Edith Piaf and All That Jazz ... in Paris France....

.... that line is from Wasted Youth's "Paris France"... anybody from the post-punk-Peel generation get that one? Anyway, the start of the "difficult" drives (though nothing on what is to come tomorrow!). Eventually we get to Paris & we are sharing a dressing room with The Fiery Furnaces, who we are supporting ! Also crammed in said dressing room are about ten of the venue's staff, legs up, drinking their way through our rider... in fact Eddie walked back there & one of them was using his laptop ! Anyway, we are all nervous about the gig ... performing a verbal historically accurate account of the outbreak of WW2 to a roomful of Frenchies will do that ! (the first line Eddie sings is "When the nazis marched on Paris, the French were quite embarrassed, I think you know what I mean"). Surprisingly again nobody get's hurt (or maybe the French are literally still quite embarrassed !). Dyan is a big Fiery Furnaces fan & we all watch the gig. Afterwards Bekki & I are talking to the nice guitarist bloke & it turns out we have mutual friends that he knows really well & mentions being in some other band & after a drunken grilling from moi it turns out he was in a band called Sebadoh & his name is Jason !!! Ha ha .... I had only played a gig with him & said mutual friends in Straight To Video a few years back ... small world !!! Eventually Chalkie rounds us all up & we start the BIG drive to Berlin ... well we drive out of Paris into Germany & get a room in the early hours in one of those weirdly efficient German moto-lodging places ! Berlin tomorrow ! PS: I already posted a pic of the gig so I have posted pics of Dyan, Bekki, Ed & Chalkie having dinner & one of some "profound" poetry that the singer bloke (tosser) out of Stone Temple Pilots felt he needed to write on the wall of the restaurant we ate at ! x

From Brussels With Love .....

...I think that was the title of a Belgian Factory Records/les disques du crepuscule  post-punk compilation from the early 80's ! I may be wrong ! I was going to call this note "the Belgian police, they invented the waltzers" from Vic Reeves' cover of Ultravox's "Vienna", but I thought the better of it.... ! So, after a night off in London (where me & the missus treated ourselves to dinner at The Ivy), it's off to Europe we go .... minor bit of drama as they make Chalkie check in the van onto the ferry as a commercial vehicle which costs more money, though the bonus is we can use the commercial drivers lounge/restaurant, which is really cheap ... a seven item breakfast for 3.75 euros, though the glares we got from other drivers were quite un-nerving, especially for the girls ! So off the ferry & a two hour drive to Brussels. I love it ! We check in a small family-run hotel & there is an ace little bar next door ! The gig (Botanique) is not only beautiful (er sort of the opposite of Leeds Brudenell Social Club) it is in an actual botanical garden too !! There are two venues in the same building & in the other (larger) one The Original Wailers are playing (well, not the actual original Wailers as the singer bloke is obviously missing) but we do end up as good as sharing a dressing room with them which is funny ! Also we have now opted to go on stage to intro music: the French national anthem ... so as you can imagine we are a bit nervous about going onstage to this in a country that basically hates the French.! Thankfully no bottles are thrown & in fact it is a great gig ! We unwind afterwards with 1.60 beers at the aforementioned bar next door to the hotel before "nightcaps" in one of our hotel rooms (a tradition that will prove popular over the coming weeks) !

Frogs, sprouts, clogs & krauts (& the Swiss)

...Ok so I have been rubbish at updating the blog since I got to Europe. Sorry ! The 10 hour drives followed by the gigs are mostly responsible for this! We are now almost at the end ... tonight is the final gig in Amsterdam ! I have a lot to tell & I will blog about it & post some pics as soon as I get chance. In the meantime cheers for all the kind words y'all have been saying, & here is a pic of us onstage in Paris supporting the Firey Furnaces ! Cheers x x x

Here's a tour summary, from Brussels with love !

Manchester Manchester... so much to answer for !

It was nice to do a short drive for a change... just 40-odd miles across the Pennines to rainy Manchester ... and yes it was raining ... and cold !!! A great venue, the Ruby Lounge. Bekki went to the Arndale Centre so I did a bit of record shopping (found some nice old reggae 7"s !) & had a quick half at a pub next door to the venue, a umm colourful establishment plastered with signs like "Anybody purchasing merchandise stolen from the Arndale Center will be ejected immediately" ... you get the idea Anyway I am excited as some friends are coming as well as my niece Kate & her beau Ash! So after soundcheck (& two duck dishes in Chinatown) I get something I was NOT expecting .. a text telling me that Marcus Williams is coming down, legendary Mighty Lemon Drops bassist (number two in a set of two), a man that is known for his penchant for a drink or twelve & somebody that I haven't seen since he was playing with Kirsty McColl in 1997 !!! I have attatched a pic of Marcus, who was on top form & looks even more like Henry Winkler now that he did back when !!!! And it was a great gig, one of the best of the tour so far ! Oh & Marcus, predictably unpredictable as ever, disappeared before we played the gig, by the way !

Leeds United !

A while back Mr Argos put his back out on a European Art Brut tour. Fortunately after several visits to German specialists & some heavy duty painkillers he managed to get it sorted ... until waking up last Sunday morning after the Bristol gig in agony ! Poor chap ... he really was in pain ! However, a spell lying down on the cold floor of a bumpy 4+ hour ride to Leeds, something miraculously happened & Eddie was well enough to do the gig thankfully, which turned out to be a really good gig actually ! In fact he surprised everyone by with an impressive juggling act in the dressing room before the gig! The Brudenell Social Club is exactly what it says on the packet ... an actual working men's club, but one that has been putting on indie-rock gigs for years (everyone from The Only Ones to The White Stripes has played here !). The only thing missing was The Lovely Eggs, who were replaced for this gig by Internet Forever, who to be honest I don't really like that much (nor they are particulary nice people either come to mention it !). We did have a nice hotel, the Leeds Hilton, which had a very late bar that we took advantage of ! Oh & it was Valentines Day too, so it was funny watching couples awkwardly acting like they were enjoying themselves out on dates together ! Bye Leeds !

The kids in Bristol are sharp as a pistol when they're doing......

... the Bristol Stomp ! Well the Friday day-off was a blur: I accompanied my mate (& former Lemon Drops sound guy) Noel Thompson on a crawl of Hampstead / Belsize park hosteleries, culminating in a good few hours in The Haverstock Arms, quite a famous boozer frequented by the type of "celebrities" that most reading this would basically probably hate . Chalkie arrived & we then went into Soho to celebrate the birthday of one of The Sugars (also present were Little Barrie, Andy Hackett & various others!). Then my mate Fenners turns up & we ran into Shag who used to be in Linoleum & Elastica, & THEN we bumped into Jeff Barrett (Heavenly records etc) on the street & he tried to drag us to see The Soft Pack at The Social ! Mental really !

Anyway, Bristol ! We finally get moving & Chalkie & I have to pick up Eddie & Dyan from Southampton (it was Ed's mom's birthday), so we do, & as fate would have it we stop off for a piss-stop at an amazing Marstons pub on Salisbury plain. I make everybody drink Marstons bitter & eat Scampi Fries ! We drive by Stonehenge & we make the obligatory usual Spinal Tap jokes, as one should ! It was a gorgeous drive, especially for me as I was basically still drunk from the night before !

We arrive at Bristol, & the gig is The Thekla, which is a boat that the great Vivian Stanshall of the Bonzo Dog Band used to own. I was reminded of a Blue Aeroplanes gig I saw there in about 1989 & I distinctly remember a toilet in the gents room was overflowing, the contents seeping through the ceiling onto the bar below where several customers pints were getting a nice "urine top" !!! (they have now, thankfully, moved the bar from below the toilets!). My missus Bekki arrives, & Eddie's dad does too (& not forgetting good mates Fuzzy, Mary, Bev & all!). We had a great gig & afterwards we all (as in us, The Lovely Eggs & our pals ) go to some other club (well it it is Saturday night) and well fuck me till I fart but there is a band playing with Amelia Fletcher from legendary indie stalwarts Talulah Gosh / Heavenly playing ! They were ace, & I have attatched a pic of Bekki & I with ol' Amelia (even though I reckon she could tell that we were both a bit worse for wear !) .

Leeds next !!!! . . . . .