Short story: great trip, nice island, terrific concert, huge audience, nice islanders and friendly management company!

Longer story (I only have 4 hours until I have to wake up for the airport run, so I may add more at a later date: IF I FEEL THE LOVE!):
* Flew from PDX to Atlanta, new plane to Miami
* MTM (great Cayman talent company who produced the show, and hired
me), put me up in a nice hotel for the evening
* Boarded Cayman airways for hour flight to Grand Cayman Island (its map looks like a 20 mile whale!): fun steward folks, FREE rum punch served!) - oh, I met my fellow band mates, and turns out they are the same great group of guys that did the Peoria Illinois Elton gig with me a couple years ago! They flew in from Boston/NY area
* Tony and Clyde picked us up from airport (Elton to arrive next morning, flown in from cruise ship he's working - a grueling one night a week job!!), put us up in nice Courtyard Marriott hotel, right across from beach.
* Next day: breakfast next to killer pool, sightseeing, trek into town to find internet cafe (of course!), walked back along 7 mile beach (have to avoid the British, other side of road drivers dontchaknow!), quick swim, then sound check at stage
* huge stage built in parking lot of Treehouse restaurant right on the beach, huge sound, tons of lights, back stage tent with two filled coolers, and one of the best sound guys/keyboard techs I've ever worked with - Howie. They set me up with a 4 synth rig, two stands, killer sax mic and stand - royal treatment all the way
* dinner at Treehouse - scrumptious! Quick change at hotel, taxi'd back to concert, great local trio playing
* any worries of low attendance dashed away! Place was jammed, easily over a thousand or two in attendance. The band and Elton were in top form, and I had great time doing the "ELP/Loverboy/Bon Jovi" 2 keyboard playing stuff! Crowd went wild, we played two long sets, double giant fog machines blared all night. We were rock gods! Hey,we should do a parody video based on "Passion" ha ha, ok, maybe not. One of the band members (names withheld to protect his privates!) even had a request to sign a female anatomy part!! (he
used a Sharpie #2!)
* we then got our VIP badges, and were wisked away by taxi to a hot disco nightspot for a VIP party (separate raised area reserved for us, walked past all the common folk in line, etc.). It was like Studio 54!
* hardly any sleep, next day did sightseeing, swam, another fab dinner, me home early for posting of pix, other bandmates to more parties until 4 in the morning!
* last day: lounged around, took for drinks to really cool bar on ocean front, dinner at "Coconut Joe's" (M.A. would love the Monkey, tropical theme...with cool "swing" chairs at the bar!), then back to hotel for photo viewing, packing, and gig report!
* Oh,and the first night, I came back to my hotel room (they're in switch over mode from being a "Holiday Inn"), I found a mysterious black box next to the phone! Yep it's true, no more $4 a minute phone calls to Cybele: FREE hi speed internet connection! Yeah Baby!

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Other quick tidbits:
* Cayman buses are little mini vans, charge $2.50 for one trip from A to B, stop anywhere on route you like. Very weird! Like being on some small tropical island! ha ha
* Very expensive!! Anytime I stopped for more than 2 minutes, I had
to spend $20!! It's the law I think!! (but I should still make it back with some profit!)
* everyone is really friendly
* lots of water!
* lots of places closed on Sunday. Not even grocery stores open
(thank goodness for pizza delivery, and pre-bought bread products!)

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OK, that's it for now. Check out the pix, and get ready for the
FUNeurope gig report!! <estimated date of posting: April 1, 2004>
Botielus