STEViE's playin' away .... :o

Yeah, you're right about the lake shot. That was taken around 5am in the morning, layin' down in the grass beside the lake. In the far distance is a power station or refinery of sorts, it all shows up a lot better in a higher res picture.

The preceedin' day we had headlined at the 1st Polish Country Music Awards late afternoon an' then gone back to where we were stayin' at a hotel/chalet complex by the lake in the picture. Here's a couple of excerpts from my tour diary that cover the two days we had in Dabrowa Gornicza for the awards ....

Friday - Day 4 On The Move. Hi Ho, Hi Ho, etc...

Today we leave Gliwice to go to Dabrowa Gornicza for the 1st Polish CMA awards show that is being held tomorrow, but first we have an interview on a local radio station where the interviewer pops the question “Country Music, England. Why ?”. Good question. On being asked what we listen to while travelling, Andy explains that we each have a variety of tapes with us, and we are all trying to get our tapes on the machine during the journey. “What wouldn’t be good for driving to ?” “Motorhead” I answer.... you bang your head enough already as you travel the motorway in Poland. We say thanks and bye to the DJ’s who we last met at Mragowo two years ago, grab a photo opportunity outside the station, then get on our way to our next stop, which is to be at the TV station TVP in Katowice. The show we are appearing on seems to be a 6pm equivalent of Richard and Judy. We’re miming to backing tracks of Misery and Sweet To The Bitter End. It goes out live so when we’ve finished we creep out of the studio and I silently pray that no one kicks Mikes cymbal case over. After we load the van, we get on our way again to Dabrowa Gornicza to see the venue for tomorrow’s gig. The cultural palace is wonderful, even if it has been allowed over the years to lose some of it’s looks. The stage is being set, and all looks good for the awards show. We are staying on the shores of a lake just out side of town in a Swedish style chalet. The bars open, we’re told they do food, so we grab a beer (David prefers a cherry flavoured vodka and I have to agree it’s very more-ish), grab some eats, then return to our chalet for a run through of our surprise for the crowd tomorrow. It’s a Polish song called Sto-Lat which translates into 100 Years. After a few run-throughs we finish up and get ourselves off to bed. It’s been another long day.

Saturday - Day 5 No, I haven't been fighting. The Elephant Man, am I related ? Ha Ha Ha...... thud.

Up early and breakfast is fun with David, Andy, and Clive ordering an omelette. Choosing from the menu they guess at the filling. When it arrives it looks fantastic but omelette with fruit and smothered in cream is not for me first thing of a morning. My eye is rather sore and on returning to the chalet I check in the mirror.
Oh no! What is that ? I have a massive swelling on my forehead that is rapidly closing my eye. The bugs bite big around here. When we arrive at the stage area it is swamped with people so no sound check just yet then. It’s just as well really as we have a bit if a problem with the van. The rear doors appear to be locked and the key does not want to work. We struggle with the doors and time moves on. Kris is with us, he’s appearing on the show today, it will be his first time in front of an audience as a solo performer, but right now he’s most keen to get us on stage to sound check. Sorry Kris, bit of a problem here, yes I understand that we need to hurry but it’s a bit difficult what with the doors to the van being jammed and all our equipment being inside. We end up with the stage engineer and his mate taking the doors off the van. Yes, it is a bit drastic, but needs must....
Sound check over, we lunch and chat with Tomasz Szwed, Poland’s top country artist. His English is great but then he did spend some time here a few years ago. David goes off to be interviewed by TVP who are covering the event while the rest of us wander around checking out the various stands. It’s during this that I am collared by the radiant Patricia who interviewed David earlier, she’d like me to give a big “YEEHAW” to camera for the TV show. It’ll probably end up on the Polish version of Beadles About.
Later in the day David and Mike are in the audience. They are presenting two awards, one of which is going to a band we know called PARTY TOUR. They have recorded the cover version of the year - Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama - so we won’t be doing that in our set tonight. Clive, Andy, and myself are backstage, running through some numbers. This is only Clive’s third gig with us and that is including the impromptu one the other night for the students. Soon the dressing room is a mass of bodies all trying to change at once. David puts on his new spangly shirt, whoa !!, very Las Vegas. Me, I put on some sunglasses, rather to hide the swelling around my eye than to avoid being blinded by David’s shirt. While in make-up I receive some odd looks, I explain as best I can that I haven’t been fighting while Mike makes buzzing noises to show that it was a mozzie. Make-up woman is not sure. Once on stage the intro to Wings plays and we stand ready for the lights to go up. The audience are clapping along already, and we know it’s going to be a good one. David and myself have been learning some Polish and he gets his chance to use it during the set. It goes down well, as does Cowboys and Cowgirls, Sweet To The Bitter End, and just about anything else the audience can join in on. All too soon we’re playing Suspicious Minds and our set is almost over. They want more, and the palace erupts as we give them our surprise Sto-Lat. We milk it, and they love it. We finish off with Goodbye Adios Amigos, sign autographs and pack up quickly so as to get to the after show party being held where we are staying. It turns out that we spread our drinking and chatting over some hours and we leave the bar as it is getting light. Returning to the chalet I pick up my camera. There’s a mist over the lake and with the power station in the distance it looks fantastic. After a couple of hours watching the mist gradually lift and getting what I hope to be good photo’s, I return to the chalet and to my bed which has been calling for some time, but ignored due to the beauty of the sunrise.