s
p
a
i
n
2
0
0
5
Spanish Tour June / July 2005
JUNE 30th
7.30 am and we are on the train to Heathrow airport again to catch our flight to Madrid, which all goes very smoothly and we arrive two hours later in a very hot and sunny Spain. We are met by our tour crew, who lead us to our very nice tour bus and start the four hour drive to tonight's show - an outdoor gig in a town square.
We arrive in Leon with plenty of time to spare, so a quick sound check and
its time to eat make our way to the hotel for a freshen up. 12.30 am and its
show time. There's an enthusiastic (and by this time, well oiled) crowd of around
400-500, everybody goes crazy and we are off to a great start. At 3.30am we
sleep.
JULY 1st
Today we travel to a place called Vitoria and a club called Hell Dorado, which we are warned, is a pretty crazy place. As before, we arrive with time to look round the town and have a couple of beers before going to the club for sound check and then for a meal with our hosts and the barmy Basque support band. 12.15am, we hit the stage and yes, everyone does goes completely mad. Its great gig, plenty of people and everybody's happy. 4.30am and its time for bed.
JULY 2nd
This is the last night of our visit and we are off to Madrid, which is hosting a gay pride event this weekend so the whole city is even busier than usual. Yet again, with time to kill, what can we do but sit in the sun and have some beers before going back to the hotel to cool down. It's around 40 degrees and too hot to stay outside. The venue is only a 10 minute walk from our hotel, so we leave for sound check around 8.15pm, some food at 10pm, then show time at 12.30am .Once again, the venue is packed with about 200 people and the show goes down great. As its the last night we hit some bars after the show and everybody manages to crawls back to the hotel in time for our 11.15 morning call, so we can leave for the airport.
JULY 3rd
At 12.32 we arrive at our check in desk in good time for our flight at 1.15 - or so we thought. But no - Iberia airways decide that we are 2 minutes too late and won't let us on the flight. After strong words between us and them, it is clear that they are not going to let us on and that we are now stuck at Madrid airport. The next available flight is in two days and will cost us most of what we have just earned. So, we then spend the next 2 hours on a 'pay as you go' computer, trying every option to get back home but nothing is available for the next 24 hours. Then just when it's looking like a night on the airport floor, we find that Easy Jet have five seats available on their 10 pm flight...but it goes to Bristol. We take it anyway and arrange for Simons brother Pete, to drive over from Southend to pick us up! Eventually, at 3.30am on Monday morning, we arrive home.
But what the hell, we had fun!
