When I awoke (about 9am), Jo was out walking Taz so I showered and then, upon her return, we had tea. ‘The New Guy’ called and we chatted for a spell. At 11am, we went over to Ringo’s for breakfast. Scottish Stevie had given me a bottle of ‘Brewers Droop’ ale last night but I’d left it at Ringo’s, so I placed the bottle near my jacket. The cover on the bottle had a disappointed woman holding flowers and a man with gloves moving a keg! On the back is a caution: ‘The copious consumption of this strong ale may induce a serious wilting effect on your appendages. The brewery relinquishes all responsibility for any consequences (arising or not) from overindulgence.’

After breakfast, we got lifts from Jo and Steve to the train station and caught the 1:15 train to Manchester Piccadilly. Ride was under 90 minutes and from the station it was a five-minute dash (in pouring hard rain) to our hotel. Checked in and caught Eastenders, an encore of Friday’s show, no doubt. Apparently, Paul had went to the police and turned in his old girl, for pushing her husband off the cliff but there wasn’t enough evidence so the fuzz released her; now she’s on the warpath. She went to Paul’s and he grabbed her hair and threw her out. Also, a ‘slapper’ tried to pick up on Dennis at the Vic.

Drank the ‘Brewer’s Droop’ and showered again. Met everyone downstairs and then we were off to sound check. The sound check was very echo-like (the venue holds 2000 people) with the place empty. The Yards walked in as we finished. Rusty and I went over to the ‘Krobar’, a Danish bar/restaurant, across from Manc. Uni. I had fish and Rusty had pasta and meatballs. We called the other guys but only Kose, Bent and Troels (and Glenn, for that matter) came to eat. Food and drinks were great (things between the Singer and Bent had deteriorated pretty badly and Bent, at this point, was saying less and less.)

The Yards played a great show and while I was in the audience (in the back) watching them three kids (ages 6 – 8) came up to shake my hand! And then we were on at 9pm and rocked till 10.30. After the show, Bent introduced me to Will Sergeant from Echo and the Bunnymen and Will and I chatted about music and stuff. I am a fan of his guitar playing so this was really special for me. He said he liked the way I played, so, cool.

After that, I headed next door to ‘Big Hands’ and sat at a table. There were three nice/cute Scottish gals. They bought be a beer and I got them a round. The other guys showed up and turns out (t-shirt guy) Frazer (who is Scottish) is from the same town as them. Then Frazer buys me a shot of something unusual and quite unholy! We all drink a bit more and then it was last orders. So we boys (including Troels) taxi’d back to our hotel and then everyone congregated in the hotel bar. I said ‘Goodnight’ and had a really wonderful bubble bath and worked on my Scottish accent before retiring for the evening.

Mike Randle