From 'Free Appreciation Society' magazine. Issue 60. Mar1994

In Full Cry (A True Story!)

I thought it was a dream at first. That wonderful southern American drawl. “Hi Dave, this is Robert from Cry of Love. We’ve just arrived at the hotel in Wolverhampton. I guess I’ll see you soon buddy. The room number is…and the telephone number is…”The alarm went off a few hours later (1:20am Wednesday 22md December) I hit the snooze button, just five more minutes please ! And my dream came flooding back. It was a quick five minutes, you know the score and that ‘beep beep beep’ told me that it was time to get to work or else ! Being in the food (hot pies) trade Christmas is the busy period. A day off in December/January is viewed as a serious offence and anyway I’d used up all my sick time up! Heading dowstairs I saw the answer machine blinking its red light. Hitting the message button I heard Robert’s voice again. No dream, too COOL!

Sure enough the work day dragged but I was smiling like a loony most of the time and at 2:15pm I was a free man. YEA! Home, Shower, food but first ring the hotel and find out what the score was for tonight’s show. So what happens? I wake the band up! “Were you in bed?” I ask. “Yeah but it’s OK we have to get up in a minute anyway”. A brief exchange of chat and I arrange to meet Robert on the band’s bus at about 5:30pm (ish). This will be the first of two Christmas shows with Robert Plant. “I’ll wait for you on the bus man, no problem.” I pick up Rich from his workplace at about 4pm, we are already running late. I drive like a nut but about 20 miles outside Wolverhampton we hit serious traffic and stop for what seems like an eternity. Shit, looks like we’re going to be late.

Sure enough we arrive in Wolverhampton at about 6:45. Takes ages to find the Civic Hall and after parking we can’t find the way to the car park! What a pair of dorks! Nope, actually there’s about half-a-dozen people desperately trying to find the way out of this car park from hell. The venue is weird, in fact the whole thing is surreal. The town center has a weird lighting and outside the Civic Hall a voice booms over and over again, “Do not buy your tickets from the touts, they may be forgeries!” A guy comes over and kinda whispers ‘Would you like to buy a ticket? ‘.Too weird. I feel like I’m in the 1984 film and it’s very, very cold.

We find the bus, no Robert but the driver is pretty cool and tells us to ask for him at the stage door. We bang on the door and the jobsworth looks at us as though we’re shit! “Robert who?” he says in his best ‘Get Lost!’ voice. “I’ll see if anyone’s heard of him.” He’s in the opening band you DICK! We wait, nothing. We wait and wait and wait. The bus driver comes up. “Aren’t you in yet? Jesus, I’ll tell him myself.” Five minutes later Robert is outside with passes and we move past the dicks on the door into the warm. My hands feel like frozen fish fingers and I’m very tired. We go to the smallest dressing room I’ve ever seen and Robert gets us a beer from the cooler box. I start to thaw and the beer wakes me up. The band have been busy. Only about two days off since we saw them last September! But Robert seems happy with the progress they’re making and the Robert Plant tour is “A cool gig. He’s a really nice guy”. More importantly he seems very happy to see us again. I give him some posters and Heartbreaker T-shirts and he’s over the moon. Slowly the others wander in. Everybody smiles when they see us, which is cool. You never actually know if you’re in the way backstage before the band goes on. Kelly has his video camera and asks me to say ‘hi’ to his folks. The conversation is a little slow at first and when the whole band are together there’s very much a sense of being in ‘their’ space. It’s not a bad vibe or anything but it shows how much a ‘band’ they really are. You can tangibly feel the ‘gang’ element. Audley retreats to the corner with his Strat and a pile of Free Appreciation Society zines he’s asked for. He starts reading the Cry of Love article from issue 59. “Hell, you make it sound so exciting. I want to see this band!”, he says. We sit talking with Kelly, Robert and Jason. The news is they are out with Aerosmith after these shows and they’re hopful of getting on the ZZ Top tour. That would be good, and the right type of audience too. Audley comes back and joins us, sitting playing some mind-bending licks on his unplugged Strat. Rich and myself keep making eye-contact and mentally saying “WOW!” to each other. There’s a great thing when the roadie somes in and picks up Robert’s bass. “You’re on in about 10 minutes” he tells Audley. “Make sure I get the guitar when your done here”. “You can take it now man” says Audley, “after all these years I don’t think ten minutes is gonna save my career!” he replies, passing over the guitar. Kelly’s singing into a towel to warm up his voice and we decide to get a seat and leave them to get ready. Amanda and Jo from Columbia records in London still haven’t shown up yet.

The Civic Hall in Wolverhampton really is a fine venue. It’s just the right size and feels good but has tons of jobsworths everywhere. All feeling very important in their uniforms, they cover every door, often in twos or threes. The wages bill for this place must be HUGE! We get up to the balcony and can’t find our seats so go for the best view, middle front. There’s a gapthere so what the hell! Downstairs looks pretty packedand the band come on to warm applause. The set is very short to allow for Robert Plants long show. 35 minutes tops. However the sound is absolutely fantastic and the band soon kick into gear running through the highlights of the album including a blistering PRETTY AS YOU PLEASE with a stunning solo. Straight away we notice how much tighter they’ve become since September. They look more comfortable and are moving better. Kelly does a great job with the vocals. They just ride over the backing so well and he’s much better live than on the record. Audley is incredible! Some fantastic solo’s. He’s a superb player. At one point he’s hammering one of the strings until it finally gives up and snaps! Robert and Jason are put very much in the background and don’t even have a light between them! Robert plays his balls off in darkness throughout the entire set. This pissed me off a bit. There’s a cool lighting rig and they only get a light on the singer and guitarist! Give me a break! Sitting up on the balcony I was impressed with Jason and Roberts playing. They are SO tight and owe much to the Kirke/Fraser school of playing. Jason plays more like Simon that Simon does these days! These guys might not be in the spotlight but they burn as brightly as the backbone of the band. I thought this was the best I’ve seen them play. It was a stunning set. The audience was warm and appreciative and I felt they made a few new friends. I know there were a few FAS members in the audience that night who specifically went to see them and I know you weren’t disappointed.

After the show the jobsworth we’d gone past about half-a-dozen times told us our backstage passes were no good? EH? Cry’s manager Bob couldn’t believe it, “Follow me”. And back past the grinning idiot we went. In the dressing room the band were having a beer and winding down. Audley thought that they played well but the audience was rather subdued. I explained that usually the audience stays in the bar for the support act and those that do stay usually just jeer and shout for the main act, re-telling the story of how I once saw Gary Moore booed off in Leicester (with G-Force, even though they were brilliant). He started to feel a bit better after I finished my tale and I told him that, for me, I felt they went down VERY well. The beers flowed and FINALLY Amanda and Jo turned up. They missed the show, stuck in the traffic just as we had been. Robert Plant’s show came and went while we just chatted in the dressing room and in no time at all it was time to go. I managed to get about an hour in bed before the alarm went off and I was back at work.

The Thursday at work wasn’t too bad. The night before gave me a smile for most of the day and this evening was the Brixton show. Got out of work an hour earlier and went home with the intention of getting a couple of hours sleep. It didn’t work out that way though and I got a shower and some food and did some taping for Audley. Some Robben Ford and also a Robin Trower gig he wanted to hear. In no time at all it was time to pick Rich up and we were off again!

The drive to London is the most boring. I know every bridge, every tree, having made this journey hundreds of times. It was a pedal to the floor drive and fortunately traffic wasn’t bad at all, at least until we hit London. Parking out at Highgate we took the tube in and arrived to find the queue right around the building. After spending about 20 minutes trying to find the backstage door we pulled out the passes from the night before and amazingly got straight through!

The band were quiet and subdued in the dressing room (nerves?). Again on entering the felling of invading their space was tangible. Even Rich mentioned it to me afterwards. But they all smiled when we walked in and we felt immediately welcome. It seemed they’d had a good day in London and had even had time to do some shopping. Audley told us he couldn’t find the double CD set of the Skynyrd live album that had just been released. We’d showed him a copy the night before as Rich had just happened to have bought it that day, but we told him it was no big deal to send him a copy over to the States. He was chuffed with the tapes and immediately put them in his bag to avoid losing them. Robert passed over a beer and complained that his boots were coming apart in his hands, sure enough they were! Being as it was only a few minutes from showtime, we made our way out telling them that we’d see them after the gig, without thinking that we still didn’t have the correct passes for this show!

I like Brixton Academy. It’s got soul. A venue with feeling. Backstage Jason mentioned that he thought it was open air because he couldn’t see the roof. As we left the maze of corridors and entered the main hall I looked up. He was right, where exactly WAS the ceiling!

We headed back and took in the show. The venue was about 75% full and they got a great cheer as they walked out to start the set. The sound wasn’t so good this time, James having trouble with the venue and losing the snare drum mike during the first number. However, the band were fired up and the audience lapped it up. During the gig both Robert and Kelly took photo’s of the crowd which sent them totally barmy (the audience that is). I thought the Wolverhampton show was better but here the audience was totally on their side from the word go. Yet again, during the same song as previous night Audley broke a string. “Must be the bridge needs filing” he said afterwards. Couldn’t have been due to the fact that you were bending the shit out of it then Audley eh!?

During the show, FAS member Brian Maslin came up and said hello, which was cool. He enjoyed the gig too and we retired to the bar for a chat after the performance to give the band a chance to wind down a bit. Heading backstage later, as Robert Plant hit the stage, it suddenly hit me that we didn’t have the right pass! Oh dear… Well it’s all or nothing. Let’s just go for it. Walking up to the security I waved my pass and he let me through. Phew, almost there. On to the next guy and the final door. I gave him a look and he stared at it puzzled. After a minute though, he too let us through. The gods smiled, I stopped sweating! In the dressing room the band were much brighter than after Wolverhampton. They felt the show hadn’t been quite as good musically as the previous night but they’d enjoyed the performance more and had felt the audience right behind them. Also I think that they were looking forward to getting home and having some family time. I think they’d actually got a week off after this show and so the Christmas celebrations started now. Many people drifted into the dressing room, record company people, road crew and so on. We ended up standing near the door, Jo and Amanda came in and said hello. At least they saw the show tonight and they loved it. Really nice people. In fact the first record company people I’ve ever come across who are actually genuinely excited about one of the bands they represent. Usually you end up dealing with right jaded buggers who really don’t give a toss. Atlantic Records used to be tewrriblewith Bad Companym though that situation has recently improived a bit. Anyway, we stood talking by the door, just me and Rich while everyone else mingled. I told Rich I had to take a piss and opened the door to leave. Audley saw me abnd came flying over. “Where are you going man! Don’t go now!” I think he actually thought we were sneaking off, maybe a little put out by all the people in the room we didn’t know. About 95% of them! I was quite touched by this, and it meant a lot. I mean it’s cool to be backstage with your friends (and I count the band and crew as friends) but you can never be too sure if you’re actually in the way. And even though I do all this stuff: interviews and the like, I’m actually very shy and not at all good at parties or with strangers. “Audley, I have to take a piss man!”. “Oh”, he said, a big smile coming over his face.

In the toilet taking a leak was Bob, the manager. Finally I had a chance to find out how things were really going for the band. “It’s looking really good actually Dave”, he said. “Everyone’s pleased with the way the albums doing and all the gigs are good. We’re glad to be in England tho’. All these places where they don’t speak English… We landed here and it felt like home.” I mentioned the fact that they seem to be working really hard, only a few days off in four or five months. “Yeah, we’re working hard but it’s good fun too. We’ve been to some great places. I just wish we had time to see more.”

Walking back into the dressing room Audley immediately handed me a bottle of Becks abd someone else gave me a plastic glass which he then filled with Champagne! Audley stoodwith us at the door the rest of the evening and the conversation rolled. We talked about Skynyrd, Free then soul. I mentioned Roberta Flack, whom I’ve recently got into and KILLLING ME SOFTLY WITH HIS SONG, my fave track and a song about Don Mclean. The conversation turned to him and the song VINCENT, which it seemed we all liked. “Hey, Kelly knows that”, said Audley. “Kelly! Over here man! Sing some of Vincent!”. And you know what? he did, there and then. Too cool. So Kelly joined us and we talked about Vincent Van Gogh and art and that great picture of Sunflowers and so on it went. We had a really great time that night. Took lots of photo’s, even had a camera duel with Kelly (and I slaughtered him!) and Audley (not too sure here, he was pretty quick!).

The first time I looked at my watch I almost died. 11:15pm, only fifteen minutes to the last tube! I remember saying we have to go…NOW” The goodbyes were brief but maybe that was good. Couldn’t find Robert but that was cool as I’d already arranged to ring him Christmas day. We ran out of the dressing room and as we shut the door, Robert Plant, who was in the corridor, shouted to us and waved us over. We blurted about the last tube and ran on but I swore I saw Jimmy Page behind him. We may have blown our only chance to talk to one of the most famous Rock singers ever! Bollocks!! We ran all the way to the tube and just got on as the doors shut and it pulled out. That was close. As I sat on the tube, a wave of sleep caught me and Mr. Tired hit me full in the face. I should get home just in time to go back to work again! OH NO!

We got back in the car and I headed for the motorway. My eyes were heavy as hell. I pulled over and let Rich drive (he doesn’t drive!). As I put him in gear and told him to go steady I could feel my lights going out. I dropped the seat and was out. I awoke briefly every now and then over the next hour. The final wakening I found Rich yelling at some guy along the side of us. Looking forward I saw a very big lorry straight in front! “BRAKE!...BRAKE!!” He turned forward and saw it. We stopped dead. I’ve never known a car stop so quickly and we were about a foot (at MOST!!) from the back of this monster truck…And there I was, suddenly Mr. Wide Awake!! The traffic had actually stopped dead so we flipped positions and I drove the rest of the way. I got home just in time to make a coffee before I went back to work. Man was I beat! But happy. Oh yes, very happy. I think it took about five days for my body to recover. It was like a weird jet lag. It was worth it tho’ and now I’m looking forward to May, when they should be over again. This time I think I’ll have some days off work however.

Latest News:
Looks like the guys might have got a leg on that ZZ Top tour. EXCELLENT!!! They should be back in the UK around June.

STOP PRESS:
UK tour dates as follows…
Wednesday 1st June – Wolverhampton Wulfren Hall
Thursday 2nd June – London Astoria 2
Friday 3rd June – Nottingham Rock City
Monday 6th June – Glasgow Cathouse
Tuesday 7th June – Newcastle Riverside
Thursday 9th June – Buckley Tivoli
Friday 10th June – Bradford Rio’s
Saturday 11 June – Norwich Oval
Monday 13th June – Southend Esplanade