We still had a few dates down South before heading North up the M1.
As I said I had picked up my Moggie Minor from Harry’s place on a trip West and just felt happy to have it with me.
One Thursday Harry asked me to collect some gas canisters which we used in the water sequence. He told me to get some petrol in my car and he would reimburse me.
The depot for the canisters was in Romford, a town I knew about but had never visited. Little did I know that in the future this Essex town would play an important part in the next stage of my life.
I found the depot easily enough and I was soon heading back to the venue – then my car broke down. I can’t remember what it was but it was certainly not a five-minute repair. This was a time when I could have done with my mate Roger to lend me a hand.
I was on the edge of Colchester and I called the AA who turned up very quickly. The AA man said he would have to give me a tow to a nearby garage where I could arrange for repairs.
At the garage I was told the job would take a few days and as we were heading North at the weekend I had to ask them if they would do the work but then garage the car until I could get back to pick it up.
It was a wrench leaving her behind so soon after getting her back.
I called the theatre to tell Harry what had happened and he said I should get a taxi from Colchester to the theatre and he would deal with the payment when we got there.
By good luck the garage also ran a taxi service and as the theatre was about half an hour away I got there just in time to get the canisters backstage and then head out front to man the merchandise stall.
It was fortunate that I was wearing my stage gear, black shirt, trousers, boots etc. as I would have had no time to change.
Normally I would have done a full sound check and also made sure everything was in the right place in the wings to make sure scene changes and the UV sequence ran smoothly and quickly.
Because of the mishap with the car I had not been able to carry out my normal checks but we had everything running so efficiently by this stage of the tour that there were no further problems that day.
NEXT TIME: Heading North for the last days of our tour
Robin's Nest 