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Nottingham Rock City
Thin Lizzy / FM / The Treatment
9 December 2012
FM Tour Diary: Nottingham Rock City - 9 December 2012
After a day off at home yesterday it's back on the road, the M1 to be precise, and up to Nottingham Rock City. As you may or may not know Rock City and Firefest was the catalyst for our reunion back in 2007. Tonight will be our third visit in five years. I'm travelling up with our manager Adrian. It's a nice sunny day, the roads are clear and we arrive just after 2pm. Lizzy's gear is just about ready to go.
The stage is probably the smallest on the tour but after Phil (Thin Lizzy's stage
manager) gets a couple of the monitor speakers removed it's cool. It's a double Pledge
VIP meet tonight and I go and have a nice chat with them. We're having tonight and
Tuesday filmed and the film crew have arrived. They're here to film Only Foolin'
for a promo video. Smile for the cameras guys!
Our soundcheck is now like clockwork, a bit of I Belong to the Night and the whole of Only Foolin' and we're done, no messing. It all sounds sweet where I am. Today we have two lots of VIP Pledgers joining us, Peter and Celandine, and Adrian with his son Sam. Lovely meeting them all. Hope they had a great time in Nottingham.
The backstage dressing room area in Rock City has had some serious refurbishment,
it's all very plush. We have a shower in ours and I take full advantage of the facilities
- before you ask, yes I have some proper shower gel this time! No more whiff of Travelodge's
finest Eau de Tomcat for me :-)
Showtime is 8.20 and it's soon time to make our way to the stage. There is a steep,
narrow wooden staircase that takes you up to the stage and as I climb it my mind
races back to that night at Firefest in 2007… I've never been so nervous as I was
that night standing at the side of the stage waiting to play our first show together
after 12 years. We've come a long, long way since that night. The lights go down
as the Pink Panther strikes up and I'm transported back to the present and the job
in hand. It's a sell out tonight and we walk out to a huge cheer.
It's another cracker of a show, on a par with Liverpool for sure. Back in the dressing room everyone is on a high. JK for some unknown reason is asking us all to "Smell my knee, smell my knee, it smells of sulphur, it really does!" It's like some surreal Alan Partridge moment. I humour him and do his bidding by smelling his knee, lo and behold it does actually smell of sulphur. Strange lad…
It's another day off tomorrow but we're back in Summer Bank finishing off the Deluxe
Edition of the new album. Merv, Steve C and I are staying in Stoke tonight and decide
to stay and watch Lizzy and have a beer with them after the show. We arrive at the
hotel about 2.30am and I'm tucked up in bed just before 3am.
Photos courtesy of PJ
