We arrived in Twickenham during the early afternoon and parked right outside The Boathouse, it is a house that has been converted to a studio, on the outside it looked very small, on the inside it was smaller still and certainly no tardis!!
Chris and myself walked up to the green gates and peered over to see what was happening, there were lights on inside but at this stage couldn’t see anyone about. In the garden there was a portable event toilet unit, Pete’s large camper van and Rachel’s smaller camper van, and a few trees.
Just over the road was the bridge you can see in the Exquisitely Bored video that is on the Video EP that was released a few years ago, we walked over it, it is now painted a mint green in color and is a pretty spectacular sight, giving great views up and down the river. At the rear of the Boathouse there was a rather large ‘Dutch’ barge, I was led to believe this was Pete’s barge although I don’t know this for certain.
We then decided to walk up to the pub everyone was meeting in, this meant we had to walk past our car and The Boathouse once again, when we reached our car, the road was flooded as the river had risen and burst it’s banks, this happened very quickly, and the 12” gap under the green gates to the boathouse had disappeared under water, we waded through the water and moved our car a little further up the road and out of harms way. At this point there was activity in the boathouse grounds, a couple of what looked like bouncers appeared and a older guy who removed his shoes and socks, he then proceeded to move two or three cars that were in danger of flooding.
When we had re parked our car we started to walk towards the pub, it was then we saw Paul and Pieter from The Dutch Mob walking towards us, we gave them a wave and waited where we were, after handshakes and kisses all round we all decided to wait at the entrance to the boathouse as is customary for Who fans, I have to say Rachel’s fans could learn a lot from Who fans, there’s nothing quite like queuing up for hours in the freezing cold exchanging stories whilst waiting. There were those that decided to wait in the pub until nearer the entry time, it was warm, had cold beer and hot food, I don’t know what they were thinking!
As we got back to the entrance Paul noticed his car was somewhat under water, he removed his shoes and socks and got in to move it, it was then he noticed the flood water had risen enough to actually flood his vehicle and, after managing to move it up to where I had parked, started to bail out the water.
Following this drama we returned to the green gates, Simon came out, had a quick chat and went off in his car, Bob Pridden came out and went back in again, then Rachel, Pete appeared and unlocked his camper van and he Rachel and one or two others filed inside, after a few minutes Rachel came out as did the others but Pete remained.
Approximately half an hour later, the door opened again and Pete stuck his head out, looked around and when looking towards us, gave the strangest look I have ever seen, I don’t know if he had been asleep but it looked that way!!
During the course of the next few minutes there was some coming and going to and from the camper van, then Pete came back and locked it up again.
At this point a few more ‘bloggers’ had joined us in the queue and I met Koos for the first time, another ‘Who fan’ from Holland. Koos gave us some instructions on how we should learn to speak Dutch, I can’t speak English properly never mind Dutch!!!! And he left us to go up the pub.
By this time there were around 10 to 15 people in the queue and all of a sudden we were asked to move from the large double green gates, to the smaller single green gate, excitement was really hitting home at this stage.
At around 7:20pm, the gate opened and two ‘door men’ ushered us in, taking our invitations off us and promising we could have them back at the end of the evening (we didn’t get them back by the way, Rachel can I have mine please?) we passed through a small door and into a small room, there was a large table set up that had many glasses of wine laid out, we then turned right and through another door, this was the inner sanctum, there was a small stage on the left and the rest of the room was laid out with small tables covered in red table cloths each having candles burning brightly, all the chairs were gold with red velvet seats.
We filed into this room and chose a chair, I ended up in the chair right in front of the main mic stand, it already had a number of Pete’s plectrum’s attached to it, I thought I was in a dream, I have been front row on a number of occasions but never this close, when I sat down my knees actually touched the edge of the stage, there were two JBL monitors either side of the mic stand and all were within touching distance.
Once everyone had got in and settled down, we were shown a feed that was coming from upstairs ‘In The Attic’ Rachel and Mikey were chatting away as they have for the last 10 weeks or so, Soon Pete, Simon, Rachel’s band joined them, Foy was no where to be seen, after a short chat amongst themselves, with us lot eavesdropping, Foy appeared.
During the pre show chat Pete was taking the piss out of Mikey, winding him up as he was going on first and he was very nervous, the others joined in and it was just as if we were all part of the party, very relaxed and informal.
Mikey was the first on stage, Rachel introduced him and he delivered a set that did him proud, a lot of Mikey’s songs are about Rene, his girlfriend, who later on stood up and gave us all a wave. I could see Mikey was shaking a little and he was obviously nervous. When he got to his last song of the evening, he asked us all to join in with the chorus, It was Pigeon, he did say he wouldn’t single anyone out whilst looking at me in a strange way as if to say, “I might”
After Mikey, came Simon, Simon was fantastic, I saw Casbah Club earlier this year, that was a great show, but this was even better, maybe because of the intimacy, I don’t know. Simon played some of my favorite tracks and we sang along!
Next came Foy Vance, this guy will be a major superstar one day, his voice is just something else, he played a few of his own compositions and a wonderful cover version of Crosstown Traffic, brilliant. Foy is also very quick witted, he commented to a friend of mine Tony, who was wearing a Batman T-shirt, he said “dig the shirt” Tony replied “dig the pants” to which Foy said, “Well I’m young enough to wear these pants, your much too old to wear that t-shirt “…LOL. Don’t forget the name FOY VANCE. Whilst setting up the mic stand for Foy, Alan Rogan had to tell me to be careful as the end of the stand was only around 2 inches (5cm) from my face!
Rachel and her band were next and I have to say, I did purchase her cd for my Wife earlier this year as a Birthday present and whilst it would not be the normal type of music I would purchase for myself, we have both listened to it over and over again and really like it.
Rachel and her band live are an experience we enjoyed immensely; they played a few tracks from the album, and had the whole place rocking out, Into my Heart and Jigsaw being two of my favorites. Rachel commented that this was only the second time she had played an encore, the first being at The Bedford Arms earlier this year and this one meant a lot to her.
The last act on stage was some unknown guy Pete Townshend, he is a class act!! He told many amusing stories, commented on how it was as if we were all in his living room, he then gave us a guided tour of the room, the last place John Entwistle played with The Who, the place where Siouxsie from The Banshees cut of the end off her finger in ‘that door’ as Pete pointed to the doorway he had just walked through to get on stage.
Pete also explained how, when the Cocteau Twins took over the place in the early 80’s, Elizabeth Fraser, told him she could feel some kind of presence in the room, he then went on to tell us how we were on ‘hallowed ground’ we already knew that, we were in Pete Townshend’s own studio, that was hallowed enough for me. Seriously, Pete said that every one of Meher Baba’s disciples had stayed or passed through at some time and it was looked upon as a kind of temple.
Pete started off with Drowned and Greyhound Girl, then told us how much he hated the next song, although he did have a wry smile on his face and once or twice he almost burst out laughing during the song, Blue, Red and Grey, Pete dusted off his Ukulele and explained the different eras of music and how his Fathers era was ‘wind instruments’ whilst his era was guitars and how differently he plays them, when he picks up a Strat he plays it one way, if he puts his shades on it is completely different even though the same instrument, Pete then went on to say you have to treat a Ukulele with a lot of respect, if you hit it too hard it immediately goes out of tune.
Rachel, then returned to the stage and they sang In the Ether together, they sing together beautifully. Pete then went on to talk about Bob Dylan and North Country Girl, playing a couple of snippets and showing us different chords and the different sound you can make just by adding a thumb. This was the intro to Just Breath which Pete and Rachel wrote together and is about this chord and how it takes your breath away.
They both sang Sunrise next, a different take on a Who song and sang perfectly and wonderful to hear live, particularly as Pete was less than 2 feet (60 cm to all you Europeans!) away from me!!
Pete then treated us to Behind Blue Eyes and Let’s See Action, absolutely brilliant.
After Let’s See Action, everyone joined Pete on stage and after a few thank you, they all sang Shine and what a cracking version it was too. Rachel on piano with Mikey sitting beside her, Rachel’s band backing up Foy, Pete and Simon, at one stage Rachel’s guitarist was playing a lead solo and Pete and Simon were watching him intently, they then looked at each other and Simon winked at Pete, you could tell they thought he was doing a great job.
All the artists left the stage and people were starting to chat about what they has just witnessed, when it all went dark and there were Pete and Rachel on the large screen, they had retired to ‘The Attic’ and began to discuss the events of the day, Rachel asked Pete if he had enjoyed it and after what seemed like an eternity he said “No”
One thing I did notice at this stage and call me sad if you like, Pete yawned twice during his farewell chat with Rachel at the end and I was amazed, there was Pete Townshend right before my very eyes yawing, I didn’t think God ever got tired!!!!
An absolutely fabulous evening and for those of us that were there we were privy to something very very special.
Thank you Rachel, Thank you Pete, Thank you Simon, Thank you Mikey, Thank you Foy, Thank you Rachel’s band and Thank you to everyone who worked on this to make it all happen, it will live long in everyone’s memory.
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