Cleaning Wren’s (bathroom scrub, vacuuming stairs & downstairs, more dish washing, shifting recycling outside); muesli & fruit for b’fast, grilled cheese & salad for lunch; comments on hot water (Greenham Common); 3pm skype w Vernon (friend’s memorial); 3.45pm left by rental car for Birmingham (Wren in little black dress, do I look like the future wife of the future president of Mali?); 5.30pm quick coffee in shopping center, then to Town Hall (bumped into band & Aida going out for dinner; no Salif); dropped Wren ‘backstage’ (no Salif) and ambled slowly down New Street to New Street Station where I met David & childhood friend Graham (now IBM global project manager with love of travel, wife & 3 kids) off the train from Coventry at 6.30pm; dinner at ‘pub’ attached to Premier Inn & talk of travel; 7.30pm Town Hall, Wren greeted us by box office & we picked up tix (there was an extra comp for David in the end); Karen & Ruth (short gray hair, had met at TimeShift last summer) & Sara (who’d offered me a place to stay) showed up shortly before start; Karen pulled Wren up to go dance at the side and then up front; then we all (the girls) moved up front to ‘dance’ (Wren the most ‘wildly’, there’s always one at these concerts, ain’t there?) in front of the speakers (there’s a reason nobody’s seated there); 1hr15min of gigging, then pause indicating ‘we’re almost over’ and played till 9.30pm with no dancing on stage; black guy dancing close with Wren in front row; Salif did routine of strutting about stage & saluting / blowing kisses; got crowd on their feet by saying ‘it’s my birthday’ and getting everyone to sing happy birthday and get dancing ‘for him’; Salif, calabash drummer Madou, percussionist Solo (chubby); gymnastic Kora player (with stubby dreds); guitarist in white (with Eric Clapton solo); other guitarist who got on drums with percussionist every now and then; 2 girls singing & dancing; the guys have been with him for 30 years and 15 years (old and new), the girls are new new (they rotate); after gig went down hall at back, Wren went ahead to ask about letting us in; all fine and we single filed down the hall and past picnic table into ‘green room’ where Salif was sitting in a chair; rose and we all greeted him, then the girls had to get going for their 10.22pm train back to Shrewsbury; me and Dave and Graham stuck around as another posse arrived for photos and signatures (French & Bambara speaking, last name of Keita); then got clear w Aida (the tour manager) that Salif would in fact go home w Wren; I explained to Salif that we’d go by his hotel to get his valise and then he’d go with Wren; walked to car with Wren and boys to collect my case; Wren back in car to pick up Salif; we walked down to station (Graham pulled my trolley) and stopped at The Sun for a pint (David not drinking); 11.20pm train to Coventry (I didn’t pay); cab to Graham’s for cuppa tea and met Cheryl (like Ch-erub) knitting cool metallic wool scarf; David drove us home about 12.30am. Text-skyped Vernon.
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