Blog
Teatro Diana, Guadalajara, Mexico
18th October 2010 | Larry
Los(t) Consoles in Guadalajara
18th October 2010 | Juliet
It’s scorchio beside the plunge pool.
Word has it there’s going to be a delay in soundchecking. Perfect opportunity for chilling in the hotel grounds.
The crew meanwhile have an early start at 10am, setting up the gear…
It’s 6.40pm and the stage is ready to go….only one thing, there is no mixing desk for the stage or the venue…lost consoles.
This news generates lots of wit from the band including the support band Los Consoles and the outfront sound engineer being inconsolable. Ho ho…ho.
Time ticks on….
The rest of the gear was picked up in a truck in Mexico City but somehow the consoles/mixing desks never got aboard that truck. There was somebody’s granny in the front of the truck however…
Doors open soon. There has been no soundcheck…
But dinner is at 7. We wait. And wait. Outside there is a police siren. The sun is still out….
It’s now 6.50pm….still no consoles.
At 7pm there is a cheer downstairs…we have some bits but not all…it was a substitute console but not up to the spec needed…
We eat Tenga chipotle chicken, smokey paprika flavour, or veggie ravioli Mexican style.
Rumour has it there is a police escort for the consoles…
At 8.15 there is a red flashing light blasting up the stairs and into the windowless dressing room as the police pick-up truck announces arrival……the gear arrives backstage in a massive lorry. Lots of action from the men in black unpacking stuff.
The band were due on stage at 8.30. It’s 8.25pm….
Andy opens a bottle of cider that is made of apples and grapes…
Mark pours a glass of red…
The crew are sorting everything. Nick appears in the the door and says, “It’s all there.”
Then there’s setlist ‘poptions’ to be considered.
Downstairs there is cheering…
Dave says it’s gonna be a great gig.
Nick and Nigel come in for a coffee and a sit down…
Larry appears and describes the scene of wires and connections and somehow making many bits work together. The description involves someone holding Tig’s computer screen as there is a missing bracket /fixings…
It’s all a bit Heath Robinson (“Rube Goldberg for our US friends,” adds Larry.)
Then Tim comes in with a setlist…lots of the New York set doctored….but it could change.
Tim makes a carrot juice. Andy gargles with Jim’s Listerine.
Downstairs there is a lot of talking through the mic to the crowd. Maybe they are explaining the problemas…and delay.
Its now 9pm. The setlist is on the mirror, just…but could change according to events.
Saul says at the moment they are EQ-ing all the monitors. There are four cleaning ladies in. No crowd yet. Hopefully there will be a soundcheck. No messing.
Bob says we can soundcheck.
Its 9.05pm and Thom comes in to say “We are ready, just got to change the thing on Dave’s monitor.”
Saul feels uncomfortable after Bob has EQ-ed with Dark Side of the Moon. Wrong somehow.
José comes in with two canisters of oxygen..but no instructions as to how to access it…
Soundcheck ‘Tell Her I Said So’…then ‘Bells’…things OK..it’s 9.20…crowd still outside.
At 9.40 the band come back stage.
At 9.45 pm there is moxibustion going on in the smoking room. Would be ironic if the moxa set off the fire alarm and they had to clear the building…
Andy cracks open a bottle of Tequila José Cuervo Reserva de La Familia…a gift from Carlos…
I fetch limes and salt downstairs.
At 10.08 the show finally starts….
Thank you and goodnight
18th October 2010 | Larry
The final gig on this amazing tour nearly didn’t happen, and without the amazing skill and hard work of all of our crew I’m certain it wouldn’t have. A massive thanks to them all: Tig (monitors), Bob (FOH), Thom (tour manager), Chris (lights), and our UK crew abroad Nick and Banksy (Nigel).
The gig was a massive relief, after the clusterfuck of the day we were certain that something was going to go wrong, but it didn’t. The sound was great and we rocked the house in Guadalajara.
We met some lovely people in the aftershow who sweetly applauded each band member as they entered, we felt special. Some we had met two years before including the coolest brother and sister act I have ever seen.
It’s a sleepy Monday night in Guadalajara and there isn’t much action downtown so we retire to the hotel to drink some of the fabulous tequila that we have been given. The manager lets us into the closed and empty bar and leaves us to it, what a nice chap.
After much laughter and fond farewells to the folks leaving in just a few hours, we sleep. We are going to need it for what turns out to be a three flight, 30 hour journey home including an eleven hour stopover in Dallas Airport.
It has rained in Manchester (no surprise there then :-), but now the sun is shining gloriously and it all looks beautiful to me.
It’s been an incredible tour but I’m glad to be home.
Thank you all for following the blogs.
See you in December.
Larry x (and Jules of course)
Corona Capital Festival, Mexico City
16th October 2010 | Larry
There he played his trumpet to roaring crowd below
16th October 2010 | Juliet
The flight is only three and a half hours but seems too long. By the time we arrive the sun is going down.
We flew in from LA and went straight to the venue to set up gear and soundcheck.
On my iPod I find Frida. The soundtrack works well. I lend Andy an earpiece for the trumpet virtuosos Mexican style. We drive slowly through traffic jams in Mexico City.
Finally we reach the site. The sun had gone down and it was freezing…numb fingers and toes…yes, in Mexico in October.
We get to check into the hotel in the early hours. Cold through to the bones and can’t seem to get warm. Too cold to get out of bed and find a blanket…feels like ten below.
Next day sun is shining and all is well… Have a hefty breakfast ‘cos you never can tell on busy days when there will be time to eat. The strawberry and balsamic vinegar marmalade was good. Mexican scrambled egg was laced with chilies. Then Dave appeared and we sat in the sun listening to the two harpists who were playing on the terrace. It was all very grand….
A bit too full to do yoga, I headed back to my dance studio-sized suite to do some tai chi whilst looking out the window at an attractive Mexican man having fags out his window across the courtyard. Where was my focus? Slipping obviously.
Am listening to Habla Con Ella soundtrack. Outside there is another harp recital. A weird mix that almost worked.
Then Tim called huskily to say he had a very bad throat and needed some things from the farmacia…urgently.
Maybe there is too much chili in the air but this afternoon things get a bit fiery… There are a couple of near-miss electrocutions in the dressing room involving a kettle and dodgy plug board. The fridge full of beer strangely had no power. Warm Coke anyone?
There is proper Mexican bar-b-q going on for the artistes and crews but I’m too busy avoiding electrocution whilst making Chinese herbal concoctions. Grab some pretzels and carry on.
‘She’s a Star’ involved some wild, vivid gesturing from all crew on stage to tweak the balance. Out in the field 50,000+ Mexicans joined in the chorus.
By ‘Sound’ things were getting even hotter. Andy made a trip up a long ladder with his trumpet. He said he felt like Jack in the Beanstalk (it went on for miles). There he played his trumpet to roaring crowd below; he felt on top of the world… ‘Sometimes’, then ‘Laid’ happened….with a huge joyful stage invasion of near 100 dancers from the crowd….
Afterwards Tim and a few of the band went to see The Pixies playing…
The next day the Mexican newspaper, under the heading JAMES CONQUISTÓ AL PÚBLICO, wrote enthusiastically:
“El clan Británico James se ganó a pulso una mención honorífico. Uno de los momentos que sorprendieron a la multitud fue cuando el cantante se brincó la valla de seguridad para saludar a los más proximós al escenario y provocó un coro general con el tema She’s A Star. Con el paso de los minutos, el colectivo viajó a su pasado, pero también presentó cortés de sus discos más recientes, The Night Before y The Morning After. Para la parte final reservaron su hit Say Something y concluyeron con más de una decena de asistentes arriba del escenario bailando a todo tren.”
Pics by Thom
14th October 2010 | Larry
Our tour manager Thom Stone has greater access to the crew’s world than I do and has some great shots of them relaxing in their own inimitable style.
Pics by Montrie
14th October 2010 | Larry
Our lighting genius Chris Montrie loves to photograph lights naturally, so here he is doing what he does, and capturing Saul’s little angel Mia being cheeky in the process.
Pics by Banksy
14th October 2010 | Larry
My guitar tech Banksy always makes sure my camera is on hand for me to do the ‘Who Are You’ pics, however, being a creative chap he started to take some amazing shots of the lighting effects that Chris was generating whilst I was otherwise engaged playin’ the gig. I loved the abstract quality of the shots he was taking (also jealous that I couldn’t shoot this fabulous subject) and wanted to give them their own post, enjoy!
Goodbye bus
14th October 2010 | Juliet
We say goodbye to the bus in LA….
All that remained were a few Triscuits, more than a biscuit? And scraps of muesli and crushed taco chips. In the fridge some Vitamin Waters and a glut of Coca Colas, diet and non; beside them lay Mia’s chocomilk unopened and some dodgy low fat cheese bought by mistake. A sad pineapple sat alone in a basket beneath the TV. The O’Jays posters were still up. Twelve crumpled bunks and a bit of loose change….
La Cienega Smiled was on my iPod…
Tomorrow we take a plane to Mexico…Un Feliz Vuelo….
And now we’ll have a few words from Nigel. Nigel is Larry and Saul’s guitar tech….he and the rest of the crew worked incredibly long days to make this tour happen. He and Nick, who sorted all things drums and percussion, as well as looking after keyboards, were the two key on-stage crew who came from the UK. …..We wont mention the maraca incident…will we, Nigel…
“In a way that’s characteristically unnatural of America it seems as if we’ve been chasing the seasons, rather than letting them come around naturally. At the end of the tour we’ll have experienced the fantastic summer of Florida, the spring-like warm-coolness of the North-East, the Autumnal changeabilty of Seattle and the North-West, and we’re heading home to a surprisingly welcome English Winter.
“Touring America always makes me feel uneasy. America is where the music I love comes from, the people are so friendly, I wouldn’t say that everything’s possible but nothing seems to be impossible. What concerns me is the enormous carbon footprint that we have left behind. The amount of fuel that we’ve used getting to shows, the amount of power we’ve consumed putting them on, the amount of landfill space we’ve taken up with the the non-recyclable cups and spoons, but in reality, it’s just a drop in the ocean of what goes on in the United States every day.
“This has been a tough one. The few days off we’ve had were just that. Days spent in hotel rooms catching up on the sleep we’d lost and otherwise just resting our aching bones. I swear I have new muscles in places I’d never used before. Arm wrestle for money, anyone? I’ll always remember Saul and Larry bringing us coffee and making sure we’d eaten properly when they could see it was getting tough for us, knowing we couldn’t really get out and about very easily.
“Thank god for Skype. If you can’t be with your loved ones, at least you can see them while you talk to them. It’s a lot better than the ‘olden days’ when you’d buy a calling card and phone home every couple of days. It certainly makes touring abroad easier.
“And the shows? There wasn’t a bad one, and there were some absolutely amazing ones, although Orlando seems like a lifetime away. Yes, things went wrong, but everybody knows that everyone tried the best they could, and the both band and crew dealt with the hiccoughs like true soldiers, Tommy’s little soldiers!
Now it’s just about time to go home, sleep for a week, and bring on the December tour!”
The Music Box, Los Angeles, California
13th October 2010 | Larry
