Robert Fripp's Diary

Sunday 11 November 2007

Hotel Acceptable Lake Geneva Rising

13.06

Hotel Acceptable, Lake Geneva.

Rising at 07.31 & straight to packing I…

II…

III…

IV…

Items to be packed include 3 presents for WillyFred from US WillyFred fans, Jeff & Lynn…

… for which I am grateful on his behalf, noting that WillyFred himself will feel no gratitude whatsoever.

The Happy Gigster’s Samsonite Wheelie has flown several flights too far already…

Of its three hinges, one hinge has no screws at all, one has one loose screw (not the original screw, but one provided by Mr. Beefy on a past tour), and the two screws in the third hinge are loose. What to do?...

BeefyTape will give your packing muscle! With a Switzerland-Polydor promotional Polydor Swiss army knife from KC touring in1973. Better not to ask who paid for it.

Every inch of Beefy Tape has now been used in holding both shells together. Should security at O’Hare open this (and the case has been security-opened on several occasions) it’s all-over-now-Baby-Blue. However, I decline to engage the negative, and am counting on a miracle: the case will hold together for the entire journey. Yes it will.

Morning packing: c. 2 hours & 30 minutes. Arriving around 01.15 from Madison, however tired I felt, I packed this morning: I was dropping, and knew that there was sufficient time to finalise packing this morning. A rare exception to the Happy Gigster’s Packing Rule.

Down the hill to an early lunch at the sports’ bar – not an eating environment most in accordance with my nature, but which serves an excellent salmon Caesar salad…

Returning to a noon-meeting with Director Nunez. The accounts from the tour (almost complete) suggest that, with merchandising & receipts for the NST Intro being held today at Beeftone Studios in Madison, the tour breaks even: expenses are covered, no one loses, no one gets paid. Subtract merchandising & the NST Intro, and I will be sent a bill for around $5,000. Strangely, that’s how a manifestation works: it tends to balance out.

The largest single item: hotels @ $17,000. Our hotels have not been extravagant and, if we had stayed somewhere less acceptable than this final particular hotel, would have saved $4,000 on the bill. This is an accountant’s choice - but the accountant wouldn’t have been on the road with the Team (or, if they were, they would have been staying in better hotels). The EG Way would have gone for the cheaper artist motels, this while not paying the (professional) players any wages: EG SOP for KC 1969-74. EG managers themselves flew first & business class to key & capital cities to make their presence felt at important performances (itself a nuisance & a distraction: my attention was already well spoken for before management arrived) and stayed in superb hotels not-within-walking distance of the band.

That’s what it is. Success for the professional at this level equates to: you keep doing it. No keys to executive bathrooms, no better-quality showplaces & performance spaces, no centrally-located hotels, no business class travelling. It’s into the van, drive a long way, check-in to your modest hotel, play the same venue you played 27 years ago, eat your take-away, and go back to Hotel Modesto or drive a couple of hours to Motel Modesto to break the journey for the following day.

That’s what it is. Makes being a plumber an attractive option, n’est-ce pas?

Hernan has set off to the Madison NST Intro & is taking over from Martin, who has been leading the NST Intro morning.

A call to Uncle Bill who has been taking part in the march-past of vets on Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph in Whitehall today. I am very proud of my Uncle Bill.

Lobby call 13.30.

16.04 Red Carpet Club, Concourse B, Chicago O’Hare.

Punctual collection by Collin & on the road to O’Hare I…