Its 1 week into the UB40 Labor of Love 4 Tour and we've moved swiftly through Ireland....as happens when touring.... I fly into Dublin Int. Airport the night before the 1st show, jump into a rental car and unknowingly head out on an all night drive, on unlit flooded roads, in terrential rain and 60 mph gusting winds. I head toward the southernmost part of Ireland and then over to beautiful Killarney....just like you'd imagine it, lush green... lepricons everywhere... We are doing 3 shows in a row ..After Killarney we are on to Dublin one of my favorite (top 7 European cities to hang in the world) for one show at the O2, followed by the last Irish Show in Belfast....thats one week ago...now we are in Rotterdam for one sold out show at the AHOY this evening ...Time just disapears when you're on the road.. in a different city almost everyday....quite surreal ...........but not half as surreal as what happens next. 4 days ago we arrive in Glasgow after an overnight Fairy Ride on the tour busses to the SECC in Glasgow for one day off then show....5:00 am I am woken by severe pain in my Kidney that turns excrutiating and at 6:00 am im in an ambulance on my way to Glasgow Emergency...an hour later im on Morphine to ease the pain of a Kidney Stone the size of a large grain of rice that looks more like a jagged piece of coral, scraping its way thru, of course, the narrowest tube in the human body, the ureter....any way thank got for the Morphine, and some great hospital staff who really were amazing...the NHS came through for me big !!!This photo was as I arrived back from Hospital at around 8:00pm and bumped into an old friend of UB40's who we see on tour around the UK now and then, Former Heavyweight Champion Frank Bruno.
Im coming down from Morphine, (hospital bracelet still on my wrist) and there's Ex Heavyweight Champ Frank Bruno backstage, or was it the morphine.....what a great character and truely nice guy, a real Hemingway esq. larger then life characters with a deep voice, huge fist and old school gentleman demeanor, come mad tendancies in full swing......I feel lucky to have spent a few moments hanging out with this gentleman English boxer.....I did ask him if he was ready to start a real fighting career and join the Ultimate Fighting Championship MMA and he looked at me like I was mad, he said " No boss, thats much to violent for me, i'm retired from all that sir, I dont fight anymore"......Ive been a fan of Frank since the butter commercial 10 years ago...or was that 15 !
The Picture on Right is of Frank Bruno and Astro just before UB's go onstage in Glasgow.......
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