"This dates back to the early Nineties when I was literally living out of a (Flight) case.
When the Ceremony tour was booked in 1991, we knew it was going to be a lengthy one and we’d be away from home for months at a time. So, we had this bright idea that we’d each get a luggage trunk that would stay on the tour bus and use it as a place to store all our person non stage stuff… change of clothes… spare boots etc.
This was in addition to the wardrobe flight cases that had all our stage clothes and would travel with the tour backline, which is common for most bands playing arenas. There were tour wardrobe people that would then make sure your stage gear gets taken care of after the show and appears magically clean for the next gig!
Unlike most of The Cult flight cases this one doesn’t have the band name stencilled on just my initials and case #105 because it didn’t travel with the musical equipment it travelled with the band and was sized to fit under the tour bus. Basically, it was like an old-fashioned steamer trunk… but in an early 90s rock n roll fashion!
After the Ceremony tour grunge happened and we didn’t do arenas for a while so these personal flight cases became redundant.
I kept it as is was really useful for storing stuff in at home and when the band had a break in the mid 1990s I brought it over to England when I shipped over some furniture and a bunch of stuff like mountain bikes. When the band got back together there was no reason to take it back to the States so it stayed in the UK… a treasure chest of my memorabilia.”
Billy - August 2019
This is featured in
THE BILLY DUFFY COLLECTION
Auction on 25th October 2019