DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME;

"Countdown Shows 97-100"

SHOW #97-Jan 24, 2003-Liverpool, England-Liverpool Univ. Academy

Now, this venue was classic Liverpool; all the toilets were broken in the
dressing rooms and the plummers don't work past 5pm on the weekends. Our crew
wasn't allowed to load-in before 5pm because of University policy so the
problem wasn't discovered until it was too late. You would THINK someone at
the place had sense enough to fix the toilets before a concert but I suppose it
was asking a bit too much. At least the crowd of Scousers were there to have a
good time and only 4 fights broke out, including one where a guy got punched
for singing the wrong lyrics. Another great moment was when a guy with a
Newcastle shirt on shouted for " The Anthem" and someone said to "Shut the
Jordy up, please." I vaguely remember a lunatic walking around with a huge
stick pinted up at the sky. Thank god we had our own sound people casue the
accoustics in that venue are attrocious. Also, Joff (our t-shirt guy) kick my
ass at soccor during a break in soundcheck. The empty venue proved to be a
nice pitch field but he was too quick and skilled for my (obvious) American
style. Mick and John head and the rest of the Shackateers tried to make their
way to do a song with us in the encore but were not allowed thru by security.
After the show, I had to convince the security team that the guys were OK and
to let them backstage...where we kept all our booze. Yep. That booze didn't
havea chance...

SHOW #98-Jan 25, 2003-Manchester, England-Manchester Univ. Academy

This was the same place where we played last summer and 2,000 people were
singing, "Arthur Lee, Arthur Lee, Arthur Lee" to a football theme song. And
this crowd was even better, especially since no one threw beer and water on us
like last time. This was one of the funnest shows and i remember the string
section having a blast. This was also Karl's last show, as he had to fly to
Stockholm the next morning (he would be replaced by a returning Stefan.) Of
course, the after party from this show is a matter of public record! Karl got
smashed at BIG HANDS across from the venue and, horn in hand, played the
trumpet solo to ALONE AGAIN OR when it played over the sound system at the
club. Scottish Keith/ Paul, Manchester Natasha and a host of other LOVE fans
were jammed packed into the small, smokey speak easy. We left BIG HANDS around
4am and Ketil and I went and got a Kebab along with some of the other Swedes.
By the way, he got the last Burger, this with 30 people in line behind him, in
the rain. And he didn't even care.

SHOW #99-Jan 27, 2003-Leicester, England-De Montford Hall

This venue was quite quaint and I remember it certainly rained that night,
quite hard. We played a different kind of set in that, Kose suggested we begin
the show with FOREVER CHANGES. That was the first and ONLY time we did that!
Brummy Lisa filmed the show for the Singer and after the show, I met a guy
who'd seen LOVE in the same town in 1970. Our hotel was kind of far from the
venue and there wasn't a bar within walking distance so we all had to sort of
"stay in" with whatever wine we had from the backstage area. One day, it would
be nice to really see Leicester but on this trip all I say was the rain and the
hotel. However, I did see a great episode of Rikki lake, so all wasn't lost in
Leicester.

SHOW #100-Jan 28, 2003-Newcastle, England-Opera House

We had a good 5 hour drive to Newcastle and checked into our hotel. The Opera
House here is one of my favorites and it was an honor to be here again, playing
to such great people. Again, i felt we played a really good show and later we
went to the bar next door and had some drinks with Scottish Keith and I think
we also saw Martyn and possibly Lizzy B. Since I was doing laundry way at the
top of the venue (where there were washers and stuff), the guys in the band and
ensemble went to a local dance club without me. I was nearly locked in the
venue as security had no clue that anyone was still in the club! I took my
finished laundry, walked across the street, purchsed an excellent Kebab and
taxi'd back to my hotel. The taxi driver was a certified lunatic, driving as
fast as possible while talking on his mobile and eating a Chip Butte. Later,
at the hotel, the guys all filed in and Kose, Joff, Anna, Caroline and I
started shooting craps for pennies, which was fun. The hotel bar was still
open so we ordered a bunch of beers and continued till the wee hours. Tomorrow
we had to get up early and drive to Edinburgh. I wasn't worried about that
though; my plan was to use the drive to get some sleep.

Mike Randle
mike@lovewitharthurlee.com

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