Unstabled, undressed

Have you ever noticed that if you take the 'D' from the start of 'Dunstable' and put it on the end instead it now spells 'unstabled'?

I thought not. I worry myself sometimes.

The Price played quite a bit up in Dunstable- in fact the first time I met Glen Matlock was when we supported his then-band The Mavericks (yes, they had to change their name! They became The Philistines, a name Glen still uses today) in, I think, 1992. Judging by last night's visit it doesn't seem to have changed much since then; The Grove Theatre is brand new however, and reminded me of The Market Place Theatre in Amargh which we played last year. After a journey that would have been a lot less enjoyable had Pete not called to warn us that the M1 was, in his words, 'a car park' (we took the A-roads instead) Shirley went off shopping whilst I met keyboard player Steve for the first time (Ian was elsewhere, I think away playing for Roger Chapman) and attempted a quick rehearsal with him. Soundcheck was mostly spent 'topping-and-tailing' songs, ostensibly for Steve's benefit 'though I for one appreciated the chance to run through some of the rarely played stuff. Great to have 'Green Onions' back too... with Shirley back it was time for a visit to the bar to meet up with Paul (Rotten) from The Pistols and his girlfriend Hayley who'd come along to check out what I do when I'm not making a row with them.
Show time and with Shirley in place backstage to help Pete with his re-instated costume changes (not a job for the faint-hearted as we shall see) we launched ourselves at the first set. Without giving too much away to anyone who hasn't seen the show (shame on you!) Pete's second costume change comes towards the end of the first half- he normally goes off halfway through 'Flip, Flop and Fly' to give himself time to get ready... but he forgot until the end of the song (I'm told Michael's words to him were something like 'what are you still doing here?') which somehow involved him ending up completely naked in front of Shirley.

Well- that's their story anyway.

Nothing in the second half could rival that for lunacy- although it all could have been a disaster from the word go as the intro tape started before any of us were ready to go on resulting in a mini-panic in the dressing rooms... oh, and Pistols Paul shouted 'play some Pistols' during my bit of the band introductions which if nothing else shows what a loud voice he's got! A good gig.