Index to Tour Journal
01 July 99 02-3 July 99
03 July 99 04 July 99
05 July 99 06 July 99
07 July 99 08 July 99
09 July 99 10 July 99
11 July 99 12 July 99
13 July 99 14 July 99
15 July 99 16 July 99
17 July 99 18 July 99
19 July 99
Ok, we're crazy... that's a given. Done. An established fact-
01 July 99
So let's move on shall we? From St. Louis to Atlanta, GA to Frankfurt
Germany to Budapest for a total of 20 hours flying time before we
land in Skopje, Macedonia. So who's on this little jaunt? Aside from
Yours Truly we have those fine folks of that "boogie 'da blues" band
UNCLE ALBERT: Tim Albert (guitar,vocal), Lisa Campbell (keyboards,
vocals), Jonny Bitch (bass, vocals) and Brad Martin (drums). If
you've gotten here from the UA site then you know this... me? I play
tenor sax. We're all going to the "Balkans" to play for the
peacekeepers.
Two years ago UA did a Dept. of Defence (DOD) tour of Boznia Herzegovina and Germany for six weeks. During which time I was fortunate enough to play caretaker to thier dogs, cats and goats. I used that time to record a solo album and an album for my band. Upon thier return they told of all the fun they had and asked if I would like to go if they went again... I said "Absolutely!". So here we go! Hoo buddy!
Please note the number of case Tim is seated on...
A lot of equipment went a whole lotta places and we ended up in Kaposfar, Hungary. Here's how it happened: We missed a connecting flight in Atlanta GA by 15 minutes and Delta Airlines was unable to put us on the next one that evening so they put us up overnight, put all our equipment in "international lock-up" and rerouted us to Budapest via Vienna Austria instead of Frankfurt Germany. And that meant dropping scheduled performances at Camp Able Sentry in Skopje and the one to follow at the Albania site.
But wait- contrary to what the folks at Delta Air told us, our equipment made the next flight out to Frankfurt! So Tim is up all night writing emails and calling airlines and phoning the people at The Pentegon and in Macedonia to inform them that try as we might- it wasn't gonna happen. Tim's been on the road for more than half his life playing live music and without his expertise and the sweat of Mac and Mikey (our MWR guys at Taszar), the tour mighta been finished before it started. So we end up taking our tour bus from Budapest to beautiful Kaposvar for four days...
Dug the church across the street from our home, the Hotel Kapos (picture coming soon). The hotel had a pizza store and a Budwieser Bar serving the original Czech beer (pronounced "boot'-var"). Those who imbibed said it was better than our home brewed Bud. Isn't anything? The pizza shop folks were kind enough to stay open late when we arrived and serve us some pies... well, they were more like foccatias as they had no tomato sauce on them. They served it with a side of sauce cause we were Americans, I guess, but I never touched mine cause they were delicious without it! In Hungarian we would say "Kerstinom!" (Thank you).
The hotel served a continental breakfast in the restaraunt til 8 a.m. and being a starving musician that is used to waking up at 6:30, I took full advantage. Fresh baked bread and coffee that would curl the hair on your knuckles... who would say this ain't heaven? Interesting television as well. There was a hit music video on the local video channel called "Mambo # 5 (a little bit of...)" that I thought was kinda catchy when i heard it the first 30 times!!! Thing is, no one else in the band saw it- heard it on radio or had any idea of what I was talking about. And it was a catchy enough of a tune that it stuck in my head for the remainder of the tour!!! Aaaaauuuurrrrgggghhhhh! Did I hallucinate this tune or what? Help me somebody! (9/2/99 Editors note: Well it turns out that I got the title correct and the track is by Lou Bega. Just saw it in the record store today and they tell me it's slated to be "the next Macarena"! quick- run for cover everybody!!!!)
On our nights off we would be found down at the bar. Espresso cost 100 Forints... cheap! You can get by pretty well there in Hungary, folks. Being a hotel bar there were lots of soldiers doing R & R and (now here's where I offend all my female readers-) lot's of beautiful women practicing the worlds oldest profession. Hate to break the news to you but it's different over there... hardly as hung up about that sex stuff as we Americans are. Now, I have my sences about me and I did not partake. For one thing it wasn't in my budget, but primarily, it's a scarey proposition in this time when the world is riddled with HIV. Given that though, they were very nice and chatty and smiley as they bled us for every Forint possible! I usually tipped about 100%..... ;) Johnny and Bradley were particularly smitten by the young waitress, Timmi.
Unable to perfom July 4th concert in Skopje due to missing gear (I was very fortunate as to be the first one to get thier instrument back) we went to Taszar Main Base where the Connection (from Pheonix AZ) were to play that day. They were gracious enough to allow me some time on this monsterous outdoor stage overlooking the old bunker. I had great fun up there jamming with them! Thanks y'all! They were lot's of fun and the evening was topped off with a very nice fireworks display that started with the American National Anthem followed by the International Anthem (Beethoven's Ninth/ Fourth Movement ).
On the Fifth we had gotten a few more pieces of equipment back, almost all, except one. And that would be the most important road case, the one with the mics and cables and toolkits and the ever important circuit tester... case #11. Though not originally scheduled to play on the 5th, the owners of the monster stage and outdoor PA heard of our plight and left it up for us to use. The soundcrew, three guys named Zolli, Garbo and Marty, stayed the extra day and did a fine job on sound and lights. They had been out in the hot Hungarian sun for 3 days prior to this and were prolly as toasted on the inside as they were on the outside! And the mosquitos! Jeez louise! Bigger than sparrows and thirsty for blood! Mac gave us some serious army issue bug repelent and it helped a little... heheheh. Nonetheless, it was a treat to play with the whole band again.
We did our first scheduled show at the "Fes-tent" there at Tazar on the 6th. Tim asked around the base and found a powered mixer from the chaplan and a karaoke system that we added to the parts we had. Slated to play at 20:00 Tim pulled it together by a quarter till... Some more gear showed up from the Buda-Pest airport, well, the rest of the gear showed up and was delivered to the hotel. Finally! We gotta join a convoy at 0800 hours tomorrow and it leaves with or without us to go "down-range" into Bosnia and Herzegovina and we were releived to hear from Mac and Mikey at the hotel that it had arrived...Waitaminute- all but #11!!!! "^@#$%^#@&#@$%&!!!!!" was heard everywhere at that moment! Mac got on the phone to the Budapest airport as we went on stage. Pacing back and forth backstage for 5 or 6 songs with his cell phone pressed to his ear, shaking his head, speaking occasionally then pulling the phone away in disgust... oh well... that's it... we come all these miles and go thru all this anxiety so we can bring a smile to a soldiers face... only to have this happen... that's all she wro-
Mac throws both hands in the air like his team just won the world cup!!!! "I found #11!! It's at the Airport- It'll be at the hotel by 3 am!" And he and Mikey made the 6 hour drive from Tazar to Budapest and back in record time! It happened to be bad timing for Mikey who had just bought a guitar and had Tim teach him a song to play with us that night- "Knockin On Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan... would'a been a gas... next time, dude!
After the show we were given certificates of appreciation which read: "For outstanding support of Operation Joint Forge, Taszar, Hungary. Entertainment is a vital morale enhancer for service members deployed away from loved ones. Your contributions are greatly appreciated." Words can't express how I respect and appreciate the job these peacekeepers are doing. Thanks with all my heart.
That very night shortly before we started playing was when Fritz The Driver arrived to take us down range. On the previous tour UA did in '97, Fritz was thier driver. I'd heard many things about him prior to this current tour and everything said about him was right on the money- Fritz is good people! Top notch, hilarious, down to earth, the type that calls 'em how he sees 'em and good natured! It was a treat having him as our driver and (like Mac and Mikey and others you'll hear about later) I hope to be able to see him again in this lifetime... Aw, I'm getting all teary-eyed and we haven't even been to Sarajevo yet....
07 July 99 Bus to Sarajevo...