23 Jul, 2010 I Travel, Corsica-Brazil!
Brazil is a place that I imagine most of us have either dreamed of visiting, or in on way or another would desire experiencing for ourselves. I recall as an 11-year-old pupil at St Brigid’s primary school in Glasgow that our class did ‘a project’ on Brazil; it was then that I first became quite fascinated by that vast country; it’s cities, jungles, history and culture. A great amount of that fascination still holds and with that being so I am even more looking forward to the upcoming concerts that we have scheduled throughout the second part of August.
Our first visit was back in early ’88 I believe, and although I have very few photographs at all that relate to my 33 years travels with SM, I do have some great souvenirs from that trip, one that saw us take part in a festival that was held in one of Rio’s many football stadium. (Not the world famous Marracana unfortunately!)
Perhaps it is due to these photographs that the memories are still so vivid, and I particularly favour one shot taken of Charlie Burchill and Johnny Marr – the ex Smith’s guitarist – standing on the hotel terrace with the iconic panorama view of the beach and Sugar Loaf Mountain making the dreamiest backdrop. Both of the guys look so happy (So young also!) and why would they not? Particularly as with both having been born and raised respectively in the then grey industrial northern towns of Glasgow and Manchester etc, surely then Rio was more than likely to have appeared overwhelmingly magic not to mention glamorous to their young eyes. It certainly did to mine.
I am sure none of us quite believed that our lives was able to take us into such different realities from the one in which we came from, and its fair to say that despite being so spoiled over the years I am still able to marvel at how things have panned out with so many positive and pleasurable experiences. Or at least I am capable of doing so for a few minutes almost everyday.
Today for example I am in Corsica, just finished doing a very welcoming press conference at the poolside of the one of the island’s finest hotels. A glorious day and a stunning location, it also more than makes up for the nightmare of yesterday which was full of cancelled flights, horrendous delays en route, and then finally the insult of being informed that our luggage was nowhere to be seen. It also is in contrast to days like last December when we were for example stuck in the snowdrift for hours on end outside of a frozen cold Bucharest – with “Showtime” quickly approaching. We made it incidentally, and the point I make here is that our lives are rarely dull.
The other point I do not hesitate in making is that it is thanks to everyone who turns out to see us within our travels that I have this life that I can reflect on right here and now. As said on many occasions before, my appreciation to all knows no end.
Jim Kerr