We managed to all make it through airport security without having anything confiscated this time although I was subjected to a personal pat down which in another circumstance I might have paid money for. Either the guy was convinced I had something illegal concealed in my trousers or he was practising reiki on my pelvis, I don’t know?
This was to be another fly in, do the gig and fly out mission again. This can make life very confusing. One minute we’re at home doing the washing up and performing the other mundane tasks of everyday life, the next, we’re walking out to 60,000 people in Vienna at a Rolling Stones show. I feel like a rock’n’roll Hannah Montana.
Upon arriving at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, we went to find our dressing room. With such a vast network of passages, corridors and tunnels, this proved to be harder than we thought and a Spinal Tap “Hello Cleveland” type scenario unfolded. We were sent this way and that until we found ourselves in a corridor lined with such signs as “Warm-up Room” and “Band”. There was the smell of incense in the air and people with walkie-talkies wearing black we’re busying themselves with bowls of fruit. Hold on, this definitely wasn’t where we were supposed to be…we had stumbled into the Stones’ inner sanctum. It was like taking a wrong turn whilst on a sightseeing tour of Buckingham Palace and finding yourself in the Queens bedroom.
We were subsequently pointed in the right direction where we found a room containing a bag of mixed nuts and a box of Choco Leibniz. Yup, this was us! Strangely, the sign on the door read “Anti Doping”.
There have been a few tweets and posts recently stating that we are supporting the Rolling Stones but haven’t met any of them yet. Well this is no longer true as we had a pleasant chat with the great Charlie Watts as he left the stage after their soundcheck. He and Damon found some common ground in drums and cricket and no doubt if they had spent a little more time together Damon would have given him his recipie for scones.
Now that we’ve done a couple of shows with the Stones, our faces have become a little more familiar to the crew and we were made to feel truly welcome when it was time for our soundcheck. They are an incredibly warm and professional bunch and should they ever read any of my literary efforts here, I’d like to express our deep gratitude to them. Thanks Guys.
So, onto the show itself. As we got together for our traditional group hug before walking onstage, we were almost at a loss for words. What can you say really other than “Have a good one boys!”? On the other side of the backdrop were 60,000 people who for the next 30 minutes were going to be watching The Temperance Movement. Yes, we’re only borrowing them from The Rolling Stones for half an hour before we have to give them back again but hopefully some of them might come back for more at a later date. That’s the idea at least. The show was fucking amazing. We came off buzzing from the adrenaline. This experience is bonding us even tighter as a band. We’ll never forget it. Oh, and thanks to the guy near the front with the Temperance Movement T-shirt. We saw you!
Well, I’ll sign off for now as I have a feeling the next and final Rolling Stones special tour diary entries is going to be a big one…stay tuned for Dusseldorf!
– Nick
