Thursday, Feb 21, 2019
After a few days stay in Grindelwald, Doris and I made our back to Zurich today. We stopped in Lucerne for a few hours and walked around and had lunch. Made it to Zurich by 5pm and checked in the Sheraton Sihlcity hotel. This hotel is about a 5 min tram ride from the venue and connected to a mall 😊
It looks like the Mavericks had some flight cancelations and were split up and put on different flights but it looks like everyone made it in the end, except 4 bags ☹
Friday Feb 22
Since The Mavericks are over here touring for 10 days they have rented their own production and a tour bus. They had planned on coming to the venue at 10 to start load in but the production truck can’t get there till noon. Met Mike and Allan and some of the crew at the venue at noon and Werner and his Live Sound crew were on hand also. Load in went well and took the guys over to the restaurant to eat lunch before starting soundcheck. I hadn’t seen some of the guys since our Norway trip 4 years ago so it was a nice time catching up. Sound check wrapped up early and I took the tram back down to the hotel and started packing some since we fly out in the morning. Doris rode the tram back up to the venue with me at 6 so she knew where to come tonight for the show. Took part of the group over to the restaurant to have dinner. Most of the band is going to stay at their hotel and just come over closer to showtime. Since they have the tour bus they can just hang on it.
Oh I forgot to tell you as I was walking out of the venue after sound check Aaron Till was walking in with his step daughters. Aaron is a very talented fiddle player and has gone around the world with me and mom. He moved over here and got married a few years ago. It was so good to see him. He is playing with Pam McBeth tonight who is opening up for The Mavericks.
Finished dinner around 8:00 and went and walked back to the venue. Talked to Mike about the plans for getting the group on stage. Also 2 of the bags that were delayed were delivered to the venue….not sure what they will do about the other 2 ☹
The Mavericks took the stage at 9:45pm….right on time. The stage is smaller than what they are use to, esp when they have so many people on stage…it was very cozy! However they did a great show and the crowd loved every minute of it. There is usually a dance floor right in front of the stage but there are tables there now for this show. The audience still found room to dance off the side of the stage. I figured standing over by stage right by Robbie was less crowded and cooler!
Aaron Till played on some of The Mavericks records and Raul brought him up on stage to play 2 songs with them. That was super cool!
I finally got to see Winny, Albi’s wife. She hasn’t been feeling well and she wasn’t at the shows last weekend with The Last Bandoleros so it was so nice to see her tonight… dancing! The Mav’s did a great show  a little over 90 mins straight through. We were able to get them through the crowd and back out side to their bus without much problem. I have to say The Swiss are so pleasant. I brought Winny and Albi’s niece out to the bus to grab a quick pic with the band and gave me a chance to say my goodbyes. They will load out and head to Germany tonight. Once everything was done, Doris and I rode the tram back down to the hotel. We have a 9:00 am taxi ride to the airport. Her flight is at 11:45 and mine at 1.
I am ready to get home to my kids!!!!!