29/06/2009 [Artists]
Yamaha artist Hannah Vasanth continues her travels on Anastacia’s European Summer Tour. With such amazing countries as Russia, Sweden and Finland under her belt we now find her back home in the UK!
Food, Glorious Food!!!
“I left you last week at our beautiful outdoor gig in Hamburg, which was a lot of fun! The rain had stopped and the sun was finally shining – just time for a few drinks backstage after the show and then it was back onto the tour bus and a long drive through the night to Duesseldorf, then on to the remaining gigs on the German leg of the tour which were in Frankfurt and Munich.
Anastacia’s German fans are seriously dedicated – not only do they passionately sing along to every last word of her songs, we had been told they also have a tendency to shower her with gifts. Imagine my surprise when, halfway through our set in Frankfurt, whole packets of Doritos crisps started flying on stage!! I found out later that it is a well-known fact that Anastacia is a junk food addict, and the fans were helpfully providing her with some snacks! She kindly gave all the crisps to the band, and I must say they’ve come in very handy for those long midnight bus journeys…
Speaking of food… Our catering is provided courtesy of the fabulous ‘Popcorn Catering’…..yum yum yum…. Three amazing ladies by the name of Beth, H and Helen make the nicest food ever. Everyday they provide us with a delicious buffet lunch and a full three-course meal for dinner – I’m telling you their desserts are to die for! I am writing this after just polishing off 2 servings of the most fantastic strawberry trifle, but am also fondly remembering the luscious chocolate cake we had yesterday called “Beth by Chocolate”! Having good caterers along with you makes life on the road so much more bearable – it’s really hard to eat healthily or regularly when you’re on a long tour with a packed schedule, and just one wrong decision to stop at a dodgy restaurant or take away can wipe the whole band out with food poisoning in one stroke! Thank God that’s not the case this time around – I swear they will have to roll me back to London by the end of the tour!
After the Germany dates, we had a few extremely welcome and much-deserved days off back home in London – it was brilliant catching up with friends and family and I also had a few other music projects to finish up - a remix and some string arrangements, so I also got to spend a day in the studio which is always good fun.
We played the Hammersmith Apollo in London. London gigs are strange - for some reason everyone always gets nervous playing to a home crowd – and you could feel the tension in the air. Everyone had friends and family coming down, and we obviously wanted the gig to go without any hiccups…and it did! The London crowd was amazing, and the gig went really well. The show got 4 out of 5 stars in the Guardian review the next day, so we were all well chuffed.
On the way to Cardiff the next day we suddenly noticed a strong smell of diesel, followed by ominous noises from the engine, yup you guessed it the tour bus had broken down! Oh the glamour the glamour! We took the hard shoulder on the motorway for 10 minutes and eventually rolled to a standstill in a lay-by. Chalky our bus driver had a look and realized it would take a few hours to get the bus fixed, so we hitched a lift with Anastacia’s bus - unbeknownst to her as she was fast asleep! And I have to say her bus is most definitely a cut above!!! The most comfy couches you can imagine, 10mb broadband and cable TV!
The gig in Cardiff was great and I had an old friend, Rebecca, from uni come along who I hadn’t seen for a long long time, it was so nice hanging out together after the gig and reminiscing but I think I’m starting to burn the candle at both ends a bit too much - it’s now 3am and we have a 9am lobby call tomorrow morning for the drive to our next gig in Birmingham! Time to say good night to all, catch you next week with more tales of life on the road!”
x Hannah
