We were docked in Nassau this day. I decided to remain on the boat, though, as I’ve learned that there isn’t much for cruisers apart from tourist traps and overpriced goods. I can say that it paid off. I walked through the hordes of tables in the Garden cafe buffet to finally discover the Hacketts seated at a buffet,sheltered by a few other guests. I took the opportunity to connect with Steve and Jo as they were leaving to go ashore. We were all happy to be seeing each other again. Despite having had several up close, extended interactions with the Hacketts in the last 2 years, I was still touched that they recognized me. The mornings started off slowly, with not much planned that captured my interest until close to 1:00PM, with Mike Dawson in the atrium playing various 80s-era music videos for bands like Rush, Mike and the Mechanics, and Yes. The time between when that event finished was largely spent sitting in the atrium. I messaged Jeanie Flowers on our WhatsApp chat thread, and asked if she and Rachel would like to join me at 3:30 for Steve Hackett’s Q&A, in the hopes that I could introduce Steve and Jo to Rachel. I advised them to come down about an hour ahead of time since I was positive that there would be a big crowd gathering for that. The Q&A followed a short talk with photographer Armando Gallo, a long-time photographer for Genesis, who had just released a book featuring some of his work. I struck up a conversation with one of the people taking care of the books and book signing, after overhearing her mention being from Culver City in the greater Los Angeles area, right near my own neck of the woods. She seemed to know what I was talking about when I mentioned my hometown being Simi Valley, but it was hard to tell for sure.
I’m not going to go into the contents of the Q&A, since it was largely the same types of questions you’d expect to hear (inspiration for songs, early influencers,etc…) It was a bit of a challenge guiding Rachel to the Starbucks where Steve was staying after to sign things and take photos with fans, as the area was loud and crowded. Jo was seated a few chairs down from Rachel and me, so at the conclusion of the Q&A, I quickly introduced Rachel and Jeanie to Jo, who then encouraged us to wait away from the crowd before bringing Steve over. Time was short, as the Hacketts had somewhere to be, and a security guy almost whisked Steve away from us, but Didi from Trading Boundaries stopped that from happening. Since Steve and I had already spoken, I wanted to give Rachel and Jeanie as much space as possible to interact with him and Jo. They spoke for a few minutes, and then the Hacketts went on their way. A quick encounter, but I’m glad it happened.
I hung loose after and stayed for some of Randy Mccstine’s set until about 5:30PM, when I headed to the Stardust Theater for the red laminate Marillion show, the one I was assigned to. Another beautiful performance. I was expecting to hear the same set as the blue show, and I largely got that until the encore. Instead of closing with “This Strange Engine,” they did a few tracks off of Brave, including “The Great Escape.” I thought this show was much stronger than the red show. The band seemed to encounter more technical problems than the red show, with H going as far as to hilariously yeet his cricket bad across the stage when it refused to cooperate. There were a few other minor issues with guitar amps and pedals, too. Fortunately, that was all corrected before the red show. We’re coming up on 10 years since I discovered the band, and they still perform with as much passion and feel as they did then. My only complaint for both shows was that it was so short, about 70-75 minutes.
I headed up to the pool stage as soon as Marillion got out so I could catch Rachel performing with Estronaut. Rachel had told me the other day that the set would consist of them performing material from each other’s respective musical groups and projects, though they do have plans to write original content together at some point. I was thrilled to be standing on the upper level of the pool deck and looking down to see a good crowd of people that had shown up for their debut performance. I’m eager to know what they’ll be doing next.
The excitement didn’t stop there. I had a quick dinner with my Dad in the Garden Cafe until he left to go take a walk. Shortly after, I got a phone call from my Dad with urgent news: H was right outside the cafe entrance. I left my partially eaten chocolate flan behind and went out to investigate. Sure enough, there he was, decked out in his PJs, chatting it up with fans. Since there was a dent group of people grabbing his attention, I felt my social anxiety kick in, and stepped off to the side, close enough for H to see me, but not close enough to get overwhelmed by the loud people surrounding him. Eventually the crowd quieted down to a dull roar, and the second H met my eyes, he held his arms out for a classic H-style hug. That is, it’s one of true happiness and love for his fans. I had time to tell him where I was from, and then he took my hand in his and gave me one more look of sweetness before heading to the elevator. A short encounter, but it made my day. The rest of the night was spent on Cloud 9 for me, and I headed to the pool stage one more time to catch some of Crown Lands’ set. It didn’t take long for me to pick up on the incredibly strong Rush influence, which I know they addressed at their Q&A, but it wasn’t until I heard them that I realized the depth of that influence. (Name) covered both the drums and vocals, the latter of which sounded like something straight out of early Rush. The guitar tones and keyboard effects played by (name) also reminded me of Rush. I got too tired to watch all of their set, especially with Daylight Savings Time beginning and shedding an hour of sleep time.
The Girl in the Scarf 
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