Simply Red – A Traveling Fool

December 29, 2025

London Adventure: A Late Start & The Benjamin Franklin House

Since I didn’t get to sleep until about 5am, I didn’t get up until 1pm. Too late for the included breakfast. So went back to the café where I had lunch the day before for a brunch. Had Eggs Benedict, but with smoked salmon in place of the usual ham. Absolutely delicious.

Afterwards stopped off at the Ben Franklin House and found that I had missed the start of the current tour and the next (and last for the day) would be at 4:15pm. So went back to the hotel for a bit. The Ben Franklin House was on Craven Street, which was right next to the café and in between the café and my hotel.

Back at the hotel, I discovered that the legitimate Simply Red Facebook page (the one with over two million members) had published a photo from the OVO Arena Wembley concert with me in it and another from the O2 Arena marquee that I was credited as having taken.

The Benjamin Franklin House (at 36 Craven Street, just off the Strand and close to Trafalgar Square) was built about 1730 and is the last standing former residence of Ben Franklin. He lived and worked there from 1757 to 1774. When he left, he returned to Philadelphia to help with the Declaration of Independence and other issues having to do with the American Revolution. The house was restored and opened to the public in 2006.

During the excavation and restoration, the remains of ten people were discovered to have been buried in the basement. An episode of “Secrets of the Dead” on PBS was dedicated to this discovery. The skeletal remains were found to be about 200 years old, which meant that they would have been buried there while Franklin was in residence. It was also discovered that Franklin’s friend, William Hewson, was the person responsible for the bones. He lived in the house for two years. As an early anatomist, he worked in secret due to legal issues at that time related to dissecting certain cadavers (about half of them appear to have been children).

When I returned to the house, I was running a bit late, so the fellow who let me in had me join the tour and then pay him later. There were only four of us on the tour. The person who led the tour portrayed Polly Stevenson Hewson, daughter of Franklin’s landlady and wife of the fellow who was dissecting cadavers in the basement. She became a “second daughter” to Ben Franklin during his time there.

Parts of the house were still original, such as floorboards, ceilings and staircases. After the tour, when I went to pay for it, I told the guy that my Reynolds ancestors in Boston had owned the house where Ben Franklin had been born on Milk Street back in 1706. His father, Josiah had a total of seventeen children from two wives. Ben was number fifteen and was the tenth and last boy. He was baptized at the Old South Meeting House, which was across the street.

Robert Reynolds (my 10^th great grandfather) and his wife, Mary, arrived in Boston in 1630 on one of the Winthrop ships. They settled in the part of Boston that borders Milk Street to the north and Washington to the west. They are buried in the King’s Chapel Burying Ground. The land they owned included a stretch along Milk Street that included the house in which Benjamin Franklin was born. Robert’s grandson, Nathaniel owned the property at the time when he was born. Nathaniel’s son, John eventually moved to Marblehead, MA. This was where my American Revolution ship’s captain 6^th great grandfather, Nathaniel Reynolds, was born.

His son-in-law, Elisha Freeman, was also a ship’s captain and my 5^th great grandfather. My paternal grandmother’s maiden name was Freeman. The first of the Freeman family to arrive in what eventually became the U.S. did so in 1630. His name was Samuel Freeman (another 10^th great grandfather). He arrived in Salem.

The guy at the Benjamin Franklin House showed me the front door, which was original to the house and said that I could photograph it. He also let me hold the chain in my hand. Franklin would have held that same chain every night when he locked up the house.

Next time – The Tower of London at Night and the Ceremony of the Keys

December 22, 2025

London Adventure: Final Simply Red London Concert at OVO Arena Wembley

After eating the salad I had purchased on the way back to my hotel, I dressed for the concert. This time I wore a red sequined, cold shoulder top. This was the actual date of the release of Simply Red’s first album, Picture Book, back in 1985. I was also going to be sitting front row center. I was honoring that special date by dressing up and using the color red.

I took a cab from the Railway Station to the arena and went to the VIP entrance. I received my VIP Front Row Experience carry bag with a VIP lanyard, a drinks coaster, a poster, a program, a journal with a pen, and a Bluetooth speaker. As I was being taken to my seat, I encountered a woman who was wearing a red sequined jacket. She was at the end of the middle section in the first row.

Shortly after I sat down, I met Carine from Belgium. She was just a couple seats over to my left. She and the couple seated between us were lovely people and ready to have a great time. I was pretty much directly in front of the pieces of paper that Mick had taped to the floor. One was a set list. The other contained some prompts for what he wanted to say in between songs.

Carine had noticed Sarah Brown, one of the band’s former backup singers (from 1995 to 2008) going to her seat to our right and up at the side of stage. She pointed her out to me. I was very glad that she had a few days later when someone in the fan group saw that same woman walking down the stairs to head backstage during a video of “Something Got Me Started” (the first of the three encore songs) and was certain that she was someone else entirely. But I was able to say that I was there and saw Sarah myself.

During Soul II Soul’s set (which was much more fun up close) we found that the security at the arena was putting their priority on the people who were walking back and forth in front of us to get more drinks. Once the Simply Red set began and several of us stood up and moved forward to the barricade so we could clearly see the band without anyone getting in our way, we were told to sit down. That was when a few of us got a bit rebellious.

We had gotten the most expensive seats in the place with the idea that nobody could get in front of us and ruin our view of the stage. Carine and I both thought it was ridiculous and we weren’t going to take it sitting down. A woman on the other side of me was worried they might throw us out if we didn’t remain seated, but I said that the more of us that stood the better. There would be too many of us to threaten. So, since I knew that “Money’s Too Tight (to Mention)” would be the next song, I said something to Carine and to the women on my other side. As soon as the first notes were played, we were on our feet. Carine and I motioned to everyone around us to stand and they did. Most of us stayed on our feet for pretty much the rest of the show. I only sat down a couple of times when my back complained loudly.

At one point, when Mick was explaining how the song “Enough”, which was co-written with Joe Sample, came about, a man could be heard talking quite loudly far down to my right (which would have been stage left to the band). Mick stopped talking and looked in the man’s direction. The man quieted down for a moment until Mick began to speak again. This time Mick walked over to where the man was sitting and looked directly at him. Since the guy didn’t seem to get the message, Mick bent over and pointed at him, telling him to shut up. He followed that up by returning to where he had been standing before he was so rudely interrupted and apologizing to the audience, explaining that he needed to be able to concentrate on what he was saying. He then continued his story and sang the song.

The next day, the press and some social media said that he had gone on a “shocking rant”. They were blowing it entirely out of proportion. Nothing shocking. No rant. Just a performer telling a disrespectful member of the audience to “shut it”, so he could continue the show.

The remainder of the concert went along with no further interference from noisy or drunk audience members or security threatening to remove anyone from the front row. The band put in another stellar performance throughout and received an ovation from a standing and cheering crowd at the end of the final song of the main set – “Fairground”. Then another at the end of the final song of the encore – “Holding Back the Years”. And Mick did this entire show while dealing with an eye infection.

After the show, some more people came up to me and asked if I was Trisha. There were also people stopping me to comment on my sparkling red sequins.

The Simply Red Facebook page (with two million followers) published five photos a couple days later. The second photo showed Mick singing onstage near where I was standing. I could also be seen. Photo number five was of the marquee at the O2 Arena and I was credited as the photographer. Both photos really tickled me. I will share both of these photos in my next post.

The day after the concert someone else in the audience posted a video on YouTube of the band performing “You Make Me Feel Brand New”. Mick was standing for the entire song near where I can clearly be seen standing and singing along directly in what was his sight line. The fella filming it kept me in the frame most of the time. Then the couple to my left, between me and Carine, stood up. It was harder to see me then, but my ponytail was still frequently visible. I have included a screenshot that I took from that video here.

Next time – A late start and the Ben Franklin House

December 2, 2025

London Adventure: The Second Simply Red Concert at London’s O2 Arena

Breakfast had many more people than the day before. I figured it was a combination of my getting up later and the strong likelihood that several of my fellow breakfasters had also attended the concert the night before. This time I had a table facing the window, but it wasn’t right next to the window. No problem. Just wanted to get some good food and start my day.

The tickets for the concerts were all electronic. I had the ticket for the first night at the O2 on my phone (in the O2 Arena app) before I left home. My ticket for the OVO Arena Wembley concert was also already on my phone, in the OVO Arena app. But my ticket for the second night at the O2 was not on my phone. I had followed up with the ticket vendor while still at home, but had gotten nowhere.

Once I arrived in London, I chatted with a fellow at the O2. He told me to arrive at the box office when it opened at 5:30pm on the day of the concert and they would get it straightened out. I had a friend who had an issue with one of her tickets for an earlier concert and had gotten her situation taken care of in a similar manner. So I had planned the day to be ready for the concert and walk over to the box office at 5pm.

When I returned to my room after breakfast, I decided to try the O2 app one more time. The ticket was there. Could the problem have been that the app couldn’t handle more than one night at a time? Or maybe couldn’t deal with two different ticket vendors at the same time? At home, I often have several different tickets for different venues or different nights at the same venue on my phone without any problems. Whatever the issue had been, it was solved and I didn’t need to hang out at the box office later in the day. I took a screenshot of the ticket as backup.

I had originally planned to visit the main part of Greenwich for the day. But changed my plans when I was going to have to deal with the missing ticket. Now that my plans changed again, I chose to stay close to home. I spent some time exploring the upper level of the O2 complex, which mostly had shops, and didn’t buy a thing. This time I circled the entire complex, instead of going halfway and coming back. Then, after a light lunch, I went to the swimming pool and then sat in the thermal pool again.

This time the thermal pool was empty when I arrived. The previous day, a guy was already there. He had all of the jets shooting full blast and both waterfalls going. He was sitting under one of the waterfalls like it was his own personal shower. I hadn’t wanted to get so thoroughly pummeled (with my very fair skin, I bruise somewhat easily). Plus I didn’t want to get soaked by the waterfalls (since the water coming down on the fellow was spraying out quite far from him). So I had kept to the periphery. This time the setting for the jets was much more reasonable and the waterfalls weren’t running. So I settled in on a more centrally located seat where I was more likely to stay put and relaxed thoroughly. Others eventually joined me in the thermal pool and we had some enjoyable conversations.

After having some dinner and getting dressed up for the show, I went to the hotel bar and had a Lemon Drop Martini. Then I sauntered over to the entrance to the arena with my ticket ready to be scanned from my phone.

This time my seat was on the other side of the arena, a bit farther back from the stage and blessedly not so high up. To my left was a group of people, both male and female, all in their mid to late thirties. They were wondering what songs were and weren’t going to be played and when they might hear “Fairground”. Since I had the set list fully memorized by this time, I was able to answer their questions. They were mildly snockered and having a great time partying.

To my right was a very nice family from Belgium. The mother was about early fifties and had brought her son and daughter for them to see Simply Red live for the first time. Mom was a long-time fan who had indoctrinated her kids on the band’s music from pretty much the womb.

The seats directly in front of me were empty until after Soul II Soul finished their set. Then their occupants arrived, carrying several drinks (beer, wine, and cocktails) and already quite intoxicated. They were quite loud and rowdy and continued to be so even after Simply Red took the stage. If anyone dared to say anything to them, they responded quite belligerently, peppered with numerous expletives. I am usually very much of a live and let live kind of a person as long as no harm is being done to anyone. But my mild-mannered Belgian friend and I were whispering to one another about what we thought we could get away with doing to them without being arrested.

The guy left again and returned with four large beers in his large hands. Not too long after that, he threw up all over himself and the woman to his right. The woman he was with was to his left. Simply Red was not yet that far into their set and suddenly four people were leaving the concert. I was thankful they had been in front of me and not behind or next to me. It took a while before the cleaning crew came to take care of the mess. But it was likely that it wasn’t the only mess they had to clean up that night. The venue made it clear both nights that the drinkers were the priority to them, not the people who actually wanted to experience the show.

Because I knew the set list so well, I had planned out what to photograph and, more importantly, what to capture with video clips. Some of the action going on around me precluded some of my plans, but I still managed to get some good stuff. Since I would be front row center the following night, I didn’t want to spend all of my time looking at them through my phone when I was right there face to face.

Once again, they were incredible. Some acts I have seen live have been carried away by their own egos and sleep-walked their way through their set. This band never does that. They always go all out to put on an amazing, entertaining show. At the very beginning of the set, a video is played of Mick forty years ago saying, “I want to be a great singer. I want to be the best.” He isn’t talking about being the most famous or the richest. He truly means that he wants to sing very, very well. He worked at it really hard to make it happen.

For the encore, one of the fellas to my left had switched places with the girl who had been right next to me. At the end of the concert, he gave me a big hug and wanted to kiss me. Honestly I could have been this guy’s mama. But he was jovially three sheets to the wind and high on Simply Red’s unbelievable showmanship. He said it was the best concert he had ever seen in his life and planted one on me.

I followed the Belgian family out from the seats and we walked together for a little bit. They needed to get back to the main entrance while I was going out to the hotel from the bottom of the stairs we walked down from that level.

Back in my room, I got ready for bed and packed up to leave the hotel the next morning after breakfast. Then I posted the photos and video clips I took and called it a night.

Next time – transferring to a central London hotel and making my way through crowds of protesters to tour Parliament.

The arena filling up just before the Simply Red set

November 26, 2025

London Adventure: The First Simply Red Concert at London’s O2 Arena

For the very good buffet breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant, I had a table by the windows in the corner. It overlooked the Thames and gave me a very pleasant view of the skyscrapers in London’s Financial District across the river. I could also watch the variety of boats and ships that went by.

I couldn’t settle in too much, however, as I had scheduled a one hour, full-body Swedish massage at the hotel’s spa. I figured that, with three nights of concerts in a row, I would be glad to have had it.

Although I had assigned seats for all three, Simply Red concerts are just not the sort of shows where the audience sits quietly in their seats. Instead the audience gets up on their feet, dances, sings along during the choruses, applauds enthusiastically, and cheers throughout.

The band is unique. The styles of music include soul, jazz, blues, funk, rock, ballads, and the occasional reggae piece. They not only sound different from other bands, but their songs are different from each other too.

The band is very tight and every member of it is both versatile and quite talented on the instrument (or instruments) they play. On drums, Roman Roth; bass, Orefo Orakwue; guitar, Kenji Suzuki; keyboards, Gary Sanctuary; trumpet, flugelhorn and percussion is Kevin Robinson; saxophones, EWI, and additional keyboards is Ian Kirkham. The guitar, saxophone, trumpet, and keyboard solos are all spellbinding. The lead singer, Mick Hucknall, has an exquisitely unique singing voice, which just seems to become richer and more powerful as he ages (25 when he started and 65 now).

With the tour being for the 40^th anniversary of the release of their first album, Picture Book, it was chock full of hits and fan favorites from over the years. Mick also talked to the audience (which he usually does at least some anyway), explaining the origins of some of the songs or telling stories related to them. This added an extra depth to their nearly two hour set.

Back to the massage. It was delightful and energized me. Afterwards I went for a walk outside. It was a lovely day. I explored the area around the O2 Arena, taking photos of the hotel, arena, and the river.

One of the photos that I took of the marquee at the main entrance to the arena ended up being posted on Simply Red’s Facebook page a few days later, credited to me. That was really cool. It was accompanied by four other photos, one of which was from the third concert and showed Mick onstage. I could clearly be seen in the audience watching him. I will share that photo in a later post.

Picked up some Chinese food for lunch. Then later in the afternoon, I took my masseuse’s advice and went to sit in the large thermal pool in the hotel next to the swimming pool. My legs kept trying to float up. If I tried to lean back, my entire body would rise and I would start to float away. I decided the problem was my lack of height. Others seemed to be staying in place, but they were all taller than me. So I sat on a ledge with my legs hanging down in order to not float off. Then I had a light dinner and got ready for the show.

I had decided that, since it was such a special anniversary, I would dress up each night. For the first night, I chose a purple sequined camisole with a purple and blue sequined shrug jacket.

The entrance from the hotel was pretty much on the other side of the arena from the main entrance, which I needed to go in. The complex was full of people and they were not all going to the concert. As it was, the arena could hold 20,000 and was sold out. So loads and loads of people milling around.

My seat for the first night was close to the stage, but really high up above it. It was the best seat I could get in the scramble to get any ticket I could after my friend had died. I am not a fan of heights, but I had talked myself into being okay with it on the way. Fortunately, when I went up the steps to enter the arena itself, I didn’t need to climb any further from there or go down any steps either. I just stepped over a bit to my right and sat down. Whew!

Not long after I arrived, another woman walked up to me and asked if I was Trisha. I said I was and she introduced herself to me. That was great. A new friend. I later had several people say that they saw me — some from across the arena. It seemed that my outfit could be seen from space.

I figured I would likely stay in my seat most of the time, unless the people in front of me stood and I would need to stand in order to see the stage. Didn’t realize that the people around me would be going in and out for the entire concert to get more drinks or to run to the WC. So I ended up standing for much of the show even at that dizzying height in what I would call nosebleed territory. The drunker several of those people got, I began to pray that nobody would be so drunk as to take a header over the railing just a few rows ahead of me.

The concert itself was absolutely fantastic – both Simply Red and their supporting act, Soul II Soul (biggest hit being “Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)”) played their hearts out. Afterwards I took the elevator down instead of the never-ending succession of escalators. Then I walked back to the hotel. I ended up staying up a bit late to post the photos I had taken on three Facebook pages (my own, the one I had been helping with for the past couple years, and another dedicated to the band to which I often contribute). Exhausted, but happy, I slept well once I was under the covers of my comfy bed.

Next time – The day and night of the second of the three Simply Red concerts

November 15, 2025

London Adventure: Arrival

The British soul band, Simply Red, features quite prominently in the first days of this particular trip. So a little back history is in order.

On the 11^th of October in 1985, their first album, Picture Book, was released. This included the songs “Come to My Aid”, “Sad Old Red”, “Heaven” (the Talking Heads song), “Jericho”, “Money’s Too Tight (to Mention)”, “Holding Back the Years” (which hit #1 in the US), and the title song. The album launched the band into sudden fame – especially in the UK, Europe, and South America. Forty years later, still going strong, they embarked on an international tour. I was going to all three London concerts.

I had initially become aware of Simply Red through my local record shop. The fella from whom I purchased most of my music recommended them based upon what he knew about my musical tastes. In the summer of 1986, the band performed at the First Avenue Club. As good as I thought the album was, they were even better live.

I didn’t have the opportunity to see them again until the summer of 1992 at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. A friend of mine had rented a flat in London and invited me over for a few weeks. She had a flyer regarding the Jazz Festival which indicated that Simply Red would be playing during the time I would be in London. So we hopped on the plane to Geneva.

After a few changes in personnel, the band was even better in person than before. And their very dynamic and charismatic lead singer, Mick Hucknall, was incredible. He started off the set with a Cole Porter song sung a cappella. It was perfection. I was even more completely hooked than before.

But, after a few years, life happened and our connection was lost. Two years ago, the connection restored, I was helping with a group associated with the band and was already set to attend a couple of the upcoming 40^th anniversary shows. So, on the 7^th of October 2025, I boarded a plane and began my London adventure.

Originally I was supposed to attend the two shows at the O2 Arena with a friend who said she had arranged for us to be the guests of one of the band members. But, several months after the tickets went on sale, she suddenly died. I then found out that she had not yet made any arrangements. So I found myself scrambling to get whatever tickets I could.

In the meantime, a third London concert was announced for the OVO Arena Wembley. I signed up for the pre-sale, got up at 3:30am my time to be ready at 10am London time (4am for me) to try to get myself the Front Row Experience. Success! Front row center even! I had already planned to make it a longer trip than just the concerts and had several activities in mind for the rest of my time in London.

I had managed to snag a Delta One air ticket, so my adventure began after I checked in at the Delta One desk, dropping my larger case off there. My ticket got me into the Delta Sky lounge. My flight wasn’t leaving until 11pm, so I wouldn’t be getting the onboard dinner until after midnight or so. In the lounge, I could get a light meal to tide me over until then for free. I could also hang out in the relatively quiet lounge until nearer to the time to board. The ladies room in the lounge alone was worth it. Quite posh.

I received a glass of sparkling wine upon boarding. Then, with dinner, I selected a lovely, white, Argentinian wine to go with the crab cakes I had ordered. They were served with soup, a salad, some smoked salmon, a roll, some risotto, and green beans. I decided I could get used to this.

Shortly after dinner, I figured it was time for bed. The seat could lie down, which I felt would definitely help me to actually sleep (which I normally don’t on a flight). It was, however, rather turbulent here and there, so I would just be drifting off when I would start to bounce around a bit (although I did have my shoulder strap seat belt on).

We were served breakfast at about 10am London time and landed at about 1pm. Going through passport control is much quicker now that all I need to do is to have the passport read by the computer. But I do miss collecting the stamps in the passport.

A car and driver were picking me up and taking me to the Intercontinental O2 Hotel. I knew that it would take a couple of hours to get there, especially since we went through central London, instead of on the ring road, but it took more like two and a half hours.

After checking in and getting myself settled in the room, I headed out the back door of the hotel to the special hotel entrance for the O2 Arena complex. I wanted to get acclimated with the place and find some food as it was now approaching 5pm.

I saw a Kentucky Fried Chicken right away, but it was closed for a private function. I usually like to eat the food of the country I am in instead of American fast food. But I was hungry and was willing to take whatever I could get that looked reasonable and was open. I ended up at the Five Guys burger place. It was a lot of food and I couldn’t eat it all, but I didn’t need to eat again for the rest of the day.

Back at the room, I got everything ready for the following day, set my alarm, and went to bed at around 10pm. I had an appointment for a massage for the next morning.

Next time – The day and night of the first of the three Simply Red concerts