Ireland

The adrenaline from the gig last night wore off quickly. We had a couple of hours sleep and then landed in Dublin at noon or thereabouts. We got to the hotel and found it was an old family hotel with no elevator and mold on the walls. Mike yelled at Glynn about the hotel, and Glynn had to be restrained from hitting him. Mike went off and found a hotel around the corner which was better.

Tim the backline guy and I went for a walk and heard a sound check happening at the Dublin castle. It was some woman’s band opening for Iggy Pop. I went back to the hotel (the old one) and lay on the bed for some time by myself and listened to Iggy Pop sail in over the walls and in through the window.

The next day I met up with Ruby and Jackie who had come in overnight. Gerry Leonard’s two sisters and their children met up with us on Monday and we all went out to eat. Gerry was my guitarist for a while but now is David Bowie’s musical director and guitarist. He is a lovely elfin Irishman.

Belfast was a nice show. We got over the crankiness of the weekend and settled into playing. I hadn’t been to Belfast in a while -- the last time I was there Mitchell and I were still together and Ruby was just a baby.

The venue was sort of formal -- Englebert Humperdink had just played there and pictures of Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey smiled down on us in the hallways. I wore a pin at the top of my blouse for a bit of sparkle and of course it hit the guitar with a huge smack so I took it off and moved it.

I made the audience laugh by telling them about some rude girls who were bothering the crew the first time we played there. They were about nine years old, lovely-faced and blond, shouting “Pull down your shorts, let’s see if you’ve got a big dickie!” at Fred, our sound guy at the time. They also caught the men’s frisbee and wouldn’t give it back. The crew were completely intimidated.

Dublin was good - it always is - on a University campus - another sit-down venue. Which is unusual for Dublin. It was recorded for radio. A good lively audience.

One woman shouted after Blood Makes Noise, “We can’t hear the vocal” and so forth which got me annoyed. So I told the story of how my old romance from Liverpool had sent me flowers last year.

I learned that he had NOT “heard himself in song blowing by one day” because he had never heard the song Gypsy, as he never bought the Solitude Standing album. He HAD bought the “99.9” album instead, which of course would be in character for him not to buy the popular album, but the weird one, where there is so much distortion you can’t hear the vocal! Everybody cheered.

To continue the story, though, his girlfriend though said to him, “you should really listen to something that sounds more like her” and forced him to listen to Solitude Standing one day about 4 years ago. Finally, he heard the song and revealed that it was for him. She didn’t believe him until he showed her the card that I had given him back in the 70’s.

Cork was lovely -- we played in a theater. During the intimate section where it is just me and Mike, some lady shouted out “Suzanne, you’ve such a lovely voice on your own, what do you need a bass player for?” So I sent him away and then brought him back. It was good fun. On to Rome.

[Next: Rome, Italy - June 11, 2004 ]