Well, when I finally woke up (10 am) the sun was shining and it looked like a perfect day and everything. Chapple and I went for coffee and breakfast. I saw 2 of the Le Tigre gals who looked visibly upset. Apparently, they only had Saturday coffee passes (the English are such rule followers!) and the Staff refused to allow them coffee, even threatening to call security!!! So I offered to get them coffee and they thanked me and just as I was going in, security relented and all was forgiven; coffee for all! so after we had breakfast, I bumped into Thurston from Sonic Youth and he was telling me how he saw us play with LOVE in ’93 at the Coconut Teazer (which is no longer around…THANK GOD) and he was happy to have us on. He also had really cool bootleg videos of LOVE…and we saw some and i know collectors would be very into some of this stuff… even if the performances are beyond crap. There’s one with John Sterling on Guitar, Melvin on Guitar, Rozelle on Bass and Gary Stern on drums. The absolute destruction they deliver to SIGNED DC is of diabolical levels…just imagine a baby squirl in a food processor… so then Glenn arrived and then later, Rusty and Daddyo. We hung with some of the MARSHMELLO folks (who also double as Har mar Superstar)…speaking of which, Har Mar is nuts, if you didn’t know! He was riding a bike in the freezing cold, pretending he was in Venice beach er something…SOOOOO we caught the last part of CAT POWER (or i should say Chapple did) and i was chilling backstage with them and i looked bummed i guess cause CAT (is that her name?) came over and put a hand on my shoulder and said it was gonna be alright…she didn’t even know me! So then it was time for us to go on but the dang amp blew up (AGAIN!!!!) so we wound up borrowing one from the Power, i think. and then we were 20 minutes late (which cut into The Tindersticks set…more on that) and so we went on and just friggin rocked…saw Caryne right there up front and i believe there were 3 or 4 thousand people at our show. We played a great set (i thought) and then, as we walked off we got SUPER DIRTY looks from the Tinderboys and who could blame them…after some jokes were made on the mic at their expense…dang… so after that we chilled with Cat Power and the Cat Power girls told us we had to go with them to see Har Mar Superstar and Dizzee Rascal and that we had no choice. I don’t like argueing with women (i never win) so i prepared to go downstairs to the other venue. caryne UNWISELY stayed to watch the Tindersticks (her 2nd fave band…just ask her!) so she completely missed out on how DIZZEE RASCALS’ Cd skipped!!! (doesn’t ANYONE play live anymore???) and i must say this cause, ol Dizzee won an NME award and all these peopel were going bonkers over him (especially Cat Power)…so here it is; i kno good hip hop and i know bad hip hop. Dizzee’s brand is BEYOND weak. His music reminds me of a bad cup of 7/11 coffee. He was the musical equivelent of a BIG MAC; all style, no substance. and folks were MAD for him! Is THAT bad in England, where you have to rally behind your weak artist just cause their English? do it for the queen, yeah? Ok, maybe i’m takin the piss a bit too much but it was REFRESHING to see a YANK, Har Mar Superstar – a fat, jewish, 40 yearold, hairy chest, small dick wanker completely rock England like few can say they have. I was laughing my ass off and one of the Cat Power gals, who was downing whiskey and beer like the world was about to end, was taking photos of everything and we all laughed and had just the best time. So har Mar saved the day. where can i buy his CD and DVD? AND SO, AT 2AM, we split and knew we had a 5:45 wake up call for our ride to Heathrow. But we were better for it. First, we only had to listen to 2 Dizzee Rascal songs (and, i don’t know about the ‘Rascal’ but i am certain about the ‘Dizzee’) and the extra humor was his posse…4 guys who looked like they would get beat up their first 5 minutes in L.A. ……and then we got treated to the disco sounds (and dance moves) of Har Mar and then all this beer and good conversation and everyone was talking about home (the USA cause there was Yanks all over) and everyone thought their life was flaling apart and we all agreed to stay in touch (we didn’t/havnt!) and we all hugged and said our goodbyes and after dissing England for it’s crap food, we reflected and professed our love (some of the peopel were living in the UK) for Britian, for the people, for the awful weather, for the kebabs…for everything. For, England was truly the motherland of America and, no matter how much we fight it, it feels like home everytime we visit. And with those thoughts i drifted off with a smile on my stupid face.

Mike Randle