Hoyos del Espino, Spain...31 July, 2010
Sorry for the late posting of this last note from the road. I'm staring out at the Gulf of Mexico as I peck this out, three days after the fact.
The last day of the tour was spent quietly reshuffling my suitcase which has grown full and heavy over the last two and a half months, incorporating my stage clothes from the wardrobe trunk was a challenge.
We left Madrid for a two hour drive north and west to Gredos the site of our final outdoor show. As we climbed to higher elevations the landscape started to resemble the American southwest. Stately mountains and the vegetation becoming green and finally stands of pine trees as we approached Gredos.
We arrived to find Angus and Chris our catering stars in sombrerros and fake Pancho Villa style mustaches that continually fell half off.
Tonight Pieta Brown and Bo Ramsey re-joined us to play a wonderful opening set. We enjoyed them so much through the first leg of the tour in the States and have missed them. It was appropriate they play this last show with us and we all had a good time seeing, hearing and visiting with them both again. Get some of their music, you will not be disappointed.
We took the stage for the final time at 10 o'clock, played a great show and I bid each tune farewell as it was completed through the final song, Piper To The End. It was a festival style gig with 14,000 folks in a beautiful setting and couldn't have been a better way to end this great tour.
A special shout out to Isaac Shabtay. In 2008 Isaac attended every show of our run in North America. This time he was present at every show of the entire Get Lucky tour overcoming some real challenges and obstacles in travel and culture. Through it all he's kept a great online journal of his travels, adventures, mis-adventures and photos. It's another look and opinion about the tour, well written, funny and from a completely different angle than either Guy's diary or my own. Check out Isaac's Get Lucky Tour Blog at http://gl.isaac.shabtay.com/
Over the last couple of days I've gone back to previous tours 'last day' postings. Today's feelings are the same, bittersweet. While very excited about seeing my family again, I'm sad to be leaving this musical family of friends and experiences. This tour has been the best one we've done and that is of course due to the crew, caterers, pilots and air hostess, drivers, etc. I won't go into listing them all but my sincerest thanks to everyone. Also, my thanks to our tour managers, Tim Hook, Peter MacKay and MK's personal manager Paul Crockford for making our lives so easy for these last five months.
To Danny, Guy, Glenn, Matt, Mike, John and of course Mark...my love and admiration. I miss you already. Love you mates.
That'll just about do it, don't want to drag it out any more. I'll get back to the regular, or irregular, front page posts and updates. Right now the Gulf water, a beach chair and umbrella are calling.
So long,
Richard