UK / Euro Tour, Summer 2018

Always Travelling...

The short stay at home after the summer tour of the USA was a good time for catching up with sleep. However, with all the decision making to be done on my build back home, it became as hectic as ever.

I thank all of you who sent messages encouraging me to rest up. It didn’t work out like that, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

Things are progressing nicely at my build and soon phase 1 will be completed and I will have more room to at last organise and correlate my archive and get on with all the other projects on hold.

This UK/Euro tour which we started on Sunday the 29th is a logistic nightmare. The first two weeks involved a lot of travel. After driving east across England and parking in the multi storey car park, I took a flight from Luton Airport to Glasgow for our opening show at an open air venue known as The Bandstand.

Panoramic view has done something to James' arm. Eek!

This was followed by three days of production rehearsals in Glasgow for the upcoming shows that are all outdoors. This involves some talented people controlling the screens. We have been a band that have only ever had sound and lights, so this was new for us. 

On Friday the 3rd of August, we traveled from Glasgow in Scotland by train down to York and were driven to Leeds for a show in the city centre. After the show we travelled on down to Maidstone in Kent and arrived at our hotel rooms at around 6am. The rooms faced south and the weather had been very hot with the drapes open wide all day. Consequently, it was too hot to sleep.

This was the first show with KT Tunstall and Simple Minds. After the show we travelled again through the night to Cardiff in Wales with another show that night in Merthyr Tydfil and a train the following day to Belgium. The combined distance travelled to these shows in a handful of days was approximately 1500 miles. This was followed by two nights in London where I fit in a rehearsal with piano player and singer/songwriter Diane Birch. We were joined on guitar by Paul Stacey and Johnny Borrell from Razorlight on bass. We made a bloody good quartet and got some good grooves down. Later in the year, I may be working with Diane on her new album, which would be pretty cool.

In rehearsals with Diane Birch, Paul Stacey and Johnny Borrell.

That evening there was a promotional Razorlight party at the Cuckoo Club in Swallow Street in Mayfair. Razorlight played five songs and after that, it became swinging London with bad thumping repetitive so-called ‘dance music’ played way too loud with people shouting over it. I was in and out in a flash but still had time to sample the free booze. The evening ended with a hot chocolate at the Soho Sanctum Hotel bar being served with added love by Rita.

Currently, I am travelling on the train up to Manchester to do a show in Salford at the AJ Bell Stadium. Tomorrow we charter two aircrafts to take the band, crew and equipment to La Coruna in north-west Spain where we play the Noroeste Festival. The weather has been impossibly hot in Spain for quite a while, so it will be a dust bowl. I can’t wait.

We go on stage at 11.45pm. The following morning we travel back in the same chartered aircraft to Luton airport. The reason for parking my car at Luton Airport to begin with becomes clear. I drive back across country to spend another few days at home. Without my car, it would take far too long to get back. Maybe five or six hours by train.

Sod that!

I will write again after the next few days at home. We are about to stop at Stockport and in 14 minutes will disembark at Manchester Piccadilly and catch a taxi to Salford. 

My, how the summer is getting swallowed up in large travel bites.

M.D.C.