We were supposed to pick up a rental car, that was what I’d planned and then out of a sudden there was no car to pick up. Who screwed up? Well, I am not meaning to say that I am among the greatest of tour managers so I guess I would have to take some responsibility for the fuck up. This time around most of the liability lies with me. Harald’s extent of liability goes as far as making sure there is enough booze in the hotel room for whenever we wanna get in liquor.

(meaning he doesn’t have a clue about what I am planning)

Nearest train station with trains to Leicester is St Pancras. There’s like a train every hour to get out of London at daytime but as few as none for a return after midnight. I knew we were in trouble already, as show time tonight was something like 10PM and last train was 10PM. My flight back home the next day was midday so I couldn’t afford to wait for the morning train from Leicester, and the bus had the same odd timetable, so we had to talk the promoter into putting us on a little bit earlier at The Musician.

(something, which he didn’t mind doing)

Leicester before that was straight from the train to the BBC for a radio interview with Chris Baxter talking about the fjords, the mountains surrounding my home village of Langevaag and whether I liked our winning song of 2009’s Eurovision Song Contest (dah). Also more interesting stuff like who of British celebrities I would compare myself to as a Norwegian equivalent in the religion of Celebrityism. That is just an impossible question to answer as I don’t spend my time thinking of such things. And the answer would probably be some hard-working British singer/songwriter who most of the radio listeners of the BBC’s afternoon broadcast driving home from work still haven’t heard of. Or am I just being wry?

(Fionn Regan maybe… he makes nice music)

I played Out Of Skills on my acoustic guitar and everyone was happy. We had a nice chat after all. I like Chris. He invites me in whenever I’m in Leicester it seems.

(…)

We left the BBC for sound check at The Musician just to find out we had a couple of hours to knock away… We strolled around the windswept streets of Leicester on a lookout for a restaurant with decent food and ended up in one of those Witherspoon Grills and ordered way too much to eat. A bowl of Chicken Wings would have done it for me but I guess I just had to try the Chicken Breast in BBQ sauce, salad, fries and a beer. Just looking at the menu should scare you away from these places. Nobody can have such tremendous amounts of dishes and get away with it. You just know that whatever you order it’s gonna be just okay, nothing more, nothing less. Except from the spicy wings that were just delicious!

(how to satisfy is an x-factor)

The show went down well. I recorded the whole thing. And I rather leave you an mp3 to download then to describe the event. I find it hard to comment on my own shows… (that’s excactly what I wrote yesterday as well, isn’t it?)

Peace = Love,
-robert

Journal of the last day of the trip to be posted tomorrow together with a shit load of mp3’s!

Download by right-clicking the link:
Beirut