The Rush Show (from Boston Diaries June 08)

The Rush Show
Sunday – Mansfield – ‘just outside Boston’ (NOT)

The tickets said doors open at 7.30 prompt. I had figured out (I should have a BSc in Public Transport – put me anywhere and I will sniff it out) that we could catch the commuter train, checked the times and from Boston South Station it would cost just $6.75 each, I assumed (wrongly) that we would be able to buy a return ticket and surely there would be a return train scheduled for after the concert finished, assuming made an ass out of me (that’s the way the saying goes I think) nope, the last commuter back from Mansfield was 10.25pm and as the concert went on till 11.00pm we were not going to manage to catch that one, I should have known it was going to be tricky when I asked about getting back and the teller at the train station said, you might be better off staying over at a b and b or something

When I bought the concert tickets on the internet I realised that there wasn’t really any public transport from Mansfield train station to the venue (4 miles) I had imagined it like any small town and that it must have a taxi rank.

I checked my map, it said to get out of the city onto the Providence line, two singles to Mansfield $6.75 cents, I asked if there would be any extra commuter train laid on due to the concert, the vendor said nope, the commuter stops at 10.30pm and the service doesn’t kick in again until 5.30am the following morning, when I asked about a shuttle bus to the venue he just said no, you may find a taxi but I doubt it in Mansfield” By now it was too late to do anything else but just go, so that’s what we did.


We had come this far so it was onwards and upwards, the train came and excitedly we sat upstairs (the American commuters are double decked, what a novelty ) as we left the city, we passed Back Bay, Ruggles, Forest Hills, Hyde Park, Readville, Route 128, Canton Junction, Sharon, Mansfield. Whilst I people watched the others on the train it seemed like everyone on nearing their station rang what sounded like a member of their family to come and collect them at the station. I pick my kids up at Stretford Met regularly, maybe it was pretty much the same.

We got off the train in Mansfield at 3.30pm, and others getting off the train were not concert goers, and all went to the dusty car park and had lifts waiting, there was a loner who set off up a dusty road as soon as we walked off the platform, he was on a mission and proceeded to walk off into the distance, without a backward glance for a taxi or bus, he knew the lay of the land and I was beginning to realise why, Mansfield station wasn’t even a station, there were no buildings, just a dusty car park, A couple of benches and that was it, there was a couple who also looked round for something more, on speaking to them (we never even got their names) they were from Peru, He worked on the Disney cruise ship out of Florida and sent money home for his wife and child, his wife was with him and spoke no English whatsoever, she looked rather frightened when I tried to break the ice so I stopped looking at her. We spotted one building over the way and went into A pizza parlour, on asking about a taxi we were told that Mansfield didn’t have a taxi service and there was no bus service either, and the best advice they could offer was a point in the direction the strange single man off our train went, we couldn’t even see him on this dusty road, so we set off, we walked for an hour, passing various clapperboard homes, schools and hamlets, we walked for another hour and I was thirsty, desp for the toilet and rather hungry. Mrs Peru looked as exhausted as me and rather frightened, several cars passed one way and seemed to come back to have a look at the strange four people walking on the dusty nothingness, that’s another thing, in America there are no pavements to walk on once you are away from house and neighbour hoods.

So we had been walking for two hours, and concerned we were going to get lost I knocked on a door, “Your nearly there, just over the bridge” I was told.

The Arena had recently changed its name from the Tweeter Centre to CHURNWOOD SO that’s why se saw no reassuring signs as my heart sunk thinking we had walked to the wrong venue.

I felt like we had been set a challenge before we truly deserved to watch Rush in the USA, we only have one more challenge and that was to run over (there was no traffic stop signs – they weren’t expecting pedestrians and it showed) (I now know its called a freeway and we werent supposed to be crossing it, it may even have been eligal, jaywalking I beleive) it was four lanes of traffic on each side and after a short gap, we ran across without getting hit, we could see the gates, the relief was short lived when we got in and realised we were only in the car park, which allowed for at least 8,000 vehicles. All I wanted was the toilet a cup of coffee and something to eat, Mr and Mrs Peru, wanted to be on their own, so we bid them farewell they were staying in a hostel in Boston and doing the whole trip on a shoestring fortunately for them they had a contact of someone who could get them back to their accommodation, we were not quite so lucky, a feeling of impending doom washed over me when Sean uttered the words “perhaps after the gig we could just thumb a lift back to Boston, to the right of me were two men who looked like extras from Deliverance, and to the right of me was a man on his own with a long black leather coat (so inappropriate for the warm weather) and I thought of The Hitcher with Rutgar Hauer ….. I was sure I could hear duelling banjos in the distance or was that the boys warming up??

Yes ladies and gentleman there were a few hours on Sunday 15th June 2008 when I thought that this may be the one story I never relate unless It was to relive it to a state police officer whilst he dictated it and I wept quietly with a blanket wrapped round me.

We see signs stating that tailgating is permitted, as I start to wonder what that means I have vivid images from deliverance running through my mind. Tail sounds awfully close to tailbone which is fairly close to your goddammn butt!, actually it was all very innocent, as we entered the centre (or should I say the centres car parking) everyone with a car had the trunk open and were setting up bbqs no not the disposable ones you would imagine, but huge things that needed legs attaching, then the deck chairs came out then the picnic tables then the gazeboes went up and the party began, various different era’s of rush was being played from car cd players and we were finally at the venue. We split with Mr and Mrs Peru and said we would meet up later if they saw us they could share our cab. A local rock radio station arrived and set up a stall giving away t shirts and stickers, dunk in donuts arrived giving out samples of their new drinks, and we began to chill out…… the venue opened its doors at 6.30 on the dot and we walked in, it was all outside and was like walking into Gulliver’s world, the merchandise was being sold out of many different log cabins, we bought three t shirts (one for Sean, one for a cousin and another for a friend who we knew would appreciate it) the temperature dropped slightly and I decided the best way to carry all this stuff was to put it on, I was secretly trying to make myself as unattractive as possible I had on a t shirt, blouse, and two xl rush t shirts and a stripy cardigan surely if push came to shove (and I sincerely hoped it wouldn’t) I would not be seen as a play thing for any slack jawed yokel.


As it happened, the rush show was excellent they started with Limelight,
the only changes the set list on the uk tour was, and they played Red Barchetta and The Trees, which whilst I sang along, I could actually see there were trees on each side of the auditorium (come rain or shine), I have read in the rock press that Geddy has said they particularly enjoy playing to European Audiences as they are more attentive. And I can get this now, at the Manchester Arena, people don’t hear the intro to the trees, first time they have heard it live, their favourite rush song that evokes many different thoughts of their younger days and come to the conclusion, that they need a burger and a giant coke and must go and get one, alternatively make sure they get seats where you can have waitress service, I get it now. Its not like they don’t have a break in the middle so you have bags of time to do it then, but hey this is America when the only time you don’t eat is when your asleep apparently. Yes I did want to shout “for the love of god surely you cant still be hungry”! but I didn’t I just enjoyed the show and people watched, I do remember halfway through Red Barchetta a man who had eaten too much hurled (Red Barfetta more like) and it wasnt due to anything other than pure gread, very strange.

Coming out of the Arena at the end of the show, we were on the look out for a Taxi, our night in Shining Armour came in the form of Kevin Cotter, one time limousine driver, one time security driver, now our semi retired cab driver, he already had two people in his cab and you would think we would all get in and split the fare, but this being America things are done differently and we were welcome to join them and haggled a price of $75 dollars back to Boston.
The other couple in the cab were a Russian man and his son who looked about 10, he promptly fell asleep and the Russian barely uttered a word until we got to Boston almost 25 mins later.

Kevin Cotter on the other hand was great company, we dropped off the Russians at their hotel in Copley Square and Kevin showed us around Boston, we would have loved to see much more but it was close to midnight by now and we were exhausted, as we paid up with a generous tip he said “don’t go…..” I think he had enjoyed our company just as much.


We called in at the 24 hour store on the corner and bought yogurts, bananas, cereal and milk, went back to room 712 in the Harbour Side Inn refuelled and then slept safe in our beds without any unwelcome violations whatso ever!

As we settled down to sleep after a long, eventful, exciting, exhausting and most of all memorable experience , sean relayed to me the time when Sean nearly beat up a fellow rock fan on the 67 all night bus, after a heated discussion this rocker said that rush had sold out, in releasing a farewell to kings album, such passion “ you don’t know what your talking about, you better shut it or I willkick your teeth down your throat etc”......

National Dress

National Dress

I may be in the minority in my love of national dress, hear is where it all began…………..

In the olden days before equality, but after some people burnt their bras in the 1960’s (mind you, after looking at the state of the underwear available its no wonder – I am talking pre- Agent Provocateur and T shirt bras, it was all pointy cones like witches hats and as scary as finding out your camping in a remote part of Wales where they still perform rituals “next year it will be you, you I tell you” etc…) anyway back to National Dress – of course the biggest showcase of the stuff was

Miss World – now for anyone born after 1980 I will explain…

Each country in the world had the opportunity to “showcase” what their regional judges had decided was the best the country had to offer, of course they said it wasn’t just based on looks and the winning girls had to be good ambassador for their country, which basically meant they wanted to “travel the world and look after disadvantaged children”. Sometimes it would come to light that the Miss World was actually a Mrs or had a child or even worse had some kind of a liaison with a judge, you know some interesting bit of scandel, anyway. They were really hoping to travel the world having a good time and hopefully gain from the situation in as many different ways as possible, and who can blame them? If that was the game then play it and win I say… well I say that now, at the time I would say


“When are they going to put on the outfits, when, when”,it was good old fashioned family viewing, Dads, Granddads everywhere stopped what they were doing to ogle at ladies in swimming costumes (to my mind it was all one pieces I don’t remember anything as shocking as a bikini) initially I think the format included each representative from each participating country walking out, this is before all the fashion magazines, the tabloids were still reporting real news and not Jordan/Peter, Brad/Angelina type stuff, we didn’t have cable TV in the UK yet so it really was a programme that the whole country ground to a standstill to watch, the clothes were nice to see,long flowing gowns and the girls were glamous whilst lying “oh we are just one big happy family, everyone is really friendly” of course competition is competition regardless of what the prize is, its dog eat dog (and actually I do remember some of the representatives weren’t as glamorous as we were expecting- I clearly remember my dad saying “well, if that’s the best they have to offer……….” He was really put out)

Anyway the national dress came next and I loved it… Ms Spain with her castonettes and flemenco dress, Miss Wales with her funny hat etc, Miss UK………… usually dressed as Britannia, I loved them all, I was less interested in the cozy section, so when I was tuning out and going back to my sticking and clueing (the name for anything creative I was making, usually just making a mess, my mum fed up and myself frustrated as nothing ever turned out the way it did on blue peter for those damn presenters, damn Valerie singleton, damn Sarah green with her “I’m using double sided sticky tape for Speed”.

In 2007 I turned 40, I have to say it was not something I was dreading, I embraced it, me and hubs had had a good think about something special we wanted to do that didn’t involve anyone else (I have given up the last 20 years bringing up pesky kids whose only mission is to nark me off continuously and keep me busy sorting out their mishaps) So no party for me, I had to get a new passport as my other one had run out, despite only being used twice Ibiza 1985 on an 18-30’s, and Yugoslavia in 1986, after that I didn’t travel any further than Rhyl, Llandudno or Blackpool, you see what happens when an egg gets fertilized unexpectedly?? Who knew? (mother nature actually and the doctor when I had to own up to having missed six, yes six periods)

Right so I saw the advert for “Canada maple leaf trail” and thought this is the one for me, hubs being a mega RUSH fan wanted to walk around Toronto and maybe recreate the "moving pictures" front cover, it was much fun and that’s what we did, packing for the trip was very difficult for me, but on the whole looking back I may have got a bit giddy, the day I wore the above outfit in Quebec, was very strange, it’s more French than France, it was warm and sunny, but still had snow stacked up at the sides a wonderful experience, I caused quite a stir and thought I had my fingers firmly on the pulse of fashion – well in my mind anyway.


The truth was all I needed was a pencil thin moustache/a string of onions round my neck and a beret at a jaunty angle, so all those years spent watching the national dress section on Miss World coupled with episodes of “Allo, Allo” were not wasted after all.


Bonjour


Mahoo

Three weep Bitterly in Abersoch

Five Day Break
I have to admit the prospect of five days of less responsibilities did indeed sound like a break to me, and I did encourage Fecky to go, but I was not fully aware of the dubious supervision and care that would (not be) offered.


Dubious Parenting Skills
Its taken me now almost five years of giving the benefit of the doubt, and when I tell this tail I think you would agree that there are lots of kinds of parents out there, caring ones who smother their children and don’t mean to, ones that like to do things as a family, ones where the mum stays at home enabling everyone to have more free time (not knocking it quite jealous really, as I examine a school shirt and wonder if we can get another day out of it, sniffing the pits and rubbing a smudge off a collar - yeah another day will be just fine), i could go on and on...... so hear is the tale.

Calenders checked (not)
The three recently left schoolers wanted to go to Abersoch and stay in a family caravan, they got a lift down there off a dad (possibly bullied into it) I dropped my feckles off with £20, 2 toilet rolls, 1 pizza, 24 chicken goujons (bogof), a loaf, 4 litres of milk, pot noodles and cheese.

The other two girls had everything they thought they needed, the next morning they woke up and mother nature (that bitch) had played a cruel and wicked trick on them (yes all three) despite them all having different body clocks, in a caravan in the middle of a large campsite, all three of them needed the “feminine hygiene aisle” and not a tampax in site, the one suffering the most stayed back at base and the other two (yeah not laughing now at my insistence on packing the Andrex are you) unlocked two bikes and rode into the nearest town in search of a chemist and emergency provisions. They got soaked. The campsite was hit by flash floods and lightening warnings, but all managed to get sorted and fed. The sobbing phone calls I received the next morning didn’t do much to instil confidence in me, as the tail got somewhat worse.

Vacate the Accommodation
The family had come down to the caravan and told the three girls they had to vacate the premises and as the campsite owner “didn’t like people putting up extra accommodation” they needed to find a campsite, this is where the dubious parenting skills really comes into its own, at around 11.00pm, them, the tent were dropped off at a popular area near the beach called “devils cove”, they set up the tent and once the normal parent found out where they had been left, they were prompting collected at 2.30am, and spent the rest of the time sleeping on a caravan floor (the tent was stolen by surfers no doubt, as it wasn’t there when they went to retrieve it the next day).

Night Out
Me and hubs and the eldest were all set for a wedding reception (snap attached) and as I applied my lippy single handedly (it’s a new revolutionary design by Avon) I was forced to listen to bitter weeping. I explained that we couldn’t come and collect them, it was only one more night, and to think of it as a precursor to the festival experience, but without the music, bands or organisation.

Of course its all back to normal now, by that I mean, sink full of pots (there not all mine), Have you sorted out that phone contract yet (no I have all month to do it), can you please get off face book its midnight (it’s the summer hols for gods sake get a life) Ahhh, my life, never was I so settled and actually quite happy than when I lived with Mr and Mrs Lamb, on Broadstone Road and paid £50 a month keep, had my tea cooked everynight, my clothes washed and went out four nights out of seven………


Mahoooooooo X

Protagonists and stain removal discoveries SATURDAY

Dear Reader


I know what i meant to say on thursdays blogg, a word i learnt on the "How to get published roadshow", Protagonist, although the team did say, if anyone has any questions, dont hesitate, well i did hesitate because I had no idea what the word meant and i thought if i keep quiet and listen maybe it will come to me, i think it did, but for a good 10 mins i thought it sounded like a baddy from Dr Who, and all i could think was, i am not doing a weird sci fi blogg where I will get a really obsessed regular who will cross the channel and try to kidnap me on the way to work because he/she somehow thinks i have tapped into their thought waves and we will become "soulmates" by force if necessary.......

anyway, i know what it is now (I think)but i may go and look for a dictionary just in case i have the wrong end of the stick.

Tonight I am at a wedding reception, the outfit is sorted and will be worn regardless of the weather as i am lucky enough to be driven their and back (so bring on the pints of strong cider - that may have more in common with a science lab than an apple, but will hit the button marked oblivion (accidentally brushing the button marked THROWING SHAPES).

Hubs told me some exciting news this morning, he has discovered the best cleaning agent to remove greasy kebab stains and even curry of clothing (even ground in for a week or so and nothing else has worked despite nearly ruining the garment and spending loads of money on vanish type products!) VOSENE

He is more than a little elated at this discovery and thats where I am leaving todays blogg