I was sworn to secrecy about plans for Paloma Faith to tour the UK with the Guy Barker Orchestra after the Forestry Commission show at Delamere Park near Nantwich on July 7th – contracts still had to be signed, details ironed out, that kind of thing, but what a prospect!
Two Cheltenham Jazz Festivals and a pre-Christmas show at the Barbican had already proved how great a combination the two were so it was just a case of waiting until dates were announced before putting travel plans in place.
Within a month the dates and venues were released: Bristol, Coventry, London, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and Gateshead, all at the end of October.
Liverpool and Manchester were definite, but where else could I get to without needing to take extra days off work?
Generally I’ve tended to treat anything further south than the Midlands as an overnight stay - London was at the Barbican again, with happy memories, and I’d travelled to Tyneside before for a Paloma gig and got home at a fairly reasonable time the same night.
So, choices to be made – daughters and boyfriends had let it be known they’d be happy to join us at the next Manchester show so Bridgewater Hall was going to be an expensive night as far as tickets were concerned, but further afield I needed to factor in travel and possibly accommodation, London being the most obvious – I’d hardly missed a London show in four years.
Tickets went on sale on 9th August and with a Paloma tour I work on the principle of nearest first – so around £250 and nearly half a row of seats on row C later Manchester was in the bag and I moved on to tickets for Liverpool Philharmonic, just two this time, on row B.
Booking for London was already looking problematic even before tickets went on sale – I’ve relied on advanced train or coach tickets and cheap hotels unless travelling with my beloved, but none of the websites had their autumn offers available so prospects were hit and miss.
Then I found out that tickets for the Barbican show were initially only available to “Members” who’d paid a Membership fee, which was easily the equivalent of buying a ticket for the best seat in the house and meanwhile all the seats near the stage were being sold before my eyes, as fans competed with ticket touts…
So I made the really hard decision to abandon thoughts of going to the London gig.
Next on my list of options was the University of Warwick Arts Centre, outside Coventry – similar distance from home as the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham but with the luxury of free parking after dark!
Sold to the man with a credit card - two seats on the front row, as well.
Bristol, Edinburgh and Gateshead seemed like a bridge too far and I still needed to be at work occasionally, if only to be able to afford to get to the next tour.
Two and a half months would soon pass…
