My first journey was not planned this way. I am a part time musician, and today I had a very busy day, having to be in many places all over Norfolk, then to travel to my gig playing bass at the fantastic pub The Kings Head in Coltishall. I had told my band colleagues that I’d be ‘a bit late’ hoping that it would give me a little flexibility, but knowing that I’d be very late, just time to throw the gear in and start playing.

I had planned to use my warm, dry, comfortable, reliable, economical Ford Fusion but at the last minute decided to take the Land Rover as it could be ready loaded with my 4×10 speakers etc ready to go. This wasn’t a wise decision as I’d not allowed any time to try out the Landy properly

The weather was bad and I had forgotten how ‘different’ driving one of these is. The noise was worse than I remembered, the diesel engine only adding to the usual vibrations and rattles that I remembered well.

I noticed that the charging light was on permanently. I had to turn the headlights off except for when a car approached and I limited my use of windscreen wipers as much as possible, this policy dimmed the charging light just enough to make me think that I could actually make it to the gig. I noted that this charging problem would be my first problem to rectify.

I realised that I was shaking with cold and although the heater fan seemed to work, there was definitely not even a glimmer of heat coming from the rusty lower dash panel. I noted that the first job would be to get the heater working.

As I arrived at the venue I saw the drummer running about the car park clutching his phone. He’d been ringing me but of course there was no way I would have heard that.

After groping about in the darkness for gear I noted that the first job would be to rig up a rudimentary interior light system.

The gig went well and the journey home was less stressful. Letting down a band is just never done, but getting home late is a minor nuisance.

Conclusions

• WHAT HAVE I DONE?
• The first job will be to sort out the charging circuit
• The first job will be to sort out the heater
• The first job will be to add interior lights.

On a positive note I was amazed that the polythene sheets I’d used to protect my gear from the leaky roof weren’t necessary, torrential rain, yet the vehicle was completely dry inside, I have never experienced this before in an old Landy.