Now you would probably imagine that when a band has gigged in your town their next gig would be in the next closest town.... not necessarily so! In fact this is so often not the case you might suspect some evil plan involving Air Miles and truck-stop gift sets! So as you can see life on tour involves a great deal of travel. 

 

It was during one of these long, long journeys through mainland Europe that Roy (Martin) came up with a game to help pass the time..... In some bands this might involve significant amounts of a mood-altering pharmaceuticals and a couple of friendly locals, but not this one.

 

Roy’s was a word game. It involved coming up with names of screen actors, alternating male/female, whose names started with the last letter of the previous actor (contact Roy for more details) – fiendishly difficult.

 

In my experience, organised games are not a regular feature on a tour bus; pursuits like sleeping, reading, scratching, being more popular but this one really caught on.

 

After an hour or so, the lightweights (like me), were falling by the wayside, clutching their heads and foaming at the mouth with the mental strain of it all. After two hours there were only three men left standing: Roy, whose late father it emerges, was a cinema projectionist so Roy learned to read with movie credits, Ian, who watches far too much daytime TV and Mel.

 

After nearly three hours of titanic struggle it was Mel who emerged victorious.

The fact that it was Mel that won should come as no surprise to anyone. Many people saw Mel the party animal; far fewer knew Mel the polymath. He was a very clever man.

 

Steve Butler March 2005

 

Martin Treanors Mel Pritchard Tribute

 

 

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