Oxford with a touch of Woodstock

Rolled into Woodstock early in the morning and checked into our coolest hotel room of the tour so far. I love how everything is always followed by “so far”. The surprises keep coming so its safer that way. Anyways, our room was more like a flat. It walked out right into the street and we had this huge window in the front. Felt a lot like the window I used to peek out of at my grandma’s when I was small. Nothing about physically was the same but the vibe felt exact. There were also two rooms and the one had a patio walkout positioned beautifully under a church tower. Needless to say, it was totally brilliant and another place where everywhere you looked reaked of postcard possibilities. While eating in a pub later in the day, the waitress seemed completely impressed at the fact we were staying there. The envy of the locals is always good.

In North America, Woodstock is the place where the legendary peace, love and music festival went down in ‘69. Over here it is the place where Winston Churchill was born and thousands flock here every year to get a look at his pad. You totally can’t miss it either. Blenheim Palace is retardedly huge! For 3 pounds, you can walk the grounds. The Duke of Marlboro lives there now and some locals told us you can see inside the palace if you get there before 8:30am. Needless to say I never got the chance…

So I settled into the room and then took a nap. The snakebites of the night before finally took their toll. Let me clarify with some background. I’ve already shared with you the fact that, over here, Stella is not held in a high regard. Well here’s another interesting tidbit of info. People here (at least on the tour) LOVE their Cider. At home anything that is not beer or hard liquor is generally looked at as being a ladies drink, but over here people drink whatever they like, without ridicule… well everything except Stella of course. So snakebites were introduced to us in Croydon by one of Pat’s buddies. It consists of half cider and half lager. Simple enough and sooooo deliscious!! Plus, one snakebite does the work of three or four beers easily and if that’s not fast enough, add a couple shots of vodka and voila… RATTLEsnake bites!!

I think the days off on the tour are hurting me more than the show days. The bus basically becomes a travelling party. We ride with 7 members of the crew and a day off for us is a day off for them too, thus the party begins as soon as we board and usually goes until we get to our next destination, continuing on until morning when we check into our new hotel. Good times are definitely had. They share crazy tales of the road with us, talk about home and family. This in turn helps the beverages go down easier and before you know it, its 7am and the bus fridge is empty.

Oxford is an old university. 1249 I believe. 1249 is a year I don’t even fathom. In school we maybe go back as far as the 18th century in our main studies and here is a school that’s hundreds of years older than that! Crazy. Being in its presence becomes almost surreal, knowing the shit its seen. It also put the dictionary into perspective. Always good to put a face to the name. I’m sure Oxford is a lot cooler than Webster, wherever that is…. ha. Ok, not that funny.

The venue itself reminded me a lot like The Opera House back in Toronto except a bit bigger and with seats. Our main concern venue to venue now is not its size, not our dressingroom specs, but whether its got seats or not. Seats make us work harder because we have to pull out all the stops to make the fans move. When you’re standing, moving just feels good but in a comfy seat, sleep is always an option. Sleeping fans for us however are not an option. It hasn’t happened yet thankfully…

The two nights in Oxford were great. We were warned that the crowds there tend to be more subdued, but on night number 2 we had the best walking on response so far. A couple of people yelling Bernadette’s name as she came out and a guy had made a sign asking if he could be her groupie! This makes a set go waaaaaayyyy smoother. Nothing better than a pumped up crowd before we even play a note. I do believe she even had a pair of boxers thrown at her!

Not much else to talk about. I spent most of both days touring around the city. We went up in the tower of St Mary’s church and the view from there was breathtaking. Almost as breathtaking as the walk up the narrow spiral stairs to get there. The Tom’s tried to go out on the one night and were turned down everywhere because they weren’t students so Oxford missed out there.

Alright, ‘The Weight’ is playing on The Last Waltz now, which means its time to get ready to go on. Another show about to go into the books.

Talk to you in Harrogate!