FRIDAY, AUGUST 4TH:
Bus was thankfully on time and we all tried to sleep on the 1 ½ hour drive to the Stockholm airport. It was BRUTAL. Ticket counter didn’t open at 5:30 am like Lufthansa told me yesterday. However we only had to wait 15 minutes for them to open and we were first in line. Got checked in and even avoided paying excess on the 91 pound pedal steel. Don’t know how that happened! Flight to Gothenburg was uneventful except for the landing. I was half asleep and woke up thinking I was back in Iraq and we were making a combat landing. Not sure what that was all about.
All our luggage/gear made it and the bus was waiting for us. I had to make a decision – one hour and should I shower, eat, or sleep. Opted for the shower and went over to sound check with the guys. My eyes feel like sandpaper and I’m starving and dead tired — but I’m clean and smell good. J
Show should be over by 11 pm tonight so maybe, just maybe, I can get 4-5 hours of sleep. We depart at 5:15 am to the airport tomorrow morning to fly to North Wales for a show that evening. Several brutal days in a row but then because of the cancellation of the London show, we have a couple of days off there, then a travel day to Austria and a day off there. Wish we could spread out the hard days so that we had one easy day in between.
Last night when we arrived at the show in Furuvik, we had the same cute little security guards that we have every year. They are all football players. There was one last year who was such a sweetheart. I am terrible with names (as anyone who knows me will attest). I walked right up to him at the backstage entrance and said, “Hey, Toby, so good to see you again”. I don’t know who was more shocked that I remembered his name – him or me! LOL
The venue today was an Amusement Park and the stage was great. The staff was very professional and things ran so smooth – which was greatly appreciated after our lack of sleep. We finished sound check and I managed to come back to the hotel and sleep for one whole hour before going back over for the show. All the seats at the stage were full for Jesse and Noah’s show and the crowd really liked their music. It started raining just as Howard and David went on and we lost some of the crowd. But the rain passed quickly and soon the place was packed. It was a great evening. I helped Susan sell merchandise after the concert and I MAY get in bed before midnight tonight. Departing at 5 am tomorrow for North Wales. The 3 hour layover in Frankfurt is going to be BRUTAL though.
