Great Day!

Yesterday turned out to be a banner day. There was a steady stream of 'crackberry' messages pertaining to the Sam Moore concert, as best I could figure out we had to be on site before 6pm. So we rolled out of the house at about 3, and after a bus, train, and another bus we got to the festival site at about 5.

As the Moore's had promised our tickets were waiting for us, better still, a free booze coupon! We grabbed a couple of cold beverages and found a table off to the side of the stage. At first we thought it was just a bunch of local musicians tuning up on stage, and then we realized it was Blood Sweat And Tears, when they played Spinning Wheel is was a dead give away! Particularly as I recently reviewed a DVD by them. What surprised me was the very laid back approach to everything, it was reminiscent of the 70's.

My mission was to find Joyce Moore who had invited us. I knew nothing about her, other than the fact that her husband Sam is 71 years old, Black, and very famous! After Blood Sweat and Tears had finished their mini concert (I'll tell more about that in a while) a small dynamo appeared on stage, giving all sorts of advice to the folks running what had to be the worlds biggest mixing board, "Keep the top end high when Sam is on", "When he duets with the little ones boost the gain", "and remember louder is not always better" etc, etc. "I'll bet that's her" I said to Jan. And off I went to find out. It was Joyce!

Sam played an almost 2 hour set, which is about 90 minutes longer than most artists half his age. And a damn fine set it was. Then it was off back to the trailers. Poor Sam must have been exhausted but sat patiently chatting with the VIP's and signing copies of his CD. Meanwhile Jan and I were in the thick of the 'Sharp end' of the music biz. In between signing cheques and dealing with minor issues like missing musicians Joyce explained that this was 'just another day'.

What really impressed me was how musicians help each other out. Blood Sweat and Tears were down a keyboard player, and Sam was down a drummer, both were caught in the wonderful world of flight cancellations. Sam's keyboard player played both sets, and that is why they were practising when we first arrived. That man deserves a medal, he put in a 4 hour performance!

Jan and I got to spend a few minutes chatting with Sam, and he is a very unassuming, and really nice guy. He certainly sparked up when Joyce explained that I was the guy that was running with the piracy story! Of course Jan and Sam chatted about New Orleans, a place that Sam is quite familiar with.

A great evening, and certainly one that we will remember for a long time. They gave us a copy of the latest CD, and a link to a new video that is NOT FOR SALE. It is a tribute to Billy Preston who passed away last year.

Yup, all in all, a very memorable day!