Diary 1985

London

Saturday, Jan 5 1985, hotel. This is the last day I have to pay my own hotel bills. Pete's work is beginning to start again, and I will go on his pay roll one more time. If you have nothing to do, don't do it in a hotel! You go mad, and, it costs a fortune.

Jan 30 1985, Wednesday. After the Pete's session, I went to the Hammersmith Odeon with 'Trevor Wyatt', from island records, and Sue, to see Snuffy Walden (my old Texas buddy) play guitar for Chaka Khan. It was a great gig, but a bit cabaret for old Snuffy. He's much better than that. We met up with him backstage before the gig and had a vegetarian meal with him. After the gig we went back to their hotel for drinks and a get together. I thought that Snuffy acted a bit 'weird', because he sat down with us for a couple of minutes, and then fucked off. Little did I know then that he was a reformed alcoholic by then, and no drugs; completely straight! Not the same Snuffy I knew before, I can tell ya! The poor guy must have found it difficult sitting in a hotel bar with me, and not being able to join in, or maybe it just made him sick to see everyone else slurping down the booze and getting shit-faced. It must have been boring for him, never mind a temptation! Anyway, he should have told us. We would have understood. After all, I joined him in the sobriety racket years later. That's how I know what it was like for him then. It's like that for me now!

Feb 5 1985, Tuesday. George fixed our water pipes at the beach hut that busted while we were working at Pete's in London. The pipes froze and when we came home, there was a frozen waterfall sticking out of the water pipe, completely frozen, sticking up into the air. Wow! - Sept. 12, 1985 Thursday -I played at a charity gig in St. James Park, London, with Pete Townshend. Elton John was 'the special guest Star'; he came on and did a set by himself with his beautiful white 'grand piano'. Fantastic! The guest list was made up of mainly famous musicians and actors and actresses. Roger Moore got up and gave a long speech. It was all very nice, and the champagne flowed all night long! I was the last one to leave, and at daylight, I was still looking for more champaigne. I even knocked on total strangers' doors, who live around St. James Park, and tried to blag my way into their houses for more drink. This was at about 8 o'clock in the morning! I was going for it in a big way. Needless to say, I got turned away from each and every house I knocked at. Total drunk, total stranger, going mad, who's gonna let a guy like that into their house at 8am? Huh? Who! Boy was I mad! The underlying reason I was so mad wasn't being turned away, but that I had stayed so long, everybody had left, and I didn't know where I was, how I would get home, or even where I actually lived, or was staying in London. I forgot what hotel I was in, so I wandered the streets until I sobered up a bit, and it all came back to me. Finally I could make it back to my billet! What a night!

Friday Sept 27 1985. I made some homemade wine, which was to be ready in 6 months. I never tasted it; it all leaked out of the bucket! Thursday Oct 10 1985. The tube Newcastle. We flew to Newcastle to do 'The Tube' TV show with Pete Townshend and his solo band 'deep end' (great band), hosted by Jools Holland and Paula Yates. Dave Gilmore was on guitar, the kick horns on brass, Simon Phillips on drums, Jody Linn-Scot on percussion, Me on keys, Chucho Merchan on bass, Billy Nicholls and others on backing vocals, Peter Hope-Evans on harmonica, and Pete Townshend, the 'boss'. After the show me and Jools Holland stayed up all night and sat around and talked in his room, and drank all the booze from his icebox, in the room. Drunk skunks, but it was great fun. Jools is a real cool guy.

Nov 28 1985, Thursday. I did a session for Dave Gilmore (Pink Floyd) at his home studio in Reading, Berkshire. He has since sold it, and it is now know as 'outside studios'. That night me and Dave drove to London, in his Porsche, to see the premiere of Pete's 'White City' film in the West End. It was storming and pissing with rain, but Dave took no notice of the weather, and proceeded to do about 160 miles an hour down the motorway to London. We stopped off on the way to visit Mick Ralph's house (Bad Company band), and had a couple of brandies or so. Then on to the premiere, quick as lightning. I was so scared, I was holding on to the door handle for dear life! Dave looked over and said, "You're not a very good passenger, are you Rabbit?" Once we got to the cinema, I had a couple of medicinal drinks (for nerves), and settled down to watch the film. It was okay, but the excitement I had just gone through was hard to top! So even Pete's film was a bit mild at that point.

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