Love the Scalextric cars, want to see Heinkel/Trojan and KR/TG ones!
Sandbach Services oh yes!
On tour 1980s, 3 am, road weary, low on money and hungry, so in we go for petrol and a tiny portion of greasy almost cold chips which cost 3 times as much as a normal portion of chips.
Then we leave and spot the police car near the exit and we all know we will be followed for a couple of miles then pulled over, as always! They pull us over 10 minutes later, quite friendly, just want to check, I show my docs, but they want to see what's in the back of my old VW van, so the 3 in the back open the side door while I look at the wing mirror.
First out is the guitarist 6 ft 9" tall and looks like Frankenstein's Monster or Herman Munster, he is doubled over to get out, then straightens up to full height. In the mirror I see 2 cops' jaws drop as they take 3 rapid steps backwards in uncontrolled fear and surprise. Guitarist is a gentle giant, so all soon calms down.
The checks all get sorted without too much fuss; as a musician, your journeys are virtually impossible unless you are fully prepared and have a good attitude to cope with endless pulls!
One cop comes back to me and says "That big mate of yours, does he play football?" "Oh yes", I reply, "he loves his footie".
"Do you think he would want to join our Police football team?"
"Why don't you ask him yourself?"
"Ooo, I don't like to, he looks a bit, er, intimidating like".
"Yup, I noticed you both running backwards when he got out of the van".
"Yeah, well, er, he took us by surprise...glad you lot turned out to be nice lads, we were a bit worried! Thanks for your patience, have a good tour and mind how you go".
"Cheers, bye now".
The hilarious sight of the 2 cops staggering back in terror is etched permanently in my visual memory!
