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Silverlake Chorus & Sunset Boulevard
13th October 2010 | Juliet
We left Anaheim and drove for an hour or so, checked into a hotel on Sunset Boulevard at 3am-ish. My room smelt of smoke. It smelt like there had been a party in there. I couldn’t sleep.
The crew had to get up early and go and set up the gear. The band had a more leisurely lie in. Huge comfy beds. There was lots of sleep to catch up on.
In the afternoon the runner ran the band to the gig. It was warm. There was a lot of traffic. There was an extended soundcheck because there was the Silverlake Chorus doing some singing on some of the set. After that there was another soundcheck with the VIP guests there. I ate some sushi across the road with Mark and Andy. The miso soup was the business.
Tim said the gig was so ecstatic it’s taken him two days to recover.
House of Blues, Anaheim, California
12th October 2010 | Larry
There are towels, there is food, there is sunshine…
12th October 2010 | Juliet
We woke up in Disneyland… Saul is already wearing his pass and it’s only 9am. “I slept in it,” he said. An oblong medallion of dates. “Without it I don’t exist,” he says as he mops and wipes all the surfaces and handles with disinfectant spray.
We can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Only two more dates on the American leg.
Me and Larry head off and get a carrot juice with a wheatgrass shot on the side to start the day. Better than an espresso…at this moment anyway…
Wandered around Disneyland. A plastic place for sure. It looks like a film set town. Everything neat and ordered. The Bee Gees are blasting out a Saturday Night Fever…Staying Alive….
Larry went and did some rides ‘cos there were a few hours spare. Space Mountain and Indiana Jones and the Runaway Train. He had never been so fast in pitch black in his life. “I just didn’t know where I was,” he said. “No idea.”
Later he says to the others, of Disneyland itself, “Everything gets smaller in there. It had a strange effect, a bit surreal because of the scale.”
The gig is at the House of Blues. The staff are wonderful, there are towels, there is food, there is sunshine…
The art in the gallery is quilts and portraits by outsider artists. The dressing room is dark and makes us feel sleepy…
The gig was a good one. A proper venue like this contains the band well. There were a few technical problems but nothing too hindering. Tim’s headphone pack stopped working during the show but it was alright on the night. Great show. Great crowd….
Andy appeared mid-balcony during Sound. There was a lovely aftershow. There were people who had travelled a long way. Some fans from Brazil were there. It was a great evening.
Back on the bus. Tim went home and it was the last night on the bus for the rest of us. We had a bit of a blast of the sound system, talking lots well into the night….
The Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, California
11th October 2010 | Larry
Wild and wonderful
11th October 2010 | Juliet
We pull into the back alley of the Regency earlyish. There is a dispersal of people to the gym, back to bed, to the hotel. One of James’s greatest fans, Scott the golfer/astronaut, is there showering the band with gifts and booze to restock the bus.
Tim has sore throat and we go to visit an acupuncturist and herbalist. The acupuncturist does a bit of cupping to pull out the pathogens, leaving the globular glass cups in place on Tim’s upper back for ten minutes. This leaves the big purple circles which will fade in time. Then come the needles, then come the herbs. All is well.
We check out Tim’s favorite vintage shop and he buys some great 40’s gear. We meet the keyboard player with the Specials outside as we wait for the runner. I go to a mega Whole Foods to restock necessaries.
Meanwhile back at the venue it’s nearly time for soundcheck. Everyone is having B vitamin shots in the upper bum from Dr D. Some of the band had it and are now on stage doing soundcheck. Thomas has it, then Lovage, then me. Painless. And why not? “Stick to wheatgrass,” says Dave. He had 5 ounces at the gym today and feels tip top.
The gig is wonderful. The runners and staff are wonderful, especially Jeanette and Jamie, and all goes well. There is a wild and wonderful aftershow by the downstairs bar and everyone seems very happy.
Some Brazilian people have brought Andy a San Andre football shirt which he put on for the encore.
The Redwood Forest
10th October 2010 | Larry
If you go down to the woods today…..
10th October 2010 | Juliet
We have to go the woods and it’s a bit of a detour. The idea is to be in nature to recharge our batteries… It’s 538 miles to the Redwoods. It is meant to take 10-12 hours.
Wake up outside B&Q. It’s raining. (It’s Home Depot.)
Jeff explains there is a problem getting parts for the mirror from Big Trucks ‘R’ Us or whatever ‘cos it’s Sunday and they are shut. The two buses have to travel in tandem now, with us behind the crew bus with its bandaged wing mirror. Behind schedule due to sheeting rain and wind.
It’s 10:30am Sunday and it’s kind of fitting that there may be a visit to B&Q for some DIY.
After a while we are off again. Only 2-3 hours to go and we will be in the Redwood Forest. Outside is grey and overcast. The trees are Xmassy.
“Very big things are in fact very small things close up”….. Thought for the day on this Sunday morning from Saul.
Somewhere not far from Hunter Creek we park up at some holiday cabins. Ours is very log-style but all mod cons inside. Front looks like suburbia, behind is nature. I feel like I am on the Waltons as I sit on the porch.
So there we are in our log cabin for the afternoon… Six of us working out what to do. Cabin fever has set in on the bus and now on our Waltons’ style back porch we sit and wait…wait to leave and get going, listening to the washer washing and drying. And then along come some walloping huge heard of elk. It’s lovely. The sun is going down. Larry turns into David Attenborough and starts snapping.
We drink wine, eat bar-b-q. Outside there is a hot tub, some of the crew are deep in there but this house don’t go there, there is also a fire and the toasting of marshmallows…
We rest and stretch and watch Running With Scissors on DVD, it has a few great lines…
Meanwhile Tim and Ed’s band are off in the heart of the redwoods. The crew are watching sundown on a beach.
Back on the bus at 1-ish, drive down to San Francisco…a bit crumpled for wear, no flowers in our hair…
Showbox at the Market, Seattle, Washington
9th October 2010 | Larry
Sleepless in Seattle
9th October 2010 | Juliet
Dave and Jim are first up, in the front lounge making coffee. Outside is grey and rainy. There is a motorway view. It looks like the Mancunian way.
Where are we? What’s going on. Was it all a dream? Are we still in Manchester for G-Mex or something?
The hotel is over there. Across a bridge. Ah yes. I lug my stuff and self over there, shower and spring back into action ‘cos we are heading to a radio station downtown.
“There’s the space needle,” says Mark. And there it is, this building with a pointy needle on top. He seems to know this town. We also see lots of Halloween effigies. Strange people-sized rag dolls here and there. It’s all quite festive. Halloween is big around here.
An acoustic radio session at very friendly local Seattle Radio. It had a name with all x’s and k’s in it…but no one can remember…….. [KEXP – Ed.] It goes well. There’s interviews and some songs played, including Sit Down, Laid, Dust Motes and something else. Lookaway…
Now it’s afternoon and time to head back towards the venue for soundcheck.
Across the road from the venue there is a market. “There is cheese,” says Saul. Real cheese.
Dave is always after freshly pressed vegetable juice. He finds a juice bar and gets wheatgrass added. He got up to 6oz of wheatgrass in Denver. Drummer fuel.
Some point in the evening the crew bus, which is parked up outside, loses its right-hand wing mirror. It’s sheared off, probably by some equally huge vehicle. This is a major obstacle to the continuation of this trip. A bus that size can’t travel legally with no wing mirror.
There is a last minute hitch when we get lost trying to find the stage door of the venue. We follow a Chinese man into a chasm of corridors and doors. Where does this go? We shout. There’s a moment when we realise he is gone and headphoned cant hear us anyway. The door booms shut behind us and we are in a concrete maze. Where is Scooby-Doo’s basement rescue team? Oh no, the band are on in ten. Not a mobile between us. Then we pass through a door and come out backstage in a Chinese restaurant. Ah yes lights and people. We go through the venue front entrance (much easier), run through the crowd and get to the dressing room the easy way ….But where is Saul?
The show opens with a walkabout Sit Down.
Tim’s mum took a turn for the worse yesterday which is affecting him pretty strongly. He’s twittered it. Twitter.com/RealTimBooth.
Our bus has lost its inside door handle, but this is nothing compared to a lost wing mirror. Tomorrow is Sunday and we are heading down south via the Redwoods for some rest and recuperation. If the crew bus can’t move what then?
Mike, the crew bus driver is doing meccano on the kitchen table of his bus, fixing up some kind of Wallace and Grommit wing mirror. It works and will do for a bit. We are able to leave in the later early hours finally.
The cider for Andy has to be poured into a red plastic cup before it is taken on stage. This is the law in Washington State. Possibly more potent Red Bull, for Dave and Jim, is allowed to go on in the can.
Peter Pacifico, a hard core fan who somehow made it to many of the shows across America from Florida to Seattle. He was last seen helping load the gear out of the venue. A diamond geezer for sure.
Back on board we count the number of gigs left to go and realise that suddenly it’s nearly all done. We get excited about the idea of sleeping in a stationery bed if we finally get to California. Imagine a bath…imagine not being in what is effectively a dorm of 12 plus people…but really this is no hardship. Think of the miners in Chile…
It’s Jim’s birthday as of midnight and we raise a can of Strongbow at 3am….the bus is still stationary and Larry is still not on board.
Wonder Ballroom, Portland, Oregon
8th October 2010 | Larry
