Ireland and other subjects

I love Imodium! 


Not that it is at the top of my gastronomic delights list but it has (excuse the pun) saved my ass on a number of occasions now.
Some of this tour is done by bus only, that means there are times when we leave a show, drive overnight for ten hours to the next city or country and have a few hours in a hotel room at the other end before a show that eve.


Before your imagination runs wild, there is a toilet on the bus! But there are restrictions 
(if you know what I mean) (: And that is as far as I will go in explaining why I love Imodium the rest you can work out yourselves.


It took months to arrange and seemingly endless outlay but on June 6th my children Holly and Mathew arrived from London to Belfast in Northern Ireland.
I had not seen them for 18 months, although the internet keeps us in touch pretty well of course.
Holly had warned me that she had pink and blonde dreads which came in handy for spotting her at Belfast airport. Not that it would have been difficult really, the airport is just a little larger than our apartment in Nashville. (I'm kidding!)


We had dinner together in the hotel, where I found myself staring at both of them trying to remember every moment, watching them laugh and chat with their step dad and wishing this visit would last longer than just the two days.
The next day they came to soundcheck with us in the bus, it was pretty chaotic at the venue, three bands and their gear: Thin Lizzy, us and Def Leppard. They got to watch all the activity although the music was not quite up their street as they are both into Techno.... Trance? Dub Step? Drum N Bass? I'm not sure which but feel quite pleased with myself that I named even some of it!


The Belfast crowd were fantastic, the boss and the band were on fire and Holly and Mathew got to throw balloons out to the audience during Schools Out which I stupidly managed to not photograph.
Backstage there was a lot of band interaction, there were members of our band that had hero's in the other bands and visa versa. Old friends both musicians and crew meeting up on the road and sharing stories, great stuff!
I enjoyed the multi bill show but missed the songs we had to cut due to time restrictions.


The band, the crew and the boss made my kids feel welcome including taking pics with them, more ways for me to remember their visit but also a reminder of how much they miss their own families when on the road.


We left Holz and Mat behind to catch their flight back the next morning, as we drove off in our huge glossy green double decker I took a bit of quiet time to myself upstairs to watch the miles pass by through the front window and to start forming a plan for our next reunion.

Dublin was next, once again it was the three band lineup and the crowd were awesome but the exceptional thing about this show for me was that the boss had asked me to sing back up vocals on 'Poison' which I did with great glee despite not being able to rehearse with the guys ahead of time. 


My main purpose on this tour is to help my gorgeous man get around due to his poor eyesight but I also have a job as a production assistant which involves co ordinating the VIP meet and greets and being a camera director when there are jumbo screens, I love doing all that but singing will always be my favorite occupation.

So, goodbye Ireland, hello Download.........