Travelling with the Guitar

I've been called a groupie, a roadie, a coolie... but all I really am is wife to my guitar-playing husband who travels some. I get to tag along, to take me away from the monotony of obsessive house cleaning. Here, I log our adventures with food, airlines, hotels, food, organisers, fans, food, people, books I read. Did I say 'food' already? Well, someone's got to tell people what life's like on the road, right?

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Day One - Double Take @ Equatorial Hotel's Summer Jazz Series 2006
5:30am: The guitarists alarm clocks wakes him up. He has a live interview @ NTV7studio during their Breakfast Show. He thinks of taking the trains but it's raining (explains why I had a wonderful sleep in!) so he hops on a cab that charges him RM45 to get from Equatorial Hotel @ Jalan Sultan Ismail to Holiday Villa, Glenmarie (to meet Mia Palencia there). Ouch!

9am: They are finally put in front of cameras for the live shoot. I'm just stirring from bed. I have a 10:45am appointment.

11am: Roger comes back to hotel, wife has left (the hotel) for an appointment with her friends.

2pm: Roger has sound check with Mia at Flo so I'm thinking, heck, the man's still busy. So I pop by Mid Valley on my way home and contribute to the Malaysian economy. Store vendors smile when I leave their premise. I smile too. Everyone's happy during the Mega Sale!

6pm: Double Take has a live radio interview with RedFM, meet their old friend, Tim. Tim asks Roger to sing, Roger says noooo thanks. Tim says sing lah*, Roger says "no" some more. (*Not direct quotes) Tim retaliates (power of the press).

Tim asks radio listeners, yo people *, sms to RED if you want to hear Roger sing. Within a couple of minutes, RED receives 100 sms-es, asking Roger to sing. Roger's a nice guy so he complies. He sings. He sings "Would You Like to Play the Guitar or Would You Rather Get a Job" and manages to dis both agent and wife in less than two minutes! He survives though.

See picture of RedFM's monitor (right), receiving sms-es from listeners, asking Roger to sing. I've covered the phone numbers, names and IC numbers because I don't feel like going to court anytime soon. Ya, that's what DJs see when you send in sms-es during their shows. Interesting, eh?

7:30m: I see Roger for the first time today. Been too long, sayang.

9:48pm: Double Take performs. New songs with some old ones thrown in for good measure. People like. This year, a different guest musician joins Double Take every night during the four-day Flo gig. Tonight, it's Kevin Soo on Sax. Soo on Sax. Soo on Sax.

Roger enjoys jamming tonight. He's high from good vibes.

12:55am The gig's ended 20 minutes ago but Roger is still high. He had a wonderful time.

posted by Claudina @ 8:55 PM