Tour Diary: Love with Johnny Echols
Tour Diary: Love with Johnny Echols
Mike Randle Takes Us Backstage For The Band's UK Summer Tour
Mike Randle is the co-founder and guitarist/vocalist for legendary LA guitar pop group Baby Lemonade.
Starting in the early ‘90s, Baby Lemonade—also featuring Rusty Squeezebox (guitar/vocals) and Daddy-O (drums)—became Arthur Lee’s backing band in Love. After Lee passed away in 2006, Baby Lemonade kept the music alive as Love Revisited and these days regularly perform with Love co-founder/lead guitarist Johnny Echols.
Randle is one of the most talented musicians I know.
We first met in late ‘80s Santa Barbara where we jammed in a storage space studio, played wiffle ball daily, drank ourselves silly nightly, and regularly devoured the spiciest chicken wings in all of Isla Vista (“You shoulda got the wings!” is a running joke between us, so I’m thrilled to see those deep-fried delicacies mentioned below).
Randle has obviously lived a very interesting life and he’s a great storyteller, so I asked him to chronicle the first few weeks of the Love with Johnny Echols UK summer tour.
It’s a great read. I really appreciate the sense of wonder he still maintains after decades of performing, and the respect he has for the day-to-day grind of touring.
Love with Johnny Echols—Summer UK Tour Diary
By Mike Randle
20 UK Shows in 26 days
Our massive United 787 jet landed at London’s Heathrow airport Saturday morning, 6 July, after a fairly uneventful 9 ½ flight from Los Angeles. The first show of this UK tour didn’t start till 10 July and would end 4 Aug—20 shows in 26 days. We had to fly in early as we were playing live on the “Riley & Coe” radio show on BBC6. Now, seeing as the BBC6 show is in Salford, a city within the greater Manchester area, we spent the night in a hotel just outside of London ‘cause hotels in London are hella expensive. Plus we wanted a head start for Sunday’s 4+ hour drive up there. Our hotel was near a posh gastro-ghost-kitchen area, which was all of a 10-minute walk. I found it funny that I could see the area and if we were in LA it would be a simple walk in a straight line.
Not. In. Salford.
We had to wait for the train to pass, cross a stone corridor, walk on the bridge over the river, past the ducks. THEN we were where we need to be. That’s how they roll up there. Deal with it.
“Sorry, looks like we’re fucked.”
On Monday morning (8 July) we loaded into the BBC6 studios, set up and were ready to go. The sound engineers were awesome and after cutting the sounds live, we posed for some photos, packed back up and headed back to the hotel which meant back to the Gastro stuffs. The entire thing took about 3 hours.
We had the Tuesday off and used that day to drive to Cambridge where we’d be closer to the first show of the tour, which was in Bury (pronounced “Berry”), St. Edmonds at The Apex. And so the next day we drove to soundcheck and I have to say the sound team were quite shy. And far away. The sound board was literally up in the balcony. Our drummer was so far away I had to yell to get his attention. As a musician you kind of hate to load your monitors up with all the instruments. I tend to have just bass drum, bass guitar and my voice—that’s it. But for this I was gonna need a little snare.
After the show we all piled into the splitter bus and headed to the hotel. Except the hotel that Glenn had booked on booking.com was now a privately owned Airbnb. We had no hotel. Glenn told us, “Sorry, looks like we’re fucked.” So we got a bite and headed back to the Apex, hopeful that Glenn would sort out something.
“Fuck me! Robert Plant just walked in.”
This was the first show of the tour and the venue was quite light (possibly due to the fact that England was playing the Netherlands in the UEFA football competition). Spain had knocked France out so the winner in that night's game would play Spain on Sunday. People enjoyed the set and overall it was a good, but it was definitely a low-energy crowd and a low-energy show. I left the stage thinking to myself, “Am I gonna be able to do this whole tour? I’m already tired!”
I’ve been touring, on and off, since 1993—North America, Australia, Scandinavia, Europe, UK. It’s easy to entertain negative thoughts after playing a show where you didn’t feel like things went the way they were supposed to, but that lasted all of a day because the next night we played a sold out show in Birmingham at the Hare & Hounds.
About 20 minutes before we were set to hit the stage our tour manager, Glenn, blew up all our What’s App DM’s with, “Fuck me! Robert Plant just walked in.” We all smiled since that was the energy we needed the Gods to deliver. Nervous? Not for a second. Percy (Plant’s nickname) has been to quite a few of our shows. He’s a local Wolverhampton boy so these are his stomping grounds. We hit the stage and tore it up for a good 90 minutes.
Glenn chatted with Plant during our set and he apparently asked a lot of questions, including this one: “Who is that bassist? What’s his story?” Who knows why he asked that, but he bought two T-shirts and also his ticket to get in. He gave Glenn his email address and left during our last song.
10 Days Since I Left Home
Then Robert Plant did the unthinkable; he posted on his personal Facebook page that he’d been to our show with a photo of his tour tee that he’s purchased and advised anyone and everyone to go see us. Our next two shows (Friday & Saturday) were packed! The Manchester and Liverpool fans were going bonkers and playing three fantastic shows in a row really left us on a high note.
The Liverpool show featured our pal, Martin Smith, on trumpet and some odd horn he bought in the Baltics. We had Sunday off and drove to our hotel just outside London to chill. We watched England play a great match against Spain, only to lose 2-1. The next day was July 15, 10 days since I left home.
The 16th of July saw us pull into a rainy Guildford venue called The Boileroom. A small yet quaint venue, the staff and sound woman Shannon were spot on awesome and it turned out the club chef was Canadian and supposedly had the best buffalo wings in the UK, according to the club manager. We figured we’d put them thar wings to the test, placing 6 orders. We’d see who was boss on these wings! Now, our soundcheck went great and the opener, Lewis Shepherd, was just on acoustic guitar so there wasn't much to worry about where the stage size came to mind. The wings arrived and they were, by far, some of the best I'd ever had. She widely tossed them in Frank’s Red Sauce (We put that sh*t on everything!) and they had the perfect balance between tender and outer crunch. Boileroom for the win!
Then came showtime… One thing we didn’t expect from this event was the absolute downpour of rain, along with lightning and thunder and enough humidity to make Houston blush. In fact, it was so humid and hot inside that the stage was slippery from the moisture. But we had a blast and the old out crowd totally had a good time. Curfew was 10:30pm, so we started at 9pm and played our usual 90 min set. By 11:30pm, everything was packed into the splitter bus and I was back in my hotel room by 11:45. The next morning we headed to Brighton for a day off. Johnny was meant to do an event connected with the Love documentary, Love Story, but the event was canceled a few days prior to our arrival. So, it was a rainy laundry day in Brighton.
Now, some folks wonder what does an average day consist of for a band that’s on the road on our level—no tour bus, five star hotels or road crew.
Just the band, the tour manager, band manger, driver and merch-slanger in a 9-seat splitter bus and has a separate back compartment that accommodates 3 guitar amps, 1 bass amp, 1 drum kit (with a massive golf hardware bag), 6 guitars, 1 bass, all our suitcases, and all the merch! So, here is how we roll, on an average day where we are traveling to the gig (instead of already being in town from the night before):
You check out of your hotel in one town around 11am and hope to have less than a 3-hour drive to the next town. Check in at most hotels is 3pm and we usually arrive an hour early so our tour manager Glenn always tries to slide us in there early. So, everyone gets a good 45-60 min chill time before we have to head to the venue to load in around 4pm. Usually takes us 30 min to load in and set up. From there our soundchecks are normally about 20 min. We know what we’re doing and aren’t one of those bands that wanna jam for an hour and torture the sound person, the bar workers and anyone else within earshot that doesn’t wanna hear more racket than necessary.
As we are headlining this tour we aren’t striking out gear with the exception of a few bands that are pals of ours (like Scotland’s Fast Camels, Bolton’s The Newds, and Wales’ Swansea Sound) who we’re keen to share our gear with. So, after we check we either split and get food or order from the venue’s menu if it’s recommended. This tour is on a tight budget so there’s no running back to the hotel, as the hotel is prolly a good 15 min away. You ain’t going nowhere! Then from about 6pm to 8pm you can pretty much do what you want. Sometimes there are interviews and stuff, but if not we have at it. We hit the stage about 9pm every show and play until 10:30, which is almost always the curfew in most venues in the UK (folks gotta catch that last train!). We thank people, sign shirts/records/books, pose for pics, and chat with anyone who wants to chat. Then we pack up the gear (careful to account for all of it!), load the splitter bus and by 11:30 we are usually all set to drive back to the hotel. I’m usually in bed by 12:30, get up around 9am the next morning, shower, shave, get dressed and down in the lobby by 11am. Glenn usually stops for coffee (Costa) because Rusty will absolutely throw a Diva Strop if he doesn't! Everyone gets their coffee and pastries and water and wot nots before we hit the road and do it all over again!
17 July saw us do just that! We were in Brighton and got some Costa coffee and did the 2 hour gorgeous drive to Southampton to play The 1865 venue. We did all the usual stuff and then hit the stage at 9pm sharp after our opener, Leonie Jakobi, finished her awesome set—just her and her Gibson ES-335. The 1865 was much bigger than the last few venues and only a little over half full, but the crowd was great and the sound and lighting team there were top shelf. We’d all had Chinese food after sound check and I did an interview with Mojo magazine, mainly questions regarding the 2025 High Moon records release of the Arthur Lee rarities album, Just To Remind You. We played a fun show and I got to see some old friends, including my former mother- and father in-law (Yes, I was once married to a woman from the southwest coast of England). We got back to the hotel just as the clock struck midnight. It was Glenn’s birthday, but the poor fellow was knackered so the celebration had to wait. We were heading to Brighton the next day to play one of our favorite venues, the Concorde 2.
18 July, morning. Had a nice noon check-out from our hotel in Southampton after a good 9-hour stretch of pure, blissful sleep. We set off around half 12 after the usual coffee stop. Even though Brighton is 65 miles to the West from Southampton it takes about 2 hours to drive there, as you are driving right near the coast on slow, sometimes winding roads with gorgeous countryside scenery all around and the English Channel just south. We were staying at the Miller & Carter hotel, which is kinda where we always stay when we’re in Brighton. It’s about 15-20 min from the pier—so, not close at all—but it does have a fab restaurant (the steak and potatoes and the fish and chips are always on point) and is sort of a classy looking place, even if it’s not near anything remotely fun.
(I forgot to mention that Johnny Echols gave me a pair of cool light shades that had fake gold trim—think Ali G or Snoop Dogg—but they looked cool!) I Facetimed with my GF and she liked them as well so I said, “That’s it, I’m gonna rock these onstage!” I did and people dug the eye gear. So, shoot—I’m went for it again in Brighton!)
Brighton Has Always Been Good to Us
We rolled into Brighton late afternoon but before stopping in Little Hampton to check out the beach and grab a hotdog with grilled onions and lots of mustard! The crew at the Concorde 2 venue are always top shelf (shout out to manager, Jess!) and this was no exception. We got set up and sound checked and then the support act, Stanford Family Band, did their check and they sounded great.
They played a smooth ass, groovy set of music stating at 8pm that sounded like 20/20 era Beach Boys—very California coast-sounding jams. We hit the stage at 9pm and played for one of the loudest and coolest crowds around. We’ve played Brighton four times since 2016 and that town has always been good to us, when Arthur was with us and even now that he’s passed. Afterwards, we loaded up and hit up our favorite kebab shop. There’s a Turkish bloke who used to work there and his dream was to NOT work there the next time we rolled through—but 2 years straight he was working. Then tonight, finally, he wasn’t there! Hopefully he’s happy regardless of what he’s doing. Got back to the hotel about 1am and crashed hard, slept harder.
We Were Absolutely Beat By the Time We Got To the Holiday Inn
Woke up Friday morning and had a long, horrible 3 hour drive through central London to get to the rehearsal with our keyboardist/musical director, Nick Frater, and the musicians he’d assembled for the Shepherds Bush Empire show we’d be playing the next day. On trumpet/French horn was Nathan Thomas who has played shows with us in London two out of the last three years (he’ll also be playing with us in his hometown of Cardiff). The ensemble members (aka the Parallax Orchestra) were Will Harvey (1st violin), Elena Abad (2nd), Rich Jones (viola) and Maddie Cutter on cello. We were supposed to be there at 11am but didn’t arrive till 1:30pm. We decided not to set up drums and Johnny got comfortable on the studio couch so Rusty donned the acoustic, James’ bass went direct and I played through my amp.
We went through the Forever Changes songs that the extra musicians played on several times before calling it a day. We were absolutely beat by the time we got to the Holiday Inn. I have to say, I was more than a little concerned about the slow ticket sales for the SBE show…
Saturday finally arrived and by 2:30pm we were setting up inside the Shepherds Bush Empire, which was once a theatre from the late 1800s. Local Bedford rockers, Large Plants, were the support act (they also opened for us last year in London at the Garage). Our sound check went well and afterwards Rusty, James and I went out for a delicious Turkish meal with our pal from Los Angeles, Suzi (who happened to be in town visiting family) and after that we went to a bar across from the venue called The Green Bar. I went to buy a round and a Love fan came up to me and asked if I was Johnny Echols. I had to admit to him that I wasn’t.
We headed back to the venue and Rusty got a text that Jarvis Cocker was in the house! Baby Lemonade backed Jarvis in Italy back in 2010 so we were really happy to hear he came out to see the show.
I Never Imagined I’d Ever Be There Again Without Buying a Ticket
Now, this venue holds 2000 people and I wasn’t so sure we could even do half that so imagine my surprise to find out we did nearly 1700! We stepped on stage around 9pm to this nearly packed house and it had me nearly in tears; we’d last played the Shepherds Bush Empire in April, 2004, with Arthur Lee and the Stockholm Strings and Horns. I never imagined I’d ever be there again without buying a ticket—but here we were.
The Baby Lemonade core of Rusty, Daddy-O and myself, along with our bassist of the last 3 years, James Nolte, had been joined by these amazing musicians who’d taken the time to practice and perform with us. The show went off without a hitch and, after personally thanking anyone who’d dare come up to the front of the stage after the show, we started packing up.
Got back to the hotel around 2am. Everyone crashed hard. The next show was in Colchester with SwanSea Sound, which features Bob from Heavenly and Amelia and Huw from the Pooh Sticks.
I could go on, but this tour diary is already too long!
That there’s a band, with Johnny Echols no less, still out there touring Forever Changes is a wonderful discovery for me. It’ll help me face each day with a smile, as Arthur said.