Wednesday 13 April: Ringsted

Opening night in Europe. We haven't been here for 25 years! Will they remember us? It was a big venue. We rehearsed all afternoon as we never had time for a full production run-through with sound and lights in London.

Our European tour promoter was Erik Thomsen. The last time I saw him was on our last tour of Germany when his girlfriend Alice was escorted off of our bus at the border between East and West Berlin (Checkpoint Charlie) because she had the wrong papers. He left her with the border guards and told her we had to go - there was a concert that night! Anyway, Erik was there for us on opening night and, for that matter, every night of the tour. Promoters traditionally turn up on opening night and closing night. Not Erik. He believed in us and stuck his neck out for us on this, our final tour. He stayed with us on every date and became part of the team. The first up and the last to bed!

So, here we were on opening night. Hank, Bruce, Warren, Griff and I were ready to go. Apart from first night nerves, we knew it was Warren's first time with the band. I knew he had worked with Hank for the last ten years and I knew what a great player he was, but he had never worked with the band he grew up with and never worked with Bruce before. We walked on to a standing ovation and before the first number had finished, we all knew it was probably the best the band had ever sounded in 45 years and the look that Bruce gave to Warren said it all and showed great respect for our new keyboard player.

“Five minutes, gentlemen” - it's opening night.
A band that's happy offstage is a band that's happy onstage.	The view from my kit. Opening night.