Thursday 18 March 2010

Musical Time Travel - 15?

This song reminds me of one of the best concerts I have ever been to.



Rory Gallagher is no longer with us, but was a great guitarist and entertainer.

I went to see him in Canterbury, with my best friend. We both lived on the coast, around 8 miles away and were travelling by bus.

The concert was amazing and we stayed right to the end, missing the last bus home.

Too poor to afford a taxi (the rates are ridiculous at times like that) we started walking. This was OK at first, but we got slower as the adrenaline subsided. Hunger and thirst kicked in. Then we saw a pick-up truck coming. For a laugh, or maybe desperation, my friend stuck out his thumb.

To our amazement they stopped.

There were 3 guys in the front. If we wanted a lift we could get in the back.

Cool!

We jumped in.

And landed on the stuff in the back - the guys were builders, so there were shovels, buckets, bricks, planks of wood, forks....

Off we went!

It was the most terrifying ride I have ever had - we must have been doing 60 (the whole journey only took a few minutes) and spent the entire time bouncing around with the other stuff in the back, trying not to land on anything too pointy...

It was a great ending to a great evening!

I haven't seen that friend for a few years now - wonder where he is?

5 comments:

terri said...

I LOVE this guy! (Too bad he's gone now.) I'd never heard of him before your post. He's kind of a mix between Jerry Lee Lewis and Stevie Ray Vaughn in my opinion.

Love these musical time travels of yours!

Teresa said...

Love that story!! I was on the edge of my seat...did they sleep on the sidewalk?...get a hotel?...finally spring for a cab?... :)

Unknown said...

Hitching a ride is SO NOT our culture. It can be dangerous beyond belief.

I once walked so far with a friend that no one believes us. Well, we did the walk, and we can talk about it :)

Rock Chef said...

Terri - I think that is a good summary! Glad you are enjoying this!

Teresa - "Finally spring for a cab" - you make me feel so cheap! :-)

Shadowthorne - Tell us about your walk! Hitching is really dangerous here too these days, but back then everyone was doing it. My brother hitched all over Europe!

agg79 said...

I've hitched a few rides in my youth. I'm too old & paranoid now to do that with all the wackos out there.

But is sounds like your ride was a wild way to end a great concert. At least you were not riding with a bunch of farm animals in the back.