Santiago de Compostela, Spain 29 July, 2015

Before I get started on today, I think I forgot to mention we had a sold-out crowd of 12,000 at last night’s show in Lisbon who braved the wind and were a fantastic audience.  A grand gig despite the wind.

A long day today, the 29th.  We checked out of the Lisbon hotel at 3, made our way to the airport for an hour and fifteen minute flight to Santiago de Compostela loosing an hour on the way.  Arrived at the venue and half the band piled in the small lift up to the second floor and the dressing rooms.  After a several minutes those of us waiting for the elevator gave up and took the stairs.  Turns out those guys were stuck in the lift for about 10 minutes as the doors wouldn’t open.  They were finally released and we all made a dash to catering for dinner.  As we were not playing until 10:30, there was a massive amount of time to kill after dinner.  A few of us went into the “quiet” dressing room, opened the windows for some cross breeze and promptly dozed off in the low lights and comfy couches.  Abruptly, a couple of workers from the venue walked in with a ladder and static blasting walkie talkies and proceeded to climb up to the two ceiling fixtures and screw the bulbs in… lighting the place up like a Christmas tree.  I asked if there was a switch to shut the lights off and the response was “Que?”  In the end we had them go back up the ladder and unscrew the lights.  Strike two against the venue.  Finally, after a four and half hour hang out we took the stage to a sold-out standing crowd of 10,000 plus.  What an audience…. so loud.  it was a great show playing for them although the sound of Glenn’s bass was absolutely howling on our side of the stage.  This wasn’t a volume thing, simply how the bass reacted to both the venue and the stage itself.  Funnily, where Glenn was standing he could hardly hear the bass at all.  All in all, it was a crap venue and a brilliant show.  Often goes that way.

A runner to the Legacy for a 1:15 a.m. departure to Barcelona landing at 2:50.  As I peck this out it is just past 4 in the morning and I've been awake since 9 yesterday morning.

I pulled as much stuff out of the wardrobe trunk tonight as I could carry and will begin re-shuffling my bags tomorrow for going home.  This tour has flown by quick and smoother than any of the previous ones we’ve done.  I’ve very glad we’ll all be heading into the North America run in September otherwise I’d be very sad right now that it’s nearly over.  

Tomorrow’s a day off in Barcelona.

So long,

Richard