Oh my life ….. ….. Lucy and I went down to London to see the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park this weekend and it was everything we hoped for and more. It had been a long time coming, and the anticipation intoxicating. When The Stones first announced they would be doing a series of concerts Lucy said that she really wanted to see them as they had been her dad’s favourite band, she wanted to experience them for herself, however the ticket prices were exorbitant, and though she had had them in her “checkout basket” for the O2 and the Hyde Park concert on the 9th July …. she had let them go … because of the cost, however, when they announced yet another concert on 13th July I said it was an omen, and that we were “meant” to be there!
Andy and I had seen The Stones together several times over the years and he had seen them play before he met me. He would play their music all the time when he was in the office working late, would never miss a documentary on them and had all their music in vinyl and on CD, having one copy for the car/van and one for the office and he absolutely loved Keith Richards, who really was his hero!
So on Saturday we got into London at around 2 o’clock and decided it would be rude not to have a couple of cheeky margaritas to celebrate, before checking into out hotel ……
…. and then strolling down to Hyde Park … about fifteen minutes away ….. to sit in the sun and soak up the atmosphere …..
Finally, when the countdown started and the music erupted I found it very emotional …. because had Andy still been with us …. we would have all undoubtedly been standing there together, he wouldn’t have missed this experience……..
Andy wasn’t a mover or a shaker …. he would have stood perfectly still, occasionally lighting up one of his small cigars and his eyes would have been on Keith most of the time, with Ron Wood second …… drinking it all in, in his very, very quiet and considered way ….. he wouldn’t have said much …. but you would have known he was absolutely wrapped in the moment and would talk of it for years after ….. in that “do you remember” kind of a way.
What more can I say …. I admit to shedding a couple of discreet tears on the way home ….. not sure if they were for me or Andy ….. The next couple of months will bring a few more bittersweet moments …. including my keeping of Andy’s Las Vegas promise to Lucy and the THE WEDDING OF THE YEAR!!! I just thank someone somewhere for making me the way I am, looking over me ….. and constantly poking me!
