we launched into "a week away" There was a very uplifting atmosphere, an infectious feeling and pretty soon band and audience alike were grinning from ear to ear. The project over heated by the time we reached, "sweeping the nation" but we ploughed on with dancing and grinning and handclaps and harmony.
Hard to pick a highlight but I remember during, "a trip into space" lots of enthusiastic dancing and people at the back of the room standing on tables circling their arms in the air, a real buzz.
and that was the first time we played, "a week away" album live and in full
Tonight was Neil's 100th spearmint gig. I think that's pretty amazing. There can't be that many people who follow bands around with such dedication. To Mark the occasion we collected together some spearmint rarities, test pressings, demos, promos and printed a t-shirt with the quote,"it pains me to live in a world where nobody's heard of spearmint" from 500 days of summer only with a logo saying 100 gigs of Neil. He's driving us on this tour, I think it's the third time he's done so but 100 gigs ago in 1997 at the Water Rats, kings cross, Londinium he and his wife Cheryl saw spearmint for the very first time.
Jim xXx
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