Our last day in the Big Apple was spent catching up with old friends - first Diamanda Galás, who was on good form with all guns blazing and her usual array of stories about who'd rubbed her up the wrong way in the months since we'd seen her last. Last but not least, we dropped in on the Gahan household where it was necessary to take our lives in our hands with a taxi driver who had obviously seen 'The Bone Collector' and proceeded to duck through the meat district along the loneliest alleyways and past the most derelict tenements he could find. When we eventually made it - our skeletons intact - it was a real pleasure to see David again and meet his lovely new wife and family. After general chit-chat, a healthy dose of relevant gossiping and much laughter, he and Alan took the opportunity to put to rest any potentially destructive demons from the 'Devotional' tour... Dave: By the way Al, sorry for smashing up your hotel room in San Paulo. I thought it was my own. Alan: That's ok Dave. Sorry for telling you to be ready to leave the hotel every day 20 minutes earlier than everyone else when we were on the road. Upon our arrival home in Blighty, we were greeted by our extremely vexed groundsman who'd made 3 separate trips up to the house in the dead of night after all the alarms had been triggered. The cleaners were blamed, so too was the wind until the culprit was identified as... a mouse (possibly with accomplices) who'd gnawed through some underfloor cables and screwed up the sensors. We also found a disgusting smell in the kitchen that turned out to be 3 woodpeckers and a jackdaw that had been perching innocently on the above chimney stack, become intoxicated by the fumes from the heating fuel, experienced a really weird trip man, and eventually tumbled to their death, ending up lodged behind the Aga (big cooking stove to those of you unfamiliar with such a device). They were definitely 'well done' when they were served up to me as evidence, if not a little too crispy for my liking. So there you go......just a little insight into the real world of Alan Wilder. If any of you thought it was all wine, women and song, think again........ |