" The final Welsh gig "

I sit here,eyes tired and sore,for obvious reasons.I feel sad, happy, honoured.. there's a whole mixed bag of feelings going on in my head right now.

When the alarm clock rang at 7am sharp this morning I found that one side of my face was wet with tears, I had been crying in my sleep. I had to turn away from our youngest, Owen, when he asked me with tears welled up in his eyes if we would ever see the Magnificent Mitch again.We shall, even if it means we have to go to Newcastle to do it.We adore this guy, good things come in small packages as they say.

The gig at Abergavenny went down a storm last night. The band played to a packed house, not one seat was left empty. Ian even said he thought that this had been the best crowd of the tour so far, but I have a feeling that Newcastle will beat us there, and rightly so. Ian was wearing the Wales t-shirt that we had bought him recently. The joker came back on stage during the second half of the concert with most of the lettering covered up in black tape, so all that could be seen was the word 'Ales'.

Billy of course mentioned that this was the last Welsh Lindisfarne gig. Moans from the crowd and words such as "Shame" were shouted out. I'm sure that I could see a certain member of the band choke back on some tears.

I'm stopping now and then as I type this so I can dry my eyes, god, this is so hard. As I said to Tom, Billy's cute son, nobody has died, it's not the end. It was a sad event, but the lads gave us 100% and the crowd adored them.

I turned to Kev during the intro to Lady Eleanor and said how sad it was that this was the last time that we would hear this live. The mandolin and drums will haunt me forever, it's this and Winter Song that grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me as a 15 year old schoolgirl. I fell in love at that time with my boyfriend, who later on became my husband, and I fell in love with the sound of Lindisfarne.

Billy, for one last time, during Unfinished Business, looked at me as he sang about the Homer Simpson tie.Geoff, Sue and Mick all looked at me, knowing what was coming, their eyes did look glassy then,did I see tears welling up folks? I'm sure I did. Unmarked Car had Geoff smiling like nothing I have ever seen before in my life, his air guitar having a bashing. This Too Will Pass caused my first tears of the night to flow, they were the first of many. It was so good to see many of our dear friends at the concert. We don't usually see so many friends turn up at one gig. Here is a name check for them: Geoff and Sue Styche, Chris Bowen and family, Mick Fisher, Jim Evans and Daughter, and last but not least Bill and Elaine Molton. All smashing folk that we have met at gigs and have got to know via this website. My thanks to Reinhard for making this possible.

Consider this my friends, we have been so fortunate.We thought once we had Alan stolen from us that that was the end of Lindisfarne, but no, we have had a good many years of mileage out of them. 

AhI see that the stage curtains are closing in on me, time for me to go, but I shall be around, lurking, watching, waiting for whatever projects our beloved lads come up with.I'm a loyal fan and I hope they also see me as a loyal friend.Hmmthe stage lights have gone out now, the caretaker wants to lock up,I'd best be going.

Thanks for reading this, my next reviews will be for The Ghosts of Electricity and I hope Lindisfarne Acoustic too. Time to close this book 'The Lindisfarne Gospels'33 years of material in thereit's been amazing.

T'ra Lindisfarne..hello Ghosts Of Electricity and Billy at the Maggie. *Smiles* Yeah, it 'aint over yet folks, far from it.

Caroline Harry with her sons plus Geoff and Sue Styche	Ca and Mick Fisher