Our Magical, Surreal "Big Country Day!" - Part 1

Tom and I have both been huge fans of the Scottish rock band "Big Country" since we were teenagers, and without our mutual interest in this band, we never would have met. Last year, after a 14 year hiatus, the band reformed with 3 original members and 2 newbies and started playing a few gigs and festivals in the UK/Europe. Then in March 2013, they released a brand new album, which is really excellent, and launched a US tour in June. Tom was planning on joining a friend in NYC to catch the band play there...so imagine our complete surprise when we found out that they were going to play in Leesburg at the Tally Ho Theatre, about 10 minutes from our house!!! <We didn't even know that the Tally Ho was a music venue at that point! We thought it was still a movie theatre!> Tom made a couple of calls and actually managed to get a slot on the stage as an opening act! He was so excited to be able to open for his favorite band - a dream come true! And at the suggestion of a fellow Big Country fan from The Netherlands, of all places, he also got a really nice article written about him in the Leesburg Today newspaper:

http://www.leesburgtoday.com/community_life/big-country-fan-comes-full-circle/article_4aae9ce4-cdf6-11e2-87d1-001a4bcf887a.html

Then about 10 days before the show, Tom woke up to discover that he'd lost his voice. We're talking complete acute laryngitis!  He could barely speak above a whisper and couldn't sing at all! The first trip to the doctor resulted in allergy medicine and an antibiotic - neither of which seemed to help at all.  Then 5 days before the show, he returned to the doctor and came home with an oral steroid to reduce the inflammation in his vocal chords. That stuff made a huge improvement over night, and by the weekend before the show, his voice sounded great again!

We'd met the band's original guitarist, Bruce Watson, a few times before, and he and Tom had struck up a friendship over the phone/email in the last few years. In fact, Tom created the first ever Big Country podcast (like a radio talk show but for the internet) and interviewed Bruce for 4 hours last Fall for a few episodes of the podcast. We are also friends with a guy named John Gouveia who is in very tight with the band and often drives them around from gig to gig or travels with them on their  bus for certain segments of their tours.  John asked if we would be willing to have any of the band members over to use our bathroom facilities... living on a tour bus with no shower for 3 months can be tough, and smelly!  And the band isn't willing to spend all of their concert earnings on hotel rooms every night, understandably!  So we agreed, and on the afternoon of June 11th, Tom drove to the Tally Ho and came back with Bruce Watson, his son Jamie (another fantastic guitarist and great addition to the band), and Sarah, Jamie's girlfriend and chief merchandiser at their shows. They hung out for a couple of hours and we had a really great chat with them. They are all so nice and I love hearing their Scottish accents! Bruce and Jamie also took turns playing my guitar. I still don't understand why it never sounds that good when I play it! ;-)

                                                            The Watsons on my couch!!

 

Later, John brought Mark Brzezicki, the original drummer for the band, over to have a shower. I didn't get any pics of him there, unfortunately.  The boys were home from preschool at this point and Mark got to meet them both. He is quite tall, which didn't intimidate Dylan at all, but Evan ducked behind me and hid his face the whole time that Mark tried to talk to him!

 

I still can't quite get over the fact that after years of having the Big Country guys' pictures plastered all over my walls and school book covers, they have now hung out in my house!!  So bizarre & crazy (but good)!!