Yoko Ono, Reykjavik, IS, Oct. 9, 2010 - John Lennon's 70th Birthday Celebrations

Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, Oct. 9, 2010, Reykjavik, IS

Today started off in a pretty standard fashion, save for the fact we were out till 4:30am in various bars in Reykjavik... After 4hrs sleep we awoke in our boutique-style apartments, ran across the street to get some amazing coffee at Kaffatir, and it was off to load in at the theater, whose name I still don't know. The morning and early afternoon were really smooth. If anything, I was shocked that I had better gear in Iceland than I did in Los Angeles. What's the deal with that? Anyways... the band came in to soundcheck around 2pm, ran a few songs, and by 4:30pm we were going back to our rooms to relax for a bit.

One of the main reasons we even came to Reykjavik in the first place was for the yearly lighting of the Imagine Peace Tower, which is a tribute in part to John Lennon. This would've been his 70th birthday, so it was a little extra special this year, hence the show. It's also Sean's birthday (they share the same day!), so there's no shortage of events for the weekend... So at 7pm, we all meet up to go to the reception/ceremony to light the tower, which is essentially high-powered beams of light that will stay on until Dec. 8th, the anniversary of John's death. The reception was a smallish number of people - the band, Yoko, various friends, local politicians, Ringo Starr... etc... I had heard rumours he would be coming, but it was still a bit of a shock to see him walk in the door. He greeted everyone he met with a standard line: "I'm Ringo, I'm the drummer!" It was good that he cleared up any confusion... So we hung around for a while, eating hord d'oeuvres, drinking wine, mingling, and eventually it was time to light the tower. Someone made a speech, Yoko read a poem, and they shut the lights out so we could see clearly. (We were actually in a building about 2 miles form the tower site - it's cold in Iceland, so we were all inside.) While the tower lit up, they played "Imagine" (of course), and once that was done everyone sang Happy Birthday to Sean. We mingled a few more minutes and then it was off to the theater, time to work!

It was a little different this time around as there were no plans for special guests, but in a way that's more relieving... Fewer things to worry about, fewer people to please. Everything went really smoothly, and for the last encore of the evening, Give Peace A Chance, they called up a few of their friends to sing along, notables were Mark Ronson and Ringo. Quite a way to finish the night, never thought in a million years that I'd mix Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr and Sean Lennon at the same time.

After the show, there was a surprise birthday party for Sean, so we all stopped by that for a little while. Once that started winding down, we hit the town again, specifically our favourite spot - Boston Bar. We spent a good chunk of the night there, met the owner, she brought us around to a couple other places that stayed open after the 3am last call and finished off the night hopping around to a few different bars, hot dog stands, waffle stands, meeting people and staying entertained along the way. It was almost 6:30am by the time we got in. Success!

We knew there would only be about 4hrs of sleep, but that was ok as we have the Blue Lagoon on the schedule tomorrow. Relaxation for a couple hours anyways...

Oct. 10.

Fours hours of sleep go by pretty quickly. We rushed to get our bags packed, grab some coffee (priorities) and head out the door. We were on our way to the airport to fly home, but via the Blue Lagoon.

It's quite the spot - cold outside, freezing mark, but the water was 40 C (about 105 F). Very weird sensation to be in the water, body completely warm and comfortable, head and shoulders freezing. Nevertheless, it was a very relaxing way to get ready for a flight home. We spent about 90mins in the water, got some sort of fruit energy drink at the swim up bar, stood in a waterfall, very enjoyable.

And with that, our time in Iceland was up. 4 days in Reykjavik just flew by. Looking forward to coming back one day...