A excerpt from 'Labour Of Love The story Of UB40'

[nani]

10th April 2010, 05:37 AM

We are told by Jimmy Innis our Glaswegian stage production manager “ You are doing a runner as it will take hours to get out if you don’t, there’s a million cars about to cause a major traffic jam, total gridlock! So its straight onto the buses from the stage “ Of course one of the bus’s breaks down. Typical, I sit with Martin and Laurence, we just laugh; we are definitely the ‘ Keystone Kops’ of the reggae world. Its not long before we are on the road though back to the hotel, passing the thousands of people who are now heading into the night looking for rides home, coaches, cars, bikes. They wave and say nice stuff, we wave back. We are soon at the hotel, hurrying to our rooms, desperate to get out of our wet cloths and under the shower. Its the same routine again thirty minutes later we meet in the hotel restaurant that has been reserved for us, its 12: 45 am and we sit down to dinner, our first real meal of the day. Not everyone turns up Me, Martin, Robin, Earl, Astro, Paul and Jimmy all sit down open a few bottles of red, some champagne and settle in. We talk about the gig, and man what a gig it was, what a buzz, but I feel an almost tangible resignation in the air, all of us aware that maybe this is it, maybe will never make it back to New Zealand as UB40? We send a bottle of champagne out to the chef and thank him for a great meal.
Stuffed and weary we head back to our rooms, I know there is an after show party at the ‘Grumpy Mole “ I kid you not, its a local bar, looks great but we are too tired, its 11 am GMT for us and it feels like we have been up all night. Of course that means I walk straight into an old mate of ours, Fish the guy I spoke of earlier. He has traveled the 4 hours down from Auckland so I can’t possibly go to my room. As I am about to join him outside where he is sitting with another old friend of ours Annabel from Virgin records, well she’s not anymore but she worked all our records through the 80’s and 90 ‘s, she then walks through the restaurant door. OK, I surrender and sit down with the whole gang and we reminisce about happy days gone by, Annabel is with another mate who worked in wardrobe on Peter Jackson’s ‘ Lords of the Rings ‘ movies so she has some great tales to tell, its good just sitting here at 2:45 am talking rubbish and laughing at bad jokes. I show them some of my very bad magic tricks surprisingly they go down well, and I am begged by all to reveal my secrets, NEVER will I tell. Of course back in the UK its 1:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon so my phone starts ringing. I take the calls but I cant even remember what I said or who I was talking to, eventually I have to admit defeat and show them my greatest disappearing trick, I stagger off to my room and flake

[Helena]

awe i thought there was a new instalment when i saw this post here

[Dutchess]

me too! Could do with some more reading material!!

[nephertiti]

Great read - so well written ...but will have to write down page numbers before I attempt it all.....hint hint ...I would buy it if it were all written down in a book...hint hint

[nani]

Originally Posted by nephertiti

Great read - so well written ...but will have to write down page numbers before I attempt it all.....hint hint ...I would buy it if it were all written down in a book...hint hint

I totally agree, Neph x...It took me ages to find those excerpts! and for me, it's a second time reading and I know the newbs will enjoy as much as we have.

[TiciaBlovesUB]

I AM NOT a reader but I want an advanced copy!!!

I will absolutely dive in to this!

[old loonie]

yeh come on BT

[librangal]

fantastic writing brian, cant wait to read the whole of it

[kate13]

Aye it's like stop the bus i'm hungry.

[pedromenedro]

Brian the Bard of Balsall Heath.............pray tell.........when will one be so fortunate as to hold this master of all literary works in one's hand?