Day 8 (Show day) Port Elizabeth

Today was the sort of day that makes my job the most perfect job in the world. I had booked a game drive in a local reserve; it cost about £50 for about 4 hours which was all the time I had. The park is designed so that you will see everything that they have in stock so in that respect it’s only a little more natural that the safari parks in the UK. At this one though they keep three cheetah’s for film work and they allow small groups in to stroke them, it was just like being with a rather large domestic cat albeit they could do more damage to you if they wanted to. We then took a drive back to the hotel, as I was the only person on the tour we talked a lot about the local area and politics and what it was like to be in the tourism industry.

At 3:30PM I caught a lift to the venue with the band, we had our meeting and once again I got dinner. The tour moves location every three days to a venue they have never seen before, they use tape on the floor to point everyone in the right direction, everywhere you look there is tape with directions on it.


where there is no tape there are signs!

The venue three hours before the gig


The tour had been good enough to invite the aircraft crew to the gig so I went front of stage and chatted to them. About 15 minutes before the start I left them to it and went back stage again they were telling me this was the largest concert ever to take place in Port Elizabeth with 22,000 tickets sold. I was able to see the band and soloist walk out onto the stage and once it has started I just sat back with a few of the crew who are responsible for the building and breaking the stage, the conversation was much like any other at a normal work place in this economic climate, how long was the tour going to go on for, who knew what and what rumours there were. Just over half way through the concert as the big numbers were approaching I walked out to the area behind the stage and found a seat and just watched the crowd, the atmosphere was amazing certainly the best that I have seen at one of his concerts. I walked out to the font of the stage for the first of the encore numbers and then went back to the coffee station just before the band walked off. About half an hour after the gig finished I caught a lift back to the hotel with the band. I am a little spoilt now it is the only way to see a gig.