It's hard to believe it's almost 30 years since I spent a year living in London town. Went to school for a semester, slacked and hitchhiked for almost 7 months after that. Ronal Reagan was in office, and the USD was strong, the exchange rate got down to $1.16USD to 1 Britsh Lb Sterling, not too shabby. I lived in a large flat near the Earls Court tube station when I was attending college, and that was back in the day (under previous Churchiliian direction) all the pubs closed at 11pm! There were some Rhodesian maintenance guys that lived in the same building, and we used to go out and buy cases and cases of 16oz "tinnies", and once word got around, we had a pretty busy (and fairly profitable) after hours pub in the basement, at least doubling, sometimes tripiling our money. Good old free enterprise, foriegeners making money in a different country. Rod Stewart lived a few streets over, and I was telling people that if they ever saw him staggering around, to invite him to the "Queens gate Garden Pub". Good times, dated a Itialian lady who worked as a maid at the building. Twenty one years old,not a care in the world. Just imagine when I heard about the Moody Blues playing 1 night in mid October at Wembley Arena. WOW. That was one of my favorite bands at the time, especially after they released "Long Distance Voyager". Knowing damn good and well that Every Drunken Yank Boy Deservers Favour, and being more fiscally well off then most of my classmates due to the after hour pub investment, only two, John and Kath decided they wanted to go too! Tickets were 10.5 "quid", I know I still have the tattered and worn ticket stub around my shanty here somewhere. Off to the show VERY early, with a LONG detour to my favorite local, The Goose and Firkin, for some Imperial pints of Dogbolter. Buzzzzzzz. Into Wembley for the show, I remember a decent 2 man gutiar act by the name of Phoenix opening the show. Turns out BBC2 was filming the show too! Guess what I found on Youtube?: [ame=""] Not only this killer tune, but the whole concert! It was weird when they turned on the lights after every song to record the audience applauding, much to the shagrin of some of the wee white knuckled hash smokers in attendance. Great show, back to the flat pub for some nightcaps. Fabulous! The T shirt I got has long been shrunken, tattered, and lost, but the memory is stil keen in my mind. When you watch this video, stop it at 3:24. See they guy in the black shirt clapping above his head, to the left of his right wrist is a guy that kind of looks like Al Hirt, directly behind him, IT'S ME!!!!! I SWEAR!! We had tickets stage right, and there I am, wire rimmed glasses, mullet. No Cold Hearted Orb would rule that night.....and I described my location in the crowd right, its not a illusion...............GONG!!!!!!!
Thanks guys! Hey looking forward to your TTR reunion this summer!, thanks for havin' that again!:flagusa: :musik026:
