WARNING * long post*
A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a secret 40th birthday party in Nottingham for an old friend of mine Richard Hunter . Richard was Salvation's manager waaaaay back & we've been good friends ever since . Unfortunately we'd already planned with other friends to see Melissa Auf Der Maur at the Cockpit in Leeds.
A few days ago I had a message on my answerphone from Danny , Salvation's singer asking me if I was going to the party . Being ignorant like I am I never called back & then last Thursday Danny phoned me again telling me that I REALLY ought to go . When I started mumbling on about Melissa Auf Der Maur's legs he decided to let me in on the secret that the old band were planning on doing a short set to suprise Richard . It's maybe 15 years since they did their thing & for most of that time a couple of them weren't on the best of terms .
Phone calls were made , plans were changed (thanks to other friends for being understanding) & off we went to Nottingham . The only room we could get was on the penthouse floor of the Royal moat House hotel so it ended up being quite an expensive trip .The party was a good one , the cherry vodka shots were fantastic , & it was great to catch up with everyone , a few that I'd not seen for 12 years .
So , 10pm & Richard was brought to the front of the hall & asked to say a few words to everyone who'd turned up for him , he was pissed & the speech was something to behold LOL .He was then given a present to open which was a Salvation t shirt with ONE tour date on the back for last night . As he was trying to work out what it meant the curtain that was hiding the equipment came down & the band said happy birthday & kicked straight into the first song "The Answer" . Besides being the manager Richard was also a huge fan of the band & has spent the last 15 years hassling them to play again but to no avail . The fact that they'd done this just for him really meant a lot & there were a few tears shed . The band did "Debris" , "She's an island " and "Listen to her heart" . They went down really well , people were dancing , taking photos and *ahem* recording it all for blackmail purposes.
The band would have played more songs but for a couple of things . Three of them got together a couple of weeks ago & had a few run throughs over a few bottles of wine , the other two didn't rehearse with them until yesterday afternoon after they'd set up in Nottingham .....in fact one of them was in South Africa until Friday evening . It didn't help that of the four songs they'd chosen, George and Adam had never even played two of them in their time in the band so they had to learn them from scratch yesterday .
The microphone was passed to Richard Hunter afterwards for another speech & it was one of the funniest things I've ever witnessed .Pissed and emotional - fantastic combination .
Full credit to the five members of Salvation for putting this together for one of the nicest blokes you could ever wish to meet . Considering the circumstances it was a scaringly good performance . They were MUCH tighter than they should have been & sounded pretty much as they did back in the mid-late 80's .
As for anything regarding Salvation in the future they have all moved on to other things & two of them now live down south so I don't think getting back together full time is a possibility ....however ......at different stages of the evening I talked to each of the band & not one of them said for definate that they wouldn't do something again .
Lastly , remember that I had tickets for Auf Der Maur at the Cockpit in Leeds ...well the funny thing is that the Cockpit is Richard Todd's club who just happens to be Salvation's bass player , so a fanfare played while he got out his wallet & gave me the money back for the two tickets I'd bought . When I asked about the booking fee though he told me to f**k off .
fantastic evening .
six photos here are from last night (near the top)
http://www.nigelkurt.com/gallery/photography/
