Hugh Cornwell Adventures, Part 3

ahhh, the story continues. hugh cornwell told me that he would be playing at the ramones birthday bash in may and wanted me to accompany him! fantastic news! but...the date was may 19 and i had tickets to see elvis costello, and, sorry hugh, but elvis will always be my #1. perhaps if i didn't already have the tickets in my possession i would have gone, but alas. i will write about the elvis show in another update, because hoooly shit, it was fantastic. even though i missed out on this:

richard lloyd from television came onstage and played guitar on 'get a grip' at the end
which worked a treat, sounded very velvet underground

GOD DAMN IT. oh well. um.. so. yes. basically, i check his touring schedule religiously even though he'll tell me if he's going to be in the area. but i saw that he was touring the east coast in the fall before he told me about it so i picked one of the dates in jersey, since he wasn't coming to philly. it was the one at the brighton bar in long branch. in one of his emails, he told me

look forward to hanging with you again in n jersey
I think debbie from blondie will come to the show in long branch as she lives near there
she came the last time we played there

UM WHAT. DEBBIE HARRY? that sealed the deal. no way was i going to miss this. 

so, uh, long branch is really fucking far away from where i live! ha. but the drive was definitely worth it. i got there and i was on the list (i like saying that. "i was on the list." it makes me sound cooler than i am). i texted hugh again (hehe. i like saying that too. it never gets old.) and let him know i was there. of course he didn't see it in time. i was standing inside near the back when i saw him walk in, and as soon as he saw me he came right over and gave me a hug and said into my ear "oh, it's a shame, you just missed debbie. she left about five minutes ago."

how to deflate me in five seconds: that was it.

oh well. i still have the whole night ahead of me. a debbie-less night. but still! a night.

we go out to the van, since there are opening bands playing and it's really loud inside. kind of funny though, if i was one of those opening bands, i'd be sad that he didn't stick around to watch. anyway, i brought with me the newest bunch of songs my band had recorded. it was a rough mix, but still sounded really good (to us, anyway). i suggested listening to it, and he was all too happy to put it in the van's cd player. 

now, you know you're doing something right when hugh cornwell, of the stranglers, who had ten hit albums and twenty-one top forty singles, tells you your band's songs are "ambitious" and that he really likes them. he complimented my drumming and in that moment i was so proud of myself and my bandmates. then he regaled me with stories of getting his visa and such and how it's a longer process when you have a criminal record. that's no secret, by the way, he wrote a book about the time he spent in jail called inside information, which you can find in his autobiography, a multitude of sins. and so on. then fish popped in the van and said hey. when one of the roadies came in to try and get some sleep, we decided to go back inside. i left the cd with him.

now, i get to hang out with hugh and his band in the dressing room. it was the size of a closet. i'm not kidding.  it was cramped with about six of us in there. hilarious, and just a little bit sad. when clem burke came in and graced us with his presence (and i swear i'm not being facetious when i say that because i look up to him so much, you don't even know), hugh said "this is chloe, you remember her, from phoenix?" and then i started thinking shit, i've seen them in 3 different states now, they're going to think i'm insane... and then clem smiled at me and said "of course! how ya doin', doll?" which immediately quelled my fears. nothing can make you feel bad when clem burke calls you "doll." 

the next hour or so or however long was pretty fun. fish offered me a yodel. you know, those cake things? i didn't take it, but still. the offer was there. i held the guitar tuner for hugh while he tuned his guitar up. i heard them working out the sound effects for "toiler on the sea," off of black & white (there were seagull noises being thrown in). clem sat next to me and changed his shoes and drummed on the wall and said something about bruce springsteen writing "born to run" in this town. i guess my reaction was not what he was expecting, because he looked around and then said "she's not impressed." ha. 

anyway, so then i stood there and watched the show and saw clem drop a stick (which happens to me a lot and it was comforting in a weird way to watch a role model do something stupid, just like i do) and they did one long set, instead of the 2 they had been doing. i got to hear a ton of songs i hadn't heard them do before ("school mam" "toiler" "no more heroes" etc.) and i had an amazing time.

that's pretty much it; haven't seen them play since then. but expect this story to continue because no way am i missing a show if (or rather, when; in the spring, i've been told) they come back.