The afternoon with Snow Patrol and the evening with Kasim Sulton; as he plays bass for Todd Rundgren!! Plus we drive 110 miles round trip to eat Polish food at my in laws house! I wish every Sunday could be like this! Let me explain how this all came together and worked out perfectly!
I had just arrived Sunday night at Heathrow and was waiting for my car and driver (hell yeah I have a car and driver when in London; Monte, the man can get you anywhere quickly in London and get you anything, anytime!!!) to pick me up in the car park at Terminal 1. It is a little before 9pm and the weather is amazing for the UK and this time of year. I am in the car and Monte is speeding towards my flat in Herne Hill and I am feeling really good. He tells me that Oasis had crapped out of tonight's V Festival at the Chelmsford (just north of London) and rumors were swirling that they were over. What a full service guy Monte is; music rumors thrown in for free....."Yah Mahn"; as Monte would say! Wow this sux; I love the brothers Gallagher, but that's not why we are here. Back to Snow Patrol; the reason for this rambling. So I am dropped off by Monte at my destination in South London and I get up to my flat I am staying at and drop my bags in my room. My friend David whose flat this is, is in Crete until Tuesday, so I settle into the lounge where his flat mate Cooper and his doggie Blue are watching the V Festival Sunday show on their flat screen. The female and male announcing team (are really annoying and trying soooo hard to be fun and cool...yuk!) are just going on about how Oasis played the Leeds leg last night and today Liam has fell quite ill. They are NOT playing tonight to the awaiting 80,000 people at the fest. Bummer I thought; as this act is THE HUGEST act in the UK hands down. They are the face of Brit pop and rock, so there must be a lot of sad punters at Chelmsford. Now the announcers are saying that Keane are now the special guest right before the headliner and that Snow Patrol are now the headliners; wow I again thought, this must be a huge pressure moment for this band. Granted they are really big in the UK and Ireland; not Oasis big, but arena headliners in their own right. So Coop's and I watch the highlights of their set and the crowd is going wild. They stepped up and hit a home run. Nice one I think and we plow thru the rest of the night with wine, music and a lot of chat (Blue did make a good point or two, but it always led back to sausages!!)
Skip forward several days and I am looking at my email and I see I have an email from the owner of the Abbey saying radio station WXRT need to get a hold of me and they need a afternoon date for Snow Patrol! I first think this is a joke and blow it off, but then a hour later I have to email the radio station. It's unbelievably freakin' true! The date is Sunday September 13th at 2pm and they will do a live Studio X session with Gary Lightbody and Nathan Connolly of the band doing their hits and answering questions from Marty Lenartz (my buddy and XRT DJ) in front of a crowd of 300 winners. This will rock!! So after eight days of music and loads of madness, I head back to Chicago and the upcoming Snow Patrol event.
I advance the set with Neil their tour manager and all seems to be on track for a great afternoon. The reason they are here in Chicago is that they are opening the first third of the U2 tour and they are doing the first two shows at Soldiers Field. Now about this same time period i get a text from my buddy Kasim Sulton who plays bass for Todd Rundgren and Meatloaf (no jokes please). He will be in town for two nights with Todd. They are doing the whole "A Wizard, A True Star" lp; which was one of my first lp's I bought in junior high! So I am doing the Snow Patrol set Sunday afternoon, then going to see my in laws for Polish food and then heading to Park West for Todd and Kasim; this should be a ton of fun!!
I am setting up a few things for the boys before they arrive and I notice they are late. I phone Neil and find out they are a bit hungover as they were out very late at the U2 kickoff after party. I should think that the idea of this radio event was a great idea several weeks out when it was conceived. However; after only a few hours of sleep after the U2 party, a rethink about this commitment was probably on their minds as Neil was calling their rooms to leave for the Abbey. As true professionals, they rose to the occasion and headed towards the club. Now they could easily be a bit grumpy as due to the previous night's par takings. BUT; they were two of the nicest guys and Gary is truly a funny man with true British wit. We had tea and bacon sandwiches for them and they were truly appreciative; great hangover cure! They did a quick check and set the levels for the recording truck and engineer. We were ready for the event to commence and the lucky people were let into the venue. I have to say that I was not a huge Snow Patrol fan and thought they were a bit soft for my taste. This is a perfect example of meeting the guys who write the songs and getting to hear them in a really direct and immediate environment. I was able to chat with Gary for a little while and found him to be very charming, approachable and funny. Nathan was very nice; but he was the quiet one, both downstairs and onstage. They are truly two of the nicest guys you would ever meet, not two guys in one of the UK's biggest acts right now!! So there you go, you don't have to become a dick or asshole once you become really famous and rich; that's just a myth most successful music people feel they must emulate.
The set was basically seven or eight songs and then an unscheduled encore. They played a lot of their hits from the UK charts; They performed "Chasing Cars" and "Run" two of their biggest UK hits pretty much right away and had the crowd hanging on every word and chorus. A great way to start this abbreviated set, just crush us with the hits right away. The vibe was set and it was a love fest all around. Gary told jokes and funny tour and school stories and we all laughed and hoped the next song was another hit. They just seem to love the aspect of playing a small club and everyone here was theirs; forever! "Take Back The City" was the encore the crowd demanded and greatly received. Killer set and just real nice lads.
Onto McHenry for some polish food cooked for Lidia and I by her mother. We have some lovely borscht, pierogies and a little pork. Then we are on our way to drop her off at her nanny job. I receive a text from Kasim saying 8pm is the opener and he will see me soon. It is a little after 8pm and I am in Lincoln Park looking for parking. Yuppie hell and no parking anywhere. I opt for the city lot and run to the Park West. They are their own support act and I catch the last couple of songs of this opening set. They are dressed in while t-shirts and black slacks, I notice another stage set behind them and figure this is the set up for the the second set which will be the "A Wizard, A True Star" lp. During the intermission, I notice that I have a letter and number written on my envelope which had my ticket and pass. I find the hostess and ask her what; if anything, this means. She informs me that Kasim has reserved a booth for me; SWEET!! Now I had been in the way back as the show seemed to be sold out or very close to it, so a comfy booth sounded great. Tickets were $100 for reserved seats and I have to say Todd's crowd is a strange one. She leads me fairly close to the stage and points to a big, black leather, 'U' shaped couch and says that's my seat. I say, "that's all for me?". She laughs hard and says, "no" and that I am most likely sharing with several other people who are guests of the band. The second my ass touches the leather, this woman comes swooping in from out of nowhere and starts to berate me for sitting in "Her" booth and then says the one thing any person with a shred of dignity would not say; "who are you?". Now let us take a quick time out for me to address two important things here; first issue is how completely strange and weird Todd Rundgren's crowd is and the second most glaring question is why I did not rip this woman's head off and how I f*cked with her and her friends all night...:). This is the third time in four years I have seen Kasim with Todd. At each show I notice how territorial Todd's fans are and how they are not such a warm and fuzzy bunch. I have felt more love at a Slayer show, these people seem very possessive of their Todd and their space at which they view their Todd! Everything seems so retro with them, old badges, old t-shirts, old haircuts like he wore and colored, clutching his old lp's and just have this sort of desperate look in their eyes. So back to the crazy lady telling me to get out of her booth. I have two options at this point, stand up and tower over her and let it rip how she does not own the booth and to shut the f*ck up or go the route of trying to explain what is actually happening right now and why. It must have been the Polish food and love my wife sent me off with, because I choose the later. My first retort was "I am friends with one for the band members", I thought that should subside this barking doggie! Does she not see my backstage pass I am wearing proudly? But no, she wants to know who I know. I proudly say "Kasim; B*tch, now leave me alone and go back under your bridge" in my mind, but it comes out "Kasim". Now she says one of the best things I have heard in awhile, "Everyone knows Kasim, I will find the tour manager and have you removed" says the lovely troll in my face as I sit there and play with my IPhone trying to ignore this moment. This gets a small chuckle out of me and I go back to texting someone as she hurries off to find said tour manager. In the mean time several of her friends have now re-entered the booth are are giving me the eye. I explain this is my seat and I am not moving. So I now go to my IPhone and start texting Lidia about my situation and how well I handled it; no one died! The more I text and laugh, I notice how the others seem to shrink in some embarrassment and I really start to laugh a little louder; you messed with the wrong person and now you must pay....well a little.
I am also in the front of the booth and make sure I have great posture thru out the show and stretch to make sure I am not too tight....LOL. Then the woman who created this whole thing (oh yeah...no tour manager ever showed), puts her expensive camera right next to my drink, I wanted so badly to...."OPPS, I accidentally spilled my drink on your camera....so sorry". But that only happened in my mind, I behaved although she deserved it in my book. So while I am blocking their views, I am enjoying the set. Complete with many costume changes for Todd and Kasim even gets to sing his song from the lp; "Does Anybody Love You?". Very cool and well done Kasim. So thus ends a killer Rock n Roll Sunday and I wouldn't have it any other way.
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