Vlore, Albania, 13/08/10 - This chilling factual account was told by Michael Charles, Tour Manager
Something strange happened in Vlore.
If my memory serves me correctly this was the first time Dan Mason had seemed different. It is only now when I look back at that evening, on the second date of the Tankus the Henge Tour of Albania, August 2010, that I realise it occurred at dusk. Like a vampire, thirsty for the night and it's cloak of darkness, the ordinarily mild mannered Dan Mason turned into the now legendary and less than considerate 'Danny Mason' ....Rockstar!
I met him at the hotel lift, after he'd had a shower, and he looked straight through me. I turned to Jaz and said, 'What's up with him?' ...and Jaz told me the news. 'This is Danny Mason', he said. And that's when I realised things had changed. The air of indifference within that lift as we descended the three short floors to the lobby will haunt me for the rest of this week. 'What a load of bollocks', I said, as the doors opened and I walked over to one of the leather settees to wait for the rest of the band to arrive, picking up a lost earplug en route. Danny just frowned and looked me over like a stinky tramp that just asked him for the last drag of his cigarette. And so the evening continued.
Initially I thought it was just an act and it would pass after a short time when both Dan and everyone around him got tired of the joke. So I laughed to myself as I watched his overexaggerated attempt at 'elegantly wasted', sauntering around reception, giving the odd wave, and finally swanning out of the hotel to the awaiting bus. ...But it didn't pass ....And it wasn't till I saw him at breakfast the next morning that he'd obviously reverted to the lazy, good for nothing Dan Mason of old, in search of beer and a comfortable seat.
At that gig in Vlore he played fine, had his photo taken with 'the fans', said 'I've got time'. when he was greeted by this dignitary or that record company executive ...but I never saw him smile once. This was Danny Mason and they were lucky! A few words here, a handshake there, ...what could anyone expect but a cursory acknowledgement that they were in the presence of Royalty? When I passed him a beer he drank it in one. When I offered him a cigarette he took the pack ....and the piss! At the end of the show having strutted his stuff, signed autographs and had his picture taken hanging off innumerable, excited young women, he boarded the bus with such a look of disdain that everyone fell silent. There was an ominous air aboard that vehicle. Who knows where this is going to end?
Beware the twilight.
From dusk till dawn .......it's Danny Mason!
