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THURSDAY, JULY
5TH:
My normal 3 hours sleep and up and ready to fly to Latvia. Never did get the
wireless to work properly in my room.
Bus and equipment van were on time and we arrived at the airport as planned. I
asked the ticket agent if he could check us in as a “group” and he said he
would. I handed him all the tickets in their folders and he said, “On no. You
will have to pull the tickets for me. I’m not going to do that”. I explained
to him that we were flying from Belfast to London, London to Copenhagen, and
Copenhagen to Latvia and I was not comfortable pulling all those coupons on
everyone. He argued with me for a while and I was ready to insist on calling a
supervisor when he finally came around.
We were not charged any excess but our luggage tags weren’t matching up. He had
checked 8 pieces of equipment on David Bellamy’s ticket. It was all our “gear”
and it had to be hand delivered to the “oversize” counter. Once we arrived
there, they insisted that they must see David and his ticket before they would
accept it. I had already sent David through passport control to the gate, so I
had to go through security, find him, and get us both back out of security to
the check-in counter. Fortunately, it was a very small airport!
Flight to London was on time and we had a 2 ½ hour layover before flying to
Copenhagen. We had to sit in the food court area because our gate number was
not posted. When it was still not posted about 40 minutes before we were
scheduled to depart, I knew something was wrong. We were told that there was a
problem with our aircraft and we would be departing approximately 2 hours late.
I knew that we only had a 40 minute connection in Copenhagen if we had left on
time.
We finally departed and as I assumed, we missed our connection flight. Now,
here’s where the difference in airlines in the U.S. and airlines in Europe
differ drastically. In the U.S., we would have stood in line for a couple of
hours to rebook our flights. Then the airlines would have said, sorry about
that – you can sleep on the floor until your flight leaves tomorrow. Then if
they had any left, they MIGHT give us a pillow. I went to the transfer desk
to rebook our flights to Riga, Latvia and found that we had already been
rebooked on the first flight out tomorrow morning. In less than an hour, they
issued new boarding passes, gave us a great toiletry bag (it even has a t-shirt
in it!), had us booked in single rooms at a nice hotel, and gave us a coupon for
dinner and breakfast, a coupon for the taxi to the hotel, and a voucher for a
free 3 minute telephone call! Sure made life easier and our group much happier.
So, we’re spending the night in Copenhagen – where it is also raining – and will
fly to Latvia early tomorrow morning.
Jude
FRIDAY, JULY 6TH:
I
forgot to mention that we did not get to pick up ANY of our luggage. So we have
not clothes – NOTHING! We assumed that when we went through London today, they
would again insist that we only have one carry on bag. So, we were ready for
them. We packed everything in our suitcases that we would normally keep with us
for an emergency. Smart move. They didn’t limit us to one bag and now we are
stuck in Copenhagen without our luggage.
We grabbed a few hours of sleep and then went back to the airport for an 8:40 am
flight to Riga, Latvia. Once the gate agent arrived at the gate, Wally and I
took him the claim checks so he could make sure our equipment and luggage was on
the plane. It wasn’t. He made us wait while they climbed into the cargo hold
to try and find it. No luck. We finally had to get on the flight – Baltic
Air. Not a great plane. Some man was sitting in my seat and he had to move.
There was the perfect imprint of a butt in my seat that wouldn’t go away. And,
it wasn’t shaped to fit me. Very uncomfortable flight.
We landed and I was hoping for the best with the luggage/equipment. When we
arrived at baggage claim, we did receive some of our personal luggage but all
our equipment and 4 personal bags were missing. We filed the necessary
paperwork and the agent said that the bags were not even showing up in their
system. They had no idea where they were. We got all their information and
left for the hotel hoping they would show up on the 3:30 or 5:30 pm flights.
After we exited Customs, the drummer realized that he had forgotten his suitcase
– which had come in. They wouldn’t let him go back in so I had to get the
promoter to run interference with the officials. We got it.
Latvia still looks very “Russian”. Our promoter had a great tour planned for us
but because we arrived a day late, there wasn’t time. So, we get to see
nothing of the real Latvia.
L
The hotel is really nice and I have a DSL line in my room. We had lunch in the
restaurant and I had a Mexican omelet which was actually like a veggie omelet.
Probably the best omelet I’ve ever eaten.
I spent the afternoon trying to help figure out the equipment. I had my office
checking from their side and I called the promoter in Germany to tell him to be
on alert that he might have to provide it for us there tomorrow. I actually
spoke with the production manager for Germany who is a dear friend of mine.
He’s done dozens of tours for the troops with me. I told him what had happened
and I know he was not surprised because he is on my Road Report list and knows
that these things happen to me ALL the time. When I said good-bye, before the
phone clicked off, I heard him howling with laughter as he hung up. Busted,
John!
Nothing came in on the 3:30 pm flight and we made arrangements to use the
instruments of one of the bands from Canada that will be performing tonight.
Wally called me and said that he had left his harmonica in his case in his room
and needed it. I told him I would get it and send to him. He said he was in
room 17 so I went to the front desk and got another key. The case was sitting
right inside the front door, just like he said. But it didn’t “look” like
Wally’s case. I figured I was just tired and tried to unzip the outside
compartment where he said it was. But there was a flap over the zipper and it
looked like it was locked. I finally got it open, but didn’t find the
harmonica. So, I unzipped the back compartment and saw all these cds from a
Norwegian artist. I then realized that the things in the room did not look like
Wally’s and I was in some Norwegian guy’s room. I panicked because I didn’t
know if the guy might be in the bathroom or if he was not in the room at all. I
ran out of the room without closing the case back and locked the door behind
me. Then I realized that I had left my room key laying on his table. Had to
sneak back in and retrieve it. I wonder what the guy thought when he came in
and found that someone had been rummaging through his case. I saw him at the
festival but stayed far away.
Thought I might sneak in an hour’s sleep this afternoon but that didn’t happen.
My room is big and nice but hot! The only window is in the ceiling and there
was this pole leaning against the wall. Only took me about 30 minutes to figure
out how to open it. Then, I couldn’t leave it open because it was raining too
hard. Susan – who did get to take a nap –said the mattress is harder than the
floor.
The good news is that after we got everything worked out to borrow equipment,
everything came in on the 5:30 pm flight.
We drove out to the festival and it was packed…I’d estimate 10,000 or more. I
know the promoters must be happy. They have never had an artist from the U.S.
perform here. It started pouring down rain right before the Bellamys were due
to go on stage but stopped before they actually took the stage. Some
interesting “attire” in the audience including a head band with two red lights
on the top that resemble devils horns plus cap with long fur tails on them. A
group of line dancers went on earlier in the day and they sang “Shake a Tail
Feather” and wore feathers on their butts.
J
Audience went wild for the Bellamys and Susan sold a lot of merchandise. I
tried to find us something to eat during their show since we missed dinner. All
I could find at the booths were these things that looked like ice cream cones
but weren’t. I bought one but it was horrible --- made totally out of sugar
except for the cone part. Had to throw it away. Then I went back to the
trailer in the backstage area and saw a row of tents nearby with smoke coming
out. Found grilled pork kebabs, sausages, kraut, veggies, potatoes, etc. Got
some for the Bellamys and their wives.
We did a radio interview with a man from Lithuania tonight. The largest country
music festival in Eastern Europe is held there the 3rd weekend of
every August. The have about 20,000 people per day and the interesting news is
that they are “YOUNG” people – 18-30 years of age. They want the Bellamys to
perform there in 2008. Sure hope that works out.
Started raining hard again just as we were leaving. I am not going to bed
tonight. It’s 2:15 am and I have to get dressed at 3:00 am, so why bother? We
fly from Latvia to Copenhagen and then Copenhagen to Berlin and then have a 2
hour drive to the city where we are performing – Walddorf, Germany. We are NOT
going to lose any luggage or equipment this time!
Jude
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