Minehead, England
Hard Rock Hell Festival
It’s finally here. The last day of the tour. We arrived in Minehead, a resort town, a bit early because of the cancellation in Dudley. The Hard Rock Hell festival in Minehead is a weekend musical marathon, and bands play until the wee hours of the morning. And, since Friday is chick band night, some of us were able to catch “Vixen” and “Girls School” before hitting the sack at 3:00 a.m.
This morning we are treated to a full buffet at the hospitality center. The place is filled with rockers and crew members, including members of Twisted Sister, UFO, Saxon, who the band shares the bill with tonight. Later that night, Steve, Honorina and I eat dinner with the band. This is where I first see my future wife, Evelina (actually spelled Ewelinkja), a sweet Polish native with beautiful green eyes.
I call her my future wife after I invite her and her Polish co-workers (many of whom have similar green eyes) to come to America. Evelina states, “But we don’t have visas,” to which I reply, “No worries, you are going to be my wife.” Well, that got laughs from all the girls. But, Evelina, quick witted as she is, chimes in, “And we will have beautiful children together.” Well, I was instantly smitten. Even after Steve states, “And Marc is a successful attorney,” Evelina smartly replies, “But I don’t need money, I have my own.” Perfect answer, she wants me for me!! Once again, I did my usual and hailed a cabbie to tour the tour. We drove to Dunster Castle, a privately owned castle that has been continuously occupied for over 600 years.
Off in the distance you could see the "Folly Tower," which was the "fake" castle that invaders were tricked into attacking, and thereby, assist the inhabitants of Dunster in defending the real castle. 
We, also, drove the narrow back street of the village and stopped to take pictures of the thatched roof houses and the medieval Gallox packhorse bridge.
With so many great classic acts on the bill, the stage calls kept getting pushed back throughout the night. That resulted in Tesla not going on until approximately 2:00 a.m. And we had to be out of there by 4:30 to get to Heathrow in time for our flights out. It was gonna be one hell of a night. Due to this being a festival set up, we have about 2 hours to load in set up everything behind the stage, then push it forward when our turn comes up. Steve has no sound check and has to bring up a mix on the fly. And the house sound techs have really squashed the system with a compressor, so no one act has had that great of a sound, so far. But Steve is a master at sonically getting around those barriers. He knows all the tricks in the trade. And the night was no exception.
The band sounded great, a combination of their musical abilities and Steve’s expertise at his trade. Throw in Statics ability to throw up a mix on the in-ears in a pinch and, while we’re at it, the setup and tuning abilities of Robbie and I, and the Tesla band of traveling misfits had one great night. It was an perfect end to a perfect world tour.
Now the rush was on, and everybody, I mean everybody pitched in.
Thanks to the band members and to Steve (with his broken foot) and, even, Honorina and Pasquel, we loaded up in no time and made our way back to London. Dave is definitely happy to be going home. 
Pasquel drove that bus through the winding roads of Minehead like he was in Le Mans.
And even though he is one of the smoothest bus drivers we’ve ever had, half the bus was getting motion sick. But he knocked nearly an hour off the travel time, and we all made our flights with some time to spare. Since Brian, Jeff, Steve, Honorina and I are headed to Rome, Italy, for vacation, we had to say a quick “Goodbye” to the rest of the group. Thanks to all of you Tesla fans for following along on the tour. I hope you all enjoyed my ‘behind-the-scenes’ look at a rock and roll tour. Hope to see you when Tesla comes to your area. Keep rockin’ and remember, “Love Will Find the Way.”
Marc
No comments:
Post a Comment