Blog
Saturday’s soup was provençal.
20th December 2008 | Juliet
It was a grey day in Manchester, grey and wet..
But tonight there were pink air hostesses again ushering the crowd, Santas and the Tone Float, and a new set list. Tyrone danced to a different song, and Andy wore his red dress again.
Catering was incredible. Xmas dinner with variations, salmon with lemon butter and something exotic with wild mushrooms for the veggies. There was port and stilton and xmas puddings…
Larry and some assorted friends and family, some from portugal one from brazil, headed off to party at Spirit on Canal Street and saw the early morning in…
It was a great tour. Thank you everybody.
I am making spicy parsnip soup today…
Manchester Central - Night 2
20th December 2008 | Larry
Manchester the first
19th December 2008 | Juliet
Today’s soup was garlic and potato with thyme with a splash of cream in there.
The venue is a bit on the chilly side and there is torrential rain staining the carpets, dampening bags and important pieces of paper in the dressing rooms. Tim’s lyrics bled.
But there is a spirit of festiveness especially when the team of pink air hostesses, the Air Muffins, arrive to help the audience find exits and entrances. In the foyer some slimline skinny Santas are busy giving out gifts. And the “Tone Float” milk float is already doing its thing. An accompanying tv screen of camberwick green milkman is part of the installation. It fills G-Mex with the cranky sound of ringing milk bottles and car horns and cows mooing. In the great tradition of English eccentrics, these milkmen of human kindness did versions of Manchester musical classics with a bit of James Sometimes thrown in. The Tone Float is like a mutant mobile milk bottle xylophone. Each bottle has a small electrical hammer behind it, which is ‘played’ by a midi keyboard or drum machine, and a few strings of wire ‘n chips. Milk bottles have a pretty harsh tone when empty, but when filled with ‘milk’ to different levels a semblance of tonal scale emerges, and the fun begins…
Saul has smaller wings today. Tyrone the sign language dance man does a perfomance on the podium to Tomorrow and Frustration.
Tim had a few post show thoughts on the gig:
“Do they get the weirdness of Gold Mother into Stutter? Or have they just come for the pop songs? This was going through my mind as I was reading the audience.But by the end it seemed everyone was having a good time.”
Same place, new set tomorrow.
Manchester Central - Night 1
19th December 2008 | Larry
Day two in Brixton
16th December 2008 | Juliet
Today’s soup was Moroccan chickpea…with much chili and spice.
Tim is a bit deaf after the sound issues last night. Hopefully this is temporary. Meanwhile, Larry has a trip to St. Thomas Hospital with what he considers a suspected broken foot. It hurts to walk. He limps badly for most of the day.
After waiting for two hours in the A and E department receiving little more attention than a ticket with a number on it, Larry gives up and heads tosoundcheck . The mysterious circumstances of the foot are still unknown to anyone but Larry. Speculation on what happened and how the incident may have involved astiletto boot are still unconfirmed. However lashings of arnica cream, nurofen, an ankle support and plenty of ice seem to have calmed the situation for the show to go on.
And it does…on the sloping dance floor of this old cinema palace…
Brixton Academy - Night 2
16th December 2008 | Larry
Brixton Academy, Monday
15th December 2008 | Juliet
There has been much sleeping and dozing for those holed up in a hotel beside the big river. Others have popped home to do family things like see the Snowman and marvel at how the Snowman’s fingers turn to icicles, like Edward Scissorhands, when he washes his hands and how he can fly…
But now it’s Monday. Time to head to Brixton to the fantastic art deco theatre venue that is the Academy. This splendid building was built in 1929 and was once an Astoria Theatre. In the early days it was a place to go and see “talking pictures”. Indeed my grandad, bow bells born but Brixtonian, took his girl (future gran) to the motion pictures where they shared a quarter of nuts and nougat. Whatever, it worked out well for them.
But now this magnificent piece of architecture is a rock venue and has a great corridor of photos of famous faces who have been there; only one of the portraits has been ripped from its fastenings leaving a shadowy mark around it on the beige wall. I wonder who?
Soup is a creamy spinach and potato. Later comes a hefty and hearty Sunday roast or goats cheese tart option. We are now full, very full. Andy Diagram has the vegetarian option and then three puddings. He had been canoeing up the Thames on Sunday and needed a refuel.
There is much excitement at the assorted festive hats that Zeb has acquired. The turkey hat doesnt get worn for long but the xmas tree, once batteried and rearranged, works well on Dave. Saul’s wings have arrived. Helping them on is like getting a kid into mittens on elastic. Anyway it’s a little bit of a tricky venue soundwise cos it’s an interesting shaped theatre for starters. The backdrop gives the feeling of sitting outside in an Italian piazza if you look up. The crowd are fantastic. It’s sold out. And there is much dancing and getting on stage. There’s a big party after the show upstairs behind the glass screen bar and another one in the dressing room.
Brixton Academy - Night 1
15th December 2008 | Larry
Sunday Day Off
14th December 2008 | Juliet
So today, Sunday, is a day off. A day for sleeping and shopping and walking along the Thames taking the London airs…and there was even a soup moment in the Brazilian cafe in Neal’s Yard. Sweet Potato and Basil…muito obrigado.
Birmingham NIA Arena Saturday
13th December 2008 | Juliet
Today’s soup was lentil. We drove down to the arena, parked up alongside the other green buses. It was a very rainy, soggy and damp day. Dressing rooms were a bit the same, all a bit on the cool front. But hot showers were hot. By 1pm there was soup.
The soundcheck was rigorous. Rehearsals and polishing bits and pieces ready for the show.
The show was a good one, great crowd, good vibe all round. Phil from the Twang sang on Say Something. John, the Twang’s bass player was there too and during the new song Porcupine commented on Saul besuited in white on the big podium:”It looks like God playing the violin.” The crowd danced a lot and there was a stage invasion and much dancing even after the final encore when Harry Belafonte took over courtesy of Stef and Chris, the sound ones.
There was a great buzz at the aftershow. It was going to be a long wet drive down to London. Third night on the bus. Entertainment was brought to us by Mark who can always work out the high technology of bus TV screens when everyone else has given up, and presented us with a recent Nick Cave concert. That kept us absorbed for a while as did eating lots of food etc. Finally got to the hotel at 4am ish. It’s one of those modern high tech hotels where the light switches are never where you think they might be and never do what you think they might do and the bathroom light seems to stay on terminally…as for working the TV remote well could someone please standardise these things?
