21/07/06

After a late night back from Reading we arrived back at the Hop Farm for our third day of War and Peace. Another hot performance and then we thought we had a few hours to relax as we didn't have far to get to the next gig. In fact, we had no distance to cover at all as the next gig was in the same place for the evening dance at the War and Peace show. Only thing is, the BBC called us yesterday and asked us to come and do a promo TV spot to promote the Big Dance event in Trafalgar Square tomorrow. Being good sports and all round good eggs we did a bit of what felt like the logistical equivalent of the game "Twister" we managed to pull it off and get back to Paddock Wood in time for the next show and this is how it played out:

We finished the lunchtime show at the War and Peace show, threw all the instruments and PA equipment in the car. We then drove at great (yet obeying the limits) speed to Tonbridge station, parked up and threw all the instruments onto the train. We then got off at Charing Cross and chucked the stuff in a taxi with a couple of people. The rest of us darted onto the tube and met the taxi goers at Marylebone High Street at the BBC London building. We dragged the gear up to the fifth floor and onto the roof. The Jiving Lindy Hoppers turned up and we ran through what we were doing on the show. We played while the dancers danced and Russel from the Jiving Lindy Hoppers was interviewed about the event and even taught the presenter a couple of steps. He also talked about the world record he was going to attempt to break tomorrow at the event which is the most number of flips done in a minute. The previous record was 17 and Russell is going for 24. All in all we appeared in three segments on the BBC London news. as soon as the cameras stopped rolling we threw the stuff back in the taxi, jumped back on the tube and got back to Charing Cross. We then high tailed it down to Tonbridge and pegged it back to the Hop Farm just in time to throw the suits back on and jump on stage for the show. PHEW!!