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Madrid Sala Cats
FM / Electric Boys
21 November 2015
FM Tour Diary: Madrid Sala Cats - 21 November 2015
Aaaaargh… The alarm pierces the morning silence. Surely it can't be time to wake up? It unfortunately is. I sleepwalk to the shower but the warm jets of water do their job in waking me up. Morning all. I vaguely remember that breakfast is included. I'm right. Most of the other guys are already down for breakfast, just Merv and Steve to come. Orange juice and coffee with a bread roll and cheese set me up for the long journey ahead to Madrid.
We think it's going to be a good six-hour dri
ve to Madrid so with our 10am departure
we should arrive right on time for load-in at 4pm. It's very overcast when we leave
but things brighten up once we have a few miles under our belts. It's very windy
and the bus is battered so we have to keep the speed down as we drive through miles
of mountainous desert terrain.
We hit the outskirts of Madrid on schedule and with the sat nav guiding us we should arrive at the venue right on time. How did we ever manage before all this new technology became available? I remember I used to know everyone's number by heart, now I don't know any.
We arrive at Sala Cats right on time. 
It's a cracking looking venue with a decent-sized
stage. The gear gets loaded in and set up with no dramas. Sadly the same can't be
said for poor Richard. He's having a complete nightmare getting the PA to make a
noise. The long and short of it is it's not working. Our soundcheck gets delayed
until things can be rectified. If anyone can get it working Rich can, and he does.
The man's a genius. Time is now against us so we do a very quick soundcheck. Doors
are pushed back 15 minutes to allow Electric Boys the same.
For the second time of o
ur three Madrid shows Real Madrid are playing Barcelona.
Fortunately it's a 6pm kick-off so it will be done by 8pm. El Clásico finishes with
a 4-0 win to Barca. We'll have to lift the spirits of the Madrid crowd with some
El Clásico British rock. The doors open and Electric Boys take to the stage. The
crowd are very receptive, they're going down really well.
Time to
get into our party frocks. The lights go down… a huge cheer goes up… see
you at the end. The crowd are with us from the off, a dancing, singing, smiling mass.
Another magical Madrid night.
Show over we make our way to the merch stand for pics, signing and chat. We meet some lovely people. A fantastic end to a fantastic night.
We're travelling aftershow to Zaragoza. It's a good three to four hour drive from Madrid. We arrive at the hotel - via a stop at the Golden Arches - at 4.30am. We decide on an 11am departure tomorrow for our day off in Barcelona. I'm sharing with Rich again tonight. The alarm gets set for 10.15am. Time to get some shut-eye.
Zzzz…
