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Steeleye Span 'Winter Tour' Diary 2004
Thursday 2nd December (Day 8)
Borough Theatre, Abergavenny
Its good not to have to travel today, it gives me a chance to take it easy and do a little shopping. So, I headed into the town centre, accompanied by Jackie, Liam and Pete. The first stop was for a coffee which was pretty good too. Second stop was to withdraw cash, so I found a Spar Shop with a cash machine and miraculously remembered my PIN number. Told the machine I wanted £50, after a few clicks and other machine like noises the machine told me that the transaction was complete. Only one slight problem; it did not give me the money! Still, the chap in the shop reassured me that if there was no money in the machine then the amount would not be withdrawn from my account, so I figured that this was nothing more than a frustration.
Third stop, the library to check and reply to any emails I may have received. That done, curiosity got the better of me and I logged onto my bank site, and sure enough there it was, the transaction in front of me showed a withdrawal of £51.50, not just the £50 I didn't receive but I was also charged a £1.50 transaction fee. I'll keep you posted on my efforts to recover the money.
This is possibly the smallest theatre we'll play, with its capacity of just 328. I remember back in 2002 we played two consecutive nights here due to demand.
The show went well and the set, we all agree feels as though it's settling down very nicely.
Friday 3rd December (Day 9)
The Hall for Cornwall, Truro - Capacity 932
Arrived in Truro and checked into the Royal Hotel after about 4 hours travelling time. The hotel, due to it's listed status, has no lift, and whatever or whoever it was that conspired a number of doubtful events in my fifty three years of earthly experience, once again, here it is in action, as I find myself booked into a room on the top floor. Where's the porter when you need him?
The hotel location is perfect though, being less than a couple of minutes from the venue.
The show tonight was completely sold out, and coupled with my fitness levels increasing with every staircase I climb, things are definitely in ascendance.
Saturday 4th December (Day 10 - double figures)
Travel Day - Truro to Ipswich
On the road at 11.15am for this long journey. We stopped for lunch along the way, not that I wanted lunch, I was just on the same bus as those that did. It was one of those Egon Roney places and everyone was raving about how good the food was, so I conceded and ended up having a glass of wine and the cheeseboard.
Arrived at the Claydon County House Hotel, situated just outside Ipswich at 7pm - sounds good doesn't it? Well it's NOT. Apart from my room's aroma that was reminiscent of an unemptied ashtray, if I were to begin listing all of the things in a state of complete disrepair, I'd compromise my supply of writing paper. To put the icing on top of the metaphorical cake, there just happened to be a wedding party this evening also (well it is Saturday). My room was shaking with every kick drum beat from the wedding disco downstairs until gone midnight. A knighthood for the person that invented earplugs please.
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Sunday 5th December (Day 11)
The Corn Exchange, Ipswich
Still in Faulty Towers ... ordered a paper on check-in yesterday; must have looked outside 4 or 5 times this morning before deciding to go out and buy one for myself. This may be one of the worst hotels in some ways, but the breakfast was first class. Nothing is ever black and white!
Was excited by the prospect of the Wigan v Preston North End match being shown on Sky Sports this afternoon, and awaited it's 12.30 kick-off with some anticipation. Thought North End might be in with a decent chance of coming away with something, especially after their first-half performance - a half that saw them easily match Wigan's standard of play (if not at times exceed it) and in which, even though conceding a goal, they had a perfectly good goal disallowed. Unfortunately, the second half was not in keeping with the first and Preston picked the ball out of their net a further four times.
Tonight's theatre is quite a large cavernous hall, in fact it's just like every other Corn Exchange I've seen. I've just realised how similar these buildings are in style regardless of their locality. Why is that?
I've figured it's virtually impossible for a sound engineer to mix a band in such a way that sounds OK to everyone, regardless of where they sit, especially for those at the back, or up in the circle. The people I spoke to after the gig all said how good it sounded; when I asked where they were sitting, invariably their answer was, "at the front".
Monday 6th December (Day 12)
Travel Day - Ipswich to Cardiff
Straightforward journey, arriving in Cardiff at around 4.30pm. Checked into the Thistle Hotel in Park Place. We are right in the centre and within walking distance of tomorrow night's venue; St David's Hall.
Discovered today that the £50 lost to a cash machine in Abergavenny has been refunded automatically to my account.
For those interested in the set list, we changed the order slightly from our previous two shows, moving 'All Around My Hat' from it's position at the front of the second set, to the position of one of our encores.
1st Set
Van Dieman's Land
Cold Hailey Windy Night
Four Nights Drunk
Drink Down the Moon
The Unconqured Sun
London
Down In Yon Forest
Babylon
Seagull
Bright Morning Star
2nd Set
The King
Today in Bethlehem
Sing with the Virgin Mary
The First Nowell
Silky
Let Her Go Down
Samain
Tam Lin
Encores:
See Amid the Winters Snow
All Around My Har
Gaudette
Tueday 7th December (Day 13)
St David's Hall, Cardiff
The morning began with a knock on the door from the cleaning lady. She obviously had difficulty reading the 'do not disturb' notice I had hung on the door handle last night.
Despite the Indian takeaway I enjoyed last night, I figured I'd do breakfast, after which I headed for the library to sort out my E.mails. Some of the feedback I've been getting from various people who have been to the shows has been very positive.
Having never been into the centre of Cardiff before, I have to say how impressed I am with the place - I enjoyed perusing the shops, even if it was a little congested with people going about their Christmas shopping.
Managed to get some practise in the afternoon, both guitar and voice, having the other day purchased a small CD player with a set of speakers, so I can now sing along to my voice exercise CD. I'm clinging to the hope that it has a positive effect.
Afterwards, having completed my 20 minutes of meditation, I headed over to the theatre for the sound check. I was struck by the size (capacity 1510) and how grand the hall is.
The evening went smoothly, that is, apart from a few minor bits and pieces that bare testimony to having had two days off in the last four.
Wednesday 8th December (Day 14)
Martletts Hall, Burgess Hill
Another fairy lengthy journey today, this time from South Wales to West Sussex. On the journey I was reading my complementary copy of the Guardian and was reminded of the death of singer and artist Kevin Coyne. I read an obituary last week to him. His death caused me to reflect on the days I spent as a cadet male nurse at the tender age of 16 at an institution called Whittingham Mental Hospital. It just so happened that Kevin worked there as a social therapist, at least thats what I seem to recall his job title as. We used to spend lunch times together, always talking music. Although he often heard me play, I never heard him sing, play or anything, but I always remember him saying that he could do better than just about any other artist we may have been discussing or listening to. I recall being impressed with his record collection and borrowed the odd album on occasion, for which he would need to repeatedly remind me of before they were eventually returned. It seemed fitting consequently that the last I remember of him was selling records on Preston Market. To this day I still haven't heard any of his own music.
On arrival checked into the Hickstead Hotel which is situated just four miles from Burgess Hill. As in Abergavenny, I can hear workmen drilling and hammering away. Where are those earplugs?
Martletts Hall is quite small and consequently a more intimate kind of venue. This must be about the forth time I've performed here, the second time with Steeleye. We stuck to the same song order, although one or two opinions have been expressed within the band toward perhaps shortening the first set slightly. The problem of course is what to leave out. One reason for the increasing length can be attributed to the ever more elaborate song introductions.
Thursday 9th December (Day 15)
Lees Cliff Hall, Folkstone
I've been looking forward to being reunited with my car, which I left in Hastings just a fortnight ago. It's not the fact of it being a car, it's more a piece of my life. That may sound slightly puzzling, but it's quite easy when on the road to feel as though your life, with all the people, cats and creature comforts, all of the accumulated wealth of importance to oneself gathered along the way, has just been pushed into some distant place. I'm not the most sociable individual really, so sharing this somewhat confined existence of touring can turn into an exercise in compromise. So, getting into my car was a little like getting back on dry land. The 'two of us' took the A259 from Hastings to Folkstone, arriving around 2.30pm.
The Lees Cliff Hall is quite a unique looking place and although I did not get a good look at the exterior during the hours of daylight, it appears to have been built into a cliff. The surrounding area is very striking with it's tall and majestic Edwardian terraces.
The audience tonight numbered between five to six hundred and were very warm. I felt that the band were good but suffering slightly from a touch of mid-tour fatigue, however, after the show more than one person commented that "tonight the band were really buzzing" - how wrong I was!
Friday 10th December (Day 16)
Huntington Hall, Worcester
Driving the cars from Folkstone to Oxford, then heading on towards Worcester turned this into quite a long day. I eventually landed at the office of Park Records at 12.45pm which is where all of our cars will remain until the tour ends - hey maybe that's where the name 'Park' came from? Back into the tour bus for us all.
The hall we played tonight is very unique in style; quite ornate and with a strong feel of history. Apparently it was originally a Methodist church with the alter still situated at the back of the stage. One interesting feature of the venue is the balcony which extends the whole length of the hall, meaning that there are audience members above and behind you as you face out toward the main body of the hall. The smallest stage so far, but a lovely evening was had by all.
The Frownes Hotel, where we are staying has some history to it also, having once been a shoe factory. On check-out, Brian our light engineer was charged £10 by the hotel for not checking out of his room on time - this I think was very unfair, especially when one considers that most of our room phones were not actually functioning. However, to the hotel this did not constitute grounds for any form of compromise or compensation.
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