What I Did On My Holidays (Part One)

The Emster and I went to England for a 9 day 'holiday' last week. I was mainly back for some Carter gigs I had been working on for months. How did the gigs go? What else did I get up to? What was the Emster doing? All the answers are here... Stay tuned for part two later on in the week.

Friday November 14

The Emster and I went to the gym in the morning (we are still into the fitness). We then pottered around the house before driving to the airport for our flight home. Upon check-in we found out they had changed our plane to an older model and we were now sitting in a row of four. We always book a row of two so I was most disgruntled with this! I hate sitting next to strangers so I asked for two seats together as I had originally picked on the online check in. There weren’t any left though. I got cross and told them that they were rude to just change our seats without telling us. I decided to pay $110 for the extra legroom seats after much debate with the staff. It was worth every penny and it meant you don’t have to deal with those people that love to put their seat back as soon as you are up in the air. I watched ‘Step Brothers’ which was ace. I think I got a good solid five hours sleep too which was nice.

Also on our flight were Crystal Palace chairman and his actor friend/slave Nick Moran.

Saturday November 15

Even though our flight left on time we spent hours circling at Heathrow due to ‘air congestion’. This makes my ears pop and I don’t like it. When we eventually landed it was nearly one in the afternoon. I had to be in North London for 3pm so I could see my first Arsenal game in ages. I left Emma with the bags (luckily Mr. Furness was picking her up) and I bolted it to the Heathrow Express. It was 2pm and I could still make it on time. London hasn’t changed though and the Circle Line wasn’t running due to engineering works. I had to get on another line and run as fast as my legs would carry me. I eventually got to the ground in the nick of time and met up with George who had my ticket.

Typically it was the worst game I have seen in fifteen years (seriously). We lost 2-0! Even when we lose we normally have more chances than the other team, and we play some decent stuff. Today we were moribund though. Oh well, it was good to be back and watching the Arse. At half time I popped down to see the people who I used to sit with. It was nice to see them but as mentioned before they were more than happy to have my brother Jon there instead.

After the match Jon and I went out on the beers both in Arsenal and Balham. I must have had about ten pints overall. I don’t really drink a lot these days but I was on fine form and it was great to see Jon. We were joined later on by my mate Jez (who owns a flat with Jon) and the night carried on. I treated myself to chips in a pitta bread on the way home. I got back past midnight as Emma and her sister Felicity were returning from their nights out too. I passed out on the sofa watching X-Factor with them. I had been up for 24 hours or something so this was allowed.

Sunday November 16

I had a good eight hours sleep and I had no hangover. Or indeed jet lag. What a Ronnie Result! As mentioned before I have never got this jetlag thing. I have felt a bit tired before but that is it. The trick is that whatever time you land, and how ever much sleep you have had on the plane you must stay up until your bedtime and not fall asleep. If you do this you will get a good eight hours sleeps, and by the time you awake the next morning your body will be back to normal.

Today we were visiting the in-laws to celebrate Felicity Furness’ birthday. We hadn’t hired a car for this trip so we had to get the train to the village in Kent where Emma’s parents live. The journey should have taken forty five minutes or so. It of course didn’t as this is England we are talking about. Even though the train website thingy said otherwise there were engineering works galore which meant a barrage of replacement buses, misinformation from rail staff and lots of hanging around in the cold and rain. The last bus we were on took an hour to go about five miles.

Eventually we were saved by Mr. Furness who drove to get us from some random station, the name of which I forget. I have never seen Emma get so cross. She is now used to good LA service. And the thing about LA is that even though the public transport is minimal what they do have works very well (not that I have ever used it, but that’s what people tell me). Emma ended up shouting at a ticket seller when we realized we would have to get about six trains and ten buses. This is very unlike the Emster but all she wanted to do was see her family. Luckily we still had a very nice afternoon once we finally arrived.

We were also joined by Grandma Furness, as well as Vicki & award winning photographer Gary. Gary is getting a little too big for his boots now he is famous though. He not only had two main courses but I am sure he had the biggest bit of dessert. That it was what fame does to you. It will be heroin and three bottles of brandy a day next.

Before we knew it the afternoon had passed too quickly and it was time to go home. The journey back was a lot better as we went a different route. We spent the evening watching Strictly Come Dancing, I’m a Celebrity and Britannia High. I had beans on toast for tea. I miss baked beans, they don’t have them here in America Land. Emma and I started to watch ‘Fight Club’ after Felicity went to bed but by midnight we were tired and needed sleeps.

Monday November 17

I woke up at 9am and had some toast for breakfast. Mr. Spoons was picking me up at around 11am as Carter were playing a secret warm up gig in Southampton today to only 150 people. It was also a tribute to a promoter they knew called Mint who sadly died recently. He was one of the only nice guys in the industry and he put on Carter early on in their career. It was lovely to see Neil when he picked me up, we then got Mr. Bob from his house before going to Brixton to get Les. Due to a late t-shirt delivery we had to wait a while around Les’ but we still made good time down to Southampton. We arrived just after 3pm, and the boys soundchecked and all that gubbins.

It was good to meet our new lighting man Nic, and Helen who was doing the sound (as she did back in Carter’s day). Both of these crazy cats were doing the big shows later in the week so this was all a really good run through for the main events. It was also lovely to catch up with all those people I hadn’t seen for ages (Richy, Sam, Ben and the great Chris T-T of course).

Sadly I didn’t get to see any of the gig! I may have help arranged and sort out these gigs, but this often means you don’t actually get to watch them. I had arranged well in advance to do the merch with Mr. Spoons, I pictured us doing some sort of t-shirt selling tag team. Neither of the Carter lads told me though that they wanted him for security instead. This meant I was left to do it by myself as it was too late to get someone else to help me. And unfortunately the merch stand was in a totally different room to the gig so all I heard was a muffled noise.

I wondered to myself if other great music managers like that Brian Epstein missed the Beatles at Shea Stadium as he was on the t-shirt stall too. What made it all worse was that even though I wasn’t drinking alcohol I still really needed a wee during the gig. I couldn’t leave the stall though because there were some people milling around, and I’ve learnt not to trust anyone. Eventually a member of bar staff helped me out (by manning the stall) before I had an accident.

It was great to see my ace friends Pat and Pippa (who I have missed a lot in the states) as well as all the dudes off the Carter forum. They all seemed really excited about the gig, and I think they were chuffed to be at something so special.

After the gig Mr. Spoons then told me there had been new plans and I wasn’t traveling back with him. Perhaps I smelt that day? Instead I traveled back with Jakki (Jim’s missus) which was fine. At least I wasn’t walking back. I was happy to get home, even though it was now around 3am in the morning. The gig had gone well, and it had meant a lot to a lot of Mint’s friends. But for one reason and another I didn’t really enjoy the day as much as I thought I would. Oh well… it was Christmas the next day. Yes, that is right – Christmas.

In Part Two – An early Christmas, Pizza for lunch and more Carter.