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The account of the following 48 hour period isn't typical,
but it's not necessairily uncommon, either..."just the facts, mam..".
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Thursday Morning, October 25th |
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12:00 Midnight
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Just finished playing 2nd set at the Lantaarn in Hellendoorn, Netherlands. 'Packing up and reconfiguring for the flight to Warsaw. Requires the dismantling of keyboard and bass racks and compacting parts of the rigs to fit in suitcases which makes flying potentially less expensive.... |
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1:15 AM
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Arrive at Tulip Inn, Hellendoorn. No one on duty, no wake-up calls available. |
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2:00 AM
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Sleep
A shower in advance, email and pre-packing allows for a 5:15 alarm setting. |
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5:15 AM
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Wake-up, get dressed, brush teeth, try not to forget anything. |
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5:30 AM
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Lobby Call. Leave keys at front desk, still no one on duty. Begin drive to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport for 9:55 flight to Warsaw. (since breakfast at the hotel is served from 7 until 10, the clerk was kind enough to leave bags of coldcuts on rolls for us...they were understandably left behind) |
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8:20 AM
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Overcast skies, spitting rain & cold upon arrival. Unload gear and suitcases onto airport trolleys. Still more repacking of gear and consolidation of personal effects into fewer suitcases. Just make it into terminal before it really starts to pour. |
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8:35 AM
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Begin check-in process at KLM desk. 11 assorted peices of gear and suitcases. |
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8:50 AM
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KLM agent informs us that according to the tickets there is a 20 kilo per person weight limit (for 4 people), refers us to another desk for weighing the pieces. |
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9:05 AM
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KLM agent and supervisor determine that the total of the 11 pieces is 260 kilos and informs us of a $1300 charge for excess baggage. 'Says that no advance notice of extra baggage is indicated and suggests that the travel agent didn't warn them or purchase the tickets in a way that would enable us to bring the extra baggage. |
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9:15 AM
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After much explaining and pleading, the KLM supervisor refuses to change the $1300 charge. A last ditch call to the booking agency who talks to the KLM supervisor also gets no results. It becomes a gamble, pay the charge, bring the necessary equipment and risk more charges on the upcoming flights or cut our losses and try to get by with little or no personal music gear for the next 4 gigs. |
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9:25 AM
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We decide not to risk it since there are 3 more flights and baggage check-ins on this 4 day trip. More gear is sacrificed: Kinseys EX-5 keyboard, Kirk's cymbals, Henderson's effects rack and pedal board. At the last minute, Henderson decides to extract his Octavia pedal from his rack just to have something...turns out to be an interesting decision. |
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9:35 AM
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The reduction to 7 total peices results in KLM charging us $300. (The initial Lufthansa flight from LA to Frankfort was a $230 charge for all 13 pieces) |
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9:40 AM
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The line at passport control is 50 deep and our gate, D57, is at the very end of the furthest terminal. Any hope for breakfast is abandoned. |
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9:45 AM
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An ambitious KLM agent chooses Kirk out of the line of 50 or so to enforce an arbitrary "only one carry-on" policy. After Kirk points out all of the adjacent customers with similar, if not larger, additional carry-ons and a little more arguing, she calls security and the little "roller" is confiscated and checked. |
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9:55 AM
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KLM desk at gate D57 announces "will Mr. or Mrs. Cora-ving-ton" please report to gate D57 for departure" Meanwhile, I get through passport control in time to at least grab a crappy Kiosk cappucino and tell the gate that indeed Mr. Cora-ving-ton is on his way and please wait. |
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10:05 AM
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KLM flight #1363 pushes off, only slightly delayed, with 4 TT members and 7 pieces of luggage intact. |
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NOON
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Arrival in Warsaw to sunny skies, decent weather. We're greeted by our Polish friends/translators/laisons and all-around good guys Piotr and Jarszy. They immediately begin helping us sort out what gear we can find to replace what was sacrificed at the KLM desk. Jarszy has a friend at a music store there in Warsaw so we go there to try to find Kinsey a keyboard controller. We find an EX-7, guitar strings and a Burger King across the street. More phone calls result in a guitar multi-effects unit, volume pedal, tuner and another friend who offers a set of cymbals. |
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1:30PM
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We load the additional gear and 7 people into the 8 passenger Renault Master (a newer version of the exact same van that we are driven around in during all the rest of the tour). Our sharply dressed driver turns out to have little finesse with the stick-shift or the brake pedal and we begin our lurching, neck-snapping drive to the hotel in Lublic. The festival is held in the smaller nearby town of Swidnik which doesn't have quite as nice a hotel. |
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4:30 PM
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Arrival at our hotel in Lublic. During the drive the weather returns to cold and rainy. The estimated 2 hour drive is actually much longer due to the lack of a freeway and being stuck behind numerous trucks and farm tractors on the mostly 2-lane+ road. Since the schedule has us playing 1 set at 7:30 we choose to have dinner after the concert. |
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5:30 PM
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Depart for the 20 minute drive to the smaller city of Swidnik for the festival. Soundcheck is scheduled for 7pm so we want to get there earlier so that we can begin sorting out and assembling the newly borrowed gear. |
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6:00 PM
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Arrival at venue. After much discussion, it's determined that there is no such thing as backstage and we have no acess to the gear we'll be using since it's onstage with the warm-up band that is currently playing. We also find out that the festival headliner, Elvin Jones, cancelled last week and we are now the last band and headlining act. We agree to play a longer set, no problem. |
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7:30 PM
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The other band finishes, the hall (movie theater) is cleared so we can get to the gear and assemble our respective rigs. |
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8:45 PM
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Soundcheck complete, hall is filled and concert commences. |
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10:15 PM
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Great crowd. After 2 encores, we begin gear assimilation for tomorrow's flight to Stockholm. (it's now been over 9 hours since Burger King) A festival official is surprised to hear that we would like to eat and immediately makes arrangements for a restuarant in Swidnik. We leave our personal effects and gear at the hall where it's determined we'll return and collect them after dinner before we drive back to the hotel in Lublic. |
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10:45 PM
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Arrival at restuarant to a raucus after-dinner-disco-over-50's-scene and discover that the restuarant was booked for a private party in advance. It's decided that we'll go back to the hotel and eat in the restuarant there. But first we have to return to the hall to collect our gear. |
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11:15 PM
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Arrival at hotel restuarant just in time to put in an order for "warm food" since soon they will only be serving "cold food". We enjoy a nice array of steaks and stroganoff while preparing a fax that Henderson will send to the next venues in Stockholm and Gothenburg, so that they can start arranging for the gear that we couldn't bring. |
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Friday Morning, October 26th |
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12:15 AM
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After an aborted attempt to eat a dessert of heavily licqueur-laced chocolate cake, it's off to the rooms...another 5:30 lobby call looms. |
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1:00 AM
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Sleep
After more emails and pre-packing I opt for a 5am alarm setting (I learned not to trust wake-up calls a long time ago) |
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5:00 AM
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Wake up, shower, last minute packing. |
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5:30 AM
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Lobby call. Same van, same driver, less traffic to Warsaw. |
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8:15 AM
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Arrival at Warsaw airport. Overcast, cold and sprinkling. |
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8:45 AM
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A successful check-in at the Lufthansa desk results in no charges for the 7 pieces and enough time to grab some breakfast at the Chez "somthing or other" in the terminal. |
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9:55 AM
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Depart for Frankfurt, Lufthansa flight #3281 |
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11:50 AM
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Arrival in Frankfurt, cold and rainy. There are 2 exits from the plane. After switching to a seat towards the front, Henderson realizes that he is separated from his coat which contains his passport and the coveted Octavia pedal. From 20 rows away, with mostly pointing and sign language, he manages to convey that I should grab his coat. I do and exit the rear and board the bus. Plane is empty except for Henderson who is waiting for me to come out the front, bus takes off, but Henderson manages to flag it down so it cicles the plane again and picks him up. |
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12:25 PM
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Exit the bus and immediately go through the nearby gate to get on the next bus that will take us to board the connecting flight #6226 to Stockholm. |
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12:35 PM
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Takeoff. The short layover, while convenient, turns out to be a liability for us and the ground crew at Lufthansa, Frankfurt. |
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2:35 PM
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Arrival in Stockholm, proceed through passport control onto baggage claim. |
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3:10 PM
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Baggage carousel comes to a halt and only 3 of our 7 pieces have made it. The missing luggage consists of Kinsey's suitcase which has been combined with Henderson's personal effects, my personal suitcase, Kinsey's only keyboard-the Nord Lead 2 and my bass guitar. |
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3:15 PM
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I agree to submit the lost baggage request while the rest of the band one by one decides to go out and meet Sven, our driver friend who always handles the transportation for the Fasching Club in Stockholm. |
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3:35 PM
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The lost baggage agent informs me that 2 pieces are confirmed to be on the next arriving flight from Frankfurt at 6pm and possibly all 4. I get a referral number and it's recommended that I call at 7pm to see what has arrived. She assures me that the office will be open and answering the phone until 9pm as stated on the lost baggage cupon. Upon being told that our concert begins at 9pm, she doesn't seem worried and suggests that the gear and suitcases should be able to make it. |
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3:45 PM
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Into the van with Sven for the 45 minute drive into the city. Did I mention that it's cold and rainy? |
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4:05 PM
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Henderson takes the call on Sven's cell phone from the technician at the Gothenburg venue. They received the fax and seem to be able to gather all the extra gear that we requested for Sunday's gig. |
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4:40 PM
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Arrive at Fasching and begin sorting out the equipment. Most of the needed gear hasn't arrived yet, meanwhile Kirk is welcomed by a house Pearl kit with badly abused heads, a rickety DW double kick pedal and a decent set of rent-a-cymbals. The rest of the equipment is slated to arrive at 6pm thanks to the ever helpful Bengt Strokirk and Tommy the sound technician. |
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5:15 PM
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I call the local Estrad music store to see if there's an outside chance they might have one of my signature basses in stock or know anyone that owns one...no luck. Tommy produces a 5-string fretted Fodera that was left behind. If I put on a new set of my strings, it looks like it'll make for a passable backup in case my bass doesn't show. But, I only brought 1set of strings for this 4 day trip, planning to change once after tonite's show. |
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5:30 PM
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Check in at the Central Hotel across the street. Do a little email and set my alarm for a 20 minute nap before going back to soundcheck with Tommy |
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6:10 PM
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The rest of the rental gear arrives. Kinsey begins programming the Korg Triton rent-a-controller. I dial up a delay/reverb patch for Henderson's rent-a-MPX1 and Kirk begins putting new heads on the drums. |
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6:40 PM
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A very nice dinner (as usual) is served by the cheerful staff at Fasching. Kinsey, doesn't seem worried and is certain that the rest of the gear will arrive in time for the show, including his Nord Lead 2. Even though its the only one in the world that has his patches programmed into it, and there's no backup of the patches anywhere in existence. Stockholm is home to Clavia which makes the Nord Lead 2. Kinsey doesn't arrange a backup Nord Lead 2 from Clavia since it wouldn't contain any of his patches and would take too long to program under the circumstances. |
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7:00 PM
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I begin calling the Stockholm Arlanda Airport's Lost Baggage number. |
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7:20 PM
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20 straight minutes, several hundred rings with no announcement or hold music or nothing. I wonder if they're really open or there at all. Kinsey's still not worried. |
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7:45 PM
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I get through to Lost baggage and they confirm that 2 bags have arrived on the 6 o'clock flight. The two bags in question? My black suitcase and the Kinsey/Henderson black suitcase, of course....no keyboard or bass to be found. They say that the final flight arriving from Frankfurt is at 8:10 and the remaining two pieces will hopefully be on that flight. |
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8:10 PM
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Kinsey begins to worry a little, but after calculating the time for the bags to be collected and driven to the gig, decides that everything will be fine. We'll just start a few minutes late. I decide to postpone sacrificing my only set of strings on the Fodera, just in case my bass makes it. |
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8:30 PM
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No news from the airport. Kinsey's guests from the Clavia company arrive, Kinsey begins to panic: "Please God. If you just bring me my Nord Lead 2 this time, I promise to back up all my sounds from now on!" I go out and strum a little on the Fodera so Tommy can at least do a line-check. |
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8:37 PM
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A plan of action is agreed upon with Bengt. Showtime is 9pm and there's a curfew of 11:30 (Latin Disco after the concert). If the gear doesn't arrive by 9:15 we start the show and add the keyboard and switch basses when they arrive. |
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8:45 PM
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Baggage Services confirms that all 4 pieces have been collected and the courier is in the taxi headed directly for the club. I'm still hanging on to my only set of fresh strings. |
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9:17 PM
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The gear arrives. |
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9:20 PM
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The show starts. |
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11:38 PM
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By deleting a couple of tunes from the second set, we finish the encore in time for the club to be switched over to a disco. |
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11:50 PM
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After bringing their own beer and hanging out in our dressing room during the second set, a pair of former MI students, now completely inebriated, are asked by management to leave our dressing room. They immediately return. "Hey Kirk, wanna beer?" continues to be the only topic of conversation they seem able to persue. |
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Saturday Morning, October 27th
I know, technically I should stop here, but we're just now getting to the good part. |
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12:10 AM
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After being escorted from our dressing room and returning 3 times, the inebriated group of former students and hangers-on swells to 5 or 6, which makes the smallish 20' x 20' dressing room seem really crowded. Especially since a couple of them are careening all over the place trying to stand upright. "Hey Kirk, wanna beer?" After much confusion and talking to management the dressing room is eventually cleared again. |
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12:15 AM
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Henderson returns to the dressing room and discovers that his only effects pedal, the Octavia, (the one he chose at the last minute to rip out of his rack and bring on this trip) is missing....stolen, to be exact. |
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12:28 AM
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After checking the stage, dressing room, stage, dressing room and finally the stage one more time, Henderson goes ballistic and pulls what he described later as a "Zepplin", grabs the dressing room coffee table full of drinks and tosses it upside down onto the couch. One of the enebriated hangers-on, who's managed yet another dressing room visit, upon witnessing this display starts to develop a conscience. |
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12:30 AM
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The staff is understandably shocked that the dressing room is trashed. Meanwhile Henderson storms out into the rain. A restrained chaos ensues, with much discussion of motives, explanations, questioning of guests, who was where when, are they still here, etc. Meanwhile the inebriate disappears. |
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12:33 AM
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Kirk, realizing that we'll need this dressing room for tomorrow night, immediately begins assisting with the cleanup and mopup, helping to sooth any potential conflicts with our hosts. |
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12:45 AM
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After disappearing for a while the uninvited inebreate once again reappears. No more "Hey Kirk, how 'bout a beer". The topic is now "Scott, come with me to the stage, I'm sure we will find the pedal." |
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12:52 AM
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After a seemingly endless refrain of "Scott, come with me to the stage, I'm sure we will find the pedal.", Henderson returns to the stage which by now is now completely surrounded by the Latin Disco-goers, just to get him to shut up. The now slightly more sober inebriate mysteriously "finds" the missing pedal now laying behind the drums. |
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12:59 AM
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Tommy confirms that he saw the inebriate place the pedal behind the drums earlier and assures us that he and his friends will be persons "non-grata" in the future. (or whatever the latin term is)
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1:00 AM
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So there you have it.
OK so it's really 49 hours...so sue me.
Did I mention that it's still raining and cold in Stockholm?
Like I said, it may not be exactly typical but it's not uncommon either,
but every word is true.
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A big thanks to the staff and friends at the Swidnik Jazz festival and to the staff and friends at the Fasching Club for their "extra mile" help and understanding during this episode of 48 hours.
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