TOUR BLOG

Hey we are doing some tour "blogging" for the NME. Here are a few:


FRIDAY NOVEMBER 7
Today we're recording for BBC 1 and are excited because last time we did the BBC we saw the studio where they recorded the Star Wars soundtrack. This time we're recording in a room the size of a football pitch, and we've just been told that Beyonce is on her way to record in the room that we were in last time (Studio 4). We rush all our gear into our room and the roadies start setting it up so we can creep into the lounge and wait for B to show up. As we wait about half of the BBC office winds up in our room and the next 20 minutes is Pink Eyes entertaining a room full of middle aged employees with tales from the road. We get word that she's not to arrive until after we're doing, so we leisurely track 4 or 5 songs and do some overdubs. We pack up and start waiting again in the lounge. Soon all the doors around us start closing and security personel start arriving, then backup singers, drumers, more huge security people and we can tell that something is about to go down. We've got about 15 chairs in the lounge pointed right at the one door into studio 4 and then it happens - Beyonce walks in with a clutch of attaches, walking on a golden cloud of perfection - and in a split second (literally), it's over. She's in the studio presumably recording, and we go back to the drudgery of our lives. Our bus can't come into London because it's too big, so we're packed into the dark boot of a cube van on the way to 93 feet east to play with Don Cabellero. There are boxes of tshirts and records falling everywhere and we're using our mobile screens as flashlights, wondering how Beyonce gets around town when she's about. The show is freezing cold and I play the entire set with my Canadian winter coat on. All our friends tell us that shows at 93 feet east are a stolid affair, but this show was packed and wild and we all have a great time. We put Jason Spaceman on the guest list but I guess he forgot to come.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 8
I woke up at 1pm and went straight to the pub to watch Arsenal dismantled Man U and left very happy because it kept Manure away from Liverpool in the standings for another week. The rest of the band was staying at the Beggars Flat in Wandsworth town, and I'd stayed at a friends house last night in Stoke Newington, so I had the rest of the day to myself and get a train to Brighton. Priorities sent me to the Aquascutum warehouse sale to buy a new jumper to replace the one I'd already lost (tour is only 2 days old at this point). After that I got horribly lost and stuck on the wrong tube. I made it to Victoria just in time to meet up with Betty and the Werewolves and get on the train. We spent the ride curling our hair, eating candy and watching the fireworks. We got lost as soon as we got off the train and ended up getting there 5 minutes before they had to start their set. Our set was the hottest I'd ever played in England - it was like being in Iraq, or on Mercury. Pink Eyes said some inappropriate things onstage, and then we all jammed into a cab to London to make it to Push Club in time for our 2nd show of that night at 2am, and our 5th show in London in less than 3 days. The nightclub was rammed when we got there and most of us spend the rest of the night taking turns dancing with Agness Dean and Peaches Geldof. We played a half-assed set and I almost fell asleep on stage (again). Somehow I managed to get into bed by 5am and up and 10 the next morning...