It was my wife's birthday on 22nd May and a couple of weeks prior, I decided to buy her tickets for Duran Duran. I actually bought four tickets, two for our friends Belinda and Andy.
Today is 6th July. It's stupid O' Clock in the morning and we've all just got back to Hemel Hempstead from a fantastic day out.
Duran Duran were playing at Great Leighs in Essex, very close to where Julie used to live and where I also lived for a while.
The best of company, Nile Rogers supporting and of course, Duran Duran, a real blast from the past for me both professionally and personally made yesterday really special.
I even bumped into Adrian, one of my customers and our long time friends Sarah and Neil who used to live opposite us like a million years ago and who now live in Scotland.
One thing about being in music production though, is that you sometimes need to switch off, forget the detail that you would listen to in the studio and just lose yourself in the vibe. When things got serious for me, the slightly high mix of Alex Van Halen's hi-hat for example, really started to get on my nerves. Seeing one of my favourite bands of all time live, required that I kind of had to train myself to let my emotions take over and to leave my studio ears in well, the studio!
Another example is George Lynch, who's sound and technique were a big influence on me but many years ago, I went through a phase when I found it hard not hear the badly mixed lead guitar overdubs.
The energy that Duran Duran projected into the crowd was amazing but I have to say that the overall sound wasn't at all great. Nile Rogers' mix was so much better. Duran Duran's sound was messy and inarticulate and I must admit to being deeply disappointed with Tom Brown's guitar sound and playing. He had way too much distortion (as opposed to overdrive) when he should have and some riffs like the unmistakable Rio, simply weren't played properly, with the signature 'slide' not being present. How come none of the other guys spotted that in rehearsals?
Of course, Belinda, Julie and Andy were quite oblivious to any of that and the girls in particular simply danced the night away. I eventually got sucked in and just enjoyed myself. 😎
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Julie. ❤️❤️
