Worthing Assembly Halls

This was my second visit to the Assembly Halls Worthing - I had been there on the 2000 tour to see Hank in concert and I was once more lucky to procure a front row seat so I had a superb view of the stage proceedings.

Stage door

The weather unfortunately was very unkind to us - torrential rain for most of the day but die-hard fans don’t worry about that sort of thing and the wait at the stage door in Worthing was comfortable enough due to plastic canopy over the door which afforded the three fans who were standing there some protection.! At precisely 17:00 hours Hank arrived accompanied by his Tour Manager pulling a suitcase! - which had me amused! but they were both very nice and both stopped to chat to us all.

Hanks Card

I was able to present Hank with the card from members of the Web Community.   Our Community members had contributed over 70 messages - either via the Message Board thread, by fax, letter or written message. All of these were affixed to a large card. Hank was very very pleased to receive the card and asked if the messages were "racy"!! After being taken aback a bit - I said they were messages from his fans on the site and some were very moving to read, I said I hoped that by reading these messages he’d see just how much he means to all his fans.! Hank was genuinely very pleased to receive the card and I was very glad that we’d made the effort to do this. I was there with two other fans, Geoff and Paul both from Hampshire too - tough lot us ‘Hankshire’ (sic) fans..! Anyway it was the first time that Geoff had met Hank so I was happy to take his picture with Hank; . and Hank, being the person he is always happy to chat with us - even though I’m quite sure he must get fed up with hearing it all night after night he certainly didn’t show it; he’s just a lovely lovely man and   real gentleman By this time it was getting on for 18:00 hours and the other guys arrived together, it was still raining, and we were all pretty wet.. The other guys didn’t stop to chat to us but were very apologetic about this - they were late basically!!  However Mr Bennett still found the time to give Cazz a kiss on the cheek though.. err… ok.

Coffee; Music & ‘the sound!’

Geoff and Cazz were lucky enough to meet Warren later on (the meeting was unplanned) and he came and had coffee with us. It was great to sit and chat about the tour and music, I’ve met Warren several times now so I suppose I’m used to him (just about!) but this was the first time Geoff had met him and he was very pleased so to do. I think it’s great these guys take the time to meet and chat with the fans - and it means so much to us all too.! The 'thorny' topic of "the sound" on the tour did come up and Cazz in her usual style said it was crap! (Warren did know I was joking by the way as I hope you who are reading this months from now do as well!!) anyway it was interesting to hear Warren ‘take’ on the comments that had been made and he was interested in our opinions too.

The Concert

So to the concert itself.. Well it was a full house and the atmosphere was very good with the audience getting well into the gig. From where I was sitting it all sounded fine to me.. But then I am not the sort to go to a gig and sit there thinking well the bass guitar is wrong and deliberately listening for that in any case. I go to a concert for the full listening experience. 

Geoff, who incidentally plays in a band (so knows far more about this than I) hadn’t a problem with the sound; his only comment being Hank fluffed a few notes.. But hey at least that showed he was human and wasn’t miming!! The set list was the same as the other gigs I have been to save the inclusion of "FBI" which, as Dave Dixon reported in early dispatches, ‘crept’ into the set list at the Bristol show. Warren told us that Fergus hadn’t heard "FBI" before so had had to learn it double quick from listening to a CD version!! For those who like to know these things "FBI" was the ‘original’ version.

It was also a real 'joy' to be Warren side of the stage which meant that I had a very good view of his whole "arsenal" of funny faces which he pulls on various occasions during the concert - usually when he caught my eye and which, I have to say, had me highly amused for most of the night!, but Warren great fun and this is part of his charm....

"Shazam" my friends!!

One very special thing happened at the Worthing gig. When "Shazam" was played. Warren looked at me shouted "Cazz's favourite" and him and Ben were laughing and smiling..! The question I want to know is how did they know? - I wondered if it was reading Cazz’s ‘Chichester dispatches" of the gig where I’d mentioned it?? Those of you who are members of the ShadowsFanSite Web Community know that "Shazam" is my all time favourite, but as you can imagine I was completely knocked out by this gesture. It quite made my night I tell you......

Speaking to JJ

Cazz was also able to speak with J.J at the interval as well - phew that man has a firm handshake!!  J.J. told me that the tour was going well with the majority of the shows completely sold out..with very favourable audience reaction at all the venues they had visited. What a lovely genuine guy J.J. is as well - I was very impressed with him..

All in all though once more Hank and company provided a fabulous evening of music - which Cazz and the full house at Worthing Assembly Halls really enjoyed... Well done everyone..... Ill be back....