DIARY
OF A
ROCKSTAR

I’ve been trying to come up with a full review of our trip that ended a little over a week ago now, but it just hasn’t happened… I thought that seeing the aftereffects of what happened would help, but no such luck, so i’m just gonna try and push my way through this summerizing it all.

For me, the trip was great. We obviously had a bunch of horrible bad luck… most of which, i realize is self inflicted, weather we want to admit it or not. Dispite that, we were overly successful.

I’ve been on tour in the UK 4 times now, so I think that I can be a pretty good barometer for what our growth is. I’ve seen REALLY shitty shows, i’ve seen OK shows, and i’ve also seen GREAT shows…. The first time I travelled across the pond, we had high expectations, and I think that we were let down, however, I think we saw the potential that we had in that market. Our 2nd trip over there was a little better, we learned what we could do to build. And we did, so we saw the results. Our 3rd trip over there was kind of a set back, mainly becuase we weren’t travelling with the full main lineup that we had been used to playing with, we were also lacking on the promotion side of things.

This tour was different though… We’ve for the greater part, had been doing all tour promotions previously, btu this time, we were lucky enough to have some of the best promtions people working for us. And that alone was a huge deal… We saw lineups outside of clubs, sold out shows, and yes, some bad shows, however, in my opinion, the tour was an exponential success over the last 3 trips.

I absolutely love being in Europe, and this time was no different, and now i’ve been to 2 countries that I hadn’t been to previously (Ireland, and The Netherlands) I love it even more. I simply cant wait to go back!

Its been a few days since I last wrote, and for a very good reason.. I Cant remember exactly, but i’m pretty sure the last entry was about leaving Nottingham and going back into London, for our big London show, where a few key people were going to be seeing us… The night was an absolute success, we played well, had a great time, and impressed some key people who were there to see us. However, our bad luck streak in the city continued ….. just when we thought everything was going to be ok, it got worse.. We were going through our pre show sound check with the sound engineer at the Monto Water Rats venue in London, when a police officer came into the bar looking for us… Our van had been broken into just over 1 block away from the venue… Just our luck, the back window was smashed, and Jesse’s bag was taken out of the back.

Luckily, his passport wasn’t inside, however, he did loose a bunch of stuff including a lot of clothes, an ipod, a watch, his wallet, his birth certificate, and some other random items… Jesse just about had it. He was very close to throwing in the towel and going home the next day, but luckily, he decided to stick it out and come to Amsterdam with us for our last show.

Amsterdam was amazing. Right when we got off the plane, we all started feeling much better, mostly becuase of the sincere kindness that we were experiencing… A complete polar opposite from our entire UK experience (this time). Our first night in amsterdam was basically spent having a bit of food, then heading to bed, we were all beat from the day, and the flight over (we hadn’t slept the night before).

In Amsterdam, we played at a venue called Paradiso. The venue was beautiful. It was an old church, converted into a live music venue/dance club. There are 2 music rooms in the Paradiso, one was a 2000 capacity venue, where Kate Nash was playing the same night (Sold out) we were, our room was considerably smaller at 200 capacity, but equally as impressive… High ceilings, and beautiful decor.. We all agree that it is probably the most beautiful venue any of us had played at. The show was not our best, as we had numerous technical problems on stage: 1 broken snare drum half way through the set, and I broke a guitar string closer to the end of the set, which is very rare for me, as i’ve only ever broken 2 guitar strings on stage with Birds of Wales.

All in all, Amsterdam was a blessing, refreshing, and very enjoyable.. we even had time to drink a few Heineken’s to taste what its really supposto be like… I dont normally like Heinekin, but I guess something about the freshness of it when its served from the same city its brewed in, makes it more enjoyable.. fruity actually.

Stay tuned for my full tour overview in a day or two.

Just thought i’d post a quickie saying that we’re heading out to our show tonight at Joiners in Southampton.. We’re excited to play here again, as we’ve been to Southampton a few times and have made a buch of friends who will be on hand for the show.

Exciting times!

Its been a couple of days since I’ve written a post here, for good reason… we’ve been playing/driving non stop for the last few days… this is our big push of shows right now.. 7 in a row (the longest span of shows on this tour). Musicians who tour alot say that long spans of shows like this really take a toll on you… I can totally sympathize, its pretty rough, but not that rough.. I guess 7 shows isn’t a ton of shows, but its a week of playing and driving every day/night, so I guess its a small taste of what its like, and of what is to come for us, possibly in the next year.

After everything with the van got sorted out, we had a slight money scare, since my credit card was maxed out the first hour after landing in England, and the other guys arrived here thinking that they wouldn’t be spending any money at all.. I guess they had it in their heads that all of the hotels and car rental were paid for already… which they weren’t.. a mis-communication, or failure to read the fine print. This whole thing has caused some stress within the group, but we’ve been working through it… giving each other space when needed. I think we’ve stared to see that we’re in this together, and the only way we’ll get through it is by sticking together and being patient.

The shows have gone really well, we’ve been playing really well, and i’m really happy with my playing… I really love playing shows where Morgan is only playing acoustic guitar, because I think he is more suited to that style of playing, also, the music we play really lends itself to acoustic playing, with additions of my electric guitar. I try and play only when necessary, and try to be as dynamic as I can with my tones, and playing style.

The response from the crowds has been overly positive…. we’ve found that in the northern regions of England, we’re not as well received, as far as crowd involvement/dancing/clapping. We think its a cultural thing… The northern cities are more rough football type towns, and I just don’t think they get the whole Alt Country vibe that we put out, we get more of a blank stare, and the odd clapping in cities like Liverpool and Glasgow, yet, we sold out the Cardiff Wales Barfly show, and did overly well at Whaylands in Dublin. We’re expecting a great crowd in Southampton, and London in the next few days, and are currently on the road to Nottingham (Robin Hood), where we’re expecting a pretty good turn out.. Still, we’re excited about the next few days, playing in Southampton, London, and Amsterdam. I’ll be back in Toronto in a week today (Saturday)! Cant wait to sleep in my own bed again!

In case you didn’t notice… I posted some previous posts, last night, but they’re in order according to the date, so youll have to scroll to the bottom of the page to read the updates…. This is just so I can keep everything in order of how it happened.

Anyway, we landed in Manchester last night after our flight was delayed for 30 mins, which didn’t really help anything, because we werent able to collect our bags that were being stored at the airport.

Jesse and Moe decided enough was enough, and took the (new) rental car (NOT from National/Alamo) and drove to London last night. I haven’t talked to them, but I think they slept in the car, and arrived at the rental place where the car was supposto be. Aparently when they told us that the car was going to be toed to the lot, they lied, and it actually has been sitting in the same parking garage all weekend. We’ve had to pay about $30/day to keep the car there, dispite the fact that they told us it would be moved at the expense of National/Alamo renters.

Last I heard, Jesse and Moe are on their way back to Manchester to pick Morgan and I up at the airport, at which time we’re going to get on the road to Glasgow to arrive just in time for our show toinght.

Things seem to be turning around now, There will be less stress since we’re all gonna have our stuff, and clean laundry. However, we’ve had to spend a ton of extra money becuase of this whole debacle.. its been pretty rediculous. I dont even want to think of the number value.

I’m currently sitting in the Dublin airport waiting for our flight back to Manchester after our 2 night stay in Dublin. Last night was awesome… I now know what REAL Guiness tastes like…. I’ve had so many in fact, that I can still taste them! Seriously though, I think i’ve ruined any chance of me ever really enjoying a Guiness outside of Ireland… Sadly, I didn’t hvae a chance to visit the Guiness factory tour, our stay was just too short.. I think if we were here for one more day, than it could have been possible.

Ireland has been a real turning point for me as far as this trip goes… I’ve decided to just accept that i’m not going to have any of my gear for the tour, and am just going to make due with what I’ve got….. My guitar from Gibson, cables, and a guitar pick I found on the ground in Brighton (no joke).

Last night’s show at Whaylands was really awesome… Awesome venue, awesome atmosphere, lots of people, very friendly, and very drunk. Whaylands is kind of the starting point for a lot of very large musicians… Damien Rice, REM, U2 (possibly).. Aparently its the hub of all folk/country music for this part of the world, as a short walk through the bar will show you, theres plenty of history.. Pictures are posted everywhere showing who’s played there, some of the top caliber musicians, and even some people who i’ve never heard of, but i’m more than sure, that they’re iconic in their own circle.

The pub was made of up 4 stages.. One very small stage on the main floor, a 2nd floor stage (where we played): which is not huge, but not small. A larger room with a capacity of about 500, and another room that I didn’t see that is supposedly a 750 capacity room. We played well, but not our best, however, I can already see us tightening up with just these few days of playing under our belt, the next week will really be a test, as we’ve got a string of (I think) 5 or 6 shows in a row. Tiring, but exciting.

We’re off to Manchester in a few hours, and then we’ll be driving to Liverpool to stay for the night. Tomorrow morning we will be driving to Glasgow for our next show.