My experience with "Crazy Train" , my Ozzy Osbourne Coverband - The final part

The last week I have written about my experience with my Ozzy Osbourne Tribute band. A band I formed together with some great musicians, you can find the other parts here:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three

Well after the gig as a support of Six strings things were going pretty well. We had a reference point (of the gig) which things wen't well or which things could have going better. So we had enough material to work on in our rehearsals.
We agreed to try and promote the band in the local venues by visiting these venues and introduce ourselves to the owners. Some reacted very positive, some a little less... But that's how it goes isn't it. With former bands we have done the same routine and if you get one gig out of ten visits then you are doing pretty ok.

Things went on and we got again a call from a local band if we wanted to play as a support act for them in a town called "Klarenbeek". it was on the 24th of january 2004 (the reason why I still know the exact date follows ;))... Of course we wanted to do the gig and agreed on it. Some day's later it was anounced in the local newspapers and on the small billboards in Klarenbeek. So we really were looking forward to it because we did think it was a great and (for us) big gig.

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While time passed by, we practiced twice a week until it was 23th of january. My wife was at that time pregnant of our oldest Senna and was in her last days. she could give birth at any moment now. I was woken up in the morning by her when she told me that her membranes were broken. My first reaction to her was 'No, you're lying' lol, because we discussed a couple of day's before that if she was in labour I had to cancel the gig and I was thinking she was making a joke with me...

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But in fact she wasn't. It really happened. Again (Selfish me) asked her 'But It could go on for day's isn't it, I can still play can I'..... You can guess, it was the wrong question :). She answered a bit irritated 'No of course not you silly'.... So I had to come up with a plan, I couldn't just cancel our gig on the day before although it was a legit reason. After some thinking I called my good friend Danny Samar (I had a great interview with him here) I said "Danny, Esther is giving birth so I won't make it to the gig, can you stand in for me?"..... And Danny said "Yes of course I can, what do you play tonight"... So I told him we were playing Ozzy and suddenly it was quiet at the other end of the line..... After some seconds he said ' ehh ok, I will e with you in a minute to check the music out'..

Danny is a great bassplayer but totally not into Rock music, so he didn't knew the Ozzy songs :)

So Danny came at my house and I gave him the songs. He immediatley started to write out the songs on paper while listening and playing. He convinced me that things will be all right, which I had no doubt about because I knew him. I wished him al the luck for the gig because I knew it was so much out of his comfort zone... But I respected him for doing so.

While my wife still wasn't in real labour we went to the hospital because she had a medical indication to give birth in the hospital. We stayed there for a day and eventually Senna was born on the 25th of January, a day after the gig :)...
While my wife and Senna stille were in the hospital for two day's Danny came to visit us... He told me that it was the weirdest gig he ever played because he had to play it while reading the sheetmusic and sitting on a chair with a music stand in front of him... I was dying of laughing because I could imagine the looks of the crowd when the see a funky bassplayer playing heavy Ozzy while he was sitting on stage... But I was so much thankfull to him for saving my ass by subsistuting for me.... When we are together we sometimes still talk about it... A great story isn't it...

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After the birth and the first weeks we got together again in the rehearsal room. I could feel there was something wrong because of the atmosphere. So I asked "is there something wrong?"... Rene started to talk and said that he was losing fun in the band because he was a bit through with playing Zakk Wylde stuff.. I couldn't believe what I heard, finally we had a band together playing the real deal of music I love and our key-player (guitarist) told us that he didn't have fun anymore playing Zakk Wylde stuff....

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While I tried to convince Rene about a great future of playing great gigs with this band he was determined... He wanted to quit. and in retrospect I could have known, because that's how Rene functions. He totally goes for a guitar player of band, checks them out, buy's their gear.....and after some time he loses interest because he did it all, and goes on to the next.... And of course he was and is entitled to, but for me it was a bigg bummer. I had so much fun in this band.

We did try to find another guitarist but withou succes, we were spoiled with the sound and play of Rene. There weren't many others who could achieve that. So we all decided in mutual agreement to quit the band...
And ti'll today I still do regret that.....

So that was the end of Crazy Train for me.... Though we had a lot of fun :)

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it.. I liked it very much cause it brought back some great memories... !!!

Have a great day and keep up that music !!

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