'Baby's Got The Blues' Germany tour Diary By Dani Wilde, With Additions By Ben Poole:
The Crew: Dani Wilde (Vocals and Guitar), Will 'Harmonica' Wilde (Harmonica and later on, after Alan's Accident... Drums..), Ben Poole (Rhythm and Lead Guitar), Johnny Chase ( Awesome Bass Guitar), Alan Taylor (Drums), Mark Earl (Fantstic new Drummer After Alans Accident!), Chris Wilde (My Dad was Tour Manager and Merchandise Man for this tour!)
Day 1, Thursday 9th April 2009
Dani Wilde:
We got off to a good start and were all very very excited. My Dad offered to be our Tour Manager for the tour which i was so happy about; I knew he'd be the best Tour Manager in the world! Johnny and my Dad had crashed at mine and Will's house in Brighton the night before and so we got up at 6:30am ready to go... (actually... johnny was being really grumpy because he is terrible with mornings but throughout the tour he adapted very quickly!) By 7:30am we got to Alans house on the outskirts of Brighton and picked up Alan and Ben. Al and Ben were keen to get the portable play-station they had bought hooked up in the back of the van, and then we were on our way.
It's difficult to describe quite how Alan and Ben are when they are together... They became close friends very quickly when I hired Ben to play in my band. When they are together, onlookers often question their sexuality... but they are in fact very much straight men who have a bond like true brothers. They are both fantastic musicians who bring the best out of each other on stage.... Off-stage however, you could say they bring the worst out in each other, with their loud mouths chanting like football hooligans in the back of the van and shouting out crude jokes that nobody but the pair of them finds funny. They drive Johnny and my Dad completely crazy. At times, my Dad admits he was ready to hit them ( i don’t think he would really LOL) ... Taking Alan and Ben on the road is like taking two 13 year olds on tour. But even though they can be so loud and obnoxious, i will admit that this is partly why i love them both so much... especially Alan who i often feel like a big Sister or even a second Mother too. I really like how life to them is like a big adventure…and that’s why I love being a musician too!
The drive to our hotel in Munster, Germany, was a very long one. Dad and my younger Brother Will shared the driving and did a great job. We got to our hotel at about 9pm that evening and had a few drinks at the bar before bed.... I say drinks.... actually, i dont drink alchohol, I'm more of a 'cuppa tea' kinda Girl.
Ben Poole:
Me, Alan, Will, Jonny and some German guy stayed up – Jonny and the German chatted about bass playing for ages while Will wrote a Rap which I shall not repeat. Alan being a bit of a light weight started to get drunk on the vodka lemonades he was on very quickly and I started getting quite drunk on some lovely German beers which I was drinking out of a very cool and very big stein. Will and Jonny eventually went to bed very late. Me and Alan went out to find a cash point and planned to find a club. We went to a fast food place down the road and got some cheap cheap food – I got a reasonably sized pizza for just 2 euros! Me and Alan were apparently making too much noise in the fast food place and got told to keep it down. We continued to get evils by the owners and workers there and then got chatting to some German guys who we initially thought were being bitchy about us and whom we thought we might end up getting into a fight with. They pointed out that it was in fact Die Hard 1 on the little television in the food place! By this point we were all being VERY LOUD and me and Alan got politely “escorted” out! Then we went back to a club near to the hotel and strolled up to the entrance where the bouncers said “ No Foreigners”. So we went back to the hotel to bed.
Day 2, Friday 10th April 2009
Dani Wilde:
Today we drove to the first gig of the tour at The Downtown Blues Club in Hamburg. I had played this venue on the Blues Caravan Tour in 2008 with Candye Kane and Deborah Coleman and it was great to be back there with my own band. The gig was a support for a German blues band called Blues-Package. This was a really important gig for us because not only did we have to impress the audience and the venue promotor, but also Florence, the Assistant Booking Agent from my Concert Promotions Agency 'A.S.S'. I was very lucky when A.S.S agreed to book this tour for me because i knew they had turned down booking for my peers in the blues industry. A.S.S are quite a prestigious agency; they also book for the likes of Bob Geldof and Kim Wilde. Florence and Mick, who booked the tour for me had not seen me perform live; they had agreed to book me purely based on my album and the hype from the Blues Caravan Tour. It was important they were impressed so that they would continue booking for me.
Blues-Package were really nice to us and told us if the audience wanted us to do an encore, they were happy for us to play one. This was good because our show was really well received and so Will and I sang our own take on Muddy Water's 'Mannish Boy' for an Encore. Florence said she was very impressed with our musicianship and the professionalism of the show. I was really proud of how well the boys played. We were all buzzing with adrenaline after the show and Florence’s friend Bjorn wanted to take us out to show us around Hamburg. Dad, Will, Johnny and I decided we needed a good nights sleep to be ready for the early start the next day. However, Ben and Alan decided to go out on the town with Bjorn. Ben and Alan promised me they would only go out for about an hour and that they would get a taxi back to our hotel at 2am......
Ben Poole:
The promoter at The Downtown Blues Club was a really lovely guy who was keen to sort us out with whatever we needed. We were greeted with a glass of champagne each on arrival at the venue and a crate of beer backstage. After the show he sorted us out with beers all night so by the time me and Alan and Bjorn were ready to go into town it we were a little tipsy. Bjorn wasn’t drinking a lot as he was driving and drove us into Hamburg. We went to a little pub/music venue where there was a band playing loads of stuff – from Nirvana to Stevie Ray Vaughan - it was very cool. The bar came right out into the room and the bass player was walking up and down it with his wireless system. We had several rounds there and then moved on into the famous ‘Reaper Bahn’ area. This was mental – and was like Amsterdam...I say no more. Me, Bjorn and Alan decided to go off to get some food. A fast food place was within sight and metres away. We crossed the road – Alan in front, me and Bjorn just behind when a Taxi that was stationary suddenly accelerated – straight into Alan. His legs flew out from beneath him and his face hit the curb. At the time I thought it didn’t seem too bad and we’d be able to carry on, but I was quite drunk and it would probably have looked worse if I’d been sober. The taxi did not stop and simply drove off. When he got up his face was covered in blood but I still thought he was ok and that we’d clean him up a bit and carry on drinking. However, then he opened his mouth and I realised he had knocked out half of his front tooth. Bjorn was the voice of reason and got us into a taxi where we headed for a hospital. Alan had a load of kitchen towel and tissue by this point and he was sat in the back of the taxi bleeding everywhere. We arrived at hospital number 1 and waited there for a while – I can’t remember much about this but we were soon told we had to go to another hospital. So we jumped into another taxi and headed for hospital number 2. Everyone here was a moody asshole as I remember it. I was still drunk and was worried about Alan, Alan was still in a bit of shock and was very upset. Bjorn was the only one who was cool enough to talk and could obviously speak German which helped us. Without him we would have been screwed. I think someone looked at Alan’s mouth and arm and assessed the damage. At this point Alan told us that he had no insurance so it was going to cost either 500 Euros to sort his teeth out and have all the scans. It was around this time that Alan also realised how bad his wrist was. He sprained it badly when he fell and it was badly bruised. The docter said it needed to be rested and that he couldn’t play drums that night or on the rest of the tour. Alan was devastated. At this point I rang Dani, Will and Chris – I’m not sure what order I did this. Will went back to sleep, I got through to Chris and Chris woke Dani. Dani and Chris set off for the hospital. It seemed like hours before they arrived. Me, Alan and Bjorn waited in the waiting room. I lay down on the hard laminate floor and tried to have a rest, but a bunch of German docters rushed over and told me I couldn’t sleep on the floor for health and safety reasons. So I put a couple of chairs together and lay down across them. At some point Alan went off to see another docter, I went off to find him after a while and didn’t have a clue where he was. I asked some of the other docters and reception and they looked at me blankly and were very unhelpful.
Day 3, Saturday 11th April 2009
Dani Wilde:
It's 2:30am in the morning after the gig at the Downtown Bluesclub in Hamburg. I'm awoken by my Dad hammering on my door. I'm quickly snapped back from sleepiness to reality as i open the door and my dad tells me "We have to go to the hospital... Alan's been hit by a car!" I immediately burst into tears.... I was so frightened.... I had immediately assumed the worst and I was worried that Alan was dead.... Dad explained that he'd spoken to Alan and Ben on the phone and that Alan's life wasn’t in danger, but he'd smashed his teeth and hurt his arm. Dad was already panicking over whether Alan would be fit enough to drum for the rest of the tour but at this point all I wanted to do was hold Alan in my arms and make sure he was going to be ok. He must've been so scared getting hit like that and being in a hospital in a foreign country.
Dad and I drove to the hospital. I was still shaking from the shock of it all. When we walked into the hospital and I saw Alan, both Alan and I burst into tears. His face was such a mess.... there was so much blood. It was horrible. Even my Dad was shocked because the boys had downplayed the extent of Alan’s injury when they spoke to my Dad on the phone. I love Alan to bits and it was horrible to see him that way. He had been a victim of a hit-and-run accident. A parked Taxi suddenly decided to accelerate, and when the driver saw he had knocked Alan down, he just sped away! Alan explained to my Dad that unlike the rest of my band, he hadn’t thought to buy health insurance. He needed to borrow money to pay for the X-rays he'd had on his arm and face and he needed to have an emergency operation on his mouth that night. We drove to the emergency dentists and waited for over an hour whilst Alan had his mouth attended to. At this point I knew I would have to find a new drummer for the tour. Alan's arm was not broken but it was badly sprained and bruised and he was in to much pain to use it. Making a big impact on the German audiences was so important to me and Alan was the only drummer who knew all the tempo's and stops to my songs. I was gutted. I waited until 8am in the morning and then started to contact drummers.
Ben Poole:
We ended up driving to a private dentist at 6am. Me, Alan and Bjorn had still not slept a wink. The female dentist arrived precisely on time and took Alan in to the room where she started work. Me and Bjorn waited in the waiting area for a few hours and chatted (he had some bizarre stories!) while Dani and Chris were in the van. At some point we all went off and got teas and coffees and then returned. At about 8:30am Alan’s teeth were sorted-he’d had his cracked teeth sorted and the tooth that was knocked out had been redone and they looked great. He was still covered in cuts and bruises on his chin, cheek and lip.
Dani Wilde:
The first drummer I contacted was French drummer Denis Palitin. Denis is an incredible drummer who played with me on the Blues Caravan Tour. Denis really wanted to help me, but he couldnt get out of his other drumming commitments in Paris at such short notice. The other drummer I knew would do a great job of learning all the material very quickly was Mark Earl. Mark had drummed for me before and he has a great shuffle. I was frustrated when i kept getting Marks answer machine but half an hour later I was relieved when Mark called me back and said he would fly in the following morning to join the tour.
After Alan’s operation, we drove to the next gig. The mood in the van was not great. We were all exhausted having been up all night, but at least Mark would be there the following day. Our gig that night was at a venue called Honerkamps Ball in Melle. My Brother Will had agreed to drum for the gig. Fortunately for me, before being a professional Blues Harpist, Will used to be a fantastic drummer. Despite having not been behind a drum-kit in years, the moment Will sat on that drum stool he was grooving like a muther fuc**r! Will is so talented at so many instruments. I was so proud of how well he played that night, he really rescued the tour!
When we walked into the concert hall at Melle to load in our gear, as we looked around, Ben voiced what we were all thinking... "I hope you're really famous in Melle, Dani!!!"..... I hoped I was famous in this little town i had never heard of before too.... the Concert Hall was HUGE! We were all worried we wouldn’t pull in a big enough audience to create a good atmosphere. The Promoter though was a really intelligent and hardworking man. He had done a fantastic job of promoting the gig. Ben did a great job of playing Will's harp lines on the guitar and although I missed the texture that the harmonica gives to my set, it was a great show. We did very well with Cd sales and in soundcheck we even wrote a new song which i'm hoping to put on my next album. It was inspired by Buddy Guy who is one of m favourite blues guitarists and it's called 'Some Kinda Crazy'. The concept of the song is along the lines of 'after all you have put me through i don’t know why i still love you'.... In hindsight, perhaps I subconsciously wrote this song about Alan! Alan came up on stage to perform the encore song. He did a great job of playing with one hand.
After the show, we packed all the gear away (At least, we thought we had packed all of it away...) went out for a lovely Chinese meal and then got to bed.
Ben Poole:
While packing away we also danced on the dance floor and on the stage a lot as a DJ took over the night. We thought about going out for a meal and then returning to dance some more which seems crazy since I’d still not been to bed (me and Alan had been up for about 44 hours by this point). But we’d had a few beers and were up for partying again! We had a nice Chinese meal with the promoter and went back to the hotel. Had a few beers in Will’s room and went to bed.
Day 4, Sunday 12th April 2009
Dani Wilde:
This morning, I got up early and went on quite a long run. One thing I don’t like about being on tour is that you spend so much time sat on your arse in the Van. Its difficult to get any exercise and then when you arrive at the venues the promoters are all really kind giving us endless amounts of cheese and salami sandwiches, which i love, but its very easy to put on weight!
Then we loaded up the van and set off to Frankfurt airport to pick up Mark and drop off Alan. It was sad to see Alan go, but from the moment Mark arrived he fitted in perfectly. Alan is one of the least professional drummers I know; as I said, it's like taking a 13 year old on tour. However, Alan has a great natural ability for drums... he really grooves and has great feel, so much character in his playing and a fantastic shuffle. Mark however, takes his drumming very seriously. He is incredibly hardworking and professional and he also has great feel. Considering the craziness of the first few days, Mark’s professionalism and calmness was a welcome change. We quickly discovered that Mark has a great sense of humour too as he entertained my band and the venue promoters with his magic tricks and disappearing coins and handkerchiefs.
We arrived at the next venue, Alte Piesel, in Fulda, early. This was good because we needed a very long soundcheck to run through all the material with Mark. As we unloaded the equipment, Mark came up to s and said with some worry and uncertanty... "Um, Guys... I'm not being funny, But, Um, We haven't got any of the Toms!" ARGHHHHH..... I was so angry.... It didn’t take long to realise that we had left the tomtom drums 6 hours away at the previous venue. Alan, Will and I had all been packing the drums away. I stupidly assumed that Alan would make sure all his gear was in the van. It was embarrassing to have to ask the promoter if we could borrow a drum kit. The promoter was very kind and went out of his way to borrow a kit off of a friend in a local band. Mark was relieved that he didn’t have to play Alan's drum-kit which to put it lightly is a pile of shit. Considering all of Alan’s talent, none of us could understand why he wouldn’t take some pride in himself as a musician and buy himself the professional equipment he needs to sound his best. We often made jokes about Alan’s kit being bought at Matalan; but now that Mark was here setting an example of what its like to tour with someone who takes his job so seriously, I realised that I really needed to drum into Alan (excuse the pun) just how important it is that he starts to put in more effort to be as professional as he can be, because at the end of the day, its not just his reputation that suffers, but also mine.
The show went incredibly well. Will and Mark shared the drumming between them. Mark didn’t mess up once! Also, I noticed that Ben's playing was especially tasteful. Under the pressure, we were all really gelling as a band. Will's harmonica, vocals and drumming were wowing the audiences and Will sold many copies of his own CD release 'Nothing but Trouble'. Johnny was really on the ball too. He and Mark were a great rhythm section. Johnny was playing with a lot of feel whilst doing a great job of cueing Mark on the stops in my songs.
Ben Poole:
We played some footy in the parking lot, I sold some of my own CD’s at this show which I was very happy about and we ate lots of cheese and salami. Our dressing room backstage stunk of cheese.
Day 5, Monday 13th April 2009
Dani Wilde:
Today we drove up to the mountains and were very near the Austrian/Swiss border in the Alps. It was an extremely long drive. I was worried because my throat was feeling really sore and I was starting to get a bad cough... Maybe it wasnt such a good idea to do a gig every single night. James Brown is one of my big hero's... The hardest working man in showbusiness. I really look up to him for that.... I'd like to be the hardest working Woman in show business... I try to be but it's so easy to get run down. James Brown wouldn’t have let his band go out and get pissed and hit by a taxi after the first night of his tour. He would've fired their asses on the spot if they put him through that shit... But I feel I’m not able to pay my band enough money to ask for those kinds of expectations. When I’m on tour, I won’t drink, i won’t take drugs, I always try to come across very professionally in front of the promoters and I always try to keep healthy and get enough sleep so I can give the best performance each night. I wish all of my band would have the same approach.... and some of them do.... but after what happened with Alan, I hope that the boys ALL realise why I’m so strict on this now.
The venue was in a beautiful, scenic location. The promoter was very kind to us, the food was lovely. The show was well received by the audience and the CD sales at this venue were well beyond my expectations. My band played great, but I felt I could’ve performed a lot better. My throat was really sore and my heart wasn’t really in it. I felt exhausted. I cheered up after the show though... There were two lovely little German girls in the audience; Sisters, aged 5 and 7. After the show, Mark let them play his drum kit and was teaching them the blues... then Ben and Johnny got out there guitars and were jamming with the little girls on the drums. I filmed some of it on my video camera... it was really cute. I love to see kids that young getting so into music. I loved live music from when I was that young too and I like to think we may have inspired those little kids so much that they may become the next Dani Wilde, or Joss Stone one day!
MY ADDITION: The promoter was also a guitar maker and let me and Dani play some of his guitars – a strat set up with extremely low action (was very nice) and a Tele with a fat neck. It was cool to see that Richie Kotzen had played at this little place a few times-once with full band and then acoustic with just harmonica player. I’m a big fan of his and it was cool to hear what he was like too from the people there. I sold a few CD’s again.
Day 6, Tuesday 14th April 2009
Dani Wilde:
Today we drove to a venue called Tanschule in Weiden. My voice felt a bit better today and when we arrived at the venue for soundcheck i was really looking forward to the show. The on-stage sound was excellent and this makes a huge difference to me. When it sounds that good on stage i really get into the performance. The food at the venue was delicious and the promoter was a lovely man who showed me all of the newspaper promotions he had been doing to advertise the gig. At all of these shows, with the help of working with some great promoters, we pulled in really good sized audiences. My booking agency was pleasantly surprised, as was I, at how much of a 'buzz' there was in Germany for 'Dani Wilde'. We had a German support act at this show who did a great job of warming up the audience for us. The show went really well. The audience had a great energy that we really played off of on stage. I felt my guitar playing stepped up a level at this gig. The band were very tight and the show was a great success. The promoter said it was the 3rd best concert he had ever seen; second to Louisiana Red and BB King. It was a fun evening.
Ben Poole:
The Hotel we stayed at was pretty cool – we had our own rooms. I had my own lounge, Dani had a massive room with 4 poster bed and Jonny had a massive bath. Me and dani wondered down to reception in just our swimming gear with towels thrown over our shoulders to find out where the swimming pool was but found out there was no pool making us feel quite silly. The support band were nice guys except the guitarist who was also the sound man for us. He neglected to tell me that the mic on my side of the stage wasn’t working. Luckily I realised this before I played my song ‘Too Tired’ and used Dani’s mic instead. We hung out for a bit after the show – I sold a few CD’s again and signed some CD’s and posters. Met a crazy guy with a black eye-he was a bit dodgy but sorted us with some Czech beer which was cool.
Day 7, Wednesday 15th April 2009
Dani Wilde:
This was a really great, but really long day. We played two gigs... One in the evening at a venue called Franziz, and one at JVA Jail in Rockenburg in the afternoon.
The gig at the jail was fantastic. It was playing to an audience of male convicts aged 14 to 22. The crimes they had committed were mostly to do with violence, theft and drugs. When I was offered the gig, at first I was sceptical about doing it, from a moral standpoint. I questioned whether young adults who chose to commit such crimes deserved to have a concert performed especially for them. However, curiosity got the better of me and I agreed to do the show.
I was really glad I did. The boys at the prison were really sweet to me. None of them were great blues fans, and many of them weren’t really music fans. They enjoyed the part of my set where my brother Raps. Most of all they enjoyed seeing 'a woman'. When i got on stage they wolf whistled so much i turned bright red. It was great fun though. I had a wireless microphone and on the last song i walked out into the audience. They loved it. One of them pinched my bum and I gave him the evil eye... but it was all in good jest. I walked up to one of the older kids during 'Mannish Boy' and sang to him "I'm gonna make lurve to you darling, in 5 minutes time". The boys were going crazy for it.
After the show, the boys had to go back to their rooms. I was outside packing up the gear in the van and I could see them all through the barred up windows. We were separated by he barred windows and a tall fence with barbed wire on top, but I went up to the fence and we all started chatting through the windows. The boy I remember the most was called Benny. He was 20 years old and after singing Christina Aguilara's "You are beautiful in every single way" out the top window to me, he asked if he could keep one of my high heeled shoes. I told him I couldn’t go on stage for the rest of the tour with just 1 shoe on. He told me I could and that the audience would like the story. I kept my shoes, but I really liked those boys. Benny was in there for 2 years. I hope he's intelligent enough to turn his life around when he gets out of there. Many of them re-offend and end up back in jail. I cant help but believe that underneath all their stupidity, selfishness and macho-ism, they are kind boys who need some love and someone to believe in them... actually, they kind of reminded me of my drummer Alan, Lol!
By the time we played the evening gig in Franziz my throat was quite sore. I enjoyed the show though and my Dad looked after me bringing me hot mugs of tea with honey. The audience were lovely and as always my band did a fantastic job.
Ben Poole:
The prison gig was the weirdest gig I’ve ever played. Me and the boys felt very uncomfortable for lots of reasons. One because everyone there was male (so we had no one to show off to haha!), Two because we were a bit wary of the boys – they were convicts after all! And three because Dani was getting a lot of attention and since we all feel slightly like a big brother might feel to a little sister we felt a bit protective. However, me and Mark did have a little laugh with a few of the guys about the picture on the tour flyer where Jonny’s face is really big and round – ‘Foozball Kopf’ they were all saying, which means ‘Football Face!’ While Dani was talking to the boys we hid behind the van and wished Dani would hurry up. We got given some mugs which the prisoners had made for us which was nice. The evening gig was very cool. Drew some pictures on the wall in the dressing room which was funny. Went on stage without my guitar in the second set and had to rush back out backstage to grab it which was also funny! I played well this night and sold a bunch of cd’s-the most on the tour-I think it was 8. I had to go into the van to get my suitcase out to grab the rest of my cd’s after I’d run out at the merchandise desk. Started hitting the Jaegermeister after the show and a bunch of other shots we got for free. Had a nice spaghetti dish next door with the promoter then headed back to our room. This was the least private of all the places. Me and Mark shared a room and just off it was Will and Jonny and we all shared one bathroom.
Day 8, Thursday 16th April 2009
Dani Wilde:
Today we played a gig in a beautiful town called Steinkirchen. The houses were all beautiful red-brick with thatched roofs and surrounded by rural fields. It was lovely. My throat was so so sore at this point. I really wished I could've had a day off. Most touring bands have days off, but as said, I like to be hardworking. My throat was so sore that I asked my brother Will, and Ben, to play more of their own songs so that I didn’t have to sing as much. I was disappointed that of all the shows we played, this was the one that Mick from ASS, came to see me play. He was very understanding though and he was impressed by the feedback he'd been getting from the other venues. My Dad and I went to the local chemist and stocked up on medicine to get me through the last two days of the tour.
Day 9, Friday 17th April 2009
Dani Wilde:
Today, at long last, I got to have a lay-in at the hotel. I really needed the extra sleep and I felt a lot better in the morning. Then, we drove on to Hannover to my most favourite venue on the tour 'The Blues Garage'. I had played at the Blues Garage on the Blues Caravan Tour and it really is an awesome experience. The venue feels like Disney Land, with a huge 'Hard Rock Cafe Style' Guitar on the wall behind the stage and a big plastic retro car on the front of the stage. We stayed at an incredible hotel run by Henry the promoter called Motel California. My room at the hotel was filled with blues memorabilia. I had a huge wooden carving/painting of John Lee Hooker on the wall by my bed, and an old organ in full working order by the sofa. We didn’t want to leave that hotel and we took lots of band photographs there. The gig went really, really well. The venue is quite large and so we were really delighted by the size of the audience who turned up to watch. I had a lot of fun that night.
Ben Poole:
We met the ‘Bear Dog’ the biggest Alsatian I’ve ever seen – he was scary but cool! We played a lot of football out the front. We had some awesome jams sitting out front on the rocking chairs – me on acoustic guitar, Will on Harp, Dani singing and Mark on snare. The gig was awesome – me and Will (with our wireless systems walked up to the second tier and had a duel up there. Every cool artist had played this venue and even the food van outside had was covered with pictures of the artists who had stopped for food – Richie Kotzen, Walter trout, Joe Bonamassa, Buddy Guy, Eric Sardines, Aynsley Lister etc. We also sat and smoked some cigars and drank my Corona’s I’d brought with me (Although I needn’t have since we got so much free beer everywhere) while sitting outside on the porch in the rocking chairs – even Chris joined us for this much deserved chill out time after a top top gig.
Day 10, Saturday 18th April 2009.
Dani Wilde:
Our last gig was at a cute Fair Trade Cafe Venue called Fair Cafe, in Schortens. I had played this venue on the Blues Caravan Tour last year and it was lovely to be back. The promoters here are fantastic cooks and they made great Vegan food for Will too. Will really struggled with his Vegan requirements on this tour and had to stretch to just being vegetarian at some venues. The last show went well all apart from the ending of one song. I played a cover of Etta James's 'Rather Go Blind', we played it really beautifully but as i played the end chord, staccato, letting each note ring out, my finger slipped and I played this horrible dissonant note. Ben caught the look on my face of horror and slight amusement as I dropped my head so my hair hid my face from the audience.... Well, mistakes sometimes happen... and considering all the obstacles we have had to face on this tour, the standard of our show each night has been something to be proud of. Part of me didn't want to leave Germany to come home, but I needed a rest. I've still got a bad cough, cold and sore throat.
I want to say a big thank-you to my band, to ASS, to the promotors, to my Dad, and to the audiences for making this tour such a sucess.
Also, thank you so much to those of you who donated money to my charity. I will make sure all of the money you donated is put to very good use to help improve the standard of living and education on the children attending County Primary School in Embu, Kenya.
All my Love and Thanks, Dani Wilde
Additions by Ben Poole…Cheers!