Simon got a two week tour opening for the band Morcheeba. They are a London based band with a solid fan base in Europe and the States. Simon played solo to crowds of 1500-3000.
Django and I got to join him for the second week. We took the fast train from London to Brussels (less than two hours!). The train goes over 200 miles per hour.
Checking in to our hotel in Brussels. Waiting for Simon to arrive. He drove himself around Europe for the tour. He was traveling from Germany that day and had a problem with the car so had to drive to rental locations in two cities to sort it out. Suddenly he finds himself in Frankfurt with a four hour drive in front of him and two hours to sound check, 4 hours to stage time!
I hustled over to the venue to talk with the promoter. It was a very quick walk through what seemed like might be a charming city. Had I had more than 30 rushed minutes hustling through the beautiful streets, I could report to you if my sense was right.
About sixty percent of the Belgian population speaks Dutch, or Flemish. Most others speak French with a small percentage speaking German. Brussels though is primarily French speaking.
We arrive at the venue. I communicate with the show promoter. He sets me and sleeping boy up in Simon's backstage room for the long wait.
I left my book at the hotel, so to pass the time in a more entertaining way I took some artsy photos.
Every venue will provide snacks and drinks for the performers in their room. This was an odd choice: Wine and...candy?
Checking out backstage.
During the several hours we waited at the venue, I repeatedly received mildly panicked calls from Simon who was not sure he would make the gig. I was terribly nervous as well and kept running communications to the promoter. Morcheeba agreed to push their show 15 minutes. It was all they could do, as they would be driving back to London that night (well the tour bus driver would be driving, they would be sleeping).
So this meant that Simon had the stage for 30 minutes between 8:00-8:45. It looked like he might not arrive before 8:20. I got a call, "I'm only 1 1/2 km away!", then 1 minute later... "I'm stuck behind a line of red tail lights, there's no way out!!"
Harrowing. I gathered the promoter and we went outside to meet Simon as he finally pulled up. He jumped out of the car, a quick hello to me and Django, a stage hand grabbed his guitar, we handed the car keys to the security guard and dashed inside. Someone opened Simon's guitar case, handed him the guitar and he went immediately onstage to the waiting crowd of 3,000. Simon got there in time to play 20 minutes. He walked out, plugged in and played an awesome set. He rocked the house from note one. Amazing!
A cozy father son reunion after the show.
The next day we were to drive to a small town in Southern Germany where we'd stay for a few days off. I had hopes of exploring Brussels in the morning, but through the night our non-smoking hotel room was permeated with the smoke of the downstairs room's all-night cigarette smoking occupants. This put us in a foul mood and precipitated an urge to get out of town (well, Simon wanted to get out of town, I just wanted to get out of our room and check out Brussels). Simon need won out (he's the one on tour after all) and soon we were on our complicated way out of town. Of all the cities I've driven in, I think Brussels might be the most complicated (more than Boston even). Loaded with one way streets, even our GPS was confused. We finally made it to the open highway and onward to Germany.
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