Here’s Jack talking up some of the great and good from the last US Tour…​



August 31st:

Los Angeles, The Sportsmen’s Lodge - we arrived in the late afternoon. Already LA was mellowing with the approach of Fall, deeper colours, longer shadows and in the evenings a delicious smell that reminds me of our first visits to LA in the 80’s. LA does nostalgia very well. I think of LA as a brand new town, but really it is steeped in nostalgia for its own celluloid past and for my own. Jerry’s Deli for dinner and it was like we had never been away!​



September 1st:

We met up with Mark Bell, an old friend of both Nick and Paul’s. He lives in LA and does all kinds of DJ remix stuff. Lots of stories, wild times - heart of the maelstrom stuff that must be published one day. The stories that led to Paul developing a speech impediment were particularly striking… he recovered after a few months. Oh yes. We went to an ambitious Italian restaurant on Ventura Blvd. where the waitress proudly announced that their lasagne contained the best meat sauce “in the world”. A challenge from which I could not escape so lasagne it was and yes it was very nice meat sauce.

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September 2nd:

1st gig at The Key Club. We went on around 11.00pm so we -  and the audience -  were pretty tired - 7am for us UK time. But we did our best and everyone enjoyed it. It was great to see friends there. Peter Wolf drove up from Malibu in the nicest white Bentley convertible I have ever seen. And he gave Nick and I a lift back to the Sportsmen’s Lodge. Sitting in the back of that car hurtling up Laurel Canyon and gazing up at the stars was bliss. Peter is one of those people you just want to be around and it was so great to spend time with him in LA.



September 3rd:

Checked out of the Lodge around midday and got into the suburban that was to take us up to Vegas. Mikal drove in the worst traffic - apparently everyone goes to Las Vegas for Labor Day Weekend. So a long drive, Mikal in the driving seat, Steve Serrano sitting next to him with his check shirt over the side window to try and block out the sun so he could watch the Bourne movies - it just looked like some student’s bedroom. Nick was reading “Apathy for the Devil” - the new book by Nick Kent. I got into listening to this great Little Feat bootleg called Electrif Lycanthrope. They were just hitting their stride on Spanish Moon as we hit Vegas and lots of LCD type signs with all the stuff that was on that weekend - including us. That funny picture of me and Nick in the 80’s would flash up, our name in lights, Little Feat rocking out, everyone in the car happy and buzzing. Lovely. We checked into the Monte Carlo, a hotel lobby like an airport check-in but they looked after us and we got settled in for our holiday in Las Vegas.

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September 4th:

I think it was 106 degrees on the Strip on Saturday afternoon. Paul and Tom and I found a nice little place for breakfast down the street. eggs over-easy on wheat toast, hash browns and coffee and OJ. Perfect and we went there every morning.

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Soundcheck was around 4pm in The Pub - sounds a bit lumpy, but was actually nice. A big space, good size stage and decent sound system with a good crew. The gig that evening was really good. Great crowd and lots of friends came along. Peter Wolf was there again as he was doing the Jerry Lewis Telethon the next day. Lee Gorman from Bow Wow Wow, a dear friend from our early days in 57 Men where he played bass. He lives in Vegas now and came with his girlfriend who looked like she had just walked out of an Andy Warhol movie. CJ, a DJ friend of ours came along and Nick’s brother Steve was also there plus Colin Gibbens, Emma and various other friends. I love an entourage! So we hung out into the night and managed to ignore the Casino’s multifarious temptations.



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September 5th:

A day off. Bob Burchess, a photographer friend of ours got in touch to invite us to the Carrot Top show at the Luxor that night. We went along as Carrot Top’s guests and had a great time. He is in the fourth year of a five year contract - mind boggling - but you’d think this was the first week of a short run. He was totally spontaneous, really smart and hilarious. The props were in the good old English tradition of say Tommy Cooper and his self-deprecating stance and surreal sense of everyday stuff was a bit like early Izzard. Tom and Paul are seasoned comedy fans and I wondered what their attitude would be but they were rolling around in laughter. He introduced us towards the end of the show and then invited us backstage. His family and their kids were there plus his crew. He was very friendly and it was a nice atmosphere, an honour to invited and really great all round. We walked back to the Monte Carlo and took in Vegas at night. The sheer hubris of it all made us feel very happy to be there.


September 6th:

I think I spent the day typing in a thousand “likes” to the Wang Chung facebook profile - sad really. But in the evening we had managed to get tickets to see “Love”, the Cirque de Soleil Beatles show. There were those among us who felt it was all a waste of time, but as Ringo says in the documentary, “You’ve got the old records if you want to listen to them - we just wanted to try something new”. So we four all went along, plus Nick’s brother Steve. We can’t recommend it highly enough. If you are a Beatles head then you are going to be a little weepy and trying to pull yourself together at times and you will love hearing the music LOUD and recombined in inventive ways. If you are new to the Beatles then this could turn you on to them. It is visually stunning - the colours and formations of characters and the ultra-skill of the acrobats - amazing and all really in the grand Beatles tradition of working with arty eccentrics like The Fool, Peter Blake, even Astrid Voorman back in the early days. So a totally amazing experience that you can only have in Las Vegas. It gave it the air of a pilgrimage in a way. Now let's not get too carried away. Took a long walk back from the Mirage to our hotel via the Bellagio fountains - a little less classy than “Love”, but plenty of hubris. And there is a bit of the strip that looks exactly like scenes from The Fifth Element. Now this is what the future is supposed to look like, right?



September 7th:

Tom, Paul and I rented a car and drove to Area 51! Who knows what happened from there…