Current page: Fields of Eden Tour Diary
Current page: Fields of Eden Tour Diary
A radio and a gig in the same day are not too much of a problem as long as it all goes to plan - this didn't. The idea was to go to the theatre in Weert to drop off the equipment and do a quick check - then to Maastricht to do the radio and back to Weert for dinner and the performance. What we hadn't allowed for was the stormy weather and 20cm (8inches) of snow!!
We were on the road at 9:30 and it soon became clear that this was not going to be a cake walk - the motorways were already starting to clog up as the high winds and snowy conditions made driving difficult and slowed everything down. We tried to avoid the main motorways where the jams were but that also slowed us down. Matt was getting reports from his family who were coping without phones and electricity and we kept tuning into the traffic news which was reporting ever longer queues of traffic around Weert and Maastricht - mainly due to a lorry which had been blown over. We were not in the best vehicle for these conditions as we did not have much weight in the van and it's a fairly high-sided vehicle.
At around 11:30 we were still nowhere near the theatre and had to abandon the idea of dropping off the gear, instead we kept going and found that we had to venture into Belgium to avoid the clogged motorway near Maastricht - that was a bad move. We were all of 20 Kilometres from Maastricht but all the signposts mentioned only tiny villages in the vicinity - we went around one town three times before abandoning hope of getting out on the right road - we just took any road out to find out where we were!! Guess what? - we were going in the wrong direction!!
We made it to the radio station for 1:35pm - five minutes late after being on the road for 4 hours!! At that time it was very windy - but the sun was shining and there was no sign of any snow in Maastricht - it was almost like we'd arrived on a different day!
We practically threw the instruments into the studio, set up, sound checked, played three songs and did an interview, packed up and got back on the road for just after 4pm having had several cups of hot chocolate and coffee - but no food of course - our tummies were getting a bit grumbly by this time.
We thought it was all going to sound a bit of a shambles, but when we listened to it back we found that the instruments sounded great and the vocals were good too. It was all such a rush that I now cannot remember the name of the lady who did the sound - but she's a great technician with good ears and I hope she reads this. Given that she was also being distracted by a rap band recording in the studio behind us (she was listening to us and watching them - it must have been weird!!) I think she did a really great job. Thanks also to Hubert for doing the interview - we hope we'll see you again at some point in the not too distant future.
Zutphen Concert
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Weert Concert
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