[THD]

“-so we all wrote our names on bits of paper, which were put in a drum case, and Mick made the draw and pulled out the six bits of paper., and read out the names and would you believe it ,my name was on one! We were instructed to collect our tickets at the box office on the day of the concert where they would be waiting for us. I was totally gob smacked ! .....

The manager of the shop persuaded Mick to play the drums for us (don’t think this was part of the plan )……so then we all went upstairs and he did a drum demonstrations which was very impressive) Much fancier than he would ever do with the Mac I think the African drummer joined in Again this was very different from his normal “ less is more blues shuffle style “ (Mick ,for some reason plays down his ability “I can’t even do a roll ! “ he has confessed ,yet he did the most sublime pressed roll on Need Your Love So Bad- but I digress this was just superb stuff apart from anything else we were standing only 10ft away from one of the worlds premiere (sorry !) drummers who was letting rip ! And then he stopped ,and the Australian manager said to me” Make sure you’re there on Tues day!” as he walked through the door and they were in the car and off !

I caught the tube back home but bumped in to the two lads who had introduced themselves to Mick, and learned they were called Edward and John and we chatted till we got to Waterloo.

So on the day of concert (June 21) myself and a guitarist friend arrived at Wembley Arena. (the attractive Indian girl who I had invited initially was not allowed to go by her father, who feared about her staying out late (or staying out late with me )! I approached the guest box office ,and sure enough the tickets were waiting in my name , together with two passes to the after show party ! I half believed they wouldn’t be there !
We went back out to the concourse on the approach . and a ticket tout ,of which there were several , shouted loudly ” Hello! it’s those two old stagers! We were there when they had their hit records ! ” believing he recognized us as two old rock and roll veterans, which we weren’t of course , (though we of course were guitar players ) but I suppose we looked right Everybody turned round, which felt quite nice ! !! So we took our seats ,and eventually the show began I remember nothing about a support act(but my diary says there was one called the Adventurers). The Rumours line up songs were fine ,and it was good for me to see the band performing these in concert for the first time ,but I didn’t grow up with these songs ,like I did with the Peter Green era material . Mick did an interlude with his drum waistcoat thingy,where he danced about on the stage banging various parts of his chest to produce drum sounds , which was more amusing than musical really ,but a lot of fun and perhaps played a talking drum at some point This line up included Rick Vito and Billy Burnette ,and they did a special section in the middle featuring them doing early Mac material which I think included Oh Well and possibly Stop Messin’ Round and Loved Another Woman off the very first (Dustbin) album (Sketchy again, but I think Rick Vito did lead on these last two ) Mick was trying his damndest to make these songs work and was putting his heart into it .But my pal could take no more-- he was so upset at what he felt was an insult to Peter Green –so he got up and left . I learned later he had given his after show pass to the first person he met on the way out !! I was more tolerant , I thought nobody is going to be as good as Peter and the Mac ,as I remembered them , and they did a fine job considering , and watched the rest of the show The band were very loud at some points –too loud . so loud it hurt ,and I couldn’t hear what the girls were singing sometimes because of this.

I collected my bag, which I ‘d had to deposit because it contained a camera, and found my way to the after party. There were a few people gathered in this backstage room. I saw the two lads I’d met at the drum store, and we were chatting and ,presumably because I was wearing a waistcoat and a dress shirt which was similar to what Mick was wearing, and I had a beard , a middle aged lady came up to me and congratulated me on my drumming and the Arabian influences in it ! I was rather sharp with her, as I explained that I wasn’t Mick ,and that I was 6 inches too short (I wish now I hadn’t been ,but I suppose I was rather embarrassed )but not nearly as embarrassed as she was ! More people arrived, and I had a chat with Mick’s manager (Dennis Dunsmore ?) who wanted my detailed views about the concert Eventually Mick emerged from an adjoining dressing room , and made a bee line for me and said “SAME SHIRT AS ME PAL !” I thought OH NO ! This is going horribly wrong !- Get me out of here ! But then we started chatting about the concert ,and I said that I first saw them at Battersea Town Hall in 1968 , and probably enquired whether he’d seen Peter recently (my diary says for a while he was holding my hand whilst we talked ,so obviously he wasn’t THATupset at our sartorial duplication ! ) ! I was not aware of any other members of the band being there, and I must have looked around for them.The party was starting to thin out .

It was way past the time for the last tube , and is difficult to get to central London from Wembley ,so I asked Dennis if there was any chance of a lift back to Central London with any of the crew, but he said they couldn’t do it,, so I had to wander round looking for the stop for a night bus ,of which there were about one per hour !! The actual journey was quicker than I expected, but I had to get a second night bus back to Battersea from Trafalgar Square . The next day, I went into work very tired, and I took a half days leave and went to collect my processed film roll from Joes Basement in Soho. Half had been ruined cause the camera back had been accidentally opened, but most of the ones of Mick at the drum store had fortunately survived !I continued working on my 4 track recorder compiling a tape working against the clock