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〜ロビー／グー・グー・ドールズの「ROBBY'S LOBBY」〜
日本人の奥さんを持つ根っからの親日家ベーシスト、ロビーがバンドの近況やいろんな情報を教えてくれる人気コラム「ROBBY'S
LOBBY」！誌面から1月遅れで彼が執筆した英文ママの掲載です。 Hey Hey Inrockers and Welcome to The Lobby, coming to you today from Cape Town, South Africa as we have the first show of our South African leg of our current touring cycle! This trip was rescheduled from December when our singer John contracted pneumonia and had to be hospitalized for a few days. Long trip here to SA from NY, but we’re used to that recently as we just got back from a 6-city run in Australia, I believe we were midway through that trip when we spoke last here in the pages of the mighty In Rock! Australia was so special for us, we had been there last year with Matchbox as a support act, but much like this trip to South Africa we have not played our full show here in years and years. As a matter of fact when it comes to South Africa the last 2 times we were here was doing festivals in 1998 with Lenny Kravitz, The Cult and a bunch of S African bands as well as being asked to play the 46664 concert in 2007 with Peter Gabriel and Annie Lennox as well as a host of others, but once again didn’t get to play our full show, this time it’s our show and we are beyond excited to play for these folks! I believe we were on a day off in Brisbane, AU when we last spoke, we had already played shows in Canberra, Sydney and Newcastle, the tour continued on to Brisbane Adelaide and concluded with a crazy huge show in Melbourne. We did a ton of radio and press and even recorded a piece for Australian Idol as one of the contestants named Emma came and performed Iris with us, Super successful trip, and I believe we are already planning our return for more shows in 2027. After a very long flight home to the states from Australia, I got to spend 10 days in my own bed and a great week with my daughter in Buffalo before taking off for another 10 days here in SA. The promoter was amazing enough to bring us all on a leisure day here in Cape Town and brought us to Boulder Beach which is a famous spot here in town that is a breeding/feeding place for wild South African penguins, you heard me right, South African penguins. I had a favorite, he was a true star, and I’ve included a picture of him in the column, I named him Hugo, thanks for the memories Hugo. We took a great ride down the coast of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans which meet at the tip of SA, an amazing trip and an unforgettable lunch at a small boutique hotel/restaurant on the shore of the harbor. Our opening act in S Africa is a band called Just Jinger, they are doing all 4 of the shows with us here during this trip. The first 2 shows are at a place called Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town, it’s a beautiful garden at the base of a mountain with a sloping hill leading to a big, tented stage at the end of the hill, Beautiful setting for our first 2 shows back here in SA. I’ll be filling you all in on the shows here in South Africa down the line, maybe we’ll meet some more penguins, hope you’re having a great Spring, and I look forward to meeting up again with you next month in the pages of In Rock! Peace,
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