Wow - we are just back from our 'two performances in a day' extravaganza in Liverpool's lovely Mathew Street.
It began as I left Brighton on Sunday at 4am (yes 4am!) to the sounds of the illegal rave up the road. Nice one! Driving along as the sun rose on London everything was nice and peaceful. I picked Charlie up, and with all our gear we just about fitted into my ickle blue car.
The CD player doesn't work in my car - not usually a problem when I'm on my own and singing a song, but I had company for the long trip up the M6. Charlie brought his 10 CDs (home-made 80s compilations) and I had my portable cd player and small speakers. We sang quietly, to save our voices, to 'Manic Monday', 'The Sun Always Shines on TV' and 'Centrefold'. I was in need of a vanilla latte, so we stopped off for one at a well known high street coffee chain at the service station. To my horror and Charlie's glee it was shut. So we got back in the car and drunk our ribena from home and marmite rice cakes (very nice, I recommend them).
Before we knew it, we were in Liverpool! The sun was warming up nicely, so we decided to park at the hotel, drop off the car and have a wander. We did so, and the town centre was already buzzing with Liverpool footie fans in their red shirts outside the Liverpool Football Shop - they had a big match yesterday!
After getting locked in the shopping centre which didn’t open until 10am (how did we get in there in the first place? It wasn't even open!) we got a breakfast of panninis and muffins (oops) which were nice, and then we popped along to Mathew Street.
It is fantastic to see The Cavern – it is a replica of the old one which was demolished a few years ago. There are bricks in the wall at The Cavern Bar over the road, with the names of brill bands etched into them. We went back to the hotel, I slapped on some slap and we took all our stuff back down to Mathew Street. It was so heavy! Clothes, props, lights, keyboard, keyboard stand and guitar! What with that and a suitcase full of leads it took us quite a while. Phew!
We met the brill David Bash, who helps run the International Pop Overthrow (US). Before we knew it we were on stage, in the lovely brick arches of the nearly original Cavern, singing and having fun with Radio Days, Hold Me, Pop Trash and more. Charlie took centre stage with a beautiful rendition of ‘Sebastan’, which was a welcome addition to our usual set list. We also did our only cover song to – Cilla’s ‘La la la lu’, with Charlie’s lovingly printed faces of Lou Read and Lee Mead – La la la LOU, La la la LEE – geddit? Our American friends didn’t know who Lee Mead was – oops.
After the fun and heat of The Cavern we met up with a wonderful new friend, and he was so kind, he filmed us, he helped carry our things out (we got a taxi this time) and he also bought us a Cavern mug each, a lovely souvenir of the day. (Thank you Colin!).
Now – this was all before 3 in the afternoon! We had a whole lot of hours left to have fun in Liverpool, so we had lunch in a blitz bombed church yard, and then a wander down to the beautiful Albert Docks. Our fun fab friend (from the City originally but a Londoner now!) took us on a magical mystery drive. Charlie had the best time, after necking a margarita cocktail! As I had a bambini non alcoholic cocktail I was not as, how shall I say this, ASLEEP as him!!!
It was now 7pm, so we had time for a quick shower, bag of wine gums and tea before the next gig at 10. We took another taxi, and were gobsmacked at The Cavern Bar, thankfully not as many stairs as the Cavern but oh what a crowd! All well oiled and packed in like sardines. The band on before us were going for it with their electric guitars and drums, while we got our keyboard out.
My T Shirt (chosen carefully for the occasion) said ‘All U Need is Love’, so a nice group of lads were serenading me with that particular Beatles tune as we got ready to go on. Then – there we were, at it again! Lots of people smiling (thank you!) and even a couple singing along (thank you!) which was magic. We were tired but happy, and stuck around to see our beautiful friend Jeremy and his band called ‘Jeremy’, before we got in a taxi, got mooned by a boy and got back to the Hotel.
Zzzzz.
And now we are back home. Liverpool is a great city – music everywhere! We would be happy to go back there in a second, and if we get to play the same venues again we will be made up!
Detox Cute aka Paisley and Charlie :)