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Culture Room, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
20th September 2010 | Larry
Culture rooms…?
20th September 2010 | Juliet
When we arrive at the Culture Room for soundcheck, the local garage has tied its Rottweiler up to greet us. The chain is just long enough to prevent contact… just.
When Andy arrives on his bike and goes to lock it up, the guy from the garage comes over and tells him to get off his land. “Don’t put that bike there,” he demands. Andy explains he is doing a gig, to which the guy responds, “I thought you was one of those homeless.”
From its name I was imagining the Albert Hall, but instead it’s more like a version of Manchester’s very own Boardwalk. What they both share is no toilet in the dressing room, and a general feeling of needing to wash everything that comes in contact with any surface. Who knows, maybe the Boardwalk has been done up since its heyday in the late 80’s. Somehow I doubt it. The Boardwalk has a blue plaque these days. This has walls covered in photos of the owner – the man with the very long black hair – taken with many of the bands who have played here. Lily Allen and the Tom Tom Club are amongst the hall of fame. It’s all a bit dark and cramped, so after James’ first ever VIP-guest-invited-soundcheck has happened, we go for Thai (‘next to the strip club’ are the directions) and to stroll in the mall.
Crossing just two roads on foot is a major hazard and I think I won’t be going too near American junctions for a few days…a U-turn at dusk followed by stepping back into an American right turn. Yep that’s enough road crossing nightmares for a while…
I go to Whole Foods for a basics shop… A runner called Thomas wearing a t-shirt labelled ‘Security’ comes too and walks behind me and my piled-high trolley…I feel Secured [sic] and search for Tim’s wheat-free dairy-free specials, fresh figs, avocados, red berries, rice milk and nut-free muesli, and then get back to the job of stocking the buses with basics and we zoom back to the venue.
The soundcheck begins with Bells…it’s kind of like a cross between a soundcheck and small gig… The VIP guests seem to love it anyhow.. they are now singing the chorus, ‘Here’s to a long life….’
The show is rockin’. New crew except Nigel and Nick, who are each doing about three jobs, and it seems to all go great. Chicago Chris is back doing lights, and some new tricks come out to play.
Right down front the audience are dancing to Sound. The place is heaving. There’s some nifty minimal moves from the Cubanos stage left, and Liz from Brazil is here too…
Well there we go, first gig of the tour done and dusted.
Back to the bus to refuel. Crisis… there’s no toaster or kettle….
Meanwhile the owner of the club is asking to have a quiet word with Tim in his office….to be continued….
Florida: the State of Oranges
19th September 2010 | Juliet
Today everyone is still a bit whirly from jet lag. Tim is behind us all in time-of-day scales. We are five hours ahead and flagging… Tim is on West Coast time and flying…
There is a production rehearsal to be done at the venue…the new songs worked over a few times. …In this bar, in this bar, I am dying… Waves of sound, waves of jetlag, waves of inspiration…….this happens… in this bar, in this… Wilting band, wilting crew. Tim says two more hours, Saul says enough of this, and then back to Fish Tales where a Blues Brothers tribute band are playing and doing a pretty good run at it inside. We are on the pavement out front… It’s all quite mellow…jet lag swirls…time for bed…
Big Giraffe, London Heathrow
18th September 2010 | Juliet
Larry is in the Big Giraffe café having a super breakfast muesli smoothie.
Dave is having huevos rancheros Mexican breakfast.
We are at Heathrow after an earlyish start.
There is a jet lag theory that eating food in synch with the time of the country you are heading towards helps greatly… “Bollocks!” says Larry and has some toast and chills out…
Dave asks, “Have we sold any tickets?”
Larry is looking forward to the tour but has reservations about being on a touring crèche…
The flight is jam packed and for a long time we walk about, stand about, drink loads of water and time seems to get slower and slower yet we are leaping ahead in real time.
Later……much later….
American immigration seems to go on and on too, but then we are through, and in the land of oranges. (Unfortunately by Thursday we still haven’t seen any oranges and scurvy will be imminent if we carry on much longer.)
Landed in the hotel, some of us head to Fish Tales. Stacy is our waitress and is on hand for anything we need. Mostly there is fish, and it’s good. It’s a kind of diner-cum-music club. A band is just starting up playing. Right now it’s ‘Lay down Sally..’ …etc… it’s late all right, well, 5 hours later than it says on the clocks round here. Exhaustion comes in waves. Then Tim flies in from LA and is very awake.
Andy’s mail order folding bike has arrived wrapped in cardboard. He assembles it and goes off exploring the local area… what a man!
We meet some of the America crew, there is Tig, and Tom.
Absolute Radio session & Bingley Music Live
4th September 2010 | Larry
Absolute Bingley
4th September 2010 | Larry
It’s Friday and Jim and I are travelling down to London to record an acoustic session for Absolute Radio. Geoff Lloyd who is a big James fan wanted his ‘Hometime’ audience to hear the new album straight from the horse’s mouth so to speak, a couple of nice versions of Crazy and Dust Motes were highlights for me. Then back home in time for tea.
Next day and once again we are all assembled at my place to drive en masse across the Pennines to the wilds of Bingley. We pass the world famous Mumtaz curryhouse in Bradford, whose fans include The Queen, Shilpa Shetty, Amir Khan and Dawn French among many others, my god the size of the place!! As they have extended it numerous times over the years it has now engulfed almost half of Great Horton Road. Not long after this we are in leafy Bingley and being told to turn around drive back up the hill and ask ‘H’arthur where to go, Arthur obliges and we wind down a little lane and Myrtle Park opens up before our eyes, and close on 15,000 revelers eating burgers and cold beer (seemingly the only refreshments on offer, not your typical festival!!) are watching Reef in the tree-lined natural amphitheater of the park.
Backstage John Lydon is doing his usual party piece of slagging everyone and everything off including Reef, “they sarnd like the fakkin Doobie bravvers” he proclaims from the open window of his portakabin to anyone within earshot, which, with his vocal chords, is quite a few. Some wag suggests he goes and sells some more butter and everyone chuckles to themselves.
A challenging set list is produced and we take the stage somewhat early for a festival headliner at 7.40!!!? Well it is a council run event and they don’t want the peace of sleepy Bingley disturbing much after 9pm for fear of losing votes I guess. The crowd were fabulous and listened intently to the new stuff and older slow songs (Out To Get You was turned into a mass singalong which amazed us) and then danced with arms aloft to the more familiar tracks. A great gig all in all and a nice way to round off a fun and festival-filled few months of summer, next stop Florida :-) see you there.
regards
Larry.
Solfest, Cumbria
28th August 2010 | Larry
All Wizards and Fairies
28th August 2010 | Larry
What a fabulous week-end! Started late on Thursday night with people congregating at my place well before midnight. Wine was drunk, Rembetico clips on Youtube were watched and the driver picked us up just after 12 to rendezvous with the shandy drinking Southerners who were lurking at a truck stop on the far flung outskirts of Manchester.
Woke up in the back of ‘beyondaberdeenshire’ where the height of culture was the church hall cafe!!!
Before we took the stage I witnessed the Peatbog Faeries do their thaang, ‘jock n roll’ . . . . and bloody good fun it was too. As we left the dressing room the heavens opened and proceeded to firmly dampen the Faerie-enlivened crowd, the poor sods, but as it turned out, nothing could stop these Highland hardnuts from having an absolute blast, and sheltered from the storm we had a blast too.
Overnight to the Solway Firth.
Colourful, chilled, and fancy-dressed to the nines, Solfest was a lovely festival, surrounded as it was by the sea, Cumbrian hills and the Scottish lowlands. I met up with my step daughters and my four step-grandkids, who had been here since Friday afternoon, camped by a lake in the quiet family field.
The kids delighted in showing me the sights and all the funky drums and other objects that they had crafted that day. We watched anarchic puppet shows (friends of Mr Diagram’s), the strongest lady in the world, and chilled to some reggae; we walked on stilts, had hay fights and eat our fill of deliciously organic allsorts.
The Saturday night crowd gathered to watch the Wailers stir it up and the stage was set for us. What a great show it turned out to be. For me it was the most enjoyable of a summer of magical festival gigs. We were joined on stage by a veritable rag-bag of madly costumed folk – bananamen, clowns, Bob the rock lobster, and an illuminated, stilted fairy who appeared to be plugged into the national grid.
I waved the bus bye-bye at about 2am and wandered back to the festival, where with family and friends, I laughed, played, danced and indulged through till Monday, when our crusty crowd of contented kids convoyed home through the Lakeland sun to Manchester, where a bath and a comfy bed lay waiting.
Lx?
Wizard Festival, Aberdeenshire
27th August 2010 | Larry
Beautiful Days, Devon
21st August 2010 | Larry
