I'm Baaaaack!!!!!

All is well here in Dallas,Tx. The weather is constantly changing, warm days to extremely cold the next. Hockey and Basketball is in full swing. The Mavericks are in second place and the Stars are in first. I also recently worked with the Rolling Stones and Neil Diamond and Paul McCartney. Great shows!!! The AAC has been full of action and there is so much more going on in the future here. Aerosmith and Lenny Kravitz, Coldplay and Bon Jovi. I worked the Major League Soccer championship here in Frisco,Tx. It was an awesome game with the Los Angeles Galaxy winning in overtime over New England. The holidays are now upon us and I am hoping that everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday. Keep checking back........

billy

Check out the highlight temperature we endured.... 

Twenty below and still taking pics, only Texans do this... 

Layovers create alot of love.... 

Lost ??? 

Thule, Greenland Satellite Tracking Station 

Gotta Love my Texas Hold 'em Hand!! 

Final Show

Final Show….
Today is our final show. The tours were a very nice treat.
We went back to the venue and setup the main room and sound checked and rehearsed. The guys wrote a new tune and it sounds great. Look forward to running it by our fans back home. They are already asking us to return here for the First Light Festival or the 4th of July Festival. After dinner, we went to the club and had a great crowd. Colonel Haven presented everyone with the Certificate of The Brotherhood of Greenland Travelers. Basically making it official that we crossed the Arctic Circle and set foot in Kalatdlit-Nunat. We were also presented with honorary coins from the Commander from the 821st Support Squadron for Outstanding Performance. We also received honorary coins from the 12th Space Warning Squadron and from Team Thule United-“Guardians of the High Frontier”.
These coins are a military tradition all over the world. They are carried at all times and it is not a good thing to be caught without one. Thank you so much gentlemen. It has been an honor to meet you all and perform for you.
The show went great. After the show, the guys posed for pictures with the Colonel and anyone else that wanted. What a way to wrap up this great experience. We depart on Friday barring any bad weather. As of now, we do not know if an Asian tour is going to happen. With everything that is going on since the devastating tsunamis that struck all around there. We will wait and see what the military asks of us. We are all in agreement that going there is the least we can do for our men and women of the military that are going above and beyond to assist the victims of this cataclysmic event. We are also going to do our part in raising contributions to aid the victims and especially the children. Check the Waking Norman web site for more info. There will be a special Red Cross Benefit on January 16th with several bands performing at Club Memphis in Addison, Texas to raise money for the Red Cross. Call 972-386-5151 for more info. As of now, I do not know if we are performing, but that does not mean we won’t be a part of it in some way. Will wrap up this tours blog when I get back. I am not looking forward to that 12 hour flight home. See you all soon…..

billy

2005 off to a great start…..

We had another day off to go where ever we want on the base. Some of the guys took advantage of the fitness center. Great facility. Some of the others went to the community center and hung out in the library or very slowly checking e-mails. Others stayed at the room and rehearsed and wrote tunes. We headed down to the club and reset our equipment in what they call the casual bar. It was a very intimate setup. The guys performed about 2 hours of acoustic numbers for a great crowd. Even though there was NFL football on, the place was pretty full and they enjoyed the unplugged version of Waking Norman. We have tours setup of BMEWS, DET3 and Thule Heritage Hall. The radar facilities should be really cool to check out as well as the satellite tracking systems they use. Today was pretty much a laid back day. We have a full band performance tomorrow night. This will be our final show on this tour. We have had a blast meeting everyone. Check back soon...

billy

Happy New Year from Thule...

Happy New Year……..
Great show last night. Got some great sleep finally. Today we are headed to the Pavilion by the Lake. Gorgeous place. It overlooks the surrounding bay and if you look hard enough, you can see the surrounding ice caps. We played poker and watched UT and Michigan duke it out. What a game!! Believe it or not, this was my first time playing Texas Hold Em’. I actually did great. Had a lot of fun. We enjoyed music and food and basically had the day to get to know the military men and women. Although there are not that many women here. Most of these guys did a tour of Iraq early on, so we heard some pretty wild stories about their experiences. We also met a couple of boys from back home. Spring, Texas and Fort Worth. We are not the only ones a long way from home. We have been asked to perform a special acoustic show tomorrow and we are more than glad to accommodate. Will let you know all about it.

billy

New Years Eve in Thule.....

New Years Eve………

We headed down to check out more sights today before our show ringing in the new year. Everyone is still kind of freaked because of the lack of sunlight. We went to check out a place called the Tavern last night. It is sort of a Danish hangout. Great folks. Everyone had fun getting to know all kinds of things about the Danish culture. For instance, these folks love to eat and drink. A lot!! But they have a great time doing it and when it is time for work, they take that very seriously. We were asked to come down early tonight to be the guests of honor at the big dinner before the show. They have a huge spread prepared. Both American and Danish dishes. It was awesome!!!
We waited a bit before starting the show. Had to digest a bit. After we all had the traditional Danish potato schnapps shooter, we started and the crowd loved it. If I have not mentioned it before, all of our fans back home donated merchandise to hand out to the military here. We are not allowed to sell merch here, so we gave away CD’s and shirts and caps. I think we actually accommodated everyone that asked for one. It was really cool to see all these people walking around the base with Waking Norman hats and shirts on. After we did our 2 sets, we all toasted each other and hung out backstage. Mike and I got a little rambunctious and were hamming it up for the camera. We got some great video footage and pictures. We will try to get that up on the site as soon as we can, but with dial-up internet, we would be here a while. So please be patient. Well, tomorrow we are having a party thrown for us at the pavilion by the Lake. Doogie and Senior are having us over for a Texas Hold Em game and watch the Rose Bowl. Go UT!!!! Anyway, will get back to this soon.
Happy New Year Everyone !!!!!!!!!!

Thule, Day 2

Thule AB, Greenland…Day 2…..

Well after finally getting some shuteye, we went up to the Base Exchange for some supplies. Saw a couple of Arctic Foxes roaming around, we were told to stay as far away as possible. These guys are rabid. We then headed to the venue for a mid afternoon rehearsal. Kind of cool to walk in the club and hear them playing our CD. We went through a couple of tunes and headed over to the radio station for interviews. OZ Radio, Doc Jim was well prepared for the guys; he actually had an old Benjamin Allen Band CD that was autographed. Small world. After several questions, Doc played a couple of songs and we went and had dinner and then headed back to perform our first show. The crowd was very receptive immediately and the guys were so pleased to see their response. Because they have a large Danish population here, we did not know what type of response we would get. It all clicked right off the bat. We did 3 sets with a couple of encores and then hung out with the TOW gang. The after parties here are something else. We actually saw a glass of warm water thrown from a glass into the air outside here and it immediately turned to snow. Freaky!!! Senior knows how to throw a party. We were still trying to get acclimated to the conditions here. It is very dry and cold. So you have to keep hydrated. Any way, lots of fun and we headed back to our rooms. The next gig is NYE, so have to take it easy.

Day One in Denmark

Thule Air Base—Greenland, Denmark…..Day One…..
Hello all. I apologize for not blogging sooner, but internet access up here is very limited and it is all dial-up. We arrived at Thule Air Base in Greenland, Denmark on Wednesday Dec. 29th. We flew from Dallas, TX to Baltimore, and then took a 6 ½ hour Military Aircraft flight from BWI International to Thule. We arrived at 9:20 am. Thule has its own time zone. They are 2 hours ahead of Texas. They gave us a very warm reception upon arriving. United States Military personnel and Danish contractor personnel were awaiting us on the tarmac. Our gracious hosts, Colonel Haven (821 ABG/CC) and Mitch Hebert and Master Sergeant Daniel Hampt had everything ready for us. It was so cold coming off that plane. Officially this time of year, there is no sunlight, so it is dark 24 hours a day. The temperature stays pretty much at 10 to 15 degrees below zero. The wind chill is about 20 to 50 degrees below zero. Needless to say, weather can become dangerously extreme very quickly. Our hosts handed us all the traditional parkas that are worn here on base. After checking in with personnel, we went to drop off all our gear at the base lodging. We were then taken to a briefing presented by Colonel Haven. He told us about the mission of the base. Thule Air Base is the up most northern military radar and satellite tracking point. Thule is 400 miles south of the actual North Pole. After Colonel Haven’s briefing, he gave us all Air Force t-shirts as souvenirs and they then took us on a windshield tour of the base. We then grabbed lunch and headed for the Top of the World Club. This is where we will perform 3 full shows and 2 acoustic shows. We setup and sound checked. Every one was wiped out from flying non-stop since 5:00pm the day before. It is pretty hard to sleep on a plane, and the guys were pumped about the upcoming trip, so they did not catch any shuteye until the military aircraft flight, and turbulence was pretty rough at times.
We then headed back to our rooms and tried to catch some shuteye before dinner. Fruitless for most. We headed back up to the TOW Club and started meeting everyone. Troy sang a couple of karaoke tunes and the guys learned how to play Danish billiards. I want to send a shout out to Doogie and Senior and Rachel and Maria and Misty and George and all the other U.S. Military and Danish personnel that made our first day so pleasant and welcomed. Thank you so much from all of us. Will keep updating these blogs. Stay tuned.

Off to Denmark.....

Well we are off on another Waking Norman tour. This time we head further north to Denmark and Greenland. Thule, Greenland to be exact. Weather reports state that it is consistently -15 below 0 or colder and it is dark 24 hours a day. We will be performing for the men and women of the U.S. Military for a special New Years Eve Show and also some television and radio shows. Keep checking back for more info and pictures.

billy

In front of The Blue Room 

 

Emerald City in front of the White House..