Band Reunion

Weird week. It's been a hugely busy, anxious, overloaded few weeks, but this last week was very other worldly. It all culminated in a trip to London on Saturday night to see Jamie do his thing on stage at the Royal Albert Hall.

Earlier in the week, I'd dispatched him to buy a top or two to wear onstage. He has NO fashion sense, even worse than me. We are such an embarrassment to our poor children. On Saturday, he packed a bag in which he tried to hide his new purchases from me, but I took them out and demanded he try them on for me and the kids to vet. We decided which he'd wear and totally vetoed some sash arrangement which would have made him look like a Guatemalan goat herder. He was determined to wear it, so my last words to him as he walked off to the car that afternoon for the sound check were, 'NO SASH!'

Later, Grace, Jack and I got a lift into London with a couple of friends. Several of our friends came to the concert, which was really good. And lovely that they wanted to come. Jamie met me and the kids outside by the Royal College of Music which is next door to the RAH. I tried to tell them all about their grandfather (Jamie's Dad) who had won a scholarship to the RCM at the age of 16 at the start of WW2. I thought it was interesting, but as usual Grace and Jack rejected any attempt at my teaching them any history!

We went up to the guest list section of the box office, Jamie with his Access All Areas pass round his neck but 3 tall, haughty, pneumatic model-types barged their way past us. I felt sorry for them. I always did.{LOL!} We collected our VIP passes and made our way through the maze of corridors, bumping into people from our past, all the way. Sometimes they recognised Jamie, "You were the BEST bass player in the world, Mate!" Hee Hee. Sometimes, we recognised them but they didn't recognise us (one time managers/promoters etc) Many fans were wearing tee-shirts with Jamie's face emblazoned across them, but didn't recognise Jamie, which was funny. Jack thought it was all hysterical. Grace just looked worried. But beautiful.

We bumped into Steve Brown, the producer of the Love Album, the re-release of which which was being celebrated on this tour. A double (London) kiss from him, whilst he told me I looked 'still so young!' Yeah right! Most people seemed to remember that I was the millstone around Jamie's neck back in the old days, but greeting me with exclamations of 'Dot!' was disconcerting since no one has called me that for 20 years. Jamie went off and brought out Mark Brzezicki, an earlier Cult drummer who, with Jamie, was lined up to do the 2 song 'surprise' encore, to see us. More kisses, meet and greets, the kids looking confused about what all the fuss was about, hairy tatooed men pressing their bands' albums into our hands as though there was some earthly thing we could do to promote them. Bright lights, anticipation, horrible noise from the appalling support band. I stuck tissues in my ears at this point.

We took our seats and Jamie scurried off to change. Now this was a much smaller venue than the ones he was playing when he was still with the band, only 5 and 1/2 thousand, so it had a nice intimate feel. Back in the 80's they were playing 70,000 seater stadiums, but this was nice. LOL! I was terribly nervous for Jamie. Would he wear the Guatemalan Goat Herder costume? Would he remember his trousers? Would he fall off the stage? I'd given him strict instructions NOT to jump off anything and hurt his back, he didn't want to end up back in hospital with a slipped disc again did he? he laughed. I told him I meant it and would write a note to Ian telling him that Jamie was not allowed to jump off any marshall stacks. And I was only half joking.

I had Billy's phone number in my handbag and thought of ringing him and warning him about the possible impending goat herder tragedy, but decided to pray about it instead and preserve Jamie's dignity.

The show was good. Not as good as they had been back in the 80's but then not many things are. Time has mellowed them. Billy's white Gretch Falcon was superb. He looked every inch the Rock hero standing in the spotlight. Ian pranced around, threw tambourines into the audience, spat and swore a lot. No change there then! LOL! the audience, mostly men in their 30's and 40's, were warmly appreciative. The main show was over and darkness fell. There was an air of anticipation around the auditorium. After a few minutes of applause, Billy and Ian came back on and asked if anyone wanted to see Jamie Stewart again. My heart sank. What if no one did? 'Jamie who?' But there was a a huge cheer and feet stomping and people calling out for him. I glanced at Grace who was smiling and Jack who didn't actually seem all that impressed, really, as though 5 1/2 thousand people screaming for his Dad was an every day occurrence. Billy, said as Jamie walked on stage, 'Here he is, doesn't he look good? He hasn't put on an ounce of weight and he still has all his hair - Jamie Stewart!' Funny.

Jamie and Mark came on stage and the 4 of them played Phoenix. I was really surprised at how energetically Jamie played, he had all his old moves, it all seemed to come naturally. Mostly, he looked as though he was having fun, which is how people always seem to remember him, grinning from ear to ear. Then they played the song everyone remembers 'She Sells Sanctuary' with its glorious geetar riffs and thumping bass. Brilliant drumming from Mark. As Billy told Jamie, 'These new drummers, they don't know how to just make stuff up!' It was all over so quickly. The four of them were up at the front, arms round each other, the crowd cheering, the photographers down in the pit snapping this unexpected, sweet moment and then they were gone.

Jamie phoned me afterwards as I was waiting for our friends outside. 'Oh, I'm sorry Jamie, I missed it, I had to go to the loo!' He laughed, he ran out to see us, pushing his way through people wanting to congratulate him, telling his that he was the best bass player ever etc etc. after a quick chat he went backstage for a nice cup of tea and a hobnob. Well, that's what we told the kids anyway. We went home and he arrived home a hour later, crept into bed and cuddled me.

'So do you regret leaving the band, Jamie? Do you wish you were still doing that every night for a living?'

'Are you kidding? Nope. Not one single one of them is still with the person they were with 25 years ago and their kids live all over the world and not with them. I wouldn't give that up for anything.'

He said the right thing.

Here's a link to one of the youtube snatches. He's the one in white. No Guatemalan Goat Herders were harmed in the making of this clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YRpHqpxNiM