A blissful sleep and a gradual awakening, birds are on a tune and thankfully bees are busy, as is Ulf as he roars past my window on the sit-on lawn-mower, which he promptly parks in a fence...mornin!
A huge brekky with our fantastic hosts Beatrix and Guido sets us up perfectly for a wee jam in the garden sunshine. Mel says she's been reading my blog and resolves to watch her utterances around me in case she appears...I'm always listening Mel...always. Slowly but surely minds turn to setting up the stage and the seating for tonight. Guido and Ulf have it all under control as Shane and I symbolically move the odd chair or bench and the space looks great! Ulf turns the missing speaker stand problem into a chimney-sweep sculpture...there are no problems merely creative solutions waiting to be found. Sound check goes smoothly with Ulf running the desk, we fanny around with my guitar sound and eventually find a beautiful sweet spot.
A catnap follows our exertions and as I rouse again the audience is already arriving...showtime. Big crowd tonight, that Shane fella must be putting something in the water up here. Mel has everything ticking along like a well-oiled machine (such a blessing to be able to concentrate on just playing) and Beatrix is debating whether to have her first drink in a year. Guido does the intros and I'm up. On a whim I go completely acoustic and Ulf's hard work with me at sound check goes up in smoke...fuckin musos. The atmosphere is beautiful though and it feels like the right choice, I dedicate 'No Weddings' to Guido and Elisa (from a distance), crack out a couple of older tunes and they're even singing along with me...I reckon they're warmed now and hand over to the main man. Shane goes down a storm, Guido's so excited he breaks his chair and an improv song is born on the spot. They're up dancing and singing, forgetting the mosquitoes for an hour at least and it's a barn-stormer, literally. I join Shane for an encore, both of us wearing Guido's chimney-sweep hats and its job done. The night continues much longer than it should but good company has that effect. I discover schnapps and I beg to differ right on time as I'm considering giving this massive Saxon bloke I'm chatting to a practical demonstration of a rugby tackle...to bed. I dream that Shane and Guido wake me up trying to get me to chat into a space walkie-talkie...must have been the schnapps again. Brekky and off to the next one, gonna miss these folks!
Ulf and his mean machine
