The 2013 Diaries from Richard and Guy

[Love Expresso]

The Naples entry from Richard Bennett is especially harsh about the hard life on tour, dealing with incompetent hotel staff that is not able to turn the light on etc. etc... and about a very hard and long travel day and a strange gig with an almost invisible audience....

Whereas Guy Fletcher decided to talk about catering ONLY on this tour obviously - every question about technical issues, microphones, guitars and stuff is being shelved, "I will ask Glenn"-like, and then forgotten. Not a single mentioning of Jim or Glen, two pictures from Mark so far. Plus him being quite arrogant in his forum answers lately I wonder if this tour is REALLY that good.. Richard has repeatedly reported about technical issues, about his in-ears not working.

Do you follow these diaries on a daily base? What do you think?

I wish Guy would take the opportunity and step back from all those catering shots an give us some more pictures about what I guess the most are interested in.  Why not interviewing other band members? For example Jim, about returning into this big tour business? Nigel, how was it joining in for some gigs?

The answer will probably pop up that we can be happy with what we have and should be grateful, but I tend to think that they are travelling on a really high level, and HAVE time-off enough. But I am not a muso and also not very much a traveller.

But why are they still scheduling things like they did for Naples with all the knowledge they have from 30 years of touring? Is there no Hotel in Naples to go to?

LE

[superval99]

Oh dear, poor Richard!   I do think he suffers quite a lot on the road.  I remember him saying in his notes from a previous tour that he has trouble sleeping, for various reasons and I can quite empathise with him on that!   So combined with other annoying problems eg strange sleeping times, technical issues, plus all of the travelling and sometimes playing 6 gigs in a row, I can imagine how difficult it would be, especially for someone like Richard, who may not be too resilient!   

I can imagine that minor problems such as with the card to enter the room, etc can be magnified several times at 5am in the morning, especially after all the travelling AND after playing a gig a few hours previously!    I wonder how the rest of the band are holding up!   I know Mark has said that you have to have the constitution of a truck and perhaps Richard doesn't have one!   

Maybe end-of-tour exhaustion is setting in now!   

[Pottel]

i gotta say, i fully understand Richard on this one.
if you travel as much as they do (read isaac's posts) you tend to like hotels to be the same,..but they never are, they always have a different issue. even the expensive ones, the ones, the ones where one would expect EVERYTHING TO FRIGGIN WORK AS YOU (or whoever) PAID SO MUCH FOR.
guy's food fetish is a bit boring by now, and i do miss the varied topics we used to get on earlier tours, but as for the replies...i would be much harsher in my replying, considering some of the unbelievable rude/daft questions.

[ingridswing]

Richard is pretty tired, his Rome-entry also mentioned he didn't leave his room that day.
I don't see the point of travelling this idiot schedule when you have a day off the day after. I always think it's insane to create a kind of jetlag because of travelschedule when not needed.

I have a flight from Charleroi-Belgium to Madrid in less than 2 weeks. Flight at 9.25. At least an hour before the flight I have to be there. That's 8.25. 2 1/2 hours drive from home, so I have to leave at 06.00. Traffic in Belgium and Holland can be insane, so I need an hour extra for trafficjams. Thart would be leaving home at 05.00 so wake up at 04.00-04.30.

Simple solution: booked a hotel at the airport and leave the night before: no trafficjam at night, no worries, a good night sleep, wake up at 07.30 and take the shuttle to the airport and have breakfast there. How easy it can be 

They could have go back to Rome, wasn't too late, or have a hotel in Naples and fly midafternoon next day. Still some time off for everyone and now some are knackered because of this. Really strange.

[superval99]

I am similar to you, Ingrid.  When we travel to Carcassonne next week, our flight is at 8am from Manchester, but we live in Leeds, so we would need to be at Manchester at 5am, plus 2 hours travelling from Leeds to Manchester, means leaving at 3am and waking up at 2.15 am!   So we decided to travel to Manchester the previous afternoon, which means we now only have to wake at about 5.30am.

It will still be a long day ahead - flying to Toulouse and then a train to Carcassonne and the concert doesn't start until 9.30!   I feel tired already!        I really don't understand the band's tough schedule and they are not spring chickens, most of them!   

[dmg]

Well, here I go!   Guy's diary has gone downhill from the days when we had videos and Danny was interviewing the other band members etc.  He also has a catering issue - greedy guts!   Then there's the replies he gives which range from arrogant to bizarre now.  Granted some of the questions are equal to this but that doesn't mean etc...

Richard has always been the same in his notes, but I think perhaps this tour has been particularly gruelling on him.  Maybe his age is tolling on his physical ability to cope with all the travelling.  He does look like he's aged about 10 years since the last tour!  Sorry Ricardo.

Speaking of travelling, the idea of having hubs in Milan and Paris and travelling to and fro doesn't help in this at all and isn't great for the fans either when they give us a reduced set list because they have to leave early for a take-off slot.

In short , Guy's is a little poorer this year but I still read them both daily and am so glad and grateful that they're still there!

[ingridswing]

I can imagine them having hubs. A short hop with a plane and being able to stay in one hotel gives more rest than changing hotels.

[ds1984]

I don't read Guy's diary on a daily basis anymore. But how much he focuses now about catering is revealing about Guy's personality. I would suggest that if his diary become boring it is because this tour is boring and himself seem to be bored : a kind of "metro-boulot-dodo".

And do they really use the best available hostels or even MK's team has to deal with budget limitation?
Are the days when DS was staying at the George V palace over?

[Pottel]

most of the hotels they are staying in are absolute top of the line. not all, but really most.

[ingridswing]

Hotels are indeed most top of what is in the environment. What I see is that they choose hotels that are more cozy, not the standard 5 star chain hotels

[ds1984]

Hotels are indeed most top of what is in the environment. What I see is that they choose hotels that are more cozy, not the standard 5 star chain hotels

I see

This is not the image I got maybe because to me the top of the top is 5 star "palace" or "grand luxe" that you can get in France.
But there are not many Palace available.

[Love Expresso]

Funny enough, Guy's entry from today is quite interesting with some great pictures (without any food!)
and some critical words about the in-ear-stuff..

LE

[Pottel]

see LE. all is good :-)

[ds1984]

yes these guys are not in the 30s but in the 60s

I really don't know how they do it

In the OES tour they often played several days in the same city so no problem

now they play basically almost every day in a different city and they are much older..

it's too much, they should have many more free days

But days off cost

[ingridswing]

MK is 63, Richard is 61,Glenn is 59 that's the (around) 60's group
Jim I don't know

John is 40, Mike 42, Guy 53, Ian 50

Guy doesn't complain about being tired. Ok a lazy day in between but I suppose we all have lazy days sometimes