Liverpool UK-Ireland Newsletter 3
May 21 Have Mersey
Hi Everybody
Already I’m getting some feedback and I think it’s great. Please keep it coming. Most of it is support or saying hi or physical threats……..rhetoric, pretty much. But a question was asked that I’ll address before we look at The Liverpool Show.In the Intro, I made one of those “busier than a __” comparisons. It could be “a mosquito at a nudist colony”, “a one-armed paper hanger” etc. I chose “a dog with 4 balls”
I’m not naming names, but a certain retired high-school teacher from Kingston asks:
“Is that 4 balls to go and fetch or 4 balls to lick?”
Because of the Zen-like nature of this question, I’ll leave it open for everyone here to ponder. If anyone clearly gets (as I do) how this underscores the entire UK Ireland tour please share.
One other bit of business. I continue to add names to the list without providing the context for this to make any sense. Tough. But if you complain enough I’ll send the former instalments.
We have two brand spankin’ new tour coaches. These things are pretty cool on the inside. This outside photo of one of them was taken while being jostled by security. Too bad this isn’t a video clip with sound. You’d hear me yelling “WTF! Do you know who I am?” At night it feels like you’re in some kind of space vehicle. This great curved, almost domed glass front without even a driver obscuring the view. Impossible to explain, I hope better pictures will do them some kind of justice.
Liverpool Show 2
So……Liverpool. Arguably the most famous British city after London. We all know why. Not by way of a famous battle or seat of higher learning or mythological nest of the gods……….but as the result of four noisy, irreverent punks just out of their teens changing our worlds. I’ll emphasize “noisy”, as I have no doubt about the cacophonous, dissonant clashing of damp guitars, cheap drums and hoarse voices that must have assaulted the walls of the now famous Cavern Club and wherever else this new music was applied (played??hmm). Of course, The Beatles, against all odds, became hugely popular once they got the hair dos. Speaking of the Cavern Club, I went in search of it today on foot. According to Google Maps, our hotel is just a 10-minute walk away. I’ll have to try again later. I got way out in the weeds.
Okay, it’s later. I still couldn’t find it. There are no street signs. None. Not hidden, not faded, nil, nada, zip, sweet FA. And when I’d ask a Liverpudlian what street I was on it was like one of those early interviews with John Lennon. He’d mumble something and his mates would laugh, no one else getting the joke.
The show:
As most of you know, we do two sets with a twenty-minute break.
The first half was like playing the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Talk about Zen. The applause was the sound of “one hand clapping”. Tough room. That was the first set. During the intermission, something strange happened. The crowd was visibly looser as if all 1500 or so downed a FAXE 10 and two vodka shooters. In twenty minutes! They loved us (us! ha, who am I kidding) for the rest of the show. How is this possible?
I’ll add it to the list of incongruities that began after being “podded”..
Next official newsletter is The Royal Albert Hall in London on Tuesday. Until then……. Mike H Worth saying again, any commentary is welcome.