2001 TOURS Roger Hodgson, Nice 26th May
- On 11 September 2010
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Breakfast in Nice = Nice Breakfast !
THURSDAY 24/may/2001
This is my personal view of three incredible days in Nice, where we were able to see Roger live and talk with him for quite a while.
Our trip began in Barcelona, Thursday morning. Miguel Angel (MAC) picked me up in Barcelona city and we began our 6 hours trip to Nice, following the Mediterranean coast french highway.
There was no variation at all in terms of music listened in the car. Only ST and RH CD's..of course. Well, yes, we had THE BEATLES for about one hour....
Weather in Nice was good and there was full of people, because of F1 Grand Prix. Concentration of Ferraris was higher, and our Ferrari Testarrossa was wandering around with a big flag of Roger...sorry, only a dream.
Our Hotel was not exactly a 5 star, but a 5 square meters rooms one. The toilet was so little it was not possible to seat (you know what I mean). Fortunately, there was another one in the corridor...
We reached Nice at 19:30 and we phoned Peggy, who was already there. So, we met in the extraordinary Nice beach boulevard (Boulevard des Anglais) and we were talking for a while before going to eat something.
FRIDAY 25/may/2001
Next day, we decided to go to Salle Nikaia (the venue). We did not know anything about the place and we wanted to see if it was possible to meet Roger or see what was going on there. We decide to go in without asking, just walking. We reached first door, and nobody was there so we came in. Second door and nobody, so we did continue. Third door and we were in. What a surprise.... nothing was ready, no instruments, no singers, no Roger, nothing at all. Suddenly a security man came to us asking what we were doing there: Sorry, no problem, we are looking for Roger...he did not know anything about...but he asked us to go away...
At quarter to 3 we were in the airport, the meeting place with the others. Hans (who does not like too much airplanes) and Monique arrived punctually and later was Laurent. Gudrun and Jerome were already in the Hotel, so we took the short way to the Hotel.
After having our tickets and t-shirts (hope you can see them in the pictures) we decided to go visit Nice and have something to eat. Unfortunately, as tourists, we did not manage to choose the right place....
SATURDAY 26/may/2001
Around 11 a.m. we were all together in a nice square having breakfast and talking about what we could do. It was around 11:45 when the mobile rang: Roger was on the phone. Excitement jumped to high levels and Peggy (who had the conversation) was managing to be calm...she was nervous. Roger proposed us to go to the venue to see the sound check (at that moment I was wondering about...the venue was empty the day before...)
So, the rest of the day plans changed and we decided to continue our visit to Nice. We went to buy something to eat and we were there around 4 p.m.
Roger was not there so we decided to wait at the door, under a heavy sun...but the wait was really short because Roger arrived only some minutes later.
He was really happy to see us there...and he invited to go inside to see sound check. Fortunately everything was ready and we were able to see sound check of the Orchestra , the Choir and John Miles.
Roger did have problems with the piano because of "Fool's Overture" sound. Synthethizer was not ready so he spent more than one hour fixing it. Finally everything was fine but the real sound check of Roger was only 2 minutes.
We went out to eat something and 10 minutes before the start we went in. There was a mess with tickets so they relocated us really far far away...but the mess was already inside so finalyy we were all together in the first row !!!
A lot of elegant people...but also quiet people. Classical music was fine but it was only with Roger , the french singer and Simple Minds that people made something more than just watching....
So after a long pause, the show finished around 11 pm. Only 30 minutes later, the scene was into the big boxes and we were still there. Bodyguards were showing us their extreme "nice face" asking about our "schedule".
What are you doing here? Sorry, we are waiting for Roger. Roger will not come (a good answer...) Sorry, he is there and he will come. Well, ok, please ask the production people.... Then, using their secret service microphones they began a conversation with production...asking us to seat there and don't move !!!
After 5 minutes, their conversation with somebody was continuing but they did not manage to see that Roger was already with us, talking for a while about his projects: Ringo tour and next year's album (we hope)
After some minutes of conversations and photo session Roger said it was time to go....
and he left sending all his love to all of you !!!
And that's it....
Roger giving flowers to Peggy at the end of the show !
