[SPOILER] Rod Smallwood Checks in from Toronto
TORONTO - TUES OCT 17 - 12 NOONWe got in from NY on Sunday arriving at the hotel late pm. Time to unpack and meet up with Dave and Val to go through a few things, then met up with about 10 people from our label here - EMI Canada. The President Dean is an old friend who has been with EMI Canada since our first album in 1980 and he has always been a great supporter of the band. Others like Al, Brooksy and Steve have also been working with us since the eighties and its always good to see them. We all went our for a great dinner in a very flash and excellent restaurant then on to a club til the early hours.
Suffering a bit next morning - bit of a lie in!! Worked in pm and down to gig at about 6. Before the gig Dean and EMI presented us with a whole load of awards - triple platinum (300,000) for NoB and Visions DVD, double platinum for about 6 other albums, gold for Ed Hunter and a special award for career sales of over 2 MILLION albums in Canada. You will recall we got presented gold for AMOLAD in Montreal too. I am sure Admin will get some pics of all this to put up on the site. It has pretty well always been great for us here and we always enjoy coming - great audiences, a great label - and once again about 11,000 gave us a terrific reception. It certainly seems that by far the majority really appreciate us playing the whole new album. Hope so anyway!!
The only downers were some sound problems for Bruce which gave him a few problems on vocals, but few would have noticed, and once again the bloody AC. I left the mixing desk at one point to yell at the hall guys. It was warming up nicely til about 3 numbers in then the AC went on. When l went back l saw there was a great big door open right behind the stage. It was cold outside so a great draught was blowing in right behind the stage. They were loading in food, can you believe that - they had all day to do it but they have to wait til we are on stage. This is becoming a personal crusade - warm halls for band and fans. I don't know about you but when its cold and a bit drafty it really affects my enjoyment of the atmosphere. We will get there!!! Anyway l am not going to mention this again!!
Anyway great show. Went straight back after for an early night so l could be up early and catch up on Europe emails today. Dave, Jan and l came straight off stage in to the car and back to the hotel. There were about 6 "fans" there with piles of stuff to autograph. "Great show" they said. "You got back quick" l said. "Can you name 3 tracks off new album?" Looks of bemusement. Yes more ebay traders - no real fan would leave and miss the encores to get back to hotel. These are just wankers trying it on to get stuff signed to sell on ebay. We are very careful about this and this is why we only ever really sign one item per fan - although speed of course comes into that too if there are a number of fans.
Anyway need start packing to get off to Detroit. Quieter show tonight - probably around 6,000. Disappointing. I guess Detroit is no longer self proclaimed Rock City but sadly there is very high unemployment. Hopefully though they will be a good crowd. Doesn't matter how many as long as they are into it!!!! On the positive side found out yesterday that LA is already sold out - 16,000. The last gig here is gonna be a stormer!!
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