The day came about really quickly and before I knew it I had to meet the Guys from the Brothers with Different Mothers at Manchester Airport for a very different 8 days.

I had worked with the band on a couple of occasions but didn’t know them too well their Bass player Chris was on a family holiday in the USA so Morgan Pugh stepped in at the last minute to join us on this unknown expedition for British Music!

We landed in Tbilisi the Capital of Georgia 12 hours later (due to a long wait in Düsseldorf airport for the connecting flight) A small airport that seemed more functional than a money making exercise. I guess we are just so use to airports though out Europe exercising their rights to incise you to spend a little more money!

We eventually got through customs to be greeted by Vaho and George from Soft Eject and a new person who was going to become a new brother while we were there called “Timoh”. (I must apologies now if anyone’s name is spelt incorrectly as translation is difficult)

We sped from the airport like we were in a race, to find out later that’s just the way these guys drive. It was around 4.30am when we got into Tbilisi and an annual market was still in full flow, the villages around Tbilisi come into the city once a year to sell their produce and loads of wine. We had an apartment just of the main road of Tbilisi and the people who lived in there had given it up for us for our stay. Nana and Nina not only gave up there home but also looked after us as well. From the first night we could really tell that these people where very please to see us and made us feel very comfortable.

The next day was a bit of a day off and we had chance to see Tbilisi centre and to start understanding a little about this country. The reason why we had gone seemed slightly bizarre at first; we had been invited by the S.O.R.O.S Foundation to a festival in a park to make people aware that they have a voice and to use it for the elections about to happen on the 2nd November. Ok it was true that the whole place had been neglected since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and 12 years with no road maintenance, water, electric or gas to name just the obvious was beginning to push the message home to us all. Driving passed party leaders houses and family to President Eduard Shevardnadze no longer warranted the question of “where was all the money going to?” A truly beautiful city and nation is being let to go onto ruin because some people are not interested in its people’s health and safety and standard of living.

The Georgian people are a very proud race and deservedly so, they have a history of which the rest of the world would be proud of and the hearts of angels that shine so brightly they dazzled us with their honesty and love for each other and for us.

Time soon came for the open air gig. We got to this park and the stage was being finished. A mass of people where already milling around seeing what was going on as I got the Brothers with Different Mothers to help do the sound check – mainly because they could understand what I was saying! The people who where there really didn’t say too much just stood in amazement as they did the sound check. How was it going to go? Not to long after the first band came on and the Park began to fill up with a swell of Georgian people in for a great night’s entertainment. Georgia has a very high calibre of musicians and music the best for me was indeed Soft Eject, Green Room and a guy called Zumba. But TBWDM played an absolute Blinder and really got the crowed rocking! I looked around the sea of people that had come and their faces where a joy. They were avin it!!! This show also went out live to Georgian TV.

One of the best parts for me was the live radio the guys did. Radio 106.4 FM Georgia’s “Radio One” a top Station run by some top guys, we did over an hour of interviews and live playing. It was such a pleasure to be in a room with loads of guys really buzzing off the guy’s music we almost forgot it was all going out live to Tbilisi.

Green Wave radio was an early start the next morning that turn out to be another great interview for TBWDM and the popularity of the band in Georgia was starting to be noticed.

There was so much we crammed in those 8 days in Georgia, days out to see some of the worlds most beautiful sights, the Turkish Baths, the fantastic Georgian food, a great gig at Noa Noa and most of all the truly amazing Georgian People.

I went with an impression of “yeah, well, we go out on the street to protest in the UK about things we don’t like”. In Georgia they go out in the street to protest because things have got so bad that if they don’t then there is little future for this amazing nation. I find it quite difficult to understand why the rest of the world just sits back and watches it all happen and isn’t being told what is really going on!

"My voice and my vote was the only thing I had left. No way I am letting them take that too," said one of the women from the town of Telavi.
Like hundreds of others she reached Tbilisi by foot, as the army has blocked all entrances to the capital and stopped dozens of the opposition supporter buses from joining the rallies in the capital.
"I am not afraid of the police. I am only afraid when I see my children's hungry eyes. Things must change," she said. (Taken from the BBC website)
I know I share this woman’s fears along with The Brothers with Different Mothers and we feel so honoured to have had chance to see this country hopefully our return visit will see the changes it deserves.