Casino Royale

Time is funny stuff isn't it? Well, it feels as though it is just at the moment - I was in Switzerland 4 hours ago...

It was 7 a.m. yesterday when myself and Matt blearily arrived at Heathrow Airport's Terminal One. When I got into his car 30 minutes earlier 'Blank Expression' by The Specials was playing on the CD player - both of us were singing it as we got off the courtesy bus from the long stay car park. It seemed an appropriate song for such an early hour, and for the faces of the rest of the Chicago Blues Brothers party (!) all of whom were on their way to Zurich for a corporate show. Mike's joining Matt in the hats 'n' glasses with Tracy and Pete on backing vocals, Dave and Richard are on trumpet and sax, Squirrel's on bass, Chris is in Ian's place on keyboards and with Marc busy elsewhere Dave Ruffy joins us on drums for the first time. I'd been over to his house a few days earlier where armed with a DVD of a theatre show we'd ran through a fair amount of material in preparation for the gig. Also working with us for the first time are Claire and Laura a.k.a. The Abba Sisters (can you guess what they do?!?) who with Pete and Mike are playing a show the following night in San Moritz and are also doing a short set with us.

After checking in and going through security there was time for breakfast (eggs, chips and beans - excellent!) before the epic walk to gate 33. I spent much of what I considered to be a reasonably uneventful flight engrossed in Guitar And Bass Magazine; as we got off the plane Pete remarked to me that he 'didn't enjoy the take-off or landing' - I hadn't really noticed anything untoward going on. Maybe that's what God made guitar magazines for... as we waited to go through passport control Pete messes about - Claire looked worried, 'don't do that or we'll get ...er...' she searched for the word '...er... apprehended...' adding 'all I could think of saying was yogurts'. Hmmm... after collecting our baggage we met up with Ronnie the promoter, and with Mr. Ruffy supplying a seemingly never-ending amount of jokes we arrived at The Best Western Hotel in Baden in good if somewhat bleary spirits. After Ronnie telling us how picturesque the village is I resolved to take a walk for a look around - I was however asleep within a few minutes of arriving in room 111.

We all met up in the lobby around 4.30 before walking - yes, walking! - over to the Grand Casino where we're playing at an event for 100 or so casino staff. The room is far too small for me to make full use of the Marshall JCM2000 half-stack that I've been provided with (it's actually pretty difficult to think of a less appropriate amp for the job in hand!) although I managed to get a reasonable clean sound at a level suitable for the show (i.e. with the volume on about 1 out of 10!) After a jam on 'Bring It On Home To Me' with Pete on vocals we ran through a few songs and checked endings for Dave's benefit - it sounded very loud and there were a few worried faces, interspersed with comments like 'it'll sound good when there's a few people in the room'... from there it was down to the restaurant for a bewildering amount of food, the atmosphere was good (helped by several bottles of wine!) and a good gig was in prospect.

After eating I sat down with Dave to talk through the show - we're playing an hour set with a 3 song interlude from The Abba Sisters. They're using backing tracks, and there is some debate as to whether we leave the stage while they're on, attempt to play along (and I mean ''attempt'' - Abba songs are notoriously tricky to play, and I for one didn't have a clue how they went!) or to simply mime along with them... it was decided that we should stay on stage and mime... or play along... or something...

10.30 and we're on, the audience are up for it from the first number and it's looking like being a great gig. There are a few odd moments in the songs, not least because it was hard to hear what was going on sometimes - Dave remarked to me afterwards that he had real trouble hearing what Squirrel and myself were playing which didn't make his job particularly easy. But it all went down well, although when the girls came on there was some confusion from the audience - that said they were nowhere near as confused as I was by the chords to 'Mamma Mia'! I'd just about got the hang of them and the song finished! 'Voulez-Vouz' and 'Dancing Queen' caused a near riot, and by the time we returned with the near-inevitable 'Mustang Sally' the place was going into meltdown, with some very adult dancing from a couple down the front (I'll leave you to think about that for a moment shall I?!?) as a raucous 'Gimme Some Loving' bought our set to a close. We encored with 'Sweet Home Chicago' to finish a great gig.

It could be argued that one of the most potentially perilous situations that a band can be put in after a gig involves a free bar in a casino which is walking distance from the hotel. With this in mind details of the next few hours are sketchy at best, although I remember Matt singing along with the Blues Brothers recording of 'Everybody Needs Somebody To Love' into the D.J.'s microphone...

I got back to my room about 3 a.m., and left my room to leave for the airport less than 2 1/2 hours later. Not good frankly. 'That's the quietest band bus I've ever been in' said Dave as we pulled up at the terminal, waking up half the group in the process. After negotiating the automatic check-in (successfully for once!) I deposited my guitar at the outsize baggage area (it was the same man in the pink vest as it always is! He must never go home!) and stumbled into the departure lounge where bloodshot eyes and general malaise betrayed the previous evening's festivities just a few hours earlier. I had to take my guitar effect pedal out of my hand luggage for inspection when we went through security but other than that everything went smoothly - we landed at Heathrow just after 8 a.m., under 24 hours since we left it. I feel tired now, and well I might. Still, no time to waste - I've got some Madness songs to learn for tomorrow night...