This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Lowe Syndrome Trust Event at the
Hotel de France, Jersey - 1st December 2010
Regular readers of this website will know that I will travel miles to see Tony. When this event was announced, I thought a quick flight from my local airport, that's easy. So Wendy and I made plans to go, Unfortunately as Wendy had to work, we decided that it would be best for her to fly from Gatwick. In normal circumstances this would have been fine, although the time of year was December, we weren't too concerned about the weather. Yes it would have been nice to go to Jersey in the summer, but I'd seen Tony in the Isle of Man in December and that was fine.
I'd been keeping an eye on the weather and all the forecasts were saying that Jersey was a few degrees warmer than the south west of England, so that would be a bonus. Days before the event, the north of England started to get snow, but down south it was just very cold. On the Tuesday afternoon I left work at 3 pm and went straight to the airport, checked in and the flight left on time at just after 4 pm. I landed in Jersey just before 5 pm. The weather was sleety but nothing seemed to be settling. I picked up the hire car and made my way to the hotel and checked in.
Wendy was booked on the 7.50 flight out of Gatwick and had arranged a lift to the airport. She'd left home around 5 pm, so in plenty of time to check in and get through security. About 6pm, I started getting messages from Wendy saying that it was snowing heavily and that the traffic was crawling along the M25 and lorries had jackknifed. This was not good but I hoped by a miracle she would get there in time. Unfortunately by the time she got to the airport, she had missed the flight, but give BA their dues, they re-booked her onto the first flight out of Gatwick the next morning with no extra charges. She spent the night in a very cold, but probably one of the last available rooms near Gatwick, ready for the flight in the morning. Unfortunately she got a text from BA saying that Gatwick wouldn't be open at all that day and because of a broken down train there were no trains out of Gatwick either. I was so happy that I had taken my laptop to Jersey and there was free internet in the hotel, I could keep up to date with all that was happening. I found that if she could get to Stansted before 12.35 pm, then there was a flight that she could be booked on. Eventually they did get trains running out of Gatwick, but the stampede for this train, Wendy got caught in the crush and it was decided the train was too full and she couldn't get on it. It was her only chance to get to Stansted in time and when the next train did eventually arrive, it was too late to get to Stansted, so reluctantly she went home.
So I was in Jersey on my own. Having spoken to Tony about this event when I saw him at the Huntingtons dinner, I knew he was due to fly in on the day and I presumed he would be flying from Gatwick. The slight problem was now that Gatwick was now closed, I knew Stansted was still open and hoped that something could be arranged so he could get to Jersey and do the show.
I had a bit of shopping to do and went into St Helier to have a look around. By this time there was some quite heavy snow in Jersey, but I had a text from the ticket company saying that they had managed to get Tony on a flight from Stansted, so least I knew that although I was in Jersey on my own, there would be a show that night. I was nervous about going on my own, I was sure it would be fine.
Early in the evening, I was listening to some music on my computer, but I was sure I could hear Tony singing in the distance. I turned my music off and found that I was hearing the sound check. My room was at the front of the building, but I didn't know which room the music was coming from. The sound check seemed to be going on for a very long time and I could hear whole songs. I have been to a couple of Tony's sound checks before and usually they are for about 15 - 20 minutes and they only do parts of the songs. So I was confused as to why I could hear whole songs, but it made my solo getting ready a nicer as it was a bit flat not having someone to get excited with.
Just after 7 pm I went down to the champagne reception and scanned the table plan for any names I might know, but unfortunately not. I felt like Billy no mates and tried to make it look like I was waiting for my friend to arrive. Soon 8 pm came and it was time to go in for dinner. I got to my allotted table first and hoped that it wouldn't be too bad on my own. My fears were unfounded, the rest of the people on my table were really lovely and included me in their conversations. The meal was lovely too. There was a glossy programme on the table and it included some lovely photos of Tony. I looked at the stage set up and saw there was quite a lot of equipment that I recognised, but the drum kit wasn't John's, I just dismissed this and thought maybe they had hired one locally.
The John Hoare quartet had not been able to come, neither had Christopher Biggins who was due to come to do the auction, but a local duo had stepped in and their repertoire of soul and disco classics were very good and a local Jersey DJ stepped in to do the auction. Had it not been in the programme then I wouldn't have known and it was so good of them to step in at such short notice.
Auction over and it was time for Tony to come on stage. The tickets had been sold in three price tiers, with those who had paid the most had tables closest to the dance floor and the others further away. I think people thought that they had to remain in their seats, but I had spoken to the people on my table and told them that Tony expected people to get up and dance, so after the first song one lady from my table took the plunge and got up onto the dance floor, swiftly the dance floor fills and Tony makes a comment about people being not sure about whether they are supposed to get up and dance. He was glad that they did though.
There were no surprises with the set list, the surprise was that John Keeble had got snowed in and hadn't been able to make it. Tony talked about how Dawn Joseph was a Jersey girl and her dad had some musical contacts and he knew a local drummer Paul Clark who was willing to stand in. This is a report from the local newspaper about it. He did an amazing job and did Tony proud.
The rest of the band, Phil T, Phil W, Richie and Dawn Joseph were brilliant and helped the drummer along with some of Tony's special phrasing of the songs.
After Tony had been on, it was the end of the evening and I hope the Lowe Syndrome Trust made lots of money from this event.
After the show I spoke to Phil Taylor and explained that I was there on my own and why Wendy wasn't and I asked if I could have a quick word with Tony and he told me where he was. So after the show I spent a short amount of time with him, although had I known what would be happening the next day, then it wouldn't have been necessary. Tony had said that they were flying out of Jersey early the next morning, so I said my goodbyes and went to bed.
I woke the next morning to find that Jersey airport was closed until 1 pm, so I thought so much for Tony's early flight out, but I was sure that once the airport re-opened at 1 pm he would be off and home. My flight wasn't due out of Jersey until 5 pm so I thought I would be fine. I kept checking the Jersey airport website and as it was getting closer to check out time of my room, I was beginning to wonder if the airport would re-open as quite a lot of snow was still falling. I decided on a back up plan of a ferry back to the UK. I looked on the Condor Ferries website and there was a fast ferry back to the UK at 3 pm which could take me to Weymouth. At this point my flight wasn't cancelled so I wasn't sure I wanted to take the risk and expense of having two tickets back. I did a bit more checking and by the time I got back to the ferry website it had crashed and by the time I got back on it the sailing to Weymouth had sold out. I was sure at this point that Tony and the band had managed to secure themselves places on this ferry. It was at this point that I had to make a decision, should I stay another night in the hotel and hope the airport re-opened the next morning or book myself on the overnight ferry to Portsmouth. The ferry won and I booked.
Once checked out of my room, the hotel were happy for me to stay in reception or use their swimming pool, but I made the choice to just stay in reception. It had been my intention to explore Jersey that morning but with the snow I didn't fancy taking the hire car out and having a crash. The reception area was warm and I could still get free internet although the christmas music over the speakers got a tad irritating after a while. I hadn't seen Tony in the hotel, so was surprised to see Phil Taylor and RJ (Sound Engineer) in reception after the fast ferry had left. It dawned on me that the band at least were on the ferry home with me...
I left to take the car back and when I got to the ferryport, Tony had just arrived there along with the rest of the band, people from the charity and the roadies. I checked in and waited to board the ferry. Once on the ferry I looked around for the seat I'd booked, on looking lost a member of the ships' crew directed me to a desk where a little earlier I had seen Tony's tour manager queuing up. It seemed that my ticket was a reclining seat in the quiet lounge.
I made myself comfortable in some seats nearby to where some of the band was and then Tony came in and found his seat. Tony said hi and asked me to look after his bag whilst he went to the bar.... I moved along the row of seats I was on so I could mind his bag more easily. After an hour or so after we set sail there were other people in his group who could mind his bag so I went to the bar and chatted to Richie for a while and then Tony and some roadies.
I thought having a few drinks would help me sleep, but this was not the case and I spent quite a lot of the night watching Tony sleep as I suppose through the traveling he does he has learnt how to sleep almost anywhere. He even slept through announcements telling us that breakfast was being served etc.
After a delay getting off the ship, we got to the terminal about 7.15 am where a car had been arranged for people from the charity and the band to be taken home. My mobile phone had a dead battery by this time and Tony offered me the use of his phone, but I thanked him and said no and used the payphone to contact my family and find out how I could get home. I said goodbye to him and Tony was gone.
After joining the taxi queue, getting to the station, waiting around on cold platforms, I finally got from Portsmouth to Salisbury only to find that there was only a train every two hours and the next one was at 12.15 pm, nearly two hours away. It was off to the payphone to let my family know how my journey was going. At 11.30 a train pulled in, it was going to Westbury and I hoped I could pick up a connection going south west from there. I was in luck, after 20 minutes in not so cold Westbury a train going my way pulled in and I was on the final leg of my journey. With electrical sockets on these trains I was back on my mobile phone and able to let friends and family know where I was. At 1.45 pm the train pulled into my station and my hubby was there waiting to drive me home.
Thank you for reading what may seem like a bit of an essay, but I wanted to share with you the trials and tribulations of what should have been an easy trip to Jersey. I think this will be one that I will remember for a long time to come. Seeing Tony is always something I love to do as often as I can and I like to support the charities that he supports and go to some special events like this. I never imagined in a million years that the trip would turn out like this.
Denise 4/12/10