Birthday

28/07/2009 by Andy.

If I had been asked the question - What would be your perfect birthday? - my answer would have been so wide of the mark. Here follows a summary of my 60th celebrations, both official and actual, which spanned almost 2 weeks!

The Robin 2 at Bilston on 19th June was chosen as the venue for all Sweet afficionados to come and help me through to my milestone. The afternoon session, my ramblings on an acoustic guitar and footage from early Sweet and even earlier Elastic Band, was well received by the “60″ specially invited guests and at this point I must thank both Kevin Smith and Stewart Roney for their input and organisation. Also a big thank you to Mike and all his staff at the Robin 2 for their part in the smooth running of the event. The evening show was a near 2 hour “Blockbuster” and I hope everyone has forwarded their footage (yes we allowed filming) to Stew or Kev, whatever the quality or content - in fact the stranger the content the better! A huge thank you to Bruce, Pete, Steve, Damian and Adam for their performance, patience and good spirit during the day. Thus ended my “official” Sweet Birthday!

The following week was spent gigging and travelling through Germany, a few more celebrations later with our Deutsche fans left me in need of a break. Sunday 28th - a night off to recuperate so went down to my local so they could wish me a happy birthday. Well I am reminded that this age thing only happens once in your life - the big day looms.

On the day I woke up in Dorset after a low key dinner the previous evening with friends, to find out that I was now a grandfather for the first time but maybe not the last. This was fantastic news, baby Samantha (Sam) now has a connection with her grandfather that is unbreakable. My son Damian, his wife Olga amd Sam will be coming to live with me in the area of the house which was once my Recording Studio - I can think of no better use of the space and I’m looking forward to that day.

Spinal Tap - Wembley Arena - 30th June “One Night Only World Tour”. During the drive up to London I got a phone call from a lovely guy called Steve at Live Nation, Tap’s promoters, asking if I would be willing to get on stage with them at the show - after a couple of heart thumping moments I managed to find myself agreeing and that seemed to be that. We arrived and immediately bumped into Keith Emerson who I hadn’t seen for years, we were then duly taken to the Green Room where we met Justin Hawkins from the Darkness. He was going to appear on stage too which made us both more relaxed. The Backstage Bar before the show was highlight too, Phill Jupitus and Bill Bailey plus Kevin Eldon (Bill’s comedy partner) were there in good form. I found myself in “fan” territory, these guys are the best comedians live and on the box at the moment and we’re having a ball.

The show started with”Tap” appearing as their own support act, The Folksmen (A Mighty Wind) then transforming themselves for the second half into Spinal Tap. Someone backstage had already briefed me that it would probably not be possible for a photo with the guys dressed as Tap because the costume changes were difficult etc blah blah. Understandable but not totally impossible as we found out. The finale, pre-encore song “Big Bottom” got me onto the stage playing bass alongside Justin and Steely Dan’s bassist, Kenny Washington. The song is performed with bass guitars only and I joked with the real bass player, Kenny that he should take care of the dusty end of the instrument ie up the top end of the neck. This was a magical moment for me and has set a bench mark of things achieved.

It wasn’t quite over yet, as we made our way backstage I was stopped by Michael McKean (David St Hubbins) who told me that it had been a pleasure for him to have me on stage because “Love is Like Oxygen” was one of his all time favourite records, in fact he bought the single. That was music to my ears. We then headed off to the bar, made a wrong turn and ended up in Tap’s dressing room with Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnell) and Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls). After a quick sorry we were invited to stay and when Michael came in I had to get the proverbial photo with them. Unbelievable night - the “actual” birthday.

As I said at the beginning to have had such an eventful birthday which just snowballed and happened as if by fate was incredible. I made it. Thanks to my family and friends, especially Sweet fans/friends for their support throughout my 45 years as a musician. I couldn’t have done without you.

xx

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