The Del Amitri Concert, March 6, 1996
by Mark Normington
March 6, 1996. Cowboys Nightlife (The Otherside)
Greenville, S.C.
I'm sure your wondering how I saw them in Ohio and S.C.
only a week apart. Well, I live in Cleveland and was
home on break when I saw them at the Newport, and I go to
school at Furman University in Greenville, S.C. My
girlfriend and I showed up about a half an hour early
anticipating a decent crowd. We were surprised to find
ourselves alone with J.C.-Felt. We talked to Josh and
the bassist(I don't remember his name) for a while and
the played for about 100 people.
Before J C -Felt went on stage we had a long
conversation with Eddie the Roadie. If anyone gets the
chance you have to talk to the roadies for Del. They're
cool as hell. When Del got on stage the crowd was still
piss-poor (mabye 120 people). Ian came on stage and
greeted the crowd with a very appropriate "Howdy", which
was obviously directed toward the 30 or so redneck
looking folk wondering who these "guys with the funny Italian name"
were. Fittingly they got into the music, but left after
"Roll To Me". Del followed the same set as the Newport
for the first part. After 'Roll to Me" though", Justin
decided the hell with it and decided to take requests
from the thirty or so "die hard" fans remaining. This is
where it got really cool. It was like having your own
personal concert. They played "Might as Well Be You" and
my personal request, "Jimmy Blue", which Justin told me
they hadn't played for a long time. The finished off the
almost two hour concert with the usual "Be My Downfall".
Now's where the fun starts. We met a couple from
Atlanta that had been following Del around for two weeks
and was their fifth concert of the trip. They are
newlyweds (congrats) and said that it was in their vows
that they had to follow Del around for a while. Anyway,
the four of us went around back to try and possibly meet
the band. With pen and playlist (thanks Eddie) in hand
we headed for the back door where we were cordially
invited back for the party by the road manager. Let me
tell you, I've been a devout fan for about five years and
never imagined them to be as classy and cool as the are.
Kim (my girlfriend) and I talked to Ashly (The new
drummer) for about twenty minutes and found out that he
and Jon (David Cummings new replacement) are from London.
By the way, David really didn't leave the band to get
married. He just wanted to do his own thing, sort of.
Anyway, you'll have to take my word for it, but I figure
the band should know the real reason. We hung out with
them for about an hour and talked mostly to Ian , Jon,
Andy and Ashly. Justin sort of disappeared for a while
but a got to talk to him for a couple of minutes. They
all signed the playlist, and I got Justin's guitar pick
for the night. FYI- Ashly is the new baby of the group
at 26 yrs., and Jon kicks butt (no offense David C.)and
his hair is a sort of funky red color. There were a
couple of girls back there too and they paid twice as
much attention to Ashly than Justin. Looks like we have
a new favorite Del for the females.
Written by Mark Normington
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