April 23. Toronto, Ontario, Phoenix Concert Theatre
The next day got to the venue, the Phoenix, early. Outside I noticed a black squirrel. Jet black. I have never seen one like that before, but Guthrie told me they were common in some places and are doing to the grey squirrels what the grey squirrels did to the red ones. Marco later mentioned he had seen a family of giant racoons sitting by the load in door. One just stared him in the eye and carried on his business.
Backstage in the dressing room before the gig, DJ Wilson played some cool tracks. 'One of these days in England' from Bullinamingvase by Roy Harper was fabulous and I only half knew it. I know and love his albums 'Stormcock' and 'Flat, Baroque and Beserk' very well, and other individual songs, but not this one. Beautiful. Then Steven introduced Adam and me to some recent Marillion. I have not previously been much impressed by the music of theirs I have heard. However Steven played something from the new album and it did sound good. I was particularly impressed with Steve Hogarth's voice which sounded magnificent.
After the soundcheck Adam told me some more interesting things about Miles Davis' band, and in particular the sax players in the band who were around when he was. I was also fascinated to hear (Adam I hope you don't mind me sharing...), that having heard the album 'Metal Fatigue', Miles wanted Allan Holdsworth in his band, and asked Adam to call him and ask him to join the band. Adam did indeed make that call, and Allan said he was honoured to have been asked, but due to commitments could not do it. Now if he had joined, that would have been interesting to hear!
The gig was good fun and the crowd loved it. The venue itself is a long narrow room, So the stage space was tight. In fact I was pretty hemmed in in my corner. Normally I walk offstage for the couple of songs I do not play on, but today I just stayed onstage, looking mean and moody! I wonder if people noticed I was there but did not play on entire songs. It was also hot onstage. Inspired by the enthusiasm and hopes of a fan who I heard was driving a long way to the gig and keen for autographs, I arranged for a few of us to go out and sign CDs and programmes after the show at a table by the merchandise stand. The said fan was most pleased and said they would cherish the signatures for ever!
Overnight we drove to Montreal and when I got up the bus was on a street next to a 'Sexotheque'. I guess that is like a discotheque, but, um...different. There were also some drug addicts in the street, who did not look well at all. The tour bus stopped where the driver had been told to park by the venue manager. Some van delivery driver then came screaming at the driver saying he couldn't park there, and called the police. After more shenanigans we moved and got dropped off at the hotel, before the bus went and parked somewhere else.
It was a nice boutiquey hotel. The only curiosity was the big mirrors in the shower. As in right in the shower. Now why would you want that?
Adrian Holmes, our excellent merchandise man, and fellow Brummie, had a spare free ticket to see Muse that evening so I said I was up for it. I have not been wild about what I have heard of their CDs, but footage of them live looked amazing so I thought it would be good to go and see the show. In the afternoon, I watched some recent live youtube clips of the band to check out some songs etc. The arena was big - maybe 8,000 people at a guess. The band were indeed stunning. A fantastic arena or stadium band as they completely fill the space and have an incredible light show (image above). The most impressive I have ever seen . The music is very strong, a bit like Radiohead with an injection of Queen, and the frontman and lead singer, Matt Bellamy was extraordinary and very commanding. The band comes Teignmouth, a beautiful small town in Devon, England that I know where I have played many times as they have a great jazz festival and regular jazz club too. They were all at school together there. You could probably fit the whole town in most of the venues the band plays at now! Very enjoyable gig and a good night out.
Theo Travis