What can go wrong? Well…. nearly everything!
5am and nothing was stirring… except for me. Marc, Chris (Gibbo’s dep for this gig) & Squirrel were well on time for our departure to pick up Mike enroute to London City. We met Tracy, Leigh, Dave & Rich at the allotted 7am. Checked in and proceeded to the restaurant in Duty Free for a thoroughly deserved breakfast, all seemingly ready for our 8.25am flight to Zurich.
This is when the day was turned upside down!
8.00am All flights in and out of London City were cancelled until further notice due to low cloud around London.
9.00am The Swiss Air desk re books us all on the 1.50pm flight to Zurich….from Heathrow!
10.30am We catch the bus to Heathrow that decides to take a route straight through the centre of London.
12.15pm We arrive at Terminal 2 Heathrow
12.30pm We check in, go through to Duty Free and await our flight to Zurich
1.30pm We get called through to board our flight
2.30pm …still on the runway at Heathrow – we missed our take off slot!!!
By the way… did I explain that we had to be on stage in Bern at 5pm, local time!!!!!!
3.15pm We finally take off
5.15pm We land in Zurich and clear Passport Control and the baggage hall in record time.
5.30pm We are speeding toward Bern
6.30pm The normal 90 minute trip takes an hour(!) and we arrive at the venue. Luckily there are over 400 people still waiting for us.
6.45pm We go on stage to the most rapturous ovation I have ever encountered. Apparently, the crowd were made aware of our plight.
The required 60 minute set ended up being 2 hours long including 2 encores. What a show! Absolutely fantastic!
We did however, have one more mishap, when Chris Kibble our keys dep fell off his riser and nearly knocked himself out. I did what any trooper would have done; I made sure he was okay, gave him some water, told to stay still and get his composure back and then played keys for the rest of the song!!! Thankfully for me, and the audience, Chris returned for the next song to finish the gig, nursing a very sore arm and leg.
This is when the day was turned upside down!
8.00am All flights in and out of London City were cancelled until further notice due to low cloud around London.
9.00am The Swiss Air desk re books us all on the 1.50pm flight to Zurich….from Heathrow!
10.30am We catch the bus to Heathrow that decides to take a route straight through the centre of London.
12.15pm We arrive at Terminal 2 Heathrow
12.30pm We check in, go through to Duty Free and await our flight to Zurich
1.30pm We get called through to board our flight
2.30pm …still on the runway at Heathrow – we missed our take off slot!!!
By the way… did I explain that we had to be on stage in Bern at 5pm, local time!!!!!!
3.15pm We finally take off
5.15pm We land in Zurich and clear Passport Control and the baggage hall in record time.
5.30pm We are speeding toward Bern
6.30pm The normal 90 minute trip takes an hour(!) and we arrive at the venue. Luckily there are over 400 people still waiting for us.
6.45pm We go on stage to the most rapturous ovation I have ever encountered. Apparently, the crowd were made aware of our plight.
The required 60 minute set ended up being 2 hours long including 2 encores. What a show! Absolutely fantastic!
We did however, have one more mishap, when Chris Kibble our keys dep fell off his riser and nearly knocked himself out. I did what any trooper would have done; I made sure he was okay, gave him some water, told to stay still and get his composure back and then played keys for the rest of the song!!! Thankfully for me, and the audience, Chris returned for the next song to finish the gig, nursing a very sore arm and leg.
The next day was nowhere near as exciting as everything came and went on time except for the shenanigans in Duty Free. But then we wouldn’t be The Chicago Blues Brothers without the odd bit of drama and chaos!
