So I looked over my itinerary and it seems we are playing the ‘Sala Albeniz’ club tonight at 10pm, tomorrow we drive to Bergara to play ‘Sala Jam’, then it’s on to Madrid for 3 days. Both Dave’s wives will be in Madrid, as we have two days off before returning to London, for the Shepherds Bush show and ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ at Camber Sands. And then we are off to Los Angeles. And I could see ‘ol Julian. It’s been 2 months since I saw the kid and I miss him something awful. Went to sound check at 6pm and afterwards gave Julian a call (he was at my Aunt Linda and Uncle Sterling’s house) and he was excited about going to a basketball game with me in April. My Uncle Sterling makes the best Bar-B-Q (He learned from my Granpa) so I told Julian to pay attention; it’s a family tradition. Now, as far as this show goes, we go onstage at 10.15 and then get served dinner at midnight! It’s now 7.53 and in 7 minutes I am heading down to the hotel cafe for soup. Just can’t get soup off my mind. The view at sunset is gorgeous, despite the pending dark clouds. The TV in this hotel is crap, I might add, no CNN or BBC news here in Gijon!!! And so I just sat there thinking about odd things, like how I planned to buy a book about the River Thames. Just as I was going to turn the TV off, Ali G comes on! Bad timing! It was funny and I watched it for about 10 inutes (he was shopping a home movie he had made in Hollywood…Hilarious!) and then decided to commit myself to soup and a mixed salad, not to mention an ice cold Cervesa. Showtime was 2 hours away. While I was finishing my soup, the other guys returned from Tapas, quite satisfied. I paid the bill (9 euros) and went upstairs and watched some more ‘Ali G’ with Chapple. I showered and then we walked down to the club about 9.40pm. We hit the stage at 10.30pm and play one of my favourite shows, even though I had to wee really bad the whole time. After the show, I hung out with a guy named Tinto and his two friends, Angolene and Palona (actually Angolene isn’t her real name but I cannot remember her real name) We went to about five bars and every bar had Love and Baby Lemondade fans (our first record was released in Spain in 1994) Everyone bought me beers despite my protest. This went on till about 4am when I refused all offers. Then I tried to taxi to my hotel but Angolene isisted I visit one more bar with them. This happened four more times and by then I was visibly angry and yawning. I was also hungry, so she and I (along with anohter friend of hers, Sylvia) went to a restaurant at ate..AT 4.30AM!!! So we went to one more bar and then I said, ‘That’s it, I have to sleep.’ Sylvia (who hardly said a word all night) was nice enough to show me how to get back to my hotel, which was only a 10 minute walk but one that would have had me lost, no doubt. With the time change, it was 6.20am when I crawled into bed and passed out.

Mike Randle