| Sunday
November 9th 2008
We
have a few days to get to our next gig so it
is off to breakfast at the Cozy Café
in Redondo beach on the Pacific Coast Highway.
The boss here, whose name I am not at liberty
to divulge, is a Greek immigrant who makes excellent
salsa so this is, I suppose, a Greco-Mexican
meal: just like the wrestling and in no way
a front for yet another agent in our non-existent,
international band of obscure sportsmen…and
women.
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|
Before
we make our way up the coast to my folk’s
hoose in Ventura County, we stop off in
Porter Ranch for a radio session with
Ros Larman who has been making the show
‘Folkscene’
since 1970 for KPFK
in Los Angeles. Always nice to talk to
you Ros!
Monday
November 10th 2008
Discuss
tennis strategies and do laundry.
|
Tuesday,
November 11th 2008
The
Little
Fox Theater in Redwood City is a new
venue for us and a fine one it is too.
Redwood City lies between San Jose and
San Francisco and is a grand wee town
full of restaurants and shops. The gig
is a great wee club/bar adjacent to an
old cinema, all of the staff are superb
and the surrounds are stylish. Everything
one would expect from a little fox.
|
‘to
be absolutely honest Michael, I really
didn’t have any preconceptions myself
as to what you’d expect
of me’ |
Wednesday,
November 12th
This Northern California morning
provides one of the culinary high points of
this entire tour: El Camino Tacos on El Camino
Real, opposite our hotel in Redwood City. The
name may be less than imaginative but if you
find yourself there, be not put off by the bars
on the windows or the pool tables; the food
is sublime.
We
have played many times in the past for noted
Gilroy horse and cow man Bob Breheny but never
in
Don
Quixote’s in Felton, CA. Burritos,
Bevy, and The Batties: What more could
one want? This old Mexican Restaurant was in
a previous life a big band dance hall complete
with imported Italian arches which hold up the
ceiling, presumably.
It
is worth noting that during our sojourn in Felton
we were staying at the Monarch
Cove Inn in Capitola just south of Santa
Cruz, A surf spot of some renown, Capitola boasts
a fantastic beach, numerous pubs and restaurants
and plenty of places to stay but these digs
were particularly spiffing atop the cliffs complete
with apple trees and a hot tub. No joke.
Golaccio!!!
’93 - a fine fine year! |
Thursday,
13th November 2008
It
has been some years since we played in
Healdsburg, the epicenter of wine tourism
in California. This is a great town with
tasting rooms from every major producer
in California and a plethora of great
restaurants and bars, all with ample wine
lists. It is great to see Archie and Lucy
again and although we have an early start
in the morning, we still manage a couple
of bottles of Rafanelli
Zinfandel at the Healdsburg
Bar and Grill and a few jars at the
B&B after the show. This was the best
crowd we have seen here and it is a great
shame that we have to leave at 6 a.m.
to fly off the Washington state to catch
a boat for two nights at Friday Harbor.
|
|
Friday,
14th and Saturday 15th Nov 2008
For
many years we have played here at the
community
theater in Friday Harbor on San
Juan Island. It is always a great
pleasure to see everybody and especially
to spend two days here. Also its proximity
to the Northern border means an easy meeting
with the Canadian Davis Cup Team.
Tennis
means thirst and a special mention must
go to Bob and Mike at the Front
Street Ale House.
|
Van
Sante v's Van Sante.
Alan 'the brat' Reid ajudicates.
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|
 |
There
are a number of ways to get to and from
San Juan, and we have employed several
over the years. The Anacortes Ferry is
the most common but we have also flown
and been driven by private craft. Today
however, we are passengers aboard the
Battlefield Band (reg. trademark ) Time
Machine, for we are off to our second
gig at Traditions
Café in Olympia, Washington;
The state capital.
You
may well be saying to yourself ‘What
the Devil? A Time Machine’? You
may well also ask ‘why is that band
playing their second show in Olympia before
they play their first one?’ Full
marks attentive reader: we are a confused
bunch of individuals. As it happened though,
our original show here, on the following
Wednesday, had sold out, so a second show
was added on the previous Sunday. Hence:
Time Machine, piloted by our very own
Dr Hoo-Haa, Alasdair.
En
route we pass the Enormodome in Tacoma
only to see that New Kids on the Block
are to perform there this week. Obviously
The
Tannahill Weavers must have had their
clothes well and truly lost by some inferior
airline…
|
| Olympia
is a compact, socially progressive town
situated at the most southerly tip of the
Puget Sound. It is awash with second hand
bookshops, cafes, bars, Chinese, Vietnamese,
and Thai restaurants and even a brewery
of note.
Traditions
is a free trade shop and café as
well as a meeting place for all kinds
of action groups or any other community
based organizations. Dick Meyer not only
runs this place but he and his partner
Tammy are putting us up for the next three
days – thanks folks!
Both
gigs here are sold out now, and are great
nights, but between them we have a night
off and luckily there is a screening of
Made
In L.A. at the café hosted
by the film-makers. Almudena Carracedo
and Robert Bahar. A documentary about
immigrants working in sweatshops in Los
Angeles; this is a fine piece of cinema.
|
|
But
there’s more to life than tennis,
so all of the intervening moments have
been brought to you by the Fish
Brewery in Olympia which, we discover,
has a happy hour commencing at 9.30 each
night. You cannot be serious!
|
|
After
our stay in Olympia, we have only one gig to
go up in Port Angeles overlooking the straits
of Juan de Fuca. This is not until Friday however
so it is here we make our separate ways. While
myself Sean, and Alasdair make our way to Seattle
to consult Caitlin Borg-Sabatini, our fiddle-playing
astrologer and seaweed guru, Rob and Alan head
off to a secret location on the Olympic peninsula
to hang out in Rob’s Cousin’s Geodesic
dome for some rest and relaxation. Or so they
say….
from
L-R: Rob, Henrik, Alan, Henrik
& Henrik. |
...Battlefield
Band Diarists have found, through our
sources in the ‘Psychic Real Tennis
Referee’s Network’, exclusive
proof that Rob and Alan, while pretending
to be picking flowers and twitching,
have actually been borrowing the Battlefield
Band Time Machine (TM)
and moonlighting with Swedish dance
band 'The Baracudaz' back in 1975.
Folk
music is a ruthless business folks but
that’s what happens when your
kelp is in Capricorn.
|
| Port
Angeles offers us a great finish to this
tour with a large and appreciative audience
and a warm welcome from Carol and all the
committee there. As an added bonus, the
hotel is right next to Peaks
Brew Pub , so thanks to Ed, Wanda, and
all the Katys for a splendid finish to this
wee tour of the states. |
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