It began with a 5am start and an 80mile drive to Belfast City Airport, a
quick shuffle through security, followed by a nice large coffee. A quick
trip across the Irish sea and the North of England and I was in Newcastle.
Shortly after arriving I was met by, my navigator, co-pilot & travelling
companions John L, Kev and their respective better halves, Sue & Lisa.

A  few hours later we arrived on the west coast, it was great to see place
names I'd read about, Workington, Whitehaven even Cleator Moor, we were getting close.

John told me to get my camera ready, lo & behold a big sign, welcome to Egremont. After so many years I had arrived, we took a quick spin around, so I could get the lie of the land, Egremont is a small place so it didn’t take long. We pulled in just up past the ship launch pub and made arrangements to meet up with Mark Andrews. John, Kev, Lisa & Sue along with myself headed down Egremont main street, we saw the statues, you can see them on the ‘Hometown’ live cd cover, They are near enough outside Francis old secondary School, Wyndham comprehensive.

A few minutes later our official tour guide Mark arrived, the girls had headed off so we could do the ‘Dunnery’ thing. To some we must’ve seemed like a bunch of eejits, but mark had official tour guide booklets made up, listing our places of interest. From Francis’ schools, primary & secondary, Egremont Castle, where the cover for it bites ‘big lad in the windmill’ was based, and the benches where those argumentative castle nights took place. I can proudly now say that I have seen the trees at Rothyske, in the the direction of Braystones in the hills. We also were taken round to see Francis’ childhood home in Gulley Flats, ‘From a rusty bike to a mobile phone’.

Mark, it has to be said was running around looking after all the charity, and his time was really appreciated. But he surpassed his tour guide skills, he had told us he had a surprise for us, so when we pulled in to meet up with Sue & Lisa, Mark said he had something in the boot of his car for us, 1^st out were 3 framed Egremont scenery pictures, one for each of us signed by Francis himself, but then Mark pulled his masterstroke.

A fantastic looking folder, brimming with Francis & It Bites clippings, some of the goodies included one of the first promo pics of It Bites, a flyer for an It Bites gig around 1981 designed by Francis,  copies of the pictures used for the Gulley Flats Boys cd cover, and there was so much more, he had also bought us a copy of the local paper that had a great 3 page spread on Francis & the charity weekend. I was and still am stunned by Mark’s kindess & generosity, the time effort & expense he put into these was above and beyond the call of duty. And I still hadn’t even been anywhere near the Rosehill theatre yet.

Mark headed off and we sad we’d give him a lift to the Theater that night. So we headed off to grab a bite to eat. A few hours later we collected Mark from his home and set off for Whitehaven. A few miles down the road from Egremont, we pulled into the car park and headed into the theater. The Rosehill (http://www.rosehilltheatre.co.uk/history.htm) is very deceptive on the outside, but inside its very ‘classic’ in design.

Milling about in the Lobby before the show, I met a  few familiar faces, Fay, Francis sister, and the semi official CKDCF photographer her daughter Charley, Jon Webster (sorry about the Belfast joke), John Dunnery of John & Wayne fame, does that mean there’ll be a song called recognized in Whitehaven?, nh, didn’t think so either!

John & Kev also introduced me to some of the other house concert hosts they had met on their travels, and also Tom from America. A few notable missing faces were Steve Rowe, GET WLL SOON STEVE!!! And Kate Stauffer, Kate who books Francis’ house concerts was fantastic in helping me arrange my house concert, more on Kate later.

In Steve’s absence Erica, Francis’ girlfriend was looking after the merch stall, and she remembered me from the Derry House Concert, I always knew I was unforgettable HA!

We headed in and took our seat, we were at the back of the hall beside the mixing console, but the Rosehill is not the biggest venue, (208 seats), our view was great. There was a draw for 2 tickets for the ‘Brits’ music awards show and then John and Wayne hit the stage. A few hiccups but a great set, J&W are professional enough to carry on even if they made a wee mistake or two, but not above having a laugh about it.

A brief intermission and then it was time for the main event…….

More to follow!