Memory Lane

Sitting round Andy's the other evening listening to George Harrison singing "If not for you" by Bob Dylan got me thinking about the time Miriam and I went to see the great man.
It was the 7 July 1984 and we had just spent two weeks in the Lake District. We had had an eventful trip up when the master brake cylinder on our old Datsun Sunny 120 had given up when we were on the M5 at a services filling up with fuel. We went to pull away and had no brakes, lucky escape !
We managed to get towed to a local garage by the RAC but they couldn't fix it until the following Monday and we still had a three hour journey in front of us and a car full of camping equipment. They then suggested that we hire a car from them and pick ours up on the way home. That was a great idea I hear you cry but the flaw in the plan was that we were not coming home by the M5 but heading for London instead in two weeks time as we had tickets to see Bob Dylan at the old Wembley Stadium.
We had no alternative though so we took their suggestion and so thirteen days after we left our car in Upton on Seven we were back to collect it all repaired and ready to go. We had to transfer all our camping gear back to our car and then head along the M4 to London arriving on the south circular around the rush hour and during Wimbledon fortnight. Luck was really not with us as just as were pulling away from some traffic lights we realised that we had a flat tyre ! I now had to unload everything from the boot onto the pavement to get at the spare and change the wheel. So it was a relief when we arrived at our friends house in Charlton without any more mishaps.
On the following day ,Saturday the 7th July we made our way by train and underground to Wembley Stadium to see a great lineup of musicians.
Mir and I had only been married for two years and we didn't have a bean between us so the repairs to the car had pretty much cleaned us out. We had just enough money left to buy a large carton of coke which we shared and then kept filling with water from the tap in loo's to keep us hydrated in the afternoon sun.

This was,as many will remember at the height of the miner's strike and we were seated next to an 'on strike' miner from Leicester shire who kindly let us use his binoculars every now and then so that we could see the stage which seemed miles away.
The afternoons entertainment started with Nick Lowe's band Rockpile and was followed by UB40. Around tea time Santana came on and then at about 8pm the great man himself.
My memory of the gig it now quite hazy after 28 years but I do remember that late in the evening he was joined by Eric Clapton as a special quest.

It is Bob Dylan-Promise !!

All too soon it was over and we were heading home down Wembley Way and then back to the West Country the next day. It had been an eventful trip but it was great to see one of our hero's in the flesh.