Unstabled in Dunstable (again!)

If you go back in these hallowed pages to last May you'll find the 'Unstabled, undressed' posting in which I make the observation that if you take the 'D' from the start of 'Dunstable' and put it on the end you get 'unstabled'. We played there again last night, and the same observation applies, if not more so this time...

I woke up yesterday morning (which doesn't quite sound as good at the start of a blues song as 'I woke up this morning' does it? It's amazing what a difference one word makes...) feeling rather unwell. As I got out of bed and stood up I realised that my feet hurt. Actually I realised that my legs, arms, hands, in fact pretty much everything hurt. Not a good start to the day I think you'll agree- but I wasn't due to be in the shop so at least I could take it easy until we have to leave for the gig, and it'd probably be a good idea if I walk into Uxbridge to visit the pharmacist in Boots, and actually now that I think abut it I haven't been feeling 100% for a while- a bit like I've got flu even though I haven't if you know what I mean. I took it all a bit more seriously when Shirley noticed that my hands were swollen- after all I'm going to need them at the gig. Ok Shirl, I'll go to the pharmacist ('they'll only tell you to take paracetamol and drink lots of water, and to go to the doctors if you've still got it tomorrow') and see what they say... yeah, you've guessed it, they told me to take paracetamol and drink lots of water, and to go the doctors if I've still got it tomorrow ('told you so') which I did at 10 past 9 this morning- I was in there for a good 90 seconds during which he told me that I've got 'something viral'; have a guess what he told me to do next... he then said that I should come and see him again in a month if it hasn't gone by then. A month! A bloody month! Help!

I woke up on the settee just after 3.10 p.m. with Shirley reminding me that Mario was due in 20 minutes or so. Better get the car loaded up then- my hands aren't as bad as they were earlier and playing a couple of chords on the trusty Telecaster isn't as painful as it was so hopefully all should be well tonight. Despite the M1 being down to 50 m.p.h. due to the seemingly never-ending roadworks we're at The Grove Theatre by 4.30 where attempts to get the barrier raised so that we can park at the back of the venue to load in are met by an annoying jobsworth on the intercom informing us that we would have to go and park in the public car park nearby. A phone call to Pete soon gets us in 'though not before we've cursed the ground that the jobsworth walks upon. It's the A-Team line-up last seen in Tonbridge last week, with Pete's wife Jayne co-ordinating the backstage costume changes during the show, ably assisted by the long-suffering Shirley. Pete had called earlier in the day to say that he'd reversed the set-up on stage to give Marc back on the drums a better view of the band- it's hard to describe it here but as you look at the stage from the audience you now see Marc on a riser behind Squirrel and myself on your left, Dave and Richard on a riser behind Ian on your right with Tracy in front of them and Mario and Mike centre stage with a walkway between the 2 risers to allow entrances and exits from the stage. Confused? I certainly was... a bit... but it's amazing how quickly you get used to something though isn't it? By the end of the first set it was hard to remember how it used to be, with the only slightly weird moment from myself and Squirrel's point of view coming when we had to work out who stands where for 'Green Onions'- come and see the show and you'll see what I mean... and it's a fine gig with the 400+ audience with us all the way and the band benefiting from having played so often lately. Great stuff.

Me? Well my hands hurt despite the amount of industrial strength painkillers that I'd taken, but I didn't play too badly all things considered... maybe I've had 'something viral' for the last couple of weeks? It'd go someway towards explaining my lousy gig in Basildon, head ache in France... hmm... I wonder how I'll be for the Beck Theatre gig this coming Friday?

On the way home we missed the turning off the M1 for the M25; bad sign posting, didn't have the sat. nav. on- or just unstabled? You decide...