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Mike Randle

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“My big fat greek diary”
April 10, 2003

Well, where do I start? Hmmm…see, I am in Agistri, which is an island an hour from Athens, Greece, and all I’ve been doing is eating calamari, greek salads, drinking wine and beer and working on song ideas and reading. and BOY was it nice to FINALLY sleep after that short but ROUGH tough of the UK and europe!

Now, imagine this; the day off after the Rotterdamn show, I wind up at some strange club with some weird chick at 3am and then we go to some weird gay club and drink till 5am when then, they try to rip me off and I get tossed out the club and wind up (after a Kabob) back at the hotel at 6am, just in time for the 6:30am wak-up call….we drive to Amsterdam (1 hour) then we fly to London Stanstead airport (45 min flight) and then we get driven to Kings Cross hotel (45 min drive) and then I get to sleep from 2pm till sound check (5pm) and then I go back and eat some terrible fish and chips and then a short nap and then back to the venue where I see Lizzy B, Caryne, John E, Phil Hobbs and like a host of others and the place is packed and even Hilary (who wrote the Greek diary) is there and the Yards play a great show.

Then a fan gets backstage later and rusty was nice and told him to wait for an autograph from the singer but then he stole maracas (what is it with you maracas theives?) and the singer was none too happy about it but that’s the way it goes…got a kabob later and slept good…early wake up (6am) then short (45 min) flight to Glasgow, which got us there about 1pm…off to hotel for a short nap and then to soundcheck around 5pm…finished at 6:30, met up with Scottish Keith and Paul for pub pints near the venue…after show, went out and partyed with them and raymond from Teenage Fanclub and LOVE fans Suzy, john, ed and a few others…then the pub closed at midnight…rusty, daddyo and chapple never made it out but soem of the swedes did and we went to a disco across the street and wound up partying till 4am…taxi’d back to hotel and drank there till 5 am…

Wake up call came around 8am and we had to leave for our flight to Dublin…a short hopper…ran into LOVE fans at the sirport, one of which who’d gotten carsick all over her clothes…whups…she survived thought…flight was truly wobbly but then we checked into the hotel about 3pm…went right next door and got 4 GUINESS on tap, …yep…ok…then went and napped till about 5pm…walked next door to venue and sound checked…sounds were weird but who cares…we’re all tired, right?…everyone slplits up and meet up again layter at the venue…(sorry for my typing…I am a bit buzzed…) play to an amazing irish audience from another planet…they were just unbelievable…also, got a big bottle from Dez….bottle of Bushmills….yep…

Hung out later with the gang after the show…drank danced listened to music…hit the hay around 5am…5:30am wake up call…ouch…..so we fly tolondon but can’t switch planes cause of a FRENCH strike at the airport and we have to spend the night at as hotel at heathrow…ok…next morning, Greek promoter swings 16 tickets to Athens on Italian airlines, Al Italia….and we are in Greece by 3pm…go to hotel for an hour and then go sound check….afterwards…go to AMAZING restauraunt and FRIGGIN PIG OUT, right? Ok, then we go back to the club and straight rock the f*ck out of Athens…after the show we all head back to the hotel. LOVE fan, Hilary, is there and joins us for drinks at the top of the hotel…drinks run dry about 3am and her, Kose and trumeter, Peter and myself decide to find kabobs and beers, to which a taxi delivers us to the promised land…yep….get back to hotel about 5am…sleep until 11am when chapple wakes me up (bastard)…walk around, eat, go to bar…this and that, right?….get to airport around 5pm for our 8pm flight…

Flight is delayed every 3 hours until it’s finally cancelled at 2am…they put us in a 5 start hotel (Sofitel) but Kose, Rusty and (violinist)_ Ketil and I have better ideas….drinking several pints at the hotel bar and THEN some BUSHMILLS in the room…and a bottle of wine…wake up call came around 5am but we were still drinking…I took that opprtunity to pretend to be a rockstar and actually semi-trashed the room (it felt good!)…finally got on our flight at 7am and got heathrow at 9am….said good bye to everyone else and got a taxi to kings cross for ringo’s wedding (chapple rusty daddyo and me)…BARELY MADE THE TRAIN…THEN THE F*CKER BROKE DOWN near Newark and we had to bus it for 45 min before training it again…made york by 2pm with 3 hours to spare for the weddding…got in my suit, got VERY drunk and even gave a speach on my best friends behalf…

Next afternoon, caught a train to kings cross…went walking around and drinking in leichester square, then got to heathrow and caught my 11pm flight to Athens. got in athens around 5am…caught the E96 express bus at 6am and got to the port, Piraeus, around 7am. caught the Agistri express at 7:30 and was in Agina an hour later. Then i had to take the WATER TAXI, which was flying out of the air every time it hit a wave….nearly making everyone HEAVE all over the place. Finally got to Agistri by 9:30am…got into my room and passed out.

Mike Randle

Love


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