European Tour 2013 – Episode 1: Rehearsals JOHN THIRKELL BLOG

Courtesy of John Thirkell - check out his complete blog here ……….

It’s 7.59 am and I’m on my way into London for the first full day of rehearsals for Lisa Stansfield’s 2013 European Tour. The tour will take in much of Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Holland) as well as a number of dates in the UK and a couple in Istanbul.

Along the way I shall be writing a daily blog in an attempt to convey something of what it’s like being an itinerant musician on the road.

I’ve been working with Lisa & Ian for almost 20 years and I can honestly say that every minute has been an absolute joy and I’m sure there will be lots of tomfoolery over the coming weeks as we laugh our way around Europe.

It’s a fairly new band, having been put together for a handful of dates in 2012 (Snowboy and I are the only two band members who were around back in the 90s), but it has quickly gelled into the kind of happy family that comes with working with such great people. The mood of everything always comes from the top, and Lisa & Ian have always managed to combine the serious task of making sure we put on a great show, with lots of mucking around.

Along the way I will be sharing profiles of all of the band and crew and I would point out that the tone of each of these will be entirely commensurate with the number of drinks they buy me.

We’ll be maintaining a fairly hectic schedule with plenty of overnight drives from country to country so there will be plenty of time to write about nothing much happening.

I will try to post at the end of every day, details of the day’s exploits which I shall write up loosely in diary form and also include as many photographs and quotations as are publishable.

So, if you want to know what life is really like on the road, follow me on twitter (@johnnythirkell) for a daily link to the inside story.

Update

It’s now 1.00pm and we still haven’t played a note. Something went wrong with the gear apparently so we’re off to lunch. Once we’ve eaten then we should have just enough time for one run through, before Lisa arrives at 4.00pm. Welcome to the music industry 

7.00pm – All finished and on the way home after a hard day at the office. In the middle of ‘Can’t Dance’ Mickey Donnelly (Sax) made a comment which, although totally unrepeatable, made me laugh until I thought I was having a heart attack. Band is sounding great and everyone is pumped for the first show. We leave at 11.00pm Wednesday to travel overnight for the first show in Paris on Thursday.

Until then…………..