Rock and Roll Vacation

Just got back from a fantastic European trip. The first part was rock and roll and the second was experiencing the South of France and Barcelona.

We started in Orange, France where we saw David Gilmour play in an old Roman Amphitheater (Theatre Antique). It was extraordinary sitting on big stone blocks thinking of who might have sat there thousands of years ago, and who might they have been watching. Gilmour and band were stellar of course. Besides being able to say hello to David and novelist/lyricist Polly Samson I got to see my old buddy Marc Brickman who has been doing the lights for David and Pink Floyd since The Wall tour in 1980. If you’ve ever seen a Pink Floyd show, you know the combination of lights, lasers, movies, and pyrotechnics is simply the greatest rock production spectacle that you’ll ever witness. PS. Here’s a little known rock history fact. Marc was Bruce Springsteen’s original light man and deserves credit for pushing Bruce to be a real showman and “Go walk on the tables in the club!” Marc’s urging was the spark that got the Boss started in the direction of becoming one of the greatest rock showmen of all time.

Here’s another great Brickman story. In planning for Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell tour the band and Marc wanted to take Floyd’s production to yet a higher level. They had pioneered the use of green Argon lasers in their shows and now wanted to use something that no one had ever seen—newly developed very powerful Gold lasers. These are only used by the U.S. Military and Marc had to get both permission and the lasers from them. So, he’s sitting in this meeting and they’re saying that they are big Pink Floyd fans and yes the band can use their lasers but only if a military representative accompanies the tour and signs off on their use nightly as all the angles of the beams have to be checked to make sure they are not hitting any audience members because Gold lasers are extremely hot and quite dangerous. Marc happily says thanks, gets ready to leave the meeting, and the military guys say, ‘Hey one more thing. We have developed a way to instantaneously take all of the ions out of a particular air space and create a giant explosion! If you want we could set that up so that over each stadium Pink Floyd is playing it could go off whenever you like!’ Brickman is thinking, as out-there as he can get planning all the lights, pyro, and special effects etc., that these guys are totally out of their minds!! He told them in a polite way he thought that just might be a bit too much.

Before the Gilmour concert, my wife, her brother and his wife were having lunch near the gig when someone at a table next to us recognized me from this website and the interviews I had done with David. He even knew my name and insisted I was a rock journalist. I told him I never thought of myself as a journalist so much as just a guy like himself who loved music and had a platform to write about it. He was a very nice fellow from Austria there with a friend traveling to all the David Gilmour dates. It was so surprising to me to be recognized like that. Sometimes I forget how many people see this website and actually read my writings—I was very touched.

From there, Sharon and I went more south and attended a private party overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It was absolutely beautiful.

This particular party was a bit rock star and celebrity-studded but very low key as it was kind of a friends-and-family thing. We were there as friends of the host and during the party I got to chat with my hero Jeff Beck and tell him how much I enjoyed his new live album (read about it here). He was very nice and also very humble—“Forget about me, how about that drummer?!!” Other highlights were Richard Branson giving me a sincere hug after I told him how much I enjoyed his airline (because it really feels like someone has been thinking about you as a passenger and how to make your trip most easy and even fun), and Sting dancing with my wife (she was on cloud 100!).

Not trying to drop names here but just share some fun and point out that sometimes we forget that stars and celebs are people too, and in a laid-back and protected atmosphere they get to be more normal and conversations and the like can be very real and sincere. So it was at this soiree.

From there we went to Avignon and also visited some small towns in that area. They grow a lot of lavender in that part of the country so everything is lavender—lavender soap, lavender scent, lavender cookies, lavender candy, lavender gelato—it was all pretty “lavender” fab!

Then we took a train to Barcelona. Everyone always says, “You’ve got to go to Barcelona!” And now I know why—what a beautiful and exciting city. From the hills to the Mediterranean Sea–the food, the shops, the open-air market, the museums, and all the architecture by Antoni Gaudi combine for a truly fantastic experience.

We saw some of Gaudi’s most famous buildings but the one that just took my breath away was Sagrada Familia, the cathedral started by Gaudi in 1883 and which he worked on until his death in 1926. Here’s the thing—they’re still building it! Through civil war and funding issues the country has continually moved forward to finish this one-of-a-kind artistic architectural masterpiece. The photo here is just a glimpse of what’s inside once you enter. It’s so overwhelmingly beautiful, I almost cried while standing in the middle of all its majesty.

Well, that’s a brief glimpse of our two-week trip. It really was one of those all time special adventures.

I would sincerely like to thank all of you who read this blog. Yes, I have had a pretty magical time working in the music business all my life, but inside I’m just a huge music fan like you and will always be.