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Cory Buckingham Blogs
Does anyone have Cory Buckingham's blogs that she wrote during the Say You Will tour? I missed out on a lot of them and have been wanting to read them.
Thanks! Jackie |
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I'm pretty sure a lot of them were copied onto The Ledge by fans. Here's one I found:
Hershey & Cleveland June 15, 2004 Hershey & Cleveland As we pulled in to the venue in Hershey early in the morning on show day, I could see roller coasters. How is it that no one mentioned to me that the gig was right next to an amusement park? I ask our promoter about it, he says that if you walk over to the employee entrance of the park and show them your laminate, you can get in for free, as many times as we want...So we all spent the day hurrying to get our work done so that we could go play. Whenever we had twenty minutes of down time we would run over, ride a roller coaster and run back. (Or in my case, run over, buy three funnel cakes and run back.) Our radios worked over at the park, so we played radio games. Every time we went down a big drop on one of the roller coasters we’d cue our radios so that everyone back at the gig working heard all the screaming people and the loud, familiar noises of the roller coaster. It was fun, I think we should only play venues that have amusement parks next to them from now on. I’m going to start a petition. Before the show I went out to the sound board and on my way back to the stage, a guy caught up with me and asked me to sign his Rumors album. Me? I told him I can’t do that, I said I’ve never signed an autograph in my life, and I’m not going to start now. He said his wife loved me. Me? Are you sure? It was totally embarrassing, but I just did it and ran away. He didn’t want me to take it back to the band, he didn’t want anything. Except for my signature. The world is a very weird place. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it was just a piece of paper, but it just seems like only the band should sign their own album. I went back to Stevie’s room and told Stevie and Karen about it, which wasn’t a good idea, because after Stevie’s bout of laughter finally subsided, for the rest of the night they both kept asking me for my autograph. Very funny ladies....mock me if you will, but I’ll get you back. The weather in Hershey was perfect, warm, sunny, not too humid, and it didn’t rain! I should have known that being in Hershey there would be a lot of chocolate references...during the show the stage was bombarded with about 25 little stuffed Hershey’s kisses. It was pretty funny. During Beautiful Child, Lindsey kept peeking out from behind Stevie making funny faces at me and it was causing me to laugh so hard that I forgot to pay attention to my job, and totally screwed up. Oops. I don’t think anyone noticed though, thank god. At least Stevie didn’t call me out in front of 15,000 people. Been there. Done that. Don’t want to do it again. During I Know I’m Not Wrong Stevie came over during the guitar solo and smiled and winked at us over on stage right. She was watching our keyboard tech who plays second keyboard on that song, and she waved her hand in his face like she was conducting him, he lost all concentration and came dangerously close to screwing up. He shook his head, trying to tell her that she was making him mess up and she just giggled. The band was gone before the lights came up, we loaded out and hopped on the bus to head to Cleveland for a show the next day. The venue in Cleveland is incredible. The stage itself is beautiful, the whole building is reminiscent of a hunting lodge. I know that sounds weird, but everything is stone and wood, it’s really amazing. It was a busy day, as the second show of a back to back usually is. The weather was great, until about 9PM when it absolutely poured. How silly of me to think we could have two days in a row without rain. The show was good, although the stage was a bit of a war zone for Stevie. First, people kept tossing single roses on stage, with the little water reservoir thing attached to them. There were about ten of them scattered around on the stage, so she had to watch her step, and every time we went out in between songs to clear them away, people just threw ten more...it was frustrating. Then someone threw a top hat that landed right by her feet. And then someone literally launched a bunch of roses at her, but it wasn’t just a toss, it was almost as if they aimed for her head. They missed her by about an inch. Then a teddy bear came up, (which, by the way, really freaked me out because when I picked it up it started singing...stuffed animals should not sing), then some more flowers...it was a battle field up there. John had to kick roses out her way a few times. And I kept running out between songs to clear stuff out of the way. Note to self: When hurrying to get roses off the stage be careful of thorns. Grrrr. And to top it all off, from the beginning of the show I could see big puffs of smoke coming right up at Stevie, and I just knew it was driving her crazy. It only took about 6 songs before she couldn’t take it anymore, I think it was after Say You Will, she said “I just have to say one thing, who ever is out there just smoking away, you’ve really got to stop blowing it in my face, because it’s really bothering me.” Ooooh! Somebody’s in trouble!! You know whoever that was must have gotten a few dirty looks from the people around them. And as if the first album cover I was forced in to signing wasn’t embarrassing enough, after the Cleveland show, a lady with a Buckingham Nicks album was holding a Sharpie up. Apparently Lindsey said he would sign it after the show (he obviously didn’t know that he was leaving immediately after the show...) so I told her he was gone, and thought that would be the end of it. No, she wanted me to sign it. This is where my face turns beet red and I feel the need to run and hide in a corner. Can I make a public announcement here? I have now ruined two perfectly good, somewhat historic album covers. It pains me. Oh well, such is life. We’re in Dallas now, after a 20, I repeat, a TWENTY hour bus ride, and I’m late submitting the tour report because I fell victim to going out until the wee hours of the morning on our first night off, and today, our second day off was spent making nice with the tequila I shouldn’t have partaken in, but did anyway. Ouch. So here I am, the night before the Dallas show, going back and forth between typing and trying to figure out how it’s possible that all of the clothing scattered around my hotel room came out of one suitcase. I think my clothes are secretly breeding and multiplying when I’m sleeping at night. I’m rambling now... Forgive me, I’m tired...’till next time... CB |
Here's the final one--I think you'll find more if you use the search:
Dear Diary....The last entry July 21, 2004 The Final Episode... I’m late again...sorry about that. The last week of the tour was hectic for me, along with trying to clean out all our cases and get everything ready to spend 2 months in storage, to make a long story short, one of our crew went home a week early, so instead of hiring someone to do her job for just 5 shows...I got to do her job...on top of my own job. My days were busy...to say the least. But I’m back, I didn’t desert you.... I wouldn’t dare. We’ve had six shows since you last heard from me, I’ll give the best recap I can, and then I’ll say farewell. We have a few shows in September, but you’ll have to forgive me as I don’t know that I’ll be providing a report for those shows. So this might be it for me... Montana is beautiful. The drive from Calgary to Bozeman was unbelievable and breathtaking. I sat in the back lounge and watched the scenery go by for hours. Bozeman is apparently a very cute town. I personally am not able to verify this, as I slept the whole afternoon off. I had quit smoking a few days beforehand, and for some reason it left me feeling a bit like a narcoleptic. I just fell asleep all the time, where ever I was, what ever I was doing. It was rather odd. Anyway, so I didn’t see Bozeman, but it was a beautiful night and we had a really great barbecue out by the bus. Denver was the chosen city for our end of tour party. The band, staff and crew all gathered for dinner and drinks. It was a lot of fun. Mick and Lindsey both gave a quick little speech expressing their gratitude to everyone, at the end of Mick’s speech he yelled “are you with me??” We all laughed. A few others stood to say a word, and when our production manager was finished he screamed “The Maaac is baaack!” That also got a laugh. It was nice to see everyone in such a relaxed environment, just hanging out and enjoying themselves. It was also a riot to see everyone put their “good” clothes on...we tend to look pretty grubby most of the time, jeans and t-shirts...but I must say, we clean up nice! There was however, one let down that night. Mick had a suit he was planning on wearing to the party, I was one of the lucky few to see it beforehand...it was outrageous. Shiny, gold plaid pants with a matching jacket and a gold vest and tie...and I couldn’t wait to see it on him. I was very disappointed to see that he opted to wear something different, and much more toned down. Sigh...oh well. The Denver show was good, it was our last outdoor gig, and I was feeling a little down about it. This has been my favorite leg of the tour, all the outdoor shows. I love being outside, watching the sun set as the show starts. Working all day in the sun. I’ll miss it. It’s one of the many things I’ll miss. There must have been some static going on with the ribbons on Stevie’s mic stand, because three times she nearly pulled it over when the ribbons got caught up in her shawl. The first time it happened she nearly brought her mic stand down and she just leaned in to the mic and said “nice save”. The next few times she just ignored it and then turned to make funny faces at us. After Landslide, when she and Lindsey hold hands, her hand got all tangled in the ribbons and therefore Lindsey’s hand got all tangled and it looked like they were going to knock it over again, but for some reason the mic stand gods smiled upon us and all was well. Apparently the mic stand and Denver did not get along well. Sioux City came and went, we arrived, played a show and left faster than you can blink an eye. But the show went well and the crowd was loud and excellent. The gig in Cedar Falls was so weird. It was indoors, but the celling was a big skylight. And it was a huuuuge venue, my legs were so tired by the end of the day. Cedar Falls marks the point in time where I started to realize this was all coming to an end. Stevie gave a really lovely speech at soundcheck, she thanked the crew profusely and talked about what a good time this has been and that she would never forget it. (Sniffle sniffle, try to not look like I’m crying...) During the show she dedicated Landslide to the crew, thanked everyone for staying with them all this time, it was very sweet. After load out that night, we said goodbye to a few of our crew that wouldn’t be coming to Santa Ynez with us. It was the beginning of the end. We all stood around the buses while the lighting guys set off fireworks that they had picked up on the Fourth of July. But I’ll get back to that... We drove to Chicago that night, spent about six hours there and then headed to the airport for our flight to LA, which I spent watching the Live In Boston DVD...Then we hopped on a little prop plane (ugh!) to Santa Barbara, and then a 45 minute drive to Solvang, which is a very weird, albeit cute version of Scandanavia...Who needs funnel cakes when there is a bakery on every corner selling pastries and danishes. Mmmmmm. The Santa Ynez shows were at an Indian Reservation casino. It’s always really hard to work when there is gambling to be done. Luckily, I was so busy that I only had time to lose 200 bucks. Not bad. It could have been muuuch worse, believe me. I was exhausted after these shows, as the “dressing rooms” were really hotel rooms at the other end of the world. So I spent both days running back and forth, up the elevator, down the elevator, through the casino and back, a million times over. Very tiring. Good shows though, a little weird since it was only 1,000 people and we’re used to more like 10,000 if not 15,000. But it was nice, intimate. Stevie dedicated Landslide (or maybe Beautiful child?) to her Dad, who had been with us for a few weeks on this leg. She said “Daddy, you win”. Oh man, bring on the tears! We also played a little joke on Stevie in Santa Ynez...More often than not, Stevie shows up to soundcheck with curlers in her hair. Usually it’s just one or two in the front, but sometimes it’s a whole head of them. So at the last show, we all (boys included) put a curler in the front of our hair and we all waited patiently for her to arrive. When her car pulled up, she got out and you could see her surprise when she saw one person wearing one, then two people, then three, then EVERYONE. She died. She was taking a million pictures and was laughing so hard she was crying. We were concerned that she might show up with no curlers in her hair, and then it wouldn’t be as funny, but thank god, she showed up with the full set! She made Karen take her picture with everyone and their curlers, the dogs included. Good times. John even participated in the hair curler antics...we gave him a hair curler with some double stick tape on it. During Goldust Woman Stevie always turns around and does a little dance for John, before she turned to face him he stuck the hair curler to his hat. When she turned around and saw him I thought she was going to lose it. You couldn’t see her face from the audience, but she waited an extra long time to turn back around because she was laughing so hard. At least the Queen Bee has a good sense of humor! The last show was heart wrenching. I hate goodbyes. I got teary at least a dozen times during the show, and was literally weeping as I said goodbye to people at the end of the night. We walked out of the casino, and the sliding glass doors closed behind me, and just like that...a year and a half later...it was all over. Which brings me back to Cedar Falls...And to my closing words... Bear with me for a little flashback...I’m standing in a parking lot behind the venue in Cedar Falls. It is a perfect night. The four tour buses we have called home are parked all in a row. The 40 people I have called my friends and family for the last year are mingling about, talking, laughing, drinking. I am standing alone, forty feet away, watching them all, listening to their familiar voices. There are fireworks going off over my head, huge bursts of color and noise. Yellow sparks are falling from the sky. Rainbow flames are spinning around on the ground. Their laughter and their stories blend together with the fireworks like music and then it all goes silent. I am watching in slow motion as this night is burned into my memory. This night is mine. These people are mine. Their laughter is mine. These memories are mine. These fireworks in the sky are mine. This was all mine, from the first day of rehearsals to the final plane flight home, it is all mine, and I will keep it with me, always. I do love Fleetwood Mac, and I have loved getting to be a part of their show and their tour. I love the music and I love the band. I am, without a doubt, a Fleetwood Mac fan. But I promise you, no matter how big of a Fleetwood Mac you are...if you had the opportunity to be a part of what I was just a part of...at the end, it wouldn’t be the band or the show that had the biggest impact on you. It would be these people. This incredible group of people, and this experience that has forever changed me. It might sound a little extreme, but that’s because for me, it was. I thank all of you for coming to these shows and giving me a reason to have this job. I will never, ever forget it. Once and for all...signing off... CB |
Fresno, Marysville, Concord, San Jose, Seattle, Spokane 07/04/2004
July 4, 2004 The Lost Week.... My how time flies....Fresno, Marysville, Concord, San Jose, Seattle, Spokane. I swear I meant to write the tour diaries, but it just never happened. California is my home state, so those shows were a little crazy, lots of friends and family, and even some time off at home. (Thank god!!!) But here I am, sitting in my hotel room in Portland, and I’ve got six shows to tell you about. Shame on me. I’m going to give you the Cliff Notes version, as it’s late afternoon here, and I’ve got to go get ready for the Fourth of July festivities. I love fireworks and I’m very excited that we have a day off so that I get to see them...I apologize if I rush this, but I looove fireworks. Fresno was good. Nothing out of the ordinary. I was going crazy because we were getting so close to home for me, it was like hours were passing like weeks. I’m never really homesick out here, but when you get close to home, and you can imagine your own bed, and your cats and your car and your friends...you start to get a little antsy. So I was happy to load out of Fresno and head to Marysville, just one step closer to home. Marysville was a really great show. I was a little thrown off by the Marysville date, if you’ve never been there, it’s pretty much just out in the middle of nowhere, farms and fields and such, so it was surprising to see this huge amphitheater surrounded by dirt roads and cows. My mom drove out to Marysville, she had been in Sacramento that morning buying a kitten, which she brought to the show. He’s 8 weeks old, and he lived in Wardrobe for the day. He was very popular, everyone spent all their spare time in Wardrobe snuggling our new kitten. Stevie dedicated Landslide to my mom, it was a very moving little thing she said, and it reminded me how amazing all the history of this band is, but even more amazing how much the history ties in to my life. Every time Stevie introduces Beautiful Child she says it was from an album they did in 1979 called Tusk. I was born right when Tusk was released. My mother was pregnant with me at the Tusk shows. It’s crazy. The landslide dedication was very sweet, it started to get me a little misty eyed...and if that wasn’t enough, Lindsey finished the job... Lindsey made a dedication for Say Goodbye. He told everyone that the drive to the show reminded him of his father, who grew up on farms in that area. He was saying that even after 30 years, it’s amazing how there are still things to come to terms with, things to accept and let go of. He said he was going to cry. It seemed it was too late for that. He dedicated the song to his Dad. Our keyboard tech went and got me kleenex. The tears were a’ rollin. Well, after the cry-fest that was Marysville, we packed up and headed to Concord Baby!! Only one hour away from my house. It was a painful day...I’ve never wanted a day to be over more quickly. My mom brought my car, it was parked next to the bus and it was just calling my name, ready to take me home. All the members from Fritz came out for the Concord show, Stevie dedicated Landslide to them. After the show, I was so ready to get in her dressing room and load out so that I could go home, but instead, I watched what must have been a hundred people pile in to her dressing room (okay, I did a head count and it was more like 38, but still!!) All the guys from Fritz, Lindsey, Mick, Lindsey’s family, EVERYONE was in there, music blaring. Finally when, it looked like they were going to stay in there forever, I got the go ahead to just head in there and turn the music off (always the best way to end a party). We just slinked in and started taking everything down, and Stevie (who is well trained in being kicked out of her own dressing room) came to my rescue and yelled over everyone “okay, everybody’s gotta go, my girls need to come in and take everything down!” Thank you!! Within minutes the room was empty, Stevie got changed and was on her way, and so was I!! I threw my radio at our production manager and put the pedal to the metal...homebound. On a side note, Lindsey’s Say Goodbye dedication was to his brother, for getting him into music way back when, and Stevie dedicated Beautiful Child to Vanessa Carleton, who was at the show. Stevie is a big fan of hers, and Lindsey just did some work on her album. My day off at home was glorious. I slept in with my kitten, drank tea on my patio, did some laundry and stayed in my PJ’s most of the day. Drove my car, saw my friends and watched Tivo. Heaven. My mom dropped me off at the San Jose show the next morning, and it was almost like my day off at home never existed... San Jose was CRAZY. I had 35 guests. Friends and family alike, it was crazy. It was great to see everyone, but it’s a little hard to balance work and 35 guests. I nearly lost my mind. Lindsey’s wife and kids were there and he dedicated Say Goodbye to his wife. I couldn’t wait till we got out of California so we could be done with the teary dedications! I just couldn’t take it anymore. I said goodbye to my house and my family and we headed to Seattle after the San Jose show. It was a nice long drive and I got tons of sleep. We had a really nice day off, Seattle has great shopping, so I hit the streets with intent to spend. Show day was good, everybody sang happy birthday to Stevie’s dad at sound check, as his birthday was the following day off. It’s amazing how good happy birthday can sound when people who can really sing are singing it. It was lovely. The show...Stevie swore she smelled chocolate cookies somewhere, lo and behold, someone in the front row appeared a few minutes later with a tub of cookies. Hysterical. There was a little kid sitting right up front, on the subs with his ear pretty much touching the speaker. This is not okay...just for those of you who don’t know. If you bring a child to a show, they need to be wearing earplugs or headphones...and to sit them directly in front of the speaker is straight child abuse. Sorry, but that’s just not okay with me. Anywho, a girl made it up on stage, but was removed quickly. Me thinks the poor thing had a few too many cocktails. Spokane came and went without anything out of the ordinary, although I did really like the city, it was very cute. And now it’s time for me to go watch some fireworks. I love fireworks. Sorry for being late, and I’m sorry if this bored you all to death. I’d hate to bore you this close to the end! I’ll make the last few good, I promise. CB |
San Diego (Chula Vista) 06/23/2004
June 23, 2004 San Diego (Chula Vista) Ok, I would normally wait until there were at least two shows to talk about, but my brain seems to be working again, and there was plenty of action and antics in San Diego last night so it get it’s own report. We stayed at the W Hotel in San Diego. If you’ve never stayed at a W, I highly recommend it. They’re a little too hip for their own good, but the beds are the best beds you’ll ever sleep in. Every time we stay there I find no reason good enough to get out of bed before 2 in the afternoon. So I didn’t. Had dinner and coffee with a friend, and got back in bed at 9. Now that’s what I call I good day off. About an hour before the show our promoter called me on the radio to tell me that concessions was selling funnel cakes and churros (I know, I need help...I’m an addict.) So I took orders, and headed out to the food stands. I purchased a few churros, handed some out to our lighting guys who were on their way up to the spotlights, and started to eat one myself. They were cold and stale. I was angry, but my spirits were still high, as I knew there were funnel cakes in my future. I bought 4 funnel cakes...for $32!!!!! That’s absurd. But anyway, I stacked up my cakes and proudly toted them backstage. I dropped one off for our tour manager and headed to the dressing rooms to bring Karen one. We dug in, and upon first bite, we were utterly disappointed. They were disgusting. Soggy and oily and undercooked. I could have cried. I tried a few more bites, refusing to believe that my funnel cake experience had been ruined...but alas, it had. Our two security guards and Mick’s assistant told me I had to bring them back, I didn’t want to, I hate returning things. They asked me how much I paid for them, I told them $32. After they were finished making fun of me, and after their laughter subsided, they insisted I return them. So I stacked the cakes up again and headed back out to concessions where I politely requested a refund. They only gave me a refund for three of them, since the fourth was half eaten. Wicked, cruel world this is. So, in the end, I was out 8 bucks for nothing. Bad funnel cake experience. As you can tell, I’m very shaken by it. Thank you for letting me vent, I feel much better now. OK! On with the show! There was a very small putting green at the gig, which Mick noticed immediately as they arrived, he went in and got his golf club out of his case and hit a few balls before the show. And check this out...I remember last night so well that I can even tell you about it in chronological order...Woo hoo! Crickets roll, the band comes out and Chain starts. About ten seconds in to the song, Stevie looks over at me and makes a motion with her hands like she’s taking a picture. I’m usually very good at reading her show speak, which consists of lip reading and charades, but I had no idea what she was talking about. She was smiling so I knew it wasn’t a dire situation, but she kept doing it...our keyboard tech and I start discussing what she could possibly mean. We came up with a million detailed interpretations. I asked her after the show what she was doing, she said the sunset was really pretty and she wanted someone to take a picture. Are you kidding me? I sat there stressed out for 5 songs about what it is you wanted, and all you wanted was a picture of the frickin’ sunset? Yes. Grrrr. Stevie had all of her hair up for Sara, and it looked so beautiful. It was especially cool because in the Tusk footage that plays on the screen behind her she has her hair all up in a bun, so it was kind of a “then and now” moment. She also had a new top on for Beautiful Child, a sparkly black three quarter length sleeve. It was lovely. Speaking of Beautiful Child....About halfway through the song, I see a guy start to climb up on stage on Lindsey’s side. It always takes a minute for it to register that someone is actually climbing on to the stage, but as soon as it clicked I start yelling at our security guard and pointing. I’m yelling and pointing and yelling and pointing, but our security has his head turned in order to hear what someone is saying...by this time the guy has made it on stage and is standing between Lindsey and Stevie, with a hand on each of their shoulders and he’s just singing along to Beautiful Child! Linds and Stevie just went about their business, playing and singing, and then, unfortunately for the stage jumper, our security guard tackled him and escorted him off the stage. After the song was over Stevie giggled and said “whoever he was, I just want you all to know he had a very gentle touch...it was like there was a ghost behind me...for a few seconds there he was almost in the band.” The reason why this guy got to stay on stage for so long is that he actually looked a lot like our monitor engineer, so for a second, everyone just thought there must have been something wrong with the monitors. How funny is that? I asked Stevie about it after the show, and she said the same thing, she thought is was our monitor guy, that there was something wrong with the sound and that she was going to just keep singing until he told her what to do. Oh man, good times. Later that night on the bus, we were watching a recording of the show and we fast forwarded to the stage jumping moment. We played Stevie’s reaction in slow motion when she realized that the guy standing next to her was a total stranger. Hysterical. We kept freeze framing her expression of confusion, and then we would do commentary on what she must have been thinking. “Um, who are you?” But I have to say, the girl didn’t miss a beat! As the show was ending and Mick was saying his goodnights, I looked over and Lindsey had a green cowboy hat on. He’s such a goof ball. He was running back and forth, trying to leave the stage, but not wanting to leave anyone out of an autograph or a handshake, he finally ran off stage and as Mick was leaving he grabbed a woman’s Buckingham Nicks album to take backstage to be signed. I had to fight the security guards off from kicking her out while she waited for someone to bring it back. When they brought it back out Stevie had signed it, but she seemed really sad that Lindsey hadn’t signed it too. She was very nice and was so appreciative and I knew the band was all still there, so I took it back to LB and gave him a Sharpie. When I brought it out to her, she was so happy, she couldn’t believe I had just gone back there and gotten him to sign it. It was nice to be able to do that for her, she wouldn’t stop thanking me. It was very sweet. There was a meet and greet after the show and usually management will gather up Mick, John and Lindsey and as soon as all the boys are ready, they’ll go in and get Stevie. (After all, she is the lady of the band, and we all know you never keep a lady waiting.) But last night Lindsey had a few of the members from his Out Of The Cradle band there, and he was busy socializing. When Lindsey is socializing, heaven help the person who has to go pull him away. Well, last night, that person was me. Our tour manager looked at me and said “I’m going to get Stevie, you get LB, we’re ready.” OH NO! How did I get stuck with this? Ugh. I headed in to the dressing room with a firm attitude, I wasn’t going to take no for an answer, I was going in there with a mission, I would go in alone, and I would come out with Lindsey...I would use physical force if I had to. “Excuse me, I’m sorry, Linds, we gotta go. Lindsey, meet and greet, they’re all waiting. Um, Linds, say your goodbyes, we’re late. Lindsey, please.” I tug on his shirt a little, he just smiles and puts his arm around me like I’m there for my health. I call our tour manager on the radio. “I don’t have LB. I repeat, I need at least 2 minutes.” Five times Lindsey says his goodbye to people and looks like he’s leaving, but right as we get him in the doorway he goes back in. He faked me out at least 5 times. The funniest part? When we finally did get him out in the hallway, John said he needed to grab something out of the dressing room, and as he walked by me, he winked. He didn’t need anything out of the dressing room...just his little joke to point out how long they had waited for Lindsey. God I love this band. It was a good night. Bad funnel cake and all. Next stop: Fresno. CB |
Portland & Calgary 07/08/2004
July 8, 2004 Portland & Calgary I love the 4th of July. I realize there are a lot of holidays with much better themes....gifts, costumes, food, etc...but there’s something about the 4th that I love. FIreworks only last 15 minutes and more often than not it seems like it’s over before it started, but I just love it. We were in Portland for the festivities. The weather was beautiful and clear, and during the day there was a blues festival and tons of food and drinking going on, and then around 10, we watched 20 minutes of really good fireworks, and then we headed off to bed. I’m sure it sounds like a really uneventful day, but it was actually really nice. Last year we were in Vegas for the 4th of July....so this was a nice change from the debauchery that was last year. The show itself was actually in Ridgefield washington, not Oregon at all. I was confused by this at first, as nobody could tell me why the itinerary would say Portland, Oregon if we weren’t even in Oregon. It’s the little things that confuse me. Oh well. The show was good. When the show first started, Mick and John came out, and usually Lindsey and Stevie are quick to follow.....but not tonight. We waited and waited, Mick and John were chatting and the crowd was cheering in anticipation, but still, no Lindsey...no Stevie. I had watched them all walk out from the dressing rooms together. I saw them all ready to go on stage...what’s the problem here? John starts making yawning gestures, and Mick pretends to fall asleep. Finally, they come out and the show starts. It turns out there were concerns about the lighting for the show, since the sun was still very much out at show time. It made me laugh...sorry guys, but we already sent the other half of the band out on stage...we can’t exactly take that back. I mean, it was really bright out when the show started, but who cares, you know? It’s just lights, people didn’t come to see lights. After Go Your Own Way, a lot of people in the crowd were holding their lighters up in the air, and I look over at John, who is standing on the side of the stage, waiting to go back on for the encore, and he has his lighter up in the air also. He’s a total goofball. We had a long drive to Calgary that night, which was made even longer when it took us two hours to get through the border. All four buses pulled up in a little cluster in the parking lot of border control. It was early in the morning, we all climbed out of our bunks and lined up show our passports, passing the time yawning, rubbing our tired faces, and trying to figure out who has the best bus hair out of everyone. (There’s something about sleeping in a bunk that makes your hair do the most incredible things. It’s just like normal bed head, only like twenty times worse.) We thought we were good to go, but then it turned out we had to wait outside the buses while they went on the buses and looked through everything, including luggage. It took forever. They went one bus at a time, and of course our bus was last. So two hours later, after sitting on the pavement in the hot morning sun, wishing I could go back to bed... I finally did. All in all it took us about 15 hours to get to Calgary. We stayed at the same hotel as the band in Calgary, that’s always fun. We headed off to dinner and saw Mick walking around, checking things out. We ate and hit the hotel bar for a few cocktails. We were in Calgary a few days before their big rodeo. I don’t know much about it, I think they call it Stampede, but our hotel was decorated like a really bad western movie set. Every time I waited for the elevator, amongst badly painted cowboys and barnyard type animals...I just had to laugh. We’re staying at like a 5 star hotel and there is hay on the floor. Unreal? The show was fantastic. The arena was packed. I couldn’t see one empty seat. And the crowd was great. Stevie dedicated Landslide to The Stampede, people seemed to like that. Lindsey talked about the meaning behind Say Goodbye, the whole leaving the band thing, and his relationship with Stevie, forgiveness, etc...Mick’s vest solo was crazy. He kept yelling something like “can you hear me barking?”. As I was falling asleep in my bunk that night I could hear the guys in the back lounge of the bus watching it again...it’s like a car accident, you don’t want to look, but you just have to. Again and again and again. Don’t get me wrong, he’s enormously talented, but the vest solo is enough to boggle even the sanest mind. But anyway... We drove from Calgary to Bozeman Montana last night, with a brief stop at the border at 4AM where we all had to climb out of our bunks and sit in the front lounge with our bus hair, while a uniformed officer identified all of us and one by one told us we could go back to bed. You don’t have to ask me twice. I slept until we got to Bozeman at 10AM this morning. Upon arrival we saw only a WalMart and a Costco. Looks like it’s a good day to Barbecue. Only six more shows, eleven more days, 138 more songs...only three more tour diaries. ...Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong... CB |
Dallas, Houston & Irvine 06/21/2004
June 21, 2004 Dallas, Houston & Irvine Okay, I’m going to breeze right through Dallas and Houston and do a ten second recap. It’s nothing personal, I’m just a total scatterbrain right now, and I can hardly remember what happened today, so remembering what happened 4 days ago would make my head explode. We stayed at the most amazing hotel in Dallas...the rooms were absolutely beautiful and it’s made going back to staying at normal hotels a total drag. It was so hot in Dallas that it makes me wonder why anyone would ever want to live there. It’s sweaty and sticky and damp and clammy, it made my hair look like Farrah Fawcet, with the feathered frizzy bangs, and the makeup I put on in the morning slid off my face after being outside for 1.8 seconds. But after I got over the fact that it’s too hot to breathe or think, we had a really good time in Dallas. Tequila. Enough said. Show was good. To be honest, it was a busy night, it was a hot (HOT) night, and I remember nearly nothing about it. I know that’s terrible, as my job is to try and tell you all the interesting things that happen during the show, but for some reason my brain has just been on autopilot lately. My deepest apologies. We headed to Houston after load out and guess what? It was even hotter in Houston! Frick. I’m serious, how do people live like this? I know, enough about the weather. Okay...what do I have for you...There was a cat fight in the front row in Houston. Ah, alcohol and attitude problems...always the makings of a good cat fight. They were removed promptly and the show carried on without anyone even really noticing. Lindsey’s family was in Houston. Three words...Cutest. Baby. Ever. She’s such a little doll, she’s two months old, and this was my first time meeting her, so I was pretty much glued to her every spare second I had. She’s precious. Stevie bought Lindsey’s 4 year old daughter the cutest little ballerina outfit, and within seconds she had it on and ran out on stage to show everyone at soundcheck. The funniest part is that Lindsey and Micks’s kids have to wear these industrial headphones, the kind that airport employee’s wear....so the ballerina outfit looked a little silly with huge bright blue cans on her head. Brett played sweet little dancing ballerina music on the keyboard, and she pranced around on stage until she got pulled so that the work day could actually continue. It’s good to have kids around sometimes, reminds you not to take everything so seriously. Everybody should dance around in a pink tutu every now and then.... Show was good. See above comment about Dallas show. Again, I apologize, I just don’t have the brain power lately! We flew to Southern California the morning after the Houston gig, and let me just say...it’s good to be back in Cali. Beautiful, comfortable weather, road signs I recognize, and people I haven’t seen in months. Good times. We had two days off before the gig. We went to the mall, we went bowling at the rock n’ bowl, we went and saw a movie (Dodgeball, I highly recommend it, but only if you have a sarcastic, idiotic sense of humor like myself. Nothing funnier than people getting smacked by big inflatable rubber balls, in my opinion...but I digress). And after all said activities, it was back to work. The LA shows are always a little stressful for us dressing room girls. There’s usually about eleventeen gazillion people at the LA shows, and it’s a little hard to accommodate eleventeen gazillion people, and it ends up getting really crowded and it keeps us super busy. So my blood pressure is just now coming down, 12 hours later. The crowd was great in Irvine, the first time Lindsey spoke he thanked the crowd for coming and said it’s good to be home. Amen to that. The only problem with the show was that everyone and their mothers were smoking, which isn’t such a big deal, but whenever someone is smoking in the first ten rows, it just goes straight up to the stage and right into Stevie and Lindsey’s faces. Stevie has already made her problem with cigarette smoke very clear, so I spent the show acting as the smoking police. Every time I saw someone smoking I would flash them with a flashlight and if that didn’t work, I’d lean over and tell one of the floor security guards to go make them put it out. It seemed like every time I got someone to put their cig out, two more people lit up. I was flashing that flashlight like it was a disco. I’m going to get myself a uniform and a badge....maybe even a theme song and a sidekick. Before Landslide Stevie told everyone that Jess, her Dad, drove out from Phoenix with her brother to spend the last month of the tour with us. She said that he’s the same man who sat in their living room in 1968 listening to Lindsey and Stevie sing, and said that they really had something going. LIndsey was smiling and laughing. She said “So he’ll be with us for the rest of tour, and Dad, I can say one thing to you...Let’s roll.” It was great. After the show in Irvine it took the band a reeeaaaallly long time to get out of there due to the eleventeen gazillion guests I spoke of earlier. We just waited and waited and waited. It kind of got to the point where I was like “Look, I love you, but get OUT!” After twiddling our thumbs for what seemed like 12 hours, they headed out, one by one, we cleared out the dressing rooms and we were on the bus for a quick drive to San Diego. I’m counting the days until we make it to the Bay Area so that I can sleep in my own bed, drive my own car, and have my Mom make me some home cooked food. I think my Mom reads these, so Mom...get the bacon salad and the orange chicken wings ready...I’ll on my way home. And on a personal note, while taking advantage of my little tour diary gig...I’d like to wish my Mom a very happy birthday. Until next time... CB |
Hartford & Scranton...again 06/11/2004
June 11, 2004 Hartford & Scranton...again I regret to say that I really have no idea what Hartford is like. We arrived at 4:30 in the morning, after a two hour drive and after sitting in my room writing the last tour diary until the sun came up, I went to bed around 10AM and slept until 4 in the afternoon. After a shower, a 4 minute walk downtown, and a quick dinner, I headed back to the hotel room for bed. All in all I think I spent two hours outside of my room. I may not have seen much of Hartford...but I loved Hartford, because it was warm there, and after the raining, freezing cold Jones Beach experience, I was thrilled to no end to wake up the morning of the show to a weather forecast of 93 degrees. And boy howdy, was is hot. I was disappointed when we arrived at the gig because it appeared to be an indoor venue, and I was all dressed for a day outside. But then the entire back end of the building opened up and we were suddenly outside. Presto-chango. That’s a first for me, it was cool. Mick’s family was in Hartford, his little girls are so cute that you just want to squeeze them. They watched sound check and afterwards Mick sat at his drum kit with one girl on each knee and they banged around on the drums for a while. Cute, cute, cute and more cute. I have this curse with Stevie’s dressing room that I’d like to complain about. Everybody enjoys a cool, comfortable room, especially when it’s sweltering outside. My problem is this... If it’s really hot out, the whole building will be perfectly air conditioned...All the dressing rooms will be at ridiculously freezing temperatures...except Stevie’s room. Her room will always be uncomfortably warm, and the most painful part is that the building maintenance people never know why. They always tell me that it should be working just fine...yeah, if 83 degrees is what you consider fine. It never fails. Never. I always end up putting her in a dressing room that just won’t cool down. It drives me bonkers. It has become a running joke on the tour. So at about 3:00, we pulled in one of our portable AC units and I spent my afternoon running AC exhaust pipe out of her room. It was an all out war between me, 2 rolls of gaff tape and 40 feet of tubing...In the end I was victorious. Can I get a round of applause for a gloriously chilled dressing room! Yay for me. I hardly saw the band at all in Hartford, their plane was late getting in, and they left right after the show, straight from the stage to their cars, and it was a busy day for me, I think I exchanged maybe three words with each of them. So no fun stories to tell there...sorry. We arrived in Scranton, for the second time, around 4AM the next morning. Our day off was beautiful and sunny, but around 7:00 that night it poured. I don’t think I’ve ever seen rain like this, it was raining so hard that it wasn’t even individual rain drops anymore, it was just a huge sheet of water coming down. The skies opened up and let loose. Purple lightning and booming thunder. We took a taxi ride to a Japanese restaurant to have dinner (a very scary, most likely life threatening cab ride, I might add.) We sat at one of those hibachi tables where the chef cooks all your food in front of you. We got the chef drunk on sake and he started to play this little game where he tosses food at you and you try and catch it in your mouth. Alcohol and hibachi tables are a dangerous combination people... The rain continued into the next morning, although not nearly as bad as the night before. It sprinkled all day and then the instant we get the call that the bands plane has landed and they are 20 minutes from arrival, it starts to pour again. What great timing. So we all stood around with huge umbrellas waiting to keep our rockstars dry as they made the walk from the cars to the dressing rooms. And of course, out of the four cars, Micks pulls up right next to my post, and instead of sheltering Stevie, for instance, who is quite a bit shorter than me, I get to try and keep Mick dry...holding the umbrella 14 feet above my head. It wasn’t pretty. Then John arrived, and he wouldn’t let me walk him in with the umbrella. He said this is just a normal day in England and he’s fine, it’s just rain. I told him it’s no trouble, really...He ran away from the umbrella. So when they were on their way to soundcheck I chased him with it, trying to walk him to the stage. It gave me a good laugh. Thankfully the rain died down before show time, so at least people up in the lawn seats didn’t get soaking wet. As soon as the rain stopped I went up to concessions right before the show and purchased three funnel cakes (if you don’t know what they are you need to go find out right now...they are one of life’s little treasures.) I gave one cake to our tour manager, but managed to eat the other two pretty much by myself. I didn’t fell well afterwards, to say the least, but it was well worth the tummy ache. The show was totally on tonight. The crowd was great, and on a lot of the songs you could actually hear them singing along. It takes a lot of people singing for me to be able to hear it over the PA. They were singing so loud on Landslide that I could hardly hear Stevie. She loved it and towards the end was playing conductor to the audience. She dedicated Landslide to a little girl named Ashley. It’s a long story, but she’s a disabled artist who drew an amazing portrait of Stevie. She got to meet Stevie before the show, and Stevie just loved her. Ashley ended up sitting on the speakers for part of the night and both Lindsey and Stevie played to her all night long. She looked like she had the best time ever, it was so sweet. At the end of the show Stevie went over and wrapped the scarf she was wearing around Ashley’s neck. So sweet. Lindsey dedicated Peacekeeper to Ray, I’m not entirely sure why though. I didn’t see Lindsey after the show, but I’ll have to look in to it for you next time I see him. Someone threw a beer bottle up on stage and it went right under Stevie’s feet. Call me overprotective, but when that kind of rude stuff happens, I swear I could just jump in the audience and punch someone. Who does that? Ok, it’s lesson time class...if you decide you want to throw something on stage (whether it be an annoying beer bottle or a lovely gift) plan your item toss correctly. Don’t do it when Stevie is walking, wait until she’s stationary. Then you’re really going to want to aim for just the edge of the stage, if it makes it too far back then it’s in the way, and your lovely gesture has now become an annoyance, and it also means that I have stress out and run out there to get it as soon as the song is over. But it’s okay, put me work, I don’t mind. Two of the items thrown on stage in Scranton were a zebra print cowboy hat and a rainbow feather boa. I’m going to wear them to greet the band as they come in at the next gig. I like trying to make them laugh. Now all I need are fishbowl platforms and some gold spandex...yeah baby!! See ya’ll in Hershey... CB |
June 7, 2004
Seven Painful Days Off & Jones Beach Well, what a week it has been, huh? You guys must have been going crazy. Believe me, if it makes you feel any better, it was just as crazy for us. We arrived in Scranton with the assumption that the show was going on as planned. We all had kind of a sinking feeling though... And then we get the phone call, the night before the show...Scranton is canceled. And Camden. Oh no... What has become of our little tour? Canceling shows? Somebody get me a paper bag... We left Scranton on what was supposed to be the morning of the show and we headed to Philadelphia to await more news. We knew for sure that Camden was off, which meant we had at least 4 days off, so a lot of the crew flew home for the break. I stayed and waited it out. The first day in Philly came and went, with a little retail therapy (Philly has great shopping). The second day in Philly came and went (again, Philly has really great shopping). The third day in Philly came and went (sleeping in and sightseeing). So there we were, 2 days before the Hershey show, and no news yet. This is a good sign. No news is good news? So we sit and we wait for the story to come down the wire.... Hershey is a no go. Now I can’t help but wonder about Jones Beach...so we wait it out for another day... We’re good!! Jones Beach is on! Touchdown! We did have to reschedule a few shows, and yes, we did have to cancel a few. There’s a million factors that go in to successful rescheduling, so we’ll have to wait and see how it all pans out, but so far, it looks like we’re at least back on track. Excellent. Stick with us guys...we’re doing the best we can with the hand we were dealt... So, at the stroke of midnight the night before the Jones Beach show we left Philadelphia and headed to Wantagh, NY. I like Jones Beach, other than the offices themselves, everything is outdoors, including catering, so provided the weather is nice, it feels like summer camp....However, we were not so lucky. When I woke up at 7AM in the parking lot and looked outside the window of the bus it was pouring down rain. And when I got off the bus to head in to the gig, I was disappointed to discover that not only was it wet, but it was freezing cold and windy to boot! Mom...I don’t want to go to school today, can we call and tell the principal I’m sick? Didn’t think so. The rain eventually died down midday, but it was cold all day and all night. I was so cold that I begged our merch guy to score me a snugly Fleetwood Mac sweatshirt, which I wore around all day, hood tightly secured, hands in front pocket, like a little gnome. We had a bunch of space heaters on stage for the band, and we even had a big propane heater on each side of the stage (the kind that you can actually see the blue flames inside, and they sound like an airplane warming up to take off). The one on Lindsey’s side kept shorting out and eventually we just gave up, so poor Lindsey must have been freezing all night. As soon as the band took to the stage, during the intro for The Chain, Stevie looked over at me and mouthed “too cold”. Oh great. I had visions of all of us running around on stage plugging ten more heaters in, blowing circuits, all hell breaking loose...But then after a few minutes she looked over and mouthed “I’m okay now” and nodded. Crisis averted. It rained through out most of the show from what I could tell. The crowd were troopers though, they stuck through it. I was freezing my buns off and I wasn’t even wet, I can’t imagine how cold the crowd was. I am awarding the Jones Beach crowd an honorary cold weather endurance badge. Well done guys. Way to show your FM spirit. Stevie had the crowd say a little prayer to make the rain stop, it didn’t seem to help, but it certainly gave her a little giggle. Stevie tried her best to stay warm, she was gloved the entire show (and I don’t blame her!), she also brought out even MORE new clothes. The main piece was a plain black, fitted, velvety coat with a peach colored, almost japanese like satin material at the bottom. It was stunning. She wore all kinds of layers and she also had little silk, ruffled leg warmers on under her skirt. She brought out red velvet gloves for Sara, to match her red cloak. Can you say...ooh la la...she looked fab tonight. There was a large lip on the stage, so from the band to the audience it was about 15 feet. The stage at Jones Beach is hardwood, and the carpet that we always put down on the stage didn’t cover that last 15 feet, and it was of course wet, so every time Lindsey went out to play to the audience I was just waiting for him to slip and fall and kill himself, but thankfully, he made it back to the safety of the carpeted area each and every time. Okay and I have to tell you this because it’s to die for...Stevie’s manager has a little dog, I think he’s a maltese. A little white, soft and cuddly, energetic dog. He’s a total doll, and he’s friends with Stevie’s two yorkies. Anyway, he has a new trick. Stevie’s manager holds a treat up in the air and says “Standback! Standback!” and moves her hand around in a circle, and he stands up on his hind legs and twirls just like Stevie does. It is so damn cute you just want to eat him. Stevie got a huge kick out of that one. Well, we arrived in Hartford at 4:30 this morning, and now, as day breaks, I’m wrapping up the latest episode of the tour tales and I’m crawling into bed...nighty-night. CB p.s. On a side note: Canceled shows, rescheduled shows...they’re a total bummer, though sometimes unavoidable. Thank you ALL for changing your schedules, rearranging your life, your travel plans, your jobs, your families, your finances. I know that going to a concert isn’t as easy as buying a ticket and parking your car. I know that it means time off work, baby-sitters, saving money, transportation, etc, etc, etc. I know that you guys are the reason we all have these jobs, and the band knows that too. So if no one else gets the chance to thank you for your understanding, at least I have. |
Bristow, Mansfield & Holmdel 05/30/2004
May 30, 2004 Bristow, Mansfield & Holmdel About ten seconds after completing and submitting my last tour report, I get the dreaded phone call. The Bristow show is canceled. Ugh. But, then again, this would give Stevie four whole days off to rest her voice, so the hope was that if we just cancel this one show, we’ll be okay. It’s nerve racking though. And it seems I have told you all a lie...but I swear I didn’t know I was lying! We just found out that Silver Springs isn’t coming back. The band decided to 86 it. Sad, but true. It’s a long, hot summer tour, and the band is just making sure that the whole tour goes well...from start to finish. I hope everyone out there eventually understands that. I’m just as disappointed as the rest of you, I love that song. But it had a good run of 100 something shows, a nice long life...may it rest in peace. And may you all forgive me for unknowingly lying about it. So anyway, with the news of the canceled show, our travel plans changed. We were supposed to play the show in Bristow on Wednesday and then drive that night to Mansfield. Instead, we left for Mansfield on Wednesday morning and would spend two days waiting for the call that it too, was canceled. Thankfully, that call never came and we loaded in the Mansfield show on Friday morning, as planned. Ok, but back to our arrival in DC... Holy cow! Cicadas are the most terrible, awful, scary, disgusting things on the planet. And they are EVERYWHERE!! They just fly in to walls (or your head) and buzz around and land everywhere. Gahhhhhhhhhhhh! I spent most of my time outdoors, running around, screeching like a little girl as cicadas blew by my head. The rest of the crew really seemed to enjoy my phobia...they have no idea what it’s like to be me. It’s insect hell in my world. My bus driver is the best driver ever. For the most part, on days off the buses just stay parked at the hotel, but OUR bus driver takes us out on days off. Usually to Target or WalMart, or anywhere else that we feel like going. So the second day off in DC the guys went out and bought a barbecue, folding beach chairs, and tons of food and beer. We set up outside the bus in the parking lot of the hotel and barbecued all afternoon. It was great. And then the rain came. The DC area (or at least somewhere nearby) was on tornado watch, and when the rain hit, it hit hard. I’m from earthquake country, so to see the sky go green, and the light change, all the thunder and lighting, and the black clouds moving a million miles an hour and twisting together, it was totally surreal and cool. We all stood outside the bus and stared at the sky, waiting for something cool to happen, but eventually the storm passed and we were all left to find something better to do. I went to the movies and saw Shrek 2. We left for Mansfield at 11AM on Wednesday, and it was a 9 hour drive. We were kind of in the middle of nowhere, our hotel was nestled comfortably in a business district...so we barbecued again. All afternoon, and all night..until the mosquitos ate us alive. We bought more beach chairs and all kinds of BBQ goodies, and now we’re in the market for an awning and some astroturf. We are now referring to the tour bus as our expensive trailer park. The Mansfield show was a new wardrobe parade! Stevie wore something new on practically every song. She wore so many new things that I can’t even begin to tell you about it, hopefully you were either at the show or know someone who was. I was in shock. We had blue, red, pink, gold, black, we had lace, velvet, silk, satin, beads, hair clips, jewelry...I mean she brought it all out. Hopefully you can find pictures online somewhere, because it would take pages for me to describe each and every thing. The wardrobe room was a busy place that night. Since we ended up canceling the show that would have been Stevie’s birthday, we gave her a little belated birthday celebration in Mansfield. We got a helium tank and pretty much filled her dressing room with about 100 balloons. Her room looked like a florist’s shop with how many flowers were in there. We also got her two cakes...one was a huge carrot cake that was decorated to look like a big present, we brought that one out during sound check and everyone came out on stage and sang happy birthday. The other cake was a bit of a joke...it was a small cake that we just put on the table in her dressing room, it was a dark chocolate cake that had a little figure of the grim reaper on it and he was standing in a graveyard...only the gravestones had the names of the songs that have been taken out of the set since we started this tour a year ago. It was the funniest cake, she loved it. Load out was slow, as the loading dock only had two spaces for trucks, and we have seven of them. But we got out eventually and headed straight to Homdel, New Jersey for a show the next day. The dressing rooms in Holmdel were under the stage, but there was no elevator, there’s just a big hole in the floor and they lower the wardrobe cases (all 25 of them) one at a time through the hole. It was tedious. The show itself was great, although pretty uneventful, Stevie kept up with Mansfield as far as the plethora of wardrobe additions go. We had a short drive that night to Scranton, and now we have two days off here. I’m thinking I’ll hit both the mall and the movie theater, and there’s also rumors of a Harry Houdini museum...the weird ideas people come up with never cease to amaze me, but it might be worth checking out. Off to explore the many wonders of Scranton, PA... CB |
West Palm, Charlotte, Raleigh & Jacksonville 05/25/2004
May 25, 2004 West Palm, Charlotte, Raleigh & Jacksonville Sorry for the wait! It was a busy week. Since I’m packing four shows and four days off in to one little report I’ll try and just give you a good recap, otherwise it will be 25 pages long... Our two days off in West Palm Beach were great. There was a pool, it was sunny most of the time, although it rained both nights, the days brought good weather for the most part. It was disgustingly humid, but at this point I’ll settle for humid as long as it’s not raining. For a while it seemed like we were destined to have a rain cloud follow us this whole tour... The really nice part about our stay in Florida is that we were staying literally right next door to the band and staff. It isn’t often that the crew is even in the same state, so it was tons of fun to have everyone in the same place for a few days. It was like a high school mixer. Good times. The West Palm show went well. However, I got a call early in the day to inform me that Stevie’s vocal chords were swollen and that we may be dropping Silver Springs from the set that night. The range that Silver Springs requires can be hard on her vocal chords and she didn’t want to push it too much, especially since Silver Springs is right before Standback, both of which are songs that she really steps it up for. Originally, she was going to tell us after Rhiannon whether or not she was up for Silver Springs, but then after sound check, she and her vocal coach decided to play it safe. I realize that it must have been a total bummer for you guys in West Palm, but just know that if she doesn't take precautionary measures like that and ends up blowing her voice out, then we’re canceling shows...and nobody wants that. Our production assistant and I suggested that she and I get up there and perform Silver Springs instead, but oddly enough, no one liked that idea. And have no fear, Mama Nicks can still sing her booty off, and she still puts on a show worth watching, she’s just being careful not to stress her pipes too much. Silver Springs will be back as soon as Stevie is 100% again, there is no need to panic. Lindsey left the stage for Mick’s vest solo, he usually just sits on the side of the stage, but it was really hot, and he decided to go soak up some air conditioning and rehydrate a little. The change in routine threw him off and he ended up hurrying to get his guitar back on, and whacked himself in the head with it. He took a nice chunk out of his eyebrow and from what it looked like, he may have been seeing stars. He seemed a little out of it for the encore songs. He is alive and well, so again, no need to panic. The doctor used a little medical grade super glue to seal it up and he’s as good as new. We had a nice long drive that night to Charlotte. Long drives are much better than short ones when you live on a bus. You know how babies always fall asleep in cars? It’s the same thing on the bus, as soon as the engine fires up and you climb in your bunk, you’re out like a light. As soon as the bus stops, you wake up, it’s really odd. If the drive to the next city is only two or three hours, you wake up at 4AM and can’t fall back asleep so you end up dragging your bags up to your hotel room in your pj’s at an ungodly hour of the morning. So, the ten or so hour drive to Charlotte left plenty of time to have an pre-bed cocktail and still get a good 8 hours sleep. Then you wake up and you’re at the hotel, ready for your day off. There’s today’s lesson in bus life for you. Class dismissed. We had half a day off in Charlotte, there was a big mall that everyone went to (at this point I feel like I have been to every friggin’ mall in the country.) I ate way too much Chinese food and tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour since my alarm clock would be waking me at 5AM. The next morning it was apparent that we were in for a hot day, since at 6AM it was already about 85 degrees outside. Stevie has a big comfy chair that she sits in to have her make-up done. If you guys watched the Destiny Rules documentary, it’s the same one she’s sitting in all through rehearsals. Anyway, it’s totally beat up, it doesn’t have a road case, so it basically just gets thrown on the back of the truck every night, and after 100 something shows, the chair has seen it’s better day. We’ve replaced the fabric about ten times and the paint is all worn away and chipped, so I decided that I would repaint it. I’m pretty sure I got more paint in my hair and on my clothes than I did on the chair. People kept asking me if I painted the chair or if the chair painted me. Only slightly embarrassing. One of the local crew guys in Charlotte told me he was the “biggest Lindsey fan ever” and could I please get him some guitar picks...does this sound silly to anyone else?? He was visibly embarrassed and shocked when I revealed that Lindsey doesn’t use picks. That happens more often than you would believe. The show went well, although it was really hot. There was no airflow on the stage and the heat was oppressive. A few of us later complained that we were on the verge of passing out halfway through the show. (I won’t even discuss what the humidity did to my hair, but let me just say that if it was 1983....I would have been soooo cool.) We headed to Raleigh that night, it was a pretty short drive, and I had to get off the bus at 4AM because my bus was heading right back to Charlotte. Why? Because my bus was serving as the charter service to take about 10 of our guys back to Charlotte so that they could spend their day off at the car races. Apparently, they got to sit in some famous race car driver’s box seat and watch the race. (Sorry about the lack of detail, but you know me and the sports.) So I crawled off the bus at the crack of dawn and cursed my way to my hotel room. And you know how I said Charlotte was hot? I take it back. Raleigh was HOT. But, the stage in Raleigh was air conditioned, which helped ease the pain a little. Raleigh was one of those gigs where about 10 minutes in to load in everyone had their shirts off. I like to call it half-naked load in. As I’m sure you all know, there is a tour that comes through the backstage area everyday and a lot of the time people bring gifts for the band. Someone brought some really cool gifts in Raleigh. Lindsey received a framed Pet Sounds Beach Boys poster, which I knew he would love. When he first saw it in the dressing room, he said “is that a gift for the whole band?”, I told him that it was just for him...”oooh! That can go in the studio!” It doesn’t matter who you are...everybody loves good presents. John received a very nice Hawaiian shirt, that to our surprise he liked so much he asked if we could have it pressed so that he could wear it that night. I’m sure he made someone’s day. As usual the show was great, blah blah blah blah. There was a loud buzzing noise before dreams I think, so Stevie had to ad-lib a little while they tried to fix it...”talk amongst yourselves”, she then proceeded to try and help point out where the buzzing was coming from. The highlight of the Raleigh show for me, I owe to our lighting director. I’ll try and explain it quickly. What you guys see is a bunch of lights, but there are about six guys up in the truss, above the band, and four guys out at front of house, up in the rafters, running the lights. Then our lighting director (also one of the funniest men on the planet) sits out at the lighting board and for two and a half hours calls the lighting cues (all the while pushing a million buttons to run the more automated part of the show). All of them are on headset to each other and only four out of the twelve or so guys running the lights are from our crew, the other ten or so are local at each gig. So, I always hear these outrageously funny stories about what goes on over their headsets. In Raleigh, one of the lighting guys ran me a headset to where I sit during the show so that I could listen in. He even showed me how to talk if I wanted to say something. And it was hysterical. Most of the local guys didn’t even know which one was Lindsey and which one was Stevie (even though that topic was covered very well at the lighting meeting earlier that day). So there was a lot of “spot 6, 7 and 8 stand by to fade in on Stevie Nicks...the female singer. And 2, 3 and 4 stand by to fade in on Lindsey Buckingham...the guitar player.” It was two and half hours of pure funny. So that was my Raleigh highlight, I was an honorary lighting guy for a day. Wow, this is already getting really long. I’ll try and wrap it up. We had a back to back, so we left Raleigh and headed straight to Jacksonville, where, you guessed it...it was really hot! But this time we were back in an arena. Air conditioned buildings are my best friend. Stevie has been going crazy with her camera. She has this little digital camera that she takes everywhere. The best part..and I say this with love...is that she doesn’t really know how to use it. Every time she takes a picture, she has to take it three times while saying “this damn camera”. It’s a riot. She takes pictures of EVERYTHING and always says “we WILL remember this tour”. We also had a golf cart, but it was a gas powered one and it smelled really bad. Didn’t stop me from taking a few joy rides, however. The hallways in this arena were kind of narrow, and the golf cart was a double seater, so it was hard to turn around in the halls. I was parked outside Stevie’s dressing room waiting to take her to the stage for sound check, when Mick came out, so I drove Mick down to the stage and headed back to her room. I told her security guard not to bring her out yet because I still had to turn the cart around. Well, midway into my very Austin Powers like turn around process, out comes Stevie. So now I’m trying to hurry and get the cart turned around. Her security guard is trying to help by telling me how much room I have behind me, but he’s a terrible driver, so I end up backing in to wall with a big “bonk” noise to accompany it. And Stevie is watching the whole thing. I fall over with laughter, as does Stevie, and everyone else who happened to be standing by. And of course... the whole time, Miss Photographer was snapping photos of my golf cart crash...or at least she was trying. Gotta run...the mall across the street is calling my name. CB |
Green Bay, Nashville & Atlanta 05/16/2004
May 16, 2004 Green Bay, Nashville & Atlanta When I last left off I think we had just arrived in Green Bay... Green Bay is very, very small. By the end of the first day off, after having taken a shuttle to the nearest mall, visited a few lovely bars and eaten lots of cheese, I felt I had experienced what Green Bay had to offer....that is, unless you are a football fan and then the possibilities for entertainment are limitless. I myself, am not a fan of the football. Sooo...I slept until 4PM the second day. Sleeping is an art in my opinion...and I am an artist. I paid for my art later that night when I was not able to fall asleep until 5AM, and I had a 6:30AM wake up call. I was a little wacky at load in that morning, to say the least. I am now certain that my finger is broken. It’s been a few days and I can’t bend it. It’s still blue. It’s no longer swelled up like a sausage, but it’s still blue, and it still really hurts. It’s been splinted and taped to my other finger, but now my left hand is pretty useless and it’s hard to work with only one hand. Grrrr. This is no longer considered self-pity, this is just blatant whining. And if it doesn’t get better soon our Production Manager will most certainly force me to see a doctor. Double Grrrr. Let’s see...what to tell you about the Green Bay show... It poured rain in Green Bay. Poured. This does not feel like a summer tour. The enormous suitcase I have that is filled with tank tops and flip flops has not served me well. (In a few days I’ll be complaining about the heat....I’m reeeallly good at complaining, ask anyone that knows me.) Landslide was dedicated to the Packers. A very delicate song to be dedicated to a bunch of guys that tackle each other and bang helmets together...but hey...football players have feelings too. There was a flight curfew in Green Bay so the second the show was over we were dragging band members out to their cars...there’s nothing like kicking people out of their very own concert. Ten hour drive to the next city. Slept the whole way and woke up with just enough time to enjoy a morning bowl of Lucky Charms and a Red Bull before disembarking the bus. Ahhh, Nashville. Last time we were in Nashville we stayed downtown and it was great. Fun city, lots to do. As you might have guessed, it’s all country, all the time, but it was still fun. This time around we stayed about 30 minutes from downtown and there was nothing to do. A bunch of the guys went to a sports bar to watch a big hockey game, but just like the football, I’m also not a fan of the hockey. Or sports in general, really. Water sports are good, with the exception of water ballet or synchronized swimming...let’s be honest, those are just silly. Anyway, we arrived in Nashville around 1:00PM so we really only had half a day off. I sat around writing the previous tour diary, checking e-mail and also dyed one of the lighting guys hair fire engine red...that’s my motto, when boredom strikes, dye your hair! You know how I said it poured in Green Bay? Nashville made Green Bay look like a sorry drizzle. We had about 400 towels laid out on the floor backstage. The place flooded. I felt so sorry for people who had lawn seats in Nashville, they sat through a two and half hour storm. Talk about dedication. Stevie dedicated Landslide to all the songwriters from Nashville, past, present and future. Stevie’s family has some deep country music roots, so I think Nashville holds a special place for her. For the 15 minutes or so before the show, after Mick is all dressed and ready to take the stage, he typically paces the hallway, stands around and chats, and uses our security guards (large) arms to warm up his hands. It’s just his way of getting ready for the show. Anyway, he was standing next to my road case, resting his arm on it, and when I went to get something out of it I nearly slammed his hand in the drawer. Can you even imagine if I had? Oh. My. God. “Fleetwood Mac tour canceled because ditzy girl breaks Mick Fleetwood’s hand”. He just looked at me like we had just avoided the biggest catastrophe ever. We were all silent for a minute, and then howled with laughter when I held up my wounded, bandaged, broken hand to Mick and he just said “Now you’re trying to break my hand too?” Atlanta. Holy mother were you guys a good crowd! When the show started it looked there were a lot of empty seats and it was a little nerve racking. It was still light out and it just felt a little weird. By the third song, daylight had made it’s exit, the seats filled up and the show was awesome. When dedicating Landslide Stevie leaned down and asked a girl in the front row what her name was, “We would like to dedicate this song to Angela, from Atlanta Georgia”, the girl was already crying at this point, but as soon as Stevie said “It’s called Landslide”, the poor girl just started sobbing. It was so sweet. She cried through the whole song. We also had a little problem with the security guards in Atlanta. Every day, our production manager has a meeting with all the house security. Security is told that people are allowed to stand up front the entire show. The only thing they are supposed to watch for is people climbing on to the stage. Apparently there were a few misinformed guards that kept telling people to sit down. Stevie came over to get her cape before Gold Dust Woman and she was piiiised. She turned around and barked at our security guard, “You go tell them to stop making people sit down...they’re ruining the show!!!!!” I believe the troublesome guards were switched out for people who had actually paid attention at the security meeting. Lindsey’s wife came out for the Atlanta show, she was carrying a handful of pictures of little Stella for all of us women to fawn over. (Stella and the kids are at home with Grandma for the weekend...) But we all cooed over the pictures, snatching them out of each others hands. After the show someone handed me a few signs to give to the band, one of which said “Welcome to the room Stella” which I thought was very cute. Okay, set list discussion. Don’t Let Me Down Again has in fact taken a permanent vacation, (insert expletive here), Goodbye Baby has been rehired, although I love the song, I kind of liked ending the show on a high note. Goodbye Baby is so sad! But I suppose it’s the logical follow-up to Songbird...I guess tradition is tradition. Destiny Rules got the boot, which I’m livid about. There are a few of us who have told Stevie we will not speak to her until they put it back in the set. (I think she knows that we work for her and that we have to speak to her, so she kind of called our bluff.) Say You Will is standing by for a permanent position, and all the other new ones look like they are here to stay, thank heavens. I’m loving Sara, and I’m loving I Know I’m Not Wrong. I adore Red Rover so much I just might marry it. As part of my desperation to entertain you, and by request of a few fan club members I’ve put together a set list of my own. Not that my opinion matters to any of you, but this is what results from boredom. We play 24 songs now, and I couldn’t narrow it down that much, so I settled for 32. In no particular order: Monday Morning (Okay, that one has to be the opener though.) Blue Letter Crystal Landslide Oh Well Sara Not That Funny Never Going Back Fireflies Farmers Daughter Can’t Go Back That’s Alright Empire State Hold Me Oh Diane Eyes Of The World Second Hand News I Don’t Want To Know Thrown Down Red Rover Steal Your Heart Away Seven Wonders Welcome To The Room Sara Tusk Over & Over The Ledge Think About Me What Makes You Think You’re The One Storms When You Were Good That’s Enough For Me I Know I’m Not Wrong Last but not least, I want to thank any and all of you who take the time to say hi or give me feedback on the tour reports. I really, really appreciate it, and if I’m ever short with any of you before or after the show, just know that it’s only because I’m usually a little busy and a lot sarcastic. (Not to mention a wee bit socially anxious, but that story is best saved for another day.) Joking aside, thanks guys, I’m genuinely flattered. Signing off. See ya’ll in West Palm. CB |
New York, Madison & Champaign 05/10/2004
May 10, 2004 Rehearsals New York, Madison & Champaign Yes, I’m back. You can’t get rid of me, I’m like the relative that came to stay for a week and ended up moving in to the garage. I’m back to fill your heads with useless information about our daily life out here. I fear that with some 36-ish shows I’ll run out of things to talk about. So please, you’ll all have to bear with me if some days are shorter and/or more boring than others. I’ll do my best to keep you somewhat entertained. At the first show in Madison I was told by someone from the fan club that there are actually people out there reading these....and enjoying them? Wow. I’m in shock. So now I kind of feel like I’m talking to someone instead of just blabbing to a blank computer screen in a hotel room. Ok, here we go...I have to remember how I used to do this... For starters, I have a big, fat, blue sausage finger right now. I smashed it between a door jam and a road case last night during load out, it doesn’t feel good. I can’t say whether it’s broken or not, all I can tell you is that I never knew typing could be so painful. Alright, now that I’ve gotten my daily quota of self-pity taken care of, we can move on! I’ll get you up to speed on our schedule...we spent two weeks at home after Australia, then we headed to LA on the 24th of March for three weeks of rehearsals. We ended up cutting rehearsals a week short since the first two weeks were pretty productive, but more so because Lindsey and his wife were due to have a baby any minute. (She has since arrived, beautiful, healthy, and happy. Her name is Stella.) Rehearsals we’re great. The process of seeing new songs put together for a live performance is amazing. Even more amazing is seeing songs that are 25 even 30 years old being pulled out from the archives and given a new life. We started out with rehearsing I Know I’m Not Wrong, from Tusk. It’s one of my favorite FM songs, so I was was thrilled about that. It sounds awesome live, if you’re coming out to any shows on this leg you can definitely look forward to it, it’s soooo good. Then out from the depths of the Buckingham Nicks era (and a brief, albeit glorious appearance on the FM Live album) came Don’t Let Me Down Again. That calls for pee your pants excitement in my opinion! It sounds great, and they played it at the first show in Madison. If you were at the Madison show, consider yourself lucky, because I think it will be leaving the set. Sadly, it seems it can’t find a place to fit in. It will be sorely missed, but at least I got to see it come to life, it was like a little piece of history...farewell Don’t Let Me Down Again, it was nice knowing you...sigh. But we’ve got Sara (big huge yay!), Destiny Rules (double yay!) and Red Rover (pass out from excitement yay!). Personally, my favorite live FM song is Monday Morning, I begged and pleaded for it this time around, to a point where I think they were actually becoming angry with me. (Okay, so I may have been a little pushy). They finally played it once at rehearsals to test it’s waters, I was like a teenage girl at an NSync show. It was incredible. But it got vetoed. I have wiped away my tears and with the help of good therapy and medication I am almost over it. After rehearsals we all went home for three weeks (seemed like three days) and then flew out to New York on May 3rd for this MTV Networks thing. I won’t explain, it was really boring. We were there for two days to play three songs. I was bored senseless. We then flew from NY to Madison for the first show of the tour. The best thing about arriving in Madison was the return of our tour buses. We have been in Europe and Australia since November, it had been months and months since we’ve seen a bus. When we were overseas we only flew, we had no place no call home...but our homes on wheels have returned, same buses, same drivers, it’s like we never left. Actually, I think three of the four buses are the exact same buses as last time, but the bus I’m on was changed out for a new one (I guess the one we had originally broke down) and now we have automatic doors on the bus. Instead of just manually pulling them open or closed, you push a button and they slide open, it’s like Star Trek, it’s hysterical. Most buses have these doors, but I can’t get used to them, I feel the constant pull to make really bad teleporting/Star Fleet/Captain Kirk jokes. As you can probably tell, it isn’t hard to entertain me. Anywho...moving on... Day one in Madison was a load-in/rehearsal day. It had been weeks since the band had played the new songs, so they did a quick run-through and some final tweaking. That evening, after the band had all gone back to the hotel, Stevie stuck around for a fitting (new clothes!). There were only a few of us left in the building, most of the crew had gone back to the hotel for the night. (To enjoy this anecdote you’ll need to know that we all carry radios at the gigs to communicate.) So I’m standing outside on the loading dock when someone starts singing over the radio. It seems Stevie was bored, so she took Karen’s radio and decided to indulge our Production Assistant by giving an impromptu performance of Illume, our PA’s favorite Stevie song. After her radio debut, I asked if she was taking requests, and she was...so I got a radio performance of Storms, from Tusk. I can’t say how many of the little things I’ll really remember when this tour is over, but that will certainly be one of them, it was very sweet. Cut to 24 hours later...the show went well, although there was a chunk of technical problems in the middle of the set. Guitar problems to be more specific. Long story short, Stevie and Lindsey had to fill a good 5 minutes of silence, the whole crew was mortified, we were all standing around staring at each other with our jaws on the floor. We couldn’t believe our eyes, it was the longest 5 minutes of our lives. Seconds feel like hours in those situations. The band handled it like champs though, they’re so funny, Lindsey finally just got down and started doing sit-ups and push-ups to kill time, Stevie laughed and said “I didn’t know you could do that!!” It worked out fine, I think it’s nice every once in a while when something goes just a little bit wrong, it’’s entertaining. And this time it was actually really funny. The Champaign show was free of large technical mishaps, but instead, it was hotter than all get out. The arena in Champaign had no air conditioning. Even in cold weather, arenas really heat up when there’s thousands of people in them, so in hot weather (about 85 degrees), no air conditioning is a death sentence. Poor Mick and Lindsey were about to die from heat exhaustion. We even had portable AC units and tons of fans on the stage, but it just wasn’t helping, it was a sauna up there. Luckily the dressing rooms had good air conditioning. It was so funny, after the show we were all finding reasons to go in to the dressing rooms and stay there as long as possible just so that we could cool down a little. I suppose we might as well get used to it, it’s going to be a very hot and a very outdoor tour. Bring it on...I’m ready for summer. We’re in Green Bay now, we have two days off before the show here, so I’m going to take my broken finger (self-pity mention #2) and get out of my hotel room. Until next time... CB |
Thank You So Much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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