Ledjerick,Tasita, & Pete at the O2
All Pictures by Johnny King
August 3, 2009
Hey Guys:
I have been out of the loop for awhile doing a little traveling. I must tell you about a couple of gigs we found particularly exciting. The O2 in London is the same O2 that Michael Jackson was schedule to do his fifty-one nighter. It’s a huge place. Can you picture a theater in the round that holds about 2,500 with the seats removed for dancing and can sit about 2,000 in the balcony or maybe more?
Following us in the concert was Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus). No, we didn’t pack the place, but it was approximately 2,500 or more in attendance, and for this day and age, I think that was enormous. It shows there is still a market out there for funky music, but you got to connect with the people and that’s what funk is all about.
On that show we had a special guest artist, Miss Tasita D’ Mour, a young lady from London who sang with the band for the first time, but you would have never known it. She fired up the band and played a significant part in our success that night. We extend our gratitude and many thanks to her. Check out her website and you’ll see what mean.
Also, I’d like to thank the staff of the O2 for making us feel right at home away from home. It is not many places you can go that make you feel that way. My “Hat is Off” to the stage crew! A great sound and state-of-the-art equipment is very important for groups to have a great night, and without those things it could easily be a nightmare. We got a chance to meet some our internet friends and make some new ones! Thank you so much for supporting us. We are looking forward to coming back.
In Pamplona, Spain, we ran with the bulls from our hotel room. We performed only one night, although it was an eight day festival. For those of you who only saw the TV news clips, that’s only the half of it. I don’t know where to begin, but I tell you, I didn’t go to the fight this time. I have seen a couple fights before. This time I wanted to look around and get wrapped up in the festival festivities.
I know everyone thinks musicians traveling to these places are having a ball sightseeing. Wrong! All that we see are hotel rooms and the venue that we’re playing at. We view the city from the bus or car on our way to venue.
But this time, we arrived a day earlier. This was the San Fermin Religious Festival that dates back to the 15th century and it was only a couple of days. I don’t really know how the bull-running got in the mix. Back then the streets was not walled off like they are now. From July 7th to 14th, there are six fights a day. Here’s how they do this; at 10 pm on July 6th they bring the Bulls in from the farm to a corral. This where the bulls stay before they go into the ring to fight. The next day at 8:00, they fired a Rocket. That’s when the bull corral gate is open. They run the six Bulls a day to the arena. Now people who want to run with the bulls must report at 7:30 am. They then pray to Saint San Fermin, dressed in white with a red handkerchief around their necks. A second rocket is fired which announces that the bulls have left. It's an eight-block, three-minute run that's absolutely thrilling.
When we arrived, we couldn’t wait to go downtown. The entire eight days are considered a holiday. Just about all stores are closed and all the hotels were booked! We stayed about 15 minutes on the outskirts of town in El Toro Hotel. Each of the rooms looked as if it was a little bull stall. But the funniest thing was when we went downtown; everyone in whole city was dressed in white and red and here we come in black or blue jeans! Baby, did we stand out.
Pamplona is about five hours from Madrid where only very few speak English. Neither did the cab drivers. We went on stage at 12 midnight in our white and red and played to a sea of people outdoors and again it was a great sound! This was one of the best outdoor sounds we’ve had in years.
Madrid was great and we went girl-watching! Madrid is the place for watching! I will get back to that later.
I wanna drop this on you… our new CD is in the e-music stores and on the net, titled “Bill Curtis and Friends w/ Fatback Band.”
And just so you know, only four songs are available online. To get the complete album (nine tunes), you've got to order directly from our website:
http://www.fatbackband.com/
Check it out, I think you will enjoy it! It is sure to take your mind off all your problems for while!
Later,
Bill
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