This weekend Palladium were very busy playing gigs at Cheltenham's Wychwood festival on Saturday and at the exclusive launch show for Stella McCartney's new range in Liverpool on Sunday. For once the sun shone bright at an English festival. The band's one hour set on the main stage at Cheltenham race course was introduced by what we can only describe as an aged morphed together version of Rufio and Fez with a French accent. The gig seemed to go down great with a cheerful audience, despite Peter being forced to play with 4 instead of 5 strings right from the first tune. Unfortunately there was only enough time afterwards to catch a couple of tunes from legendary band the Blockheads, who sounded as good as expected, before it was back on the road to reach Liverpool in time for a sound check at the Paul McCartney founded LIPA. Luckily for everyone involved, the set up and sound check was done the night before the show as somehow it went on for 4 hours. Almost into the next morning! Fortunately there was still a few late night curry houses open, which excited Rocky so much that he ordered far too much to even fit on the table.
The next morning there were dress rehearsals for the band and the models who it was very entertaining to watch struggle to perform a game of musical chairs on the catwalk in 7 inch heels. Nerves were high for the guys for the first time in a while as they prepared to go on stage and perform just a few feet from Sir Paul McCartney and other music legends in the intimate theatre. It had been requested by Stella that Palladium play a cover of Nirvana's 'Smells like teen spirit'. This was a daunting challenge for the guys, but the song sounded immense and certainly won over the majority of a discerning crowd. The champagne, and oddly enough raisin beer, flowed afterwards in the bar where the band were surrounded by a strange combination of footballers, top WAGS, page 3 girls, music moguls and high class models. Certainly the recipe for a good time. The journey back to London in the evening was just as fun. Meeting the cast of the Mr.Men on tour was definitely an unexpected highlight. The six female crew had just finished a gig at a kids club in Halifax when paths crossed with Palladium at a service station. Mr.Happy obviously had been feeling repressed by her role and by the time the Palladium mobile overtook the Mr.Men van on the motorway Mr.Happy had morphed into Little Miss Naughty. Later in the journey there was a huge tailback that could only result in a Champagne reception on the M4 and Rufio was terribly disappointed that he couldn't keep surfing the roof of the van once the traffic began to clear. All in all a good weekend.....

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