Goodness....

CL and RL in Shanghai

Goodness, these days are so long where we hurry up and wait to get to the plane and wait on everyone And  then wait on the plane to depart. All in all it has been 12 hours of waiting, and our wheels are not even up. What’s Up? Makes me tired….So, as it turns out the Chinese Government would only allow us to either have a 7am slot to depart or a 7pm slot which became a 10pm. This all had something to do with the fact that we are a private plane. As I understand the Chinese Government charges a premium for their air space. And, they have stringent rules regarding it. Our team chose the 7pm slot but we couldn’t fly until almost midnight putting us in Shanghai at close to 2am..then we didn’t get out bags until 3ish. I hadn’t planned on such an escapade so I didn’t have my things that make me comfortable…like PJs,  cosmetics, and our room was lovely but hot when we checked in. Chuck lowered the temp to about 55 and dropped right off to sleep. Me, being the nocturnal one, couldn’t go to sleep. I got up and grabbed the robe to use as a blanket as the one on the bed was so thin. That didn’t work out, so I got the second one and put that on and jumped back in the bed.…still I’m freezing! Finally, I heard the luggage arrive. Great, I could go and find my red cashmere blanket to warm me up. It was no use. There was no way that I would attempt to go through the bags to find it. So, I just suffered.  Finally, I went to sleep, but in the AM I felt like a truck ran over me. I had neck pains from the bad seat on the plane and even more pains from the cold and sleepless night.  

Chuck with Mike Franklin

this was a  day off so I can try to find myself…We have friends that live in China. Mike Franklin has been a musical ally of Chuck’s since the early 80’s when they both did Clinics at Music Stores around the US for KORG the keyboard company from Japan. Mike was musical director for a number of Oldie but Goldie shows spotlighting the likes of Fats Domino, Leslie Gore, Little Anthony and the Imperials, The Coasters, etc. Finally, he settled down around Sarasota, Florida and built a studio and started a family. I think after splitting with his wife he met up with a Chinese woman and decided to move to Shanghai. I know that when we were last there in  2001 he was already a resident.  He saw all of the expansion going on  and he had the brilliant idea that the Chinese would love a circus. Living in Sarasota where all of the carnies summered he thought that he could entice them to come over and set up residence. It worked out to his advantage. He also got involved in the solar energy program developing cell phones, etc. Mike now lives on an island Chamin with his girlfriend NaNa who is a piano teacher.  They came down to Shanghai to hang out with us and go to the show. It is really great to have two interpreters while in China. 

Rolling Dim Sum

Shopping at the Yuyuan Garden and Bazaar is fun and they still have the Chinese buildings and markets. Not to mention some of the strang

Chinese snacks

est food that I have ever seen. Having been to China before I was not totally shocked, but lizard on a stick is a strange one! I bought some children’s PJs for friends who have had babies, and of course some chop sticks for my children. Also,  I bought myself some calligraphy brushes, an ink stick, and a slate ink well.

Calligraphy brushes....

Ronnie and Sally Wood so lovingly gave me a Wild Horses scarf which is a copy of one of Ronnie’s paintings, and I saw one of those carnelian stamps with 2 wild horses on the top. I just couldn’t pass that up as they inscribe your name in reverse on the bottom so you can mark your artwork.  It’s rather hard finding a special gift for folks who have everything. I do believe he really liked it!!  All in all, it was a fun afternoon on the town. Chuck and I returned to the hotel  for a bit of rest. Later in the afternoon we went to T 8 which is an Italian restaurant  close to our hotel in the Xintiandi district.  NaNa being the really small Chinese woman that she is had 2 sips of a cosmopolitan and got a bit ill. Bless her as she was very uncomfortable. We retired back to the Peninsula Hotel and hit the bed pretty quickly. Our traveling has made us very tired.  So, on Wednesday, March 12th…we have a show at The Mercedes Benz Arena and they are our sponsor there.  There was about 15,000 people in attendance and they really seemed to enjoy the show. It was a very mixed audience with ethnic and Europeans/Americans in attendance. It all went really well, but the weather was really cold and rainy that day in Shanghai.  When we settled back in at the hotel, and took the clothes to Isobel in Wardrobe, we headed up to the 13^th floor for a cocktail with Herren. There hadn't been much time to spend with him in Shanghai so we wanted to give him some love. Todd had retired for the evening. We enjoyed the time and said goodbye as we were departing in the morning at 4AM (Another weird and long flight). Then, we were arriving in Singapore around Noonish. We slept quite well on the plane awakening just in time to collect our bits and prepare for landing. It was about an hour to the hotel. Now, we are staying at the Marina Bay Sands Hotel www.marinabaysands.com which is a monstrosity with 3 towers, multiple shopping centers, etc. On our arrival I just couldn’t venture on a walk, but Chuck went out for several hours while I tried to nap. On our arrival,we had immediately noticed the sad state of the countryside due to a drought. Also, there was smoke lingering in the air. Chuck noted that there must be a brush fire in the area. Turns out it was actually in a provincial area of Malaysia but the smoke had drifted towards Singapore. Singapore is a tropical paradise.  I was so disappointed that all of the trees and flowers were suffering. It hadn’t rained since December and given the fact that it is on the equator and perpetually 95 degrees everything was scorched. Our friend from home Lynn Lavery was meeting us here, and I really wanted her to see the floral splendor. She wasn’t to arrive until late on Thursday night so we would see her on Friday morning…I had prepared her that we would not get up until close to 11am so she could make herself happy perusing the neighborhood. She is really great about finding

Rose Lane and Lynn Lavery

her own way around town. No problem. I had promised her that we would have lunch in China Town and dinner that evening in India Town. Nothing like visiting 3 countries all at once. Then, the next day we would have the show at the large ballroom in shopping center adjacent to the hotel. These are always easy events to work since we don't have the drive time to and from the venue. Plus you can set up and then go back to your room if there is any down town. The only problem here was that the dressing rooms were dysfunctional. Most of the principals were grouped together with Band 1 and 2 on the opposite side of the area which was quite a walk. Needless to say I was really sore at the end of the day. The audience was about 5000 strong. They really enjoyed the show, and I personally thought it was the best one of the Asian tour. Mick was really on top!! At the end of the show Lynn and I started out front to get her a t-shirt. We got separated as I had Caroline's bag and needed to get it back to the hotel. Somehow I got turned around in the casino area and it took me a while to get back to the room. Oh, well. It is a problem trying to filter through the throng of people after the show. Anyway, I made it and we all hooked up in the lobby for a cocktail. Lynn was staying over for an extra day so she could do some more sightseeing. Chuck and I left around 2pm for that long, long flight to Perth, Australia...12 hours. Good news for Sinagapore: it was raining as we were leaving. I could virtually see the flowers and trees coming back to life.

MACAO....THE VENETIAN AND GAMBLING...

Chocolates in the Venetian, Macao

On March 7, we had half the day in Tokyo, with a lobby call around 1:30. We got to Haneda Airport…went through the departure routine through immigration and customs and boarded up. We were delayed a bit…were supposed to have wheels up at 4, but it wound up being a bit after 5. Landing time was supposed to be 8:30pm, but with the delay and a fairly strong headwind, we didn’t get there until a little after 10. Our good friend Herren Hickingbotham was already there with his partner Todd Hill of Park Hill Collections. Herren has been a financial partner with the company for years. They make some classy high end furnishings and accessories for interior designs….a top notch outfit.

We didn’t really plan on getting up with him, but I gave him a call just to see if he had arrived…he and Todd had been in Hong Kong the day before and I wasn’t sure if he would be there. He was…and told us to meet him at Morton’s Steak House in the HUGE Venetian Hotel where we were staying and where we would play. We welcomed his offer to buy us a couple of cocktails and have a light bite with them. 

Casa Leavell

That put us in a nice relaxed mood and after saying goodnight to them, we went off to wind down and go to bed. 

3/8

An off day for us. Since the air quality was so poor it didn't really appeal to us to go for a walk.  Plus we were in quite a remote area and not near the Portuguese part of town that was the old city. In fact the only thing left of the old town was one wall of a historic building.

View from our hotel window

We explored the facilities…which was crazy…hundreds of shops in what we were told is the world’s fourth largest indoor structure. Every designer shop known to man was represented there, and many other boutique shops we’d never heard of. There was nothing we wanted to buy, so it was all window shopping and walking around. We were also amazed at the size of the Casino at the Venetian…and with the construction that was going on around the complex that we could see outside the window of our hotel room. Later someone told us that Macao gets more than 7 times the casino revenue per year that Las Vegas gets. Amazing….and that caused me to investigate some gaming stocks that I wound up investing in a few weeks after we returned to the US.

The Venetian Shopping Arcade

Later that evening, we wound up having a drink at the Four Seasons hotel at Herren’s suggestion. While we were there, a group of folks at a table not far away recognized me and one of them came over to introduce himself. He was a Chiropractor, named Tony Dawson. Very nice guy, and invited us over to meet some of the others. One was Royal Rowe, the manager of the Four Seasons there and who apparently is responsible for opening up several other Four Seasons in that part of the world. Another was Linda Switzer, who manages the MGM in Macau and who is a huge Stones fan. I wound up getting her some hospitality passes to the upcoming Shanghai show. We had a nice chat with all of them and then went out to dinner with Herren and Todd at Portofino.  Then, we retired for the night.

3/9

Show day…this was at the Cotai Arena in the Venetian, a capacity of just over 10,000. Very similar to doing the MGM Grand in Vegas, which we have done so many times. A good show, and a very responsive crowd. There were quite a lot of ExPats in the audience, but there were more locals that we thought there might be, which was cool. After the show we had some drinks with Herren and Todd back at Morton’s. The manager of the place was very good to us, as it was after hours for food, but he accommodated us….with drinks as well. It was a nice way to ease down from the show and to spend time with good friends. We said goodnight to them and headed up for bed. They would both be coming to Shanghai, so it was only a temporary separation. 

Japan 2014

More Fun in Tokyo....

The Ginza-Kaiga School

So, we finished up the first show, and as usual I had made a plan to
meet some Japanese Artists and learn something new. I googled up The Ginza School of Art (http://ginza-kaiga.com) and found it that it was located just 4 blocks from the Peninsula Hotel. The concierge helped me sort out the details and found out that it was $50 per hour so I could have two classes for $100.
I opted to take a calligraphy class and also drawing. It was an exciting event for me. English was spoken there so I felt comfortable about the adventure. Ameba Shogain was my instructor.

Ameba Shogain

His English was limited, but he guided me through the materials. Showed me how to dissolve the ink block and hold my brush properly. Then, he did a demonstration for me. My first word was river...I like that as I live close to the Ocmulgee River and it reminded me of home. Then we did several other single sheet words and this was done on a very find grade of rice paper about the size of a sheet of regular paper.

Calligraphy

I learned Forever, Spring, Car, Year of the Horse, Me Painting, the date, and several others. We did multiple repetitions of these and ended up doing a scroll with several characters going from right to left. At the end of the class I got to choose my favorites and affix the Ginza stamp and also Japan Stamp signifying the place. It was a very rewarding lesson. I loved the simplicity of it all.

Painting and drawing class

Painting Class

My time was up for that class and I moved

Rose Lane's Charcoal.

across the foyer into the waiting class of men and women who were doing various paintings and drawings. I chose to do a charcoal since it had been years when I had learned to work with charcoal while studying with House Smith in Macon, Ga. Alas, my two plus hours was over, and I retreated back to the hotel. I marveled at my opportunity to learn new ideas and network with people. I made a promised that once I returned to America and had a chance that I would buy a book on Japanese calligraphy and explore it further. A very worthy outing for me....
The next night was a really fun event. Keith Richards hosted a Rabattinaki dinner for the tour girls. Of course, he didn't attend but Patty was our hostess. There are 24 women on tour with The Rolling Stones. Over the past few years we have all become very good friends.
It was a riotous evening. The restaurant was Inakaya and the cuisine is grilled meats, veggies, and lots of sake....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfOfPVUhgso.

Inakaya

Lordy, we had a riotous time. The food just kept coming! and we were having loads of fun. More sake; more fun! So, there were 24 seats around the cook station and at the beginning they kept out the two seats to the far left of the bar. The management was adamant that we should not sit there. Cheryl Ceretti and Elizabeth Curran had not arrived since they were still at The Dome.

The Rolling Stonettes

We all sat down and started eating and drinking. Along comes a Japanese couple to take the seats???? They had no idea what a party they had come upon. After a bit the gentlemen realized that we were Rolling Stonettes and that he was the only guy in the midst of a bunch of women. He stood up and pounded his chest.
Bravado! Then, he realized he was sitting close to Lisa Fisher who had just the night before won the Oscar (along with others) for 20 Steps From Stardom. Personally, I thought she stole the show, but then I am partial!!! It was all a good laugh after them realizing what was going on. Elizabeth and Cheryl finally came in so we were all there. Amazing.

Chefs at the grill

Finally, we had our fill and started saying good night around the table. The crew girls were staying outside our district. The rest of us had about a 5 block walk to the hotel. As we were leaving we all made a comment on how beautiful the basket/cask was that held the Sake. The server told us we had drunk the whole cask!!!!! Fun, fun, fun. Thanks so much to Keith Richards.

Back to works as usual. We had 2 more shows to do at the Egg Dome each sold out, and it was just get on with it! Chuck and I had some more lovely meals in town, and one was with our friend Toshie Onishie. We have know here since the 80's when Chuck was hired to record with The Privates. We enjoyed meeting up with her again. She was doing private tickets for the promoted and was working at the show, too.
So, now it was time to leave for Macao, China. Bernard Fowler had mentioned that the Chinese breakfast at our hotel was great. In honor of our going there we opted to have that as our parting meal. It was great, and we left very happy.

TOKYO Week 2 and Chuck says:

Wasting Time in Tokyo

After that first show, we had four days off…and again, it became a challenge to kill the time. This is not the best time of year to be in Tokyo….it was cold and rained quite a lot, so not all that great for getting around the city or going to gardens, etc. I had contacted my pal Athan Billias, who works for Yamaha and while he lives in Southern California, often goes over to Japan for business…and fortunately, he was there. We arranged to tour the Yamaha Building on March 1…Matt Clifford and Mike Klvana joined us as well as a nice Japanese fellow named Taku. They took us to lunch at a sushi place and then gave the tour. It was all in Ginza, so a short distance. We saw a couple of their performance rooms…one of which was quite impressive with the design of specific woods on the walls, floors and even the seats…mahogany, cyprus, maple and I believe spruce were used in various ways…all for acoustic properties. It was a lovely room that seated about 300 or so. There was a classical piano concert going on…but we didn’t stay for it…just got a glimpse of the room and were given the story on it. Then we visited several of the other floors…one with the digital musical instruments, guitars and so on…one had all the brass and reed instruments….one sold cds, one had nothing but sheet music. They were very gracious to us and it made for a nice few hours.

The next day we had arranged to meet up with our friend Rio Takahashi. Rio used to work for KORG many years ago, and that is how we met. We became friends and stayed in touch through all the years. Some 10-12 years or so ago he had a tragic stroke and lost some use of one of his arms, and contracted a limp. It was a tough blow for him, but to his credit, he took up the challenge of trying to bring attention to folks in Japan that had suffered strokes by taking long bicycle rides between cities and in some cases walking. He sent us some articles about it over the years. But since then, he’s had more difficulty…in and out of hospitals, nearly dying…losing the capability to walk, then regaining it….barely. So when we saw him, it was not a surprise to see him worse off than we have ever seen him…but not easy to see. He drools and his speech is very slurred, and he can barely walk…but to his credit, he is tough and keeps on trying his best to recover. He is a great guy…but somewhat stressed out, which is one reason he had a stroke in the first place. In any case, we met him in the lobby of the hotel with his girlfriend (can’t remember her name) who has been with him a long time and who looks after him with great love and affection…his middle son, Rio…and his new wife (again, couldn’t get name) and a couple of friends. We all went to Rio’s friend’s restaurant…Mr. Obsuto. Rio has taken us there a couple of times before. A very small tempura restaurant….very good. Obsuto-San speaks enough English to get his points across, and his wife, who assists him at the restaurant speaks quite good English. We all made a good time of it….talking about our various ventures in recent years and what was and is happening in our respective lives.

Rio picked up the tab, God bless him…and then we caught cabs back to the Peninsula, saying our goodbyes at the front door. Rose Lane and I went back to our room as they made their way back home. 

3/4/

Show day number two….finally! Great to get back on track and back on the stage. Rose Lane usually leaves for the gig before I do these days, as she helps get things in order for Caroline Clements (makeup) and Isobel Work (wardrobe). I went with our usual team…Darryl, Bernard, Lisa, Tim and Bobby…as well as some of the staff. Rio and his folks would be there and I had arranged VIP passes for them. I went through the routine of doing the set list draft, practicing some in the dressing room, doing sound check and finalizing the set list with Mick. Then to catering for a bite to eat. As show time approached, I made my way (waaaaay across the Tokyo Dome to the opposite side) to see Rio and company. I had suggested, (and thank heaven his family had agreed) to put him him a wheelchair to get him around the Dome. It is such a HUGE facility. I had also asked Shelley Lazar, our ticket rep, to get Rio and isle seat so he could settle in without too much trouble, and she kindly accommodated. It was good to see them all again…and they were very excited about the show. I stayed as long as I could, but as showtime was approaching, had to say goodbye to them again and head to “the office”. 

The show that night was much better than the first one. Everyone was on top of their game, and the audience was enthusiastic and responded strongly. Afterwards it was back to the room, sip some wine and wind down.

Guitar World

3/5

This is the day I had arranged to do a session with my pal Kunio Kishida. He picked me up at 1pm with a nice young fellow that drove for us named “Pony” and we made our way to the studio. It was quite close to our hotel…maybe only a mile or two. Kunio had never used it, but had found out about it and they apparently made him a great deal…he was very happy about it. It was indeed a very good studio…with a fine 9’ Model D Steinway piano that sounded great. The folks there were as nice as they could be and had everything set up for us. Kunio had demos of some six songs that he had written, so we went to work. I wanted to do a good job for him…he’s a fine man and has been so nice to me through the years when I see him….which granted is not often, but I just wanted to pull out all the stops and spice up his project. After doing the first track, which didn’t take long…I asked them if they had a Hammond B-3. Luckily they did, and went to fetch it. I wound up putting piano and organ on all six tracks and Kunio and all the folks there seemed to be pleased with the results. After doing those, Kunio and I jammed with just the two of us on a couple of blues tracks, so he had some bonus material. All went well and we were done by 7pm. Pony drove us back to the hotel and we said our goodbyes…they were going to a club called Red Shoes where some of our crew was to play and Kunio was to sit in. I was invited, but Rosie and I had dinner plans with an old school chum of mine….Shigeru Mayagawa. I  went to Jr. High with him back in Tuscaloosa, but have not seen him since then…maybe 45 years! He had found me through the Internet and we re-connected. It turns out that he is Professor of Linguistics at MIT and has now taken a position with the University of Tokyo as well, as Director of Online Courses.

So he was already waiting at the lobby of the hotel…and I invited him up to the room to chat with us a bit before heading to dinner. We wound up going back to the Bangkok Gardens…and had a wonderful time catching up about our families, our “missing years” and life in general. So all this made for a really fun and productive day…

3/6

Only in Japan....

Last show in Tokyo. Again, a great one. I didn’t make it to the VIP to see Shigeru, but we had already said our farewells the night before. It was even better then the second show, so we left on a high note. One fun part of it was that we had a special guest…Tomoyasu Hotei. He is HUGE in Japan as a guitar player and artist. He had a big worldwide hit with an instrumental song called “Battle Without Honor or Humanity”. It was a main theme in the “Kill Bill” film. He has sold over 40 million records in Japan. I went to meet him in his dressing room…and he was as nice as he could be. Even mentioned Sea Level, which as a surprise. Not long after, we met in Mick’s dressing room to go over “Respectable”, which was the song he guested on. Ronnie popped in with him and we had a good time going through it. We also did it at sound check with the whole band, which went well.

When Mick introduced him, he got a tremendous response, and played great. He stayed through all the set and as we departed the stage to do the “runner”, he was there to say goodbye to everyone. Very cool.

That ended our stint in Tokyo….a fun and productive stay. In some ways we hated to leave…but it was time to move on and get the show back on the road.

JAPAN: LAND OF THE RISING SUN..

Our departure from Abu Dhabi was on time, and the flight was a good one. But, Lord, it was long. Ten hours of sitting and another change in our biological clock made us all a mess!! I guess Jet Lag doesn't affect some people, but it surely did make our camp tired and confused. Luckily, we had a couple of days off.  Chuck and I were then 14 hours off of our home time in Georgia. Calling home became a challenge. On arrival, we were met by the usual throng of Japanese fans. They are always anxiously awaiting the arrival of The Rolling Stones. We immigrated into the country with no problem and all boarded our transportation to The Peninsula Hotel in Marunouchi District which is adjacent to Ginza. Shopping and restaurants abound in that area as it is hub for the transport system and also the Imperial Palace and Gardens are very close.

Plastic Food Menu

What?

Unfortunately, the weather was so bad the whole time we were in town that we never ventured out to the gardens. We were fortunate on our last tour to be there during the Cherry Blossom Festival. What a lovely, lovely time we had.

View of the Imperial Gardens and Palace

This time we had cold, rain and in the end as we were leaving, snow. At any rate, Chuck and I did hit the streets in search of good food which was just outside the hotel on every block. There was the new shopping street ?? which had all the usual designer shops and a few more local haberdasheries. We found Enoteca that had a wine outlet and also a restaurant that we liked. Our most favorite seemed to be Bangkok Kitchen serving Thai cuisine in The Brick Building. Morning Glory was on the menu!!! I loved it. The vine was cut up in 3 inch segments and ended up looking like green beans without the string. The greens were something like spinach but hard to explain. They had sauteed it with oil, probably lemon juice and some small segments of red and green peppers...not too much. We also ate at the Grill Ukai and the Pizza place downstairs. All the large high rise buildings have several floors of restaurants. The basements usually housed the drinking and more common type of restaurants: sushi, yakatori, Indian, tappanyaki......etc.......
Upper floors had more elegant and high end eating establishments. We liked our neighborhood very much as we hardly ever had to catch a cab and walking was interesting.

Le Muste de Cartier

One of my first missions was to go to Cartier and get me a watch band. I had that awful time in Paris, and I knew that I would not be so poorly treat in Tokyo. They were more than wonderful, and I got a wonderful brown alligator band for my Tank Watch. Appropriate for a Southern girl who has alligators on her property...It was very enjoyable seeing all the changes that are occurring in Japan.

Madelines just like Paris!

In our former years it was impossible to translate or even communicate verbally, but those things are changing rapidly as it is in the rest of the world. All the shops and restaurants had at least one and sometimes all persons speaking English. Once we found our places to shop and eat, we felt at home. If we could just get our time frame together. At first, we slept until Noon which meant nothing the first couple of days. But, we knew we better get ourselves together!! The shows in Japan are at 7pm with a 9:30 pm curfew which meant that I had to leave the Hotel at Noon to go to the Tokyo Dome.

www.rollingstones.com/.../14-on-fire-first-night-back. The core band didn't have to leave for a while, but the costumes and personal grooming rooms have to be set up. Also, the dressing rooms have to be tended. All Others had to be there by mid afternoon for sound check. The reason for the early time is that the 50,000 people attending the show all have to take the train/public transport to get home. Since the Japanese are such an organized culture it is very import for them to file out in consecutive order from the show. The Dome is a rather outdated structure having been built in the 88's (The Big Egg).http://www.tokyo-dome.co.jp/e/ When we went there in l989 for The Steel Wheels Tour we played 10 sold out shows and were there for almost a month. That would have been roughly 500,000 people. This time around we would do 3 shows totaling 150,000. During the stay it was baseball season, and there were 3 games after our first show and prior to the  It was a bit chaotic backstage..First night there was no proper room for Caroline Clements Makeup chair and set up.

Caroline Clements

She is the Zen Mother for the band and has been with them since the Steel Wheels tour. She is a tremendously wonderful person, and I have enjoyed being her assistant during the shows. Each member has a turn in her chair to get a groom.
A few resist it, but all in all a powder and brush is a good thing. Isobel Work's Wardrobe was also without walls so all the cases were just set up in a large area which included the curtained area for Meet and Greet.

Bobby Keys and Isobel Work

The Dressing Room Head Heather Kjollestdal and her assistants Lindsey McGoran, Dominic Park, Martha Heckman and Tori Tanner are all lined up across the right side of the room looking like judges in American Idol.

The Backstage Crew

In other words, the middle room
is a mad house. To the far end of the building are the dressing rooms for Ronnie, Mick Taylor, Lisa Fischer and Keith..the side closest to the stage includes Band 1 (Chuck and Darryl) and Band 2 (Bobby Keys, Bernard Fowler, Tim Ries and Matt Clifford). The building was like an ice box...hard to warm up. So, there was a lot of coming and going. Ronnie's room seemed to be the hub of activity. Sally loves Backgammon and she has a running challenge with Bobby Keys and Chuckie Klapow (Mick's Choreographer)

Chuckie Klapow, Rose Lane & Chuck

Charlie is in and out as well as Mick Taylor. Lisa is doing her zen thing across the hall. Keith and Patty are feeling lagged and I think fell asleep on the sofa.. Mick and Charlie are placed on a different level. And, catering is 2 floors up and across the building. Bummer. The VIP Guest Area is totally on the opposite side of the arena which is a long way plus you have to go through the audience to get there. Doors open at 4:30pm so if Chuck is to make it across the arena he needs to do so early.

To all of that add the fact that catering is on the other side of the building 2 floors up. So much back and forth....
Well, the show goes on with huge accolades from the audience. It was a success. Now, back to the hotel

Parts Unknown: Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates

Rose Lane and Chuck in Abi Dhabi

One never knows where life will lead you. The Rolling Stones have taken us on many, many wonderful adventures. They do it as much as anything in their quest to conquer the world with music. The fans always show up no matter where we go. As we all know, the United Arab Emirates is a very wealthy area of the world.
The Persian Gulf borders it on the South and also Pakistan, Iran and Qatar. It is a new country chartered in l971 and Abu Dhabi is the capital city. Oil is their # one commodity, and Islam is their official religion with Arabic being their language.The topography: Desert Sand!!!  The City of Abi Dhabi has about a million inhabitants. Our flight was about 7 hours long so it was night when we arrived. Not much to see except lights. There is always the social protocol of The Rolling Stones, family and their associates deplaning and immigrating prior to all the Core Band and entourage. Once we were off the plane Frankie Enfield and Luis Sotto (our tour road managers) showed us into a very beautiful reception room with juices and sweets to welcome us to Abi Dhabi.

We had to pass through immigration which went reasonably quickly, considering there were nearly 75 of us. The backline crew has been traveling with us, too. We boarded our bus to take us to the hotel The Park Hyatt which was on Saadiyat Island about 20 miles from the downtown area. We had to pass around the Persian Gulf noting along the way that there was a water park, Formula One Racetrack, multiple golf courses, rows and rows of new houses most of which were not inhabited that I could tell, and of course the shipping docks. One of the bays held what appeared to be at least 1000 small compact cars....98% of which were white. The roadways were all spanking new with rows and rows of planted palm trees and beautiful hedges, etc. I never saw anyone pampering the area but there was no litter. Our driver told us that all of the buildings, etc. had been built in the past 10 years and the old town was torn down to do so.
Finally, we arrive at the hotel which is just about half a mile past the St. Regis..

The hotel was laid out just as you would expect for any resort. A very large main building with 3 restaurants and a large pool area with multiple swimming  and sunning areas. There was a restaurant/bar up on the Gulf beach. Chuck and I had a lovely suite which was part of a compound of 4 units. You entered a door way with a central courtyard and all the rooms viewed the Persian Gulf.

The Persian Gulf

I think that every room in the Hotel faced the Gulf. There was a very small dipping pool outside with a patio area. We enjoyed that! It was fenced in so that you couldn't access the beach without going to the main concourse. Chuck went for a walk on the beach the first day after we woke up, but he was told not to walk near the water on hard ground or to swim. That made it difficult as the sand drift is very deep. On the second day, Tim Ries went for a walk and wasn't told about the danger so he came back to the hotel and realized that the bottom of his feet were black with tar. It seems that the petroleum sometimes flows up through the sand. On the days after that we saw people swimming in the water, etc., so obviously it wasn't a problem all the time. We enjoyed our few days off admiring the beautiful water, sun, and camaraderie of our bandmates.

Tim Ries with Chuck at the Mosque

On Thursday evening Tim, Chuck, Caroline Clements and I went to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque which is a sight to behold as it rises so beautifully into the Arabian night. It is a fabulous piece of architecture with room for 42,000 people for prayer. I highly suggest that you visit the place on line as there is not enough time or room for me to mention all of the beauty that exists in this place.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

 www.szgmc.ae/en/ Wow! You must remove your shoes to enter and there is a social protocol regarding dress for men along with women whose hair must be covered and no sexually explicit dress.
We all made our way back to the hotel, but Caroline, Chuck and I decided to dine at The St. Regis as we had heard that there was a great steak restaurant there. It was just that....and very pricey, too. To be honest, everything is in this land...Finally, it is Friday, and we have our first show. The stage is set up on what is part of the Formula One racetrack...an area where they sometimes hold events connected to the races.

At the show...

Sounds weird, and it was was. The audience was all on the field...except for one set of bleachers which was at the opposite end of the stage...about a football field or so away. There was about 32,000 people there.

Stones 14 On Fire Stage

When we immigrated into the country we were told that there was minimal alcohol and no prescription drugs (unless with the prescriptions) allowed in the country. Why then did they have a Full Bar set up just to the stage right??? I guess they figured might as well make the $$$$ Muh..nee! We all had to get our tour chops together! The first of anything is always a challenge. We pulled it off, though. The band was terrific!  Clothes looked great. All went well. So, back to the hotel and some after show drinks with our friends to celebrate. Saturday we would travel to Tokyo so our bags needed to be packed. There was a long flight ahead of us. Our departure was very late the following night which would allow us to land in Japan at a reasonable hour the following day. We made one last bus ride across the town and through the reception area. Good bye, Abi Dhabi. It was a fabulous opportunity to see a new part of the world. It's a long way from Bullard, Georgia.

The Rolling Stones in Paris, France 2014

Music brought us here...to Paris, that is...

Chuck, Tim Ries, Caroline Clements, Bernard Fowler

We got the call that the Stones would do a “Pan-Asian” tour about 2 months ago. It totally disrupted our February plans, as we had been told there would be nothing before spring…and we had booked lots of hunts and other activities through all of the month. We had to scramble and do our best to shift some of the hunts to Jan, keep some on the books for Feb that didn’t require Rose Lane and me being there, and in the end, we lost some business that we couldn’t change. I also had to cancel a speech I had on the books to the Georgia Organics Society.…but what were we to do? We just had to deal with it all as best we could and make plans to leave for Paris to rehearse. Of course Rose Lane and I were excited to hook back up with our Stones family….and I was buzzed about getting into the rehearsals and preparing for the upcoming shows.

Rehearsals began on Feb 3rd with the core band….the four Rolling Stones, Darryl Jones and myself. I made up a fairly easy list for the first couple of days, knowing that we would mainly want to just get things going again. That went well, and as the days progressed, the lists of songs I made got more and more challenging.  While we had to remind ourselves of some of the arrangements of various tunes, it all came back to us rather quickly and the band sounded great. We probably touched on 45-50 songs the first week, getting more adventurous as the days passed. One interesting one was "Till The Last Goodbye", which Mick asked me to check out and prepare to do. It is one that I had forgotten about….on the "Only Rock and Roll" album. I gave it a couple of listens and made a chart for it and learned it on my own before trying it with the band. Then when the time came, I played it over the sound system for everyone and we got to work on it. It sounded quite good and gives us an interesting tune in the arsenal that we might pull out somewhere along the line. 

At the end of the first week, Keith's daughter Angela, who was pregnant and overdue for her birth, went into labor. So Keith missed the rehearsal Friday to go and be with her…and to see his new grandson, Orson. Mick Taylor had come in on Thursday, so we took Friday to get him in on the rehearsals and try some things with him. The weekend was off…Keith staying with Angela and family and the rest of us taking some time to enjoy Paris. Rose Lane and I enjoyed some nice walks around the city and some fine dinners together. 

During the weekend, the other players and singers came in….Bobby Keys, Tim Ries, Lisa Fischer and Bernard Fowler. Great to see them all and to get them in the game. So the beginning of the second week, I make the lists of songs with ones that would include them, getting them into the groove. Every day we made progress, and by the end of the second week we were all feeling our oats and the band was tightening up nicely. During both weeks, there were quite a lot of fans that were hanging out outside the rehearsal facility…greeting us with smiles and shouts of our names when we arrived every day and waving goodbye to us as we left to go back to the hotel. Very sweet, and seeing them gave us all a lift. Since we decided not to do a club show to warm us up this time, we decided to let as many of them in as we could on the last day of rehearsals (which happened to be Valentine's Day…and our grandson Miles' 8th birthday) to give them a little "Mini Show".They were truly excited and grateful and it made us feel good that we could say "thanks" in our way for the loyalty they showed us. Great fun all the way around!

So…with two weeks of rehearsals under our belt and a short set for a select number of fans, we were ready to pack up and head to Abu Dhabi for our first show. Rosie and I had the weekend to enjoy Paris before we left and to pack up our own bags for the trip. Then on Monday, Feb. 17th,  it was time to put the show on the road…we would have a long flight to Abu Dhabi, leaving just after mid day….

We got the call that the Stones would do a “Pan-Asian” tour about 2 months ago. It totally disrupted our February plans, as we had been told there would be nothing before spring…and we had booked lots of hunts and other activities through all of the month. We had to scramble and do our best to shift some of the hunts to Jan, keep some on the books for Feb that didn’t require Rose Lane and me being there, and in the end, we lost some business that we couldn’t change. I also had to cancel a speech I had on the books to the Georgia Organics Society.…but what were we to do? We just had to deal with it all as best we could and make plans to leave for Paris to rehearse. Of course Rose Lane and I were excited to hook back up with our Stones family….and I was buzzed about getting into the rehearsals and preparing for the upcoming shows.

Rehearsals began on Feb 3rd with the core band….the four Rolling Stones, Darryl Jones and myself. I made up a fairly easy list for the first couple of days, knowing that we would mainly want to just get things going again. That went well, and as the days progressed, the lists of songs I made got more and more challenging.  While we had to remind ourselves of some of the arrangements of various tunes, it all came back to us rather quickly and the band sounded great. We probably touched on 45-50 songs the first week, getting more adventurous as the days passed. One interesting one was "Till The Last Goodbye", which Mick asked me to check out and prepare to do. It is one that I had forgotten about….on the "Only Rock and Roll" album. I gave it a couple of listens and made a chart for it and learned it on my own before trying it with the band. Then when the time came, I played it over the sound system for everyone and we got to work on it. It sounded quite good and gives us an interesting tune in the arsenal that we might pull out somewhere along the line. 

At the end of the first week, Keith's daughter Angela, who was pregnant and overdue for her birth, went into labor. So Keith missed the rehearsal Friday to go and be with her…and to see his new grandson, Otto Reed. Mick Taylor had come in on Thursday, so we took Friday to get him in on the rehearsals and try some things with him. The weekend was off…Keith staying with Angela and family and the rest of us taking some time to enjoy Paris. Rose Lane and I enjoyed some nice walks around the city and some fine dinners together. 

During the weekend, the other players and singers came in….Bobby Keys, Tim Ries, Lisa Fischer and Bernard Fowler. Great to see them all and to get them in the game. So the beginning of the second week, I make the lists of songs with ones that would include them, getting them into the groove. Every day we made progress, and by the end of the second week we were all feeling our oats and the band was tightening up nicely. During both weeks, there were quite a lot of fans that were hanging out outside the rehearsal facility…greeting us with smiles and shouts of our names when we arrived every day and waving goodbye to us as we left to go back to the hotel. Very sweet, and seeing them gave us all a lift. Since we decided not to do a club show to warm us up this time, we decided to let as many of them in as we could on the last day of rehearsals (which happened to be Valentine's Day…and our grandson Miles' 8th birthday) to give them a little "Mini Show".They were truly excited and grateful and it made us feel good that we could say "thanks" in our way for the loyalty they showed us. Great fun all the way around!

So…with two weeks of rehearsals under our belt and a short set for a select number of fans, we were ready to pack up and head to Abu Dhabi for our first show. Rosie and I had the weekend to enjoy Paris before we left and to pack up our own bags for the trip. Then on Monday, Feb. 17th,  it was time to put the show on the road…we would have a long flight to Abu Dhabi, leaving just after mid day….

The Sheiks gifts