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Must buy another 12 string
My first guitar was a 12 string [£120 Hohner] and would love to get another one day. Trying to relate the song [which I like and your voice and the ones I have just listened to on your site] to the photograph? Were you hitchiking with a guitar in France [like I did in 1970] trying to find the nearest loo from continental diarrhorea... 'hold on below' ?!
Andy in playful mode
Hehe, As it happens, yes the
Hehe,
As it happens, yes the photo is from hitch-hiking in France, around 1974 or 5. It took two of us five whole days to get from Paris to the Cote d'Azure and then when we got there we couldn't make enough money busking cafes not to have to sleep on the beach, so it took 3 weeks to get it together to make our way back to the Paris Metro again.
My second guitar was a 12 string, a £30 Eros, which is what I took with me when I first left home for France, then a series of Japanese six strings until in the end I managed to bag myself a lovely Guild 12string.
I bought another 12string of unknown make last year for only £70, which is pretty good too, except it's an 11string at present , much to my shame :-(
http://distributedresearch.net/blog
http://usefulwiki.com/londontheatre
Hold on below
In 1970 when I was 17 told all my friends that I was hitching around Europe for a couple of years. Had a big farewell party in the Florence Arms Southsea and returned with my tail between my legs 2 weeks later! But had a fantastic experience and it was life-changing which I will never forget.
Second lift hitching going to Felixstowe got picked up by this bloke who kept putting his hand on my leg which I kept having to politely remove and he dropped me off five miles from the ferry in the dark and rain spitefully!
Amsterdam was amazing and managed to spend a load of money I couldn't afford. Hitched a hippy bus to Munich and got stripped searched by the German police on the border. Having consumed a fair bit of wine tried to hit one of them and six of them sat on my naked body sprawled on the floor and went out and told the Hippies that they had found drugs on the Englishman. When the bus started to drive off with my rucksack the Police released me and laughed at me trying to pull up my trousers running down the hard shoulder
aw [cont later]
Amsterdam
Amsterdam was my original destination when I left Cornwall, having met people who'd spent time there and were then bumming around in my home town.
On the way I had to discharge myself from Buckland hospital after having collapsed while standing in the night ferry queue, but that didn't deter me.
What did deter me in Amsterdam were stories that the police there were cracking down and confiscating buskers' guitars. I was advised by a dutchman to try my luck in Paris instead, where all they do is move you on or take you in for a few hours, and that turned out to be excellent advice.
http://distributedresearch.net/blog
http://usefulwiki.com/londontheatre
Europe hitchhiking
...jumped on bus and they stopped about two miles down the Autobahn in a layby and I asked them why, as I just wanted to get away from the Border police. They smiled and told me to be patient. About half an hour later a tall black American fellow turned up and he'd jumped out just before the border, knowing we would be searched and had sellotaped two large lumps of you know what behind his ears. Will never forget driving down into Munich at sunrise, nicely stoned with headphones with nice music on.
Guess what!? It was Octoberfest time and had a fantastic time in massive beer halls with German brass bands whilst consuming massive Steins of frothy lager. Woke up with a hangover in the central park in a wet sleeping bag with hardly any money left. Took me a day just to walk out of Munchen and managed to hitch to Lake Constance in Austria with beautiful mountains all around. Pitched my tent by the lake. No money to appreciate the surrounding beauty. Hitched through Switzerland and got picked up by a mad driver in a Volksy who literally drove at high speed literally just a few feet behind the cars in front with no seat belts in those days.
Arrived in the dark on the French border just above Lac Geneve and when I tried to pitch my tent in the forest realised I'd left my tent pegs a thousand miles away! Wrapped the tent around me and every time I heard a noise [bear? wolf?] I lit one of my dwindling supply of matches to frighten whatever it was away. At daylight started walking up to the border with the intention of picking grapes in Lyons to survive. Met a guy with a rucksack full of biscuits. He said he'd walked around the world seven times and the last time he left his mother she hadn't cried this time. For some reason I don't get on with border guards. They let the biscuit man straight through but detained me for ages searching my possessions. I'd intended selling hand made necklaces and bracelets to survive and they thought all the brown beads were something else! Cold, hungry, skint, tired, in a mood, stuck my ever hopeful thumb [not bum!] out and this flash car pulled up and the black electric window went down and the driver said in Cockney English "Where you going mate?". It was a bloody Lambourghini and his job was to fly to Milan in the morning and then drive like mad back to Calais in the same day. He gave me a lump of something and told me to keep rolling it up to keep him awake.
[to be cont...]
Hope you don't think I'm impinging on your Blog here but must finish the tale one day...
Cheers for now
andi
European Hitch hiking
..on the way through France we ended up racing with a Triumph Stag and stopped at the next service station and let one of their American passengers swop places with me in the Lambourghini. Very quickly we lost sight of them and my rucksack was still in the Lam! At various villages we stopped for refreshments and I enjoyed posing for photos next to the car and forgot for a while that I was just some lonesome hitcher.
Coming fast behind into Paris it started raining heavily and suddenly the Lam flipped across from one lane to another in front of us like you see them do in the Grand Prix. The next stop the driver was shaking and thought he'd written the car off because he realised he couldn't stop in time in that lane in those conditions. He said "I thought I'd written the boss's car off".
At Dover customs he went into the red channel and I panicked as I thought he was also some drug dealer and I was still in possession of the bit he's given me sticking out of my tight trouser pocket. He told me not to worry and when they asked if he had anything to declare he reached forward to the dashboard and picked up a wad of documents and said "Yes this 150 million Lira car!". They admired the whole car including the engine "Look it's got McPherson's bolts!" and let us go on our way. He was glad they did not notice the levy extra duty due on the £25K toolbox in the boot!
Got home safe and sound and it did feel as though I had been away for 2 years despite all the ribbing from my mates.
<end>
aw
Blog
Looks to me like there would be mileage in setting up your own "Tales from the Road" series of blogs, Andy, rather than tacking them on to Andys...
Hope you don't think
No not at all. There has to be a space somewhere that's free from interference and the old mailing list is supposed to be one place like that now, with the new forums and spaces here more moderated, but definitely on each others blogs within the space we should be able to write what we like.
http://distributedresearch.net/blog http://usefulwiki.com/londontheatre
Link doesn't work for me
Bob