Tuesday 14 November 2017

Nice to catch up with Maggie and Niall at the Blues Kitchen 🙂

AN EARLY start….up at 5am and on the road by 6am!

We stop at Carlisle for breakfast and pick up some sandwiches for lunch on the hoof later on. Swapping driving duties along the way, we head down the A1 and  make good time, hitting the Ramada at South Mimms just after 2am. Time to catch up on some work and have a rest then just a 15-mile drive to Camden. 

Of course, London traffic means that’s a good 90 minutes’ drive and we roll up at the Blues Kitchen just after 6pm.

After loading in we’re taken to our table for dinner – the usual great food. Cheeseburger for Margaret and a ‘two meats’ BBQ plate – brisket and ribs – for me…sweet potato fries and a much-need pint for each of us.

We hang out with the opening band for a while and then the bass player in my old London band arrives…been nearly 30 years! Great to catch up.

There’s a few folks we know in for the show. The opening act, Marchant, kick off just before 10pm and while really accomplished, are actually a covers band. They play a good selection of stuff but its not really the best match for the venue or myself.

It’s just after 11pm when I hit the stage. A crazy, sweaty hour later I’m done and get time for a chat with folks at the mercy table and say cheerio to some of the folks we know that have come in for the show.

We’re back at the hotel just after 1am and then realise we don’t have a corkscrew for the much-awaited bottle of red. I take the bottle downstairs to the bar where Agnes does the needful and soon we’re having  snack and a glass (or two) of red before bed.

A hot, sweaty stage at the Blues Kitchen, Camden