The M.E.L.T. Chronicles 99 Report by Frederic Hauschild
Part 1
It all began about 6 month ago when it became clear that the band will play at Chronicles 99 as side event. In January 99 it went to the hot spot regarding the organisation. Andi and me had millions of things to
check. First of all the P.A. and Backline Equipment stuff that we had to rent in UK. One week before the show we still didn’t have a drum kit and it seemed like we will never sort out all the open issues but at the end
Andi, ‘da Chief’ did a great Job and everything was ready for the show.
Thursday the 25th we had our last general rehearsal (the first together with Chamber) and it worked out well. Everybody was really exited and we tried to sort out who will take which Flight cases where and when we will meet in Birmingham (Arne, Chrissy and I took a flight on Friday to London, Rainer, Ralph, Katarina and Elisabeth would arrive on Saturday in Birmingham and Max's flight went also on Friday but directly to Birmingham!)
Arne checked the video cam at this rehearsal and that damn thing didn’t worked properly. After this rehearsal we all took our way home with all those guitars, flight cases etc. Arne slept at my house and we couldn’t really get any sleep so we were drinking beer until 3 am. {editoral note - Why are we not surprised?}
The Friday morning we packed 2 cars with stuff, Max, Arne, Chrissy and me, and the girls drove us to Frankfurt airport. We wanted to film at the airport but the damn video cam didn’t worked at all so we took Max to his check-in for Birmingham, then we checked in for London
Heathrow.
The British airways staff were really nice they knew we would come with guitars and stuff and all was arranged that we could take the guitars in the plane they had even given us 3 places for them for free!
(Special thanx to Mona S. from BA).
Arne got really nervous at this point because he never took an Aeroplane before so we sat him between Chrissy and me. He liked the take off but during the flight he got really green in the face and he thanked god and kissed the floor when we left the plane in Heathrow.
At the airport the big welcome committee consisting of Andi, Alis (band van driver of the apocalypse) and Sylvia from Rome Italy were already waiting. Andi told us that the minibus thing didn’t worked out so we will have to hire a car. Big grins around who of us UK inexperienced
guys will drive it? At the end Arne did it and it was real fun he did an awesome Job.
The damn Video Cam still not working but on the way to Birmingham on M40 suddenly we were able to film a little bit. We eventually arrived at the Hotel at 6:30 pm checked in and drank the first case of Andi’s famous Heather Ale.
Later that evening we went to the Grant Moat House Hotel to join the MTAS Party which ended up in Andi’s hotel room where we got the first chance to have a look to all these really weird freaky drunken Highlander TV Series Fans who sprayed each other cream in the mouth and
ran it down with Heather Ale afterwards. I tell you that was really sick.
After that we ended in the Hotel Bar where we met Tori and Jemma from the Mothers Torch UK plus Mary Lisa from SF. After getting completely drunk with Heineken beer and gin and tonic we fell into our hotel beds at 2 am in the morning.
On Saturday after Breakfast we went back to our rooms where Arne and me smoked several cigarettes when suddenly the fire alarm starts off really loud. We immediately thought that we were not supposed to smoke in
the room and that we were the cause of the alarm. So we ran out the room to Chrissy’s room where he opened us the door completely naked because he was taking a shower.
All the fire doors were suddenly locked and we were
wondering how to get out from the first floor! At the end we found the door to the fire stairs we ran out in the backyard where the hotel manager was waiting. He told us that a lady in the first floor burned a t shirt while ironing it. (Uff !!!)
After this nice little adventure we went to the grant hotel where we hooked up Alison who was supposed to drive us around for getting the drum Kit and the others from Birmingham airport. So Arne followed the van through Birmingham with our hired blue Punto which was another
excitement again.
We were a little late at the airport where the others were waiting at the entrance with all the other stuff. After the big hello and hugs we drove them to our hotel and me Andi, Arne and Alison headed for Musical Exchanges Music store to pick up the drum kit. (special Thanx to Jason who even gave us a Drum Tuning key and some Drum exchange heads)
We took the chance to put the rest of the concert flyers everywhere in the shop, which was huge, then we drove back to the hotel where Arne mounted the complete drum kit in the room in order to check if everything is all right. After that Arne and me lay down for 2 hours because we were completely exhausted from this very stressful day while the others went to the Grant Hotel to see Max's Q&A at the convention.
Arne and me arrived there in the evening when a queue of 500 people were standing in line to get autographs, it was just overwhelming. They stopped the session after 4 hours it was expected for max. 2 hours.
We met Derek the P.A. guy for the show and Rainer and me checked some details for the show with him.
At the end we met Valentine Pelka and Richard Ridings at the Catering Room of the con had really nice and interesting conversations. I must say both are really very kind and open minded men without any trace of
TV star attitudes.
The Saturday again ended with an extended Hotel Bar session where we all had really lots of fun and some interesting conversations with some of those Highlander weirdos. After a while Andi showed up in black leather outfit including a whip and handcuffs. Ralph took the chance to get bundled to her and she was training him around while whipping him and the whole bar burst out laughing. Before that he tried to make Jemma take a
coke can completely in her mouth saying if she can do this she will be able to blow his whistle. From that moment on she tried to do it (I think she is still practising!)
