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Riga, January 2002 (Otways's Naughty Rhythms End Of Tour Party)
The 'Cricketers' was filling up. John and members of The Band quietly slipped in, acknowledged any faces they recognised, and occupied a booth in the corner. In the mean time, I made the acquaintance of 'Auntie' Bev and family, and Duncan also came over to say hello. In contrast, when Billy arrived, Bev, and a number of others called out "Here's Billy!".
Inside the Riga, everybody made straight for the bar to carry on from where they left off in the pub next door. Just near the stage, there was a single table, at which sat a girl reading a stationery catalogue and smoking a pipe. One of Bev's nephews had to walk round the front to check that it was indeed a girl. The ample chest confirmed that this was so.
At about 9:30, the curtains opened, and the gig got under way. The band were in fine form, and we got the full set, with knobs on. A feature of the evening was the 'Battle of the Roadies' where points were gained throughout the evening. In the guitar catching contest, it got so confusing that at one stage I was sure that John would get thrown off, and his guitar left in the middle of the stage. Unwinding the mikes during 'Cheryl' was also a great laugh.
In 'You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet' we had a contest for best solo between the guitar and the theramin, but, alas, no Seymour.
For finales, we had Paul Shuttleworth, backed by part Band & part Kursaals doing 'Little Does She Know', the Feelgood’s bassist joining in for 'Born To Be Wild', with the Riga's manager joing in on vocals.
The 'Battle of the Roadies' was concluded in 'Headbutts', where extra points were gained for bleeding.
Another great night!
From a personal point of view, it was good to put some faces to some names on the newsgroup lists.
Another thing I omitted to say was that Karen's pogo-stick (presented in Dunkerque) appears to have made a full recovery and is alive and well. John managed to get several hops out of it without feeling the need to fall flat on his backside. Also, the new We-Evil badges were on sale, and very fine they are, too.
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