Blog
To the Rockies with Scooby-Doo
3rd October 2010 | Juliet
The very long way to Boulder was 1000 miles. This meant setting off after the Chicago show in the small hours and staying on the bus too long. The crew bus had trouble with its turbo pressure boost sensor in the early hours of the next day, so we had to stop our bus so Jeff, our driver, could help out, climbing in the other bus to sort it out. It was 7am. “I never knew a two-inch probe could cause so much trouble” said Jeff. A replacement cost six dollars. All sorted.
We went to a mad truck stop in Nebraska which sold everything a trucker could ever need. We looked at extra extra large checked Wrangler shirts. None were small enough for us. I tried on some trucker cowboy boots in dusty brown.
Back on board Tim made some scrambled eggs in the microwave. Yellow rubber in a cereal bowl. Where’s the ketchup?
Later there was football, and some random channel hopping led to Scooby-Doo. Dave liked it when Daphne appeared in her purple bikini but then the baddies locked her in a cage. “Things are starting to get interesting now…” said Dave (this is the kind of effect that such long drives can have). Of course it all ended up OK with Scooby and the gang rescuing her, and the pectorally endowed big blond bloke gave Daphne some reassuring looks. There must be a Masters for someone in Scooby-Doo…the sexual politics of cartoons and the use of dog intelligence etc.
Some of the Scooby-Doo baddies look like the Gorillaz.
Eventually after crossing the great plains west, we got near the Rocky Mountains, and the scenery became spectacular with a mountain sunset to boot, Larry clicking away madly. We got to Boulder feeling very stir crazy and went out for a walk and some Italian food on Pearl Street. The driver points out the early Naropa Centre where Chogyam Trungpa started his Tibetan Buddhist wave in America with his branch of crazy wisdom.
Boulder is to Denver what Hebden Bridge is to Manchester. It has an alternative feel with quite a few well dressed hippies hanging out, looking well fed and peaceful. It was voted the number one city to live in the United States.
It’s a calm and orderly university town with new thinking new ideas beyond New Age. Everyone looks very well on life in Boulder. There’s enough organic carrot cake cafés for the whole town to be taking tea together. They probably would too.
The Vic, Chicago, Illinois
2nd October 2010 | Larry
The Heckler and The Empty Hours
2nd October 2010 | Jim
I wake up in Chicago. It’s raining heavily and it’s cold. I don a hat, a rare occurrence as I have a genetically defective, incredibly small head and most hats make me look a twat. I find a Walgreen’s to replace my reading glasses, having thought I lost my last pair but then finding them in the back lounge of the bus minutes after buying the new ones. I buy gum, phone credit and a tube of special cream having run out due to excess chafing. [Editor’s note: Jim’s being silly, please do not send ‘special creams’ to the venues. I reckon a fine malt whisky wouldn’t go amiss however, after all it’s nearly his birthday…]
I call in at the second hand book store and get two 1960’s Ed McBains with cool covers; ‘The Heckler’ and ‘The Empty Hours’. The runner has taken somebody to the museum so Dave and I head off in a taxi to our hotel day room, to use the gym. After a little check-in confusion we get to the gym and go through the workout Dave and I have devised which is basically a cross between jogging and simultaneous weight lifting. It’s really dangerous, not much fun and we keep getting injured. We shower and head back to the gig for soundcheck.
We argue for 30 minutes then let the VIP-ers in. They’ve been outside in the cold and rain for an hour but seem in good spirits, maybe just glad to be in the warmth. We finish. I eat and go to sleep.
I awake 40 minutes before stage time. I faff about, straightening crumpled clothes and preparing stuff. It’s a sell out show at the Vic Theatre.
Third song in we do ‘Fred Astaire’. We are supposed to be recreating a new approach we stumbled upon in soundcheck. I have a different bass line and Tim tries to jog my memory by playing the recorded jam off his iPhone but it sounds like white noise mixed with someone humming, so I give him the thumbs up and wing it. We do some newbies, oldies, goldies, something borrowed, something blue.
The crowd are patient and listen when we ask, giving and supportive when we most need it and party like the best when we open the door. Chicago has always been a special city for James. They understood before most what we have to give and appreciated our diamond in the rough approach and abilities. Maybe that says more about them than it does about us. I look forward to next time.
Larry adds: “Faced with a 20 hour drive to Denver the crew plan a party on their bus, seems sensible to me, stay up late and get drunk so that we sleep most of the day which is the most tedious bit. So I abscond to crewland who along with Mr Harcourt’s tribe are in fine form. In between the laughing, chatting, chilling, and listening to music we amuse ourselves with fatface and some of the other fun apps on Ed’s new iPhone. Lighting man Chris making cool videos on his by filming the people crashed out up close and moving the camera in time to the music. A surreal and silly evening ends about 6am, the buses pull over somewhere in the middle of the mid western plains, we jump back on board the band/baby bus where all is quiet. Time to sleep?”
Royal Oak Music Theatre, Michigan
1st October 2010 | Larry
Kale Karma
1st October 2010 | Juliet
The overnight daysheet says “Be ready for leaving the bus at immigration.”
We doze off knowing we have to get up…
Suddenly there is loads of shouting and the bus sounds like it is being beaten by branches. Are we under some kind of attack? Nope, its a carwash. But nobody is singing the disco song. I can’t get back to sleep for ages and just as I do we are stopped at the border.
Next stop is immigration. The children are allowed to stay on the bus. Bleary-eyed and approximately pyjamaed…we get through. Tim goes on the bus with the official to check the children are three in number. Mia’s bunk is just a massive duvet bundle and the giant official can’t find her in it. Tim helps locate her and finds a foot where the head should be. She slept in a spin.
Royal Oak is a pretty chilled out suburb of Detroit. It’s sunny on arrival and we go to the Fly Trap diner for blunch [sic]. Top place.
Then while the band soundcheck there’s a trip to Detroit Zoo. Vinny notes the birds ‘breeding’. There are tigers, tired lions (yawning), the big horned rhino, elegant giraffes, and the red panda in the tree. Mia, Ana and me get separated from the group and take the mini train back.
Exiting through the gift shop purchasing a large giraffe on a lead for Mia’s plane trip back to UK.
In the dressing room is a huge bouquet of fruit by Natural Arrangements. Divine fruit kebabs on skewers. Perfect for nibbling. Each piece five star. Thank you to the fans who sent it. It was just the ticket.
A beautiful package of Living Zen Green Tea, handpicked from the mountains of Korea, is on the bus when we return, and some Raw Kale Chips, made in Michigan by monks of the Detroit Zen Center. I tuck in to some raw kale salad that’s also there cos there’s no ones name on it.. it’s green and very tasty.
“Basically the whole lighting rig died ten minutes before Ed Harcourt went on stage. I had to redo everything that I did in the house rig in 20 minutes. There’s a bit of math involved,” said Chris the lighting designer.
The theatre’s lights all go wrong half an hour before going on stage. But Chris lighting designer, described as awesome by many, somehow saves the day and the show goes on.
Tim walks about a lot on precarious tables and balcony rims in amongst the audience, who steady him clutching his ankles.
While I am doing ardha matsyendrasana to the right in the dressing room Ana comes rushing in all excited like Carmen Miranda. “Come now there’s a Buddhist lady monk on the stage with Tim. It’s wild.” OK but I’ve got to do the other side. Too late, I miss it.
The woman from the Zen centre brings a touch of floatiness to Fred Astaire and later in Sometimes she leads a complete chaos riot dance when the mosh pit take over the stage. When the band come out the venue finally there’s 50 fans waiting….
After the show the Zen nun and her monk friend come in to have a quiet chat with Tim. I rummage around clumsily clearing the dressing room around the three sitting softly cross-legged on the floor speaking quietly. They nibble on the remains of the fruit arrangement to reveal a core of kale. (Yes really.) They are gazing with wonder at the kale.
“Take that away if you want” I say. “I will,” says the Zen nun. “We will make Kale chips with it and give them away.” Kale karma!
Meanwhile Larry escapes to the adjacent bar to drink dirty martinis and swap dirty stories with Ed Harcourt and the crew.
Royal Oak we love you…… and now we are off through the night to Chicago. 300 miles. A six hour drive….which actually takes us nine hours after the stop…or has there been a time shift? If so have we all got minor jet lag…feels like it anyway.
Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Toronto, Ontario
30th September 2010 | Larry
Much sleeping much resting
30th September 2010 | Juliet
We finally got checked into the wonderful Four Seasons hotel late afternoon. Very comfy beds. Much sleeping much resting.
Some of the band went to visit Michael Kulas who used to be in James. Some people went swimming and to the gym.
While the soundcheck went on, Ana and Maya took the three children up the CN tower to see the views. Ana wanted to leave the tower. Vincent led the way through an emergency exit and set the full alarm system off… causing panic throughout.
The show in Toronto was amazing. The audience clapped forever, calling for endless encores. Too bad there was a curfew…
Big thank-you for the incredible basket of fruit, whoever sent it. We now have it on the bus. Most of it is gone. We are now free from imminent scurvy…
Webster Hall, New York, New York
28th September 2010 | Larry
For a Tuesday night in New York City
28th September 2010 | Juliet
Park up under the bridge in Queens. A runner runs us to the venue. Five dressing rooms, it says here. Perfect. A creche in one, a sleeping room, a chill-out room, a food room, sounds perfect.
In reality it’s one room the size of a spare bedroom with two sofas and a large central coffee table. With three smallish children and fifteen smallish suitcases and an assortment of suits and shirts hanging from the pipes, the dressing room is like an overstuffed attic.
This is nothing compared to what the team of lifters are faced with. Several flights of very steep stairs, and boxes of cargo as heavy as a small car.
We went to a bagel place, proper range everywhichway with bagels and filling… had a pumpernickel bagel with herb cream cheese…only in New York.
With three smallish children now in tow. “And lets face it,” said Jim, “it feels like a lot more”. The dressing room is quite busy.
No bus meant that we were squeezed in even had it just been the band. The bus was still parked up under a bridge on the outskirts of town.
Went wandering up to Soho with Lovage who sells the merchandise. She told me about her adventures at the zoo in Washington. She and Thomas went to watch the octopus feeding yesterday.
Larry went swimming in the New York rain at the posh rooftop pool at the hotel, “I had the pool and two lifeguards all to myself, they laughingly applauded me for being their first swimmer of the day . . . it was 2pm!!”
Ana and Mia have now arrived. Mia is asleep on the sofa in the very small dressing room…she sleeps and misses the gig.
The wonderful Charles from Pescatore restaurant, turned up with his sister and brother in law with trays of the freshest and most wonderful food on an Italian theme, including the World’s best cheesecake. Dave overdosed. It was exceptional.
Jim had three portions of Bolognese.
Angelo Badalamenti was there. Lenny Kaye who produced James’s first album Stutter was there.
Greg the performance artist on ice was there in a fetching red pac-a-mac.
Jim said it was a strange set; Dust Motes, Top of the World, Seven, Jam J, Seven, She’s a Star.
People from Peru and Brazil at the aftershow… Liz A. from Brasil said for a Tuesday night in New York it was a perfect audience. Everyone happy, clapping, shouting, singing, no empty room anywhere. It was a perfect set list, energy on stage, everything connected…
The bus is now at full capacity. My bag in the back lounge, the internet HQ, has a used nappy beside it and a scattering of toys including a cheery fluffy wolf.
With everyone back on board set off to Toronto at 2.30am, it’s a 500 mile drive, ten hour drive…..
9:30 Club, Washington D.C.
27th September 2010 | Larry
