Berlin: Journey to the East.


We left Amsterdam around 2AM and drove overnight to Berlin. Everyone was in an ebullient mood, for obvious reasons. I watched Grey’s anatomy and fell asleep. I wasn’t alone in doing this. We ate Olliebollen, a heavy, raisin-filled sugared dough-ball my friend had bought for me as a sample of Amsterdam's finest food stuffs....they are delicious, and just the thing after a few hours in a coffee shop. Which is why there are so many cake stalls open around the Leidesplein in the evening I'd imagine.

Berlin is one of my happy places. I love the city. I can’t really explain why but when we arrived I breathed a sigh of relief. It’s such a cool place full of art and culture(s) and smart people. The city looks great and is steeped in history. Walking around doing nothing here is better than doing most things elsewhere. (I feel the same in Beijing too….go figure). Our hotel was on Wallstrasse and even the cheesy US Wall Street themed hotel with Stock Market figures as the corridor carpet design and a hundred dollar bill as the bedroom carpet design didn’t dampen my mood (Note also the chocolate Euros left as a welcome gift on the bed and the packet of tissues printed as dollar bills in the bottom left corner…). It was so naff I couldn't help but enjoy it and the room’s décor was Germanic in its pragmatism with kettles hidden in closets and doors with warped wood as handles. It's in a quiet corner of the city right next to a U-Bahn station so getting around the city was a doddle. I went outto dinner with friends for a while before finding myself so tired I had to come home to sleep. I did learn that there’s a German verb from the name of my home town: Coventrieren. It means to eradicate a city (Which is what the Luftwaffe did to Coventry during the Blitz in WW11). I felt vaguely pleased to know we’d been immortalized in language, even with such a negative connotation (I guess the UK version would be to Dresdenize…?). Sadly, given a day off in one of my favorite places it was all I could do not to sack out before 10PM. Shameful.



The band’s promo the next day was in Potsdam, about 40 minutes outside of Berlin. The radio station was along the street from the Potsdam film set where Marlene Deitrich used to make movies. The fake streets were still there and reminded me of the sets in California at Universal. There were some (genuine) mansions along the block that looked just like these movie-set facades and the film sets were set apart from the public suburban street only by a fence – they were very open and visible. Although judging by the state of the Streetcar on this set it’s not like the local kids seem to hold the perimeter fence in very high esteem.



Later in the day, after soundcheck, we took a walk along the East Side Gallerie. This is a section of the wall that was left in place and is now used by muralists. Behind this section of the wall is the river (Pictured from the other side—The former West—below). To escape the East one would have to scale two walls, then clear a section of barren no-mans-land under the watch of the guardtowers, and then swim across the river. I can’t imagine the desperation people must have lived with to try that. One of the saddest sights in Berlin for me is near the Reichstag. There are small crucifixes on the walls as memorials to those who died trying to cross over: they were shot, they drowned. Some of them were so young, and some of them died only a few weeks before the wall came down.









I love the architecture in Berlin. There’s such a mix of old and new and the old has such a presence and sometimes a fantastic monolithic feel in the former east. How can you not love a city where the U-Bahn stations look like this? Next door to my friend’s apartment building in Prenzlauer they are redeveloping a former mechanic’s garage that was a previously a bathhouse used exclusively by Stasi Officers. Although that’s a dreadful kind of history, how can you not be fascinated by the fact that this still exists? Maybe it’s just me but that the façade of our hotel was bullet-scarred from WWII did nothing but add to the experience of being there. The city breathes its history.



Tonight everyone’s gone to the same bar we visited in the summer when we played here before. It’s good to know places you like in cities abroad. It makes a place feel like home – which Berlin may well become one day. Certainly it has got to be one of the top places to live in Europe.

Got to Hamburg after a hazy night in Das Bus (it feels like a submarine as it’s a double-decker and all the ceilings are low. Low enough for me to keep cracking my head on) and on my way form the shower rooms at the hotel to the venue I passed a Gallery showing a Casper David Friedrich exhibition (German Romantic school). I’d tried to see his work before in Berlin but the wing of the gallery had been closed. This morning I snuck off while everyone was sleeping but got to the Gallery only to find it closed on Mondays. Same with the Chinese exhibit in the gallery across the square. Bobbins that, innit?

Tchoo Late and Tchoo Schmelly!


I think I can say my Anti-Amsterdam phase is over now. I’m just anti-scuzzers. And who could have a problem with that? We’ve just had a night-off in Amsterdam--the first quiet time I’ve had since the start of the tour. It’s taken nearly 12 hours of mooching around and doing nothing special to start to feel anything like normal again. Tonight I ate falafels and talked about nothing much with a friend. It felt so normal a small grateful tear rolled down my cheek at the end of the night. Or maybe that was because the falafels achieved a legendary spiciness. Either way, it was pure, unadulterated gratitude.



I wandered around the city a little at night. I was hoping for a little more by way of pagan lights but the lights here were very understated. Aside from the obvious red ones, that is. Understated but apt, I thought. See for yourself. When your City looks as cool as Amsterdam what do you care for Christmas lights?



The area was busy, not just with men in raincoats or gangs of men out drinking (although it was mostly this), but with couples and tourists safely enjoying the edginess. Walking past all the prostitute’s windows my second thought was that it’s got to be a hard, hard job. The men (not me of course, I'm different to every other man on the planet) really do view them as chattel. The whole red light area is steeped in a kind of workaday seediness – there are the dealers, the women, the storekeepers and the skeevy pimps all making a living by selling an assortment of fantasies. Then there are the punters (many of whom are so tightly coiled they almost flinch if you look at them) all slightly breathless with anticipation and eager to believe even the most exhausted hooker’s smile or the shadiest dealer’s spiel about his drug’s potency.



North African dealers hang around on the middle of the bridges hissing the names of the drugs they can sell to you. Along one street three people spoke to me, and I heard in order (I’ve tried to get the Dutch accent down phonetically, I really like the accent here…):

“You chlike any cocaine?”
“Porno! Come in before it gets tchoo late and tchoo schmelly!”
“Psst! Charlie. Chou want shome?”

This seemed so absurd and open it made me laugh. Then I saw five English guys pushing their friend into a hooker’s doorway and cheering and it all seemed less absurd and more obscene. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a sordid fascination with all of this (I will go to my grave believing you can gauge a nations psyche by looking at its advertising and its pornography) but I felt like I was slumming it in the end, going to look at the poor people scratching a living by ruining themselves before going back to my schmancy hotel to blog about how delightfully vulgar it all is. Voyuer would be a generous description, I think.



I was thinking it might be a chuckle to go for a smoke in a coffee shop (and it’s been a long, long time since I did that) but that would only be good in the right company and the only person I want to do that with isn’t here. Probably a good thing too. Or not. Seeing all that broken humanity somehow makes me want to steep myself in feelings altogether more aspirational and to foster those sensibilities that come from tenderness and not self-loathing. After wasting so much time I’ve a desire to make more of life instead of less. Watching people attend their own wakes is ultimately depressing; it’s always easier to say no to life. Which is ironic, isn't it?

Get out of London!

We’ve finished the first leg of the tour around the UK. The shows went well but the schedule was exhausting – there was no down time at all. I can’t remember van tours being this tiring before, (maybe it’s an age thing!) but that we haven’t had a day off in over a week and have often been doing shows and multiple radio shows and promo etc, every day has proven a little too much. Everyone looks completely shagged.

Our tour bus arrived tonight which means I won’t be driving any more. I didn’t mind the driving as much as I didn’t like the navigating city centres with a pony map and looking for somewhere to park for an hour or so each night. Bombing along the M1 at 90mph is fine—although it was better before my ipod died. Still, now I have a new nest in the tour bus – slightly smaller than the ones we had in America but it does have a window, which is really good--it’s like a little porthole. I’m in one of the front bunks above the driver so it’s close to being a suicide bunk. But it is one of the quietest, which, as anyone who’s spent any time on a tour bus will attest, is one of the most important things—early death notwithstanding. I’ve already filled it with my gadgets – if I could concentrate for longer than the length of time it takes to type up a day-sheet I’d add some books to the mix but I’m simple of mind on this tour already and can't form full sentences today so book learning is out of the window.


We took a cross channel ferry to
Calais (This is the view from the skylight at the back of the bus as we boarded. The glamour of a ferry terminal... actually, geek that I am, I like places like this--all sodium lights and freight vehicles). This was the 4:30am sailing. Stayed awake for the ride and we docked at 6:50AM . I liked the ferry ride – the English Channel (Q: How did we get naming rights to it?) was black and I could see other boats out there heading to and from the North Sea. It felt isolated and almost secret in the way that late-night travel can feel. Boats are a good way to travel--they’re very tangible. There’s a romance to sea travel. For a time I had the south coast of England to myself with just the dark waves for company. I have to say I couldn’t understand why there was a harpoon on the ferry. That must be why one never sees any whales in the English Channel.


I slept until Amsterdam, which was a relief. I have a night off tonight and as long as I avoid all the peasants (thank god none of my party are gagging to mong' themselves out…) celebrating their bohemian tendencies by smoking themselves insensate then I’m looking forward to a night off here and going to dinner. I like Amsterdam except for all the plebs. Maybe if I get bored I can let off a little steam pushing drunks into the canals…?

A chap has got to have some fun, right?



On the MacPod tonight.
Thieves – Unworthy
Pulp – Common People
Cat Power – Where is my Love? / Love and Communication
Placebo – Special K
Neko Case – Hold On, Hold On
The Cure – Why Can’t I Be You?

Heading Home:


On the drive into Scotland one sees road signs that say: Carlisle & Scotland. On the drive back south one doesn't see signs that say: Carlisle & England. I can't think why--unless the English think you're already in England and it's redundant to singpost it? I would imagine the Scot's would welcome the opportunity to higlight the border one more time....



We left Glasgow and its paltry Pagan Winter Lights ( I guess the Scottish aren't too superstitious about the dark, judging by this meagre display) to spend a night in Carlisle en route to Nottingham. We stayed in a well-hidden hotel in the centre of town that reminded everyone of England Circa 1941 when they woke in the morning and the sun was shining on the market square. It did have a market town feel to it - and we were staying in the main square, the kind of place where everyone would have got together for a good hanging a couple of hundred years ago.





However, biggest surprise for me was how much they'd pimped out the market square for the pagan light festival (Hard to see here in daylight). They had the three wise men with faces so scary you'd never let them in to see a baby, especially if one of them was carrying some death oil. And the rest of the square was similarly decked-out. I guess Carlisle people like to ward of the darkness. They also had an Ann Summers store on the market square so I guess we can all deduce from that that people in Carlisle like christmas time and are always at it in saucy underwear.....to be fair to them though, there didn't seem to be much else to do there, not now we've stopped hanging people anyways.


We drove past Newcastle and passed the Angel of The North, a giant steel (?) sculpture next to the A1 that you can see for miles and that gave me the willies a bit like a giant Wicker Man might.



When we got to Nottingham I was cheered to see that the ghost of Christmas Future (for me anyway) Steven Seagal is playing at Rock City in Nottingham in February. I'm tempted to fly back to see this show. Really. And that scares me now that I've said it because I might.




After the show during load out I collided with an inch thick piece of plywood that some spazzy roadie made ages ago for Steve in Albert's band (f***king thing weighs a ton and could be used as a roll-on / roll-off car ferry if need be). Net result was that I saw stars and nearly threw up while Brian, who was carrying the pedal board felt dreadful with guilt. It was a silly accident and apparently my head made a good noise when we collided-i really can't remember as I was on my hands and knees trying not to cry. However, 20 minutes later once the drugs had kicked in (and I never knew so many people on this tour were carrying painkillers....I was impressed) I was entertained by how big the bump got. It turned into a real cartoon bump. I could have done without having to drive back to London but it wasn't so bad until someone put on the hippy music and the bump started throbbing in protest.

Here's Brian being wracked with guilt.




Anyway, three hours to sleep in now before tomorrow's promo begins. Last night in a hotel for 48 hours too so I should make use of a bed that doesn't shake.

Not that a shaking bed is a bad thing. Don't put words into my mouth.

My Night With The Pussycat Dolls:

Our Glasgow hotel was across the street from the S.E.C.C. (I think I’ve put on shows there in the past, but it’s a bad sign when you can’t remember the venues from outside. I‘d know if I went backstage…). When we got back from the radio station where the band had been recording a session we ran into the crowd for the Pussycat Dolls as they were leaving the S.E.C.C. (we asked some kids holding poster who’d they’d been to see – which in itself is a bit creepy—40 year-old men cruising teenage girls outside a gig in their big white van with blacked-out windows…). Giddy on the news we were only a few hundred yards from the Dolls we all started singing Don’t Cha’. Everyone knew the lyric (respect to Cee-Lo, even though my friend says he was a bit of a dick when she met him checking into a European hotel once). I took a guess at what hotel they’d be in but in the end we decided against going around to hang out in the bar (this wasn’t a unanimous decision, btw). Aside from the fact that an unkind judge might label this as ‘incredibly f***king sad behaviour’ there’s also the matter of who needs more restraining orders? One or two my be considered fashionable—even rakishly becoming in a certain light--but when you’ve got more than a couple then I don’t think girls like it so much…no matter how much explaining you do about what a mix-up it was and how you weren’t sleeping outside her house in a car all week with a camera and some rope. Anyway, I digress.



Our hotel is in a dead part of town on the river. I quite like it, for all its deadness. There is some interesting architecture around, new buildings mixed with remnants from the city’s history. The giant crane above was next to our hotel and was no longer in service. They did right to leave it where it was - it looked great. Apparently the shipbuilding yards were bombed heavily in WWII and along rows of nearby tenement’s you can see where a building was destroyed by bombs and a newer one erected in its place in the middle of a row. I like the gritty, pragmatic parts of cities. Tangentially, I also realized yesterday how much I like Motorway Service Stations. They’re like little oases on the road. I saw a couple yesterday nestled into woods at the side of the M6 / M74. And while intellectually I know they sell the same crap as each other, part of me can’t help thinking they’re like little local grottos where you might find something cool and unique; even at Toddington or Leicester Forest East.

Okay, now you’re looking at me strangely…

The Scottish Play:


I’ve got a cold. I think I got it in that damp, stinky club in Leeds. Did I mention the dressing rooms reeked of damp paint fumes? Class. It’s just about to take me out for a day or so – I can tell. I’m cranky, runny nosed, very tired…actually apart from the runny nose that’s pretty much business as usual for me.

After the Leeds show we drove to Sheffield for the night. Our hotel overlooked the Wicker and the Holiday Inn. This is the river Jarvis sang about in the Wickerman. Because of my friends in the city I have an affection for Sheffield and always like being here, even when the view is less than stellar. Brian, our guitar tech’, was telling me about the time he slept in the bar of this Holiday Inn after a session on a Wet Wet Wet tour. I used to work for Pulp. When Pulp played Top of the Pops (1994?) and Wet Wet Wet had been Number 1 for about three years with Love Is All Around Jarvis hid a sign in his coat that he flashed to the camera. It said I HATE WET WET WET and went out live. I’d completely forgotten about that until now. Happy Days.




Yesterday we drove across the moors to Manchester. Amazing bleak countryside that this photo, taken while I was driving along at 70mph doesn't really do it justice. Manchester was a good show but the thing that cheered me up the most was seeing The Holy Name Church opposite the venue. I may be mistaken (there might be several Churches so named in Manchester) but it made me think this was the Church named in The Smith’s Vicar in a Tutu. (“I was minding my business, lifting some lead off the roof of the Holy Name Church. It was worthwhile living a laughable life, to set my eyes on the blistering sight, of a Vicar in a tutu….”). It’s the little things that make me happy.





My I-pod died today. It just stopped working. It’s about 2 1/2 years old so I suppose the little fucker was due (my last one lasted about the same amount of time). Apple must be building them with some kind of spacc’ed out power supply so that they die sooner rather than later. Fortunately at home in New York I’d just backed everything up onto a hard drive via Ipod Rip so I’m a very happy boy – not counting the fact I’ve got another 3 weeks to go without and Ipod. Oh, God. I’ll have to talk to people. Oh sweet Jesus, please: make it stop…..

We drove through the border country today between England and Scotland. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the country. The mountains were covered with black clouds, heavy with rain. The sun stayed at 45 degrees all day (it rarely gets higher in the winter here). This meant the light was clear and sharp if not very warm. The contrast was never better seen than when a flock of about thirty birds swooped and dived in a circle. One minute their dark backs were almost lost against the black clouds, the next minute their silver underbellies glinted like new blades in the sunlight before they wheeled around again. The mountains were covered in patchy brown gorse and autumnal heather, the grass was a vivid green. It was breathtaking. It made me want to move here to write and get healthy in the fresh air.

We passed Penrith. This was the setting for Withnail and I, one of the best British Movies ever made, ever. If you haven’t seen it go buy a copy on DVD. Then watch it, and try not to quote it all the time. I wanted to stop off and go to the tea-rooms, but we didn’t have time. In fact, I was going to buy them and fire everyone....

In Glasgow we all got bought fish and chips from a place called McMonagle’s in Clydebank. It was without a shadow of a doubt the best Fish and Chips I’ve had since I was a boy on holiday in Devon. Outstanding. It’s hard to get good stuff like that now as production of almost all fast food is so homogenized and has little to do with quality. Did I ever mention the McLibel trial and the documentary about the two people ( a postman and a gardener) who wouldn't apologise to McDonalds for saying their food is crap, btw? That’s another good movie – albeit a documentary. McLibel. I hate McDonalds and that f***ing clown with a vengance. This story made me realise what an insidious influence they really are.

See? Cranky.....

Tonight is off (we got back from the radio at 11PM so some night off). I’m staying in to feel tired and coldy and to get some sleep. Don’t let anyone tell you we’re not living the dream.

It's Grim Up North:


Or wet, at the very least. We're in Leeds, Yorkshire today. I haven't been here in maybe a decade so I'm enjoying the visit. I'm much more of a tourist than I'd like to admit; while everything feels English and familiar I'm also thinking that everyone's accents sound quaint - someone called me "me flower" in a shop today - and isn't it funny that people go out of an evening in the freezing rain without coats? Then again, I used to do the same thing 20 years ago ( mainly because I was skint and didn't want to waste a quid on the cloakroom in a club - not when I could be spending it on lager or cider & black instead). I've got all fancy pants now and I'd get too cold waiting in line for a club even if I were wearing my Brooks Bros. overcoat. Actaully, I'd never wait in line for a club. Not even if the baby jesus was onstage and there was a drink special on snakebite and black.

These are the Christmas lights in Leeds. I like Xmas lights, they make me hopeful that I'll have an xmas worthy of a Wham! video--although I should have learnt by now. There's something primitive about having light fesitvals in the winter, I think. I heard So Here It Is Merry Xmas by Slade today in Leeds Market for the first time this season. I miss hearing that in the USA. It made me feel festive.




On to something grumbly: What's happened to the telly in the UK? When I moved to the USA I remember thinking that British telly was so much better than US telly. I don't know that it's true anymore. With the exception of the occasional show like Vincent, Wire In The Blood and the like, most of the shows are wank over here now. There's even a naff thing late at night on ITV that's like a call in quiz show and that looks like a cheap commercial all the way through. Absolute bollocks. What happened? Was it always so crap and I just didn't notice or has it changed now that there's 24 hour broadcasting as standard everywhere and they have to fill up the time with some guff or other? It's hard to find something to watch. (Unlesss one's bought $200 of DVDs, that is....)

One thing I had forgotten was the level of public drunkeness in provincial England of a night. The streets are busy with drunks coming home & shouting on the way. You don't hear this so much in New York (at least not where I live, I suppose) nor in London (except in Leicester Square at 11PM). Going out to get wankered with the getting wankered as important a part of the evening as maybe enjoying a gig, show, dance or whatever. I think it's a very English attitude to having fun - like we have to gorge ourselves on it when its available for some reason; there's less urbane sipping of red wine at dinner than there is guzzling lager until one's swearing at roadsigns and throwing up in a taxi. It's in me too, to this day, although I don't drink anymore--partly for that reason. I think some Europeans are similar, but the British are world-leaders. It's a strange way of going about things - trying to numb oneself whenever possible. I wonder if its a throwback to feeling a kind of institutuionalised powerlessness from the good old days (Before the 1970's recession) when the poor and working class laboured in factories and mills and when vacations were the whitsun bankholiday weekend charabang to North Wales or Skegness? (I can't speak to posho' drunkeness as I work for a living, just like me mum and dad). Or maybe it's just a symptom of a buried rage that the British carry around inside after centuries of emotional stoicism.



I went to the hardware store in Leeds to buy some tools to use to hang our new backdrop. The hardware store was in a deserted old market in Leeds. Inside the market there is a Stamp Collectors store. It was empty too, apart from the proprieter. But there was something great about the empty market with its anachronistic stores; I like that about places in the provinces (anywhere). And of course I'm being condescending as I don't live in a small provincial town anymore and can enjoy the (apparent) lack of facilities. When I did live in a small town my skin itched in frustration thinking that life was going on elsewhere. I was sure that all the good things in life, all the golden opportunities, all the fun bypassed my home town on the M1 and the M5. Anyway, I hope Mr. Studley has a good weekend selling all the stamps he needs to and gets to have all the fun he can eat.


On a chipper note I've been feasting on the following - all are worthy of your attention.

Joan Didion - Play It As It Lays - genius writing - perfect style. LA in a book. What I'd give to do one thing half as good as this ever.
Jarvis - Fat Children. Jarv', innit? It's Hugo Boss.
David Essex - Rock On
Reeves and Mortimer - DVD Complete Series. Classic English Comedy and probably an aquired taste...
The Mighty Boosh - I've just got the Live version of the show which is like the TV show but as Panto. Again, classic English comedy. Probably best to start off with the TV series. I want to hang out with Vince and Howard.
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want / Vicar In A Tutu / Frankly Mr Shankly - The Smiths
When The Sun Goes Down - Artic Monkeys
Vetiver - I Know No Pardon / Leonard Cohen - Famous Blue Raincoat
David Bowie - Stay

London in the Wintertime.


Sunny, damp and chilly and London looks amazing. We landed, checked-in, then went straight to work. For the first time ever I'm not buying books and CD's before I do anything else. That will come though, I'm sure of it.

Went to Sunday Lunch in Borough Market at a boss restuarant called Roast, who, not surprisingly, serve Roast Dinners. It's been a long time since I've had a proper Sunday dinner. Roast beef, yorkshire pudding--the full monty. Class. South of the water is turning into my new favourite area of London now what with the Tate Modern, Borough Market, Bermondsey Street..the band were rehearsing down there so this makes it my second trip to London where I've mostly hung out in London Bridge / Borough. I'll be wearing a pearl covered jacket next, me old cocksparra'...

We (read: I) picked-up a van to carry the band and the gear around in. I haven't driven around in London like for a long long time. It's good fun and I can remember all the routes across town (mostly), but parking is a chore. Even on my old steeet in Kentish Town - which used to be a great sneaky spot for parking splitter vans - is now all permit only parking. Everywhere is, in fact; which made me realise I've been gone for ten years. Coincidentally, it took nearly 10 years to find parking only to have to move the van again after 2 hours. Why do people drive in London again? I know the tube is crap but driving, luv a duck - what a bleedin' palaver...

The Christmas Lights are up and on along Oxford Street and Regent Street; the city looks exciting and festive. It's one of my favourite times of year in Europe because it looks like Christmas. I managed to drop into HMV and came out in a daze with $200 worth of DVDs--some Chinese movies, and some old British TV shows (The Edge of Darkness, Top of the Pops compilation feat. Slade, T-Rex, The Jam, Ian Dury amongst others. The Jam look so young doing Down In the Tube Station At Midnight, and their miming sucks but it's great to see old performances like that.) I got some old episodes of Reeves and Mortimer and I'd forgotten how funny they are, and how English and original. I'm looking forward to checking out the Mighty Boosh Live DVD my friend gave me for my birthday. I'm glad to be back where people can make me belly-laugh.

Still, we go to Birmingham tomorrow so it could all change....c'mon luvver.

All the Turkey you can eat...

This is the Asian shore of Istanbul, a place called Uskudar. It was noticably poorer-looking than the new city or the old town but it was very busy with people going to sit on the waterfront to look across the river looking towards Europe.



We were there during the last three days of Ramadan, and everyone was out on the streets celebrating. In Uskudar some street vendors had floated some balloons on the river and were charging to let people (mainly young boys) shoot at the balloons with pellet guns. I don't know what the prizes were but to be honest, after firing a gun myself in Hawaii, i don't think winning a teddy bear as a prize is the motivating factor here...



At the mouth of the Bosphorous there was an endless line of ships waiting to navigate the river or collect their cargo. I have a thing about boats, and seeing so many huge tankers (not that this photo does them so much justice) made my simple heart glad. I am similarly amused by bubble wrap.



We went to see a performance of the Whirling Dervishes. It's more like a folk-dance display now in an exhibition hall at the station, but nonetheless the music was hypnotic and so was the dance. Originally the Dervishes spun and spun to put themselves in a state of religious ecstasy, one hand face up towards God, one facing down to earth so they could channel the love. They refer to themselves as the Lovers because of their devotion to God.



Spices in the Egyptian Spice Market. There was an awful amount of crap on sale too but the spices and Lokum (Turkish Delight) looked amazing. However the Turkish Delight does tend to mess up your stomach if you eat too much. Say if you maybe buy some to take home but gorge on it in your hotel room while you're reading of an evening and finish the lot in one sitting. Then it doesn't sit well at all. So I'm told.





And of course, Turkish Viagra. A walnut stuck inside a fig. I couldn't tell if it was a metaphor or not....

Northern Europe:

Back in Blighty I spent a weekend catching up with friends. Living overseas makes me miss everyone so much. On this visit I got to go to the Tate Modern for the first time ever and saw some great pieces, my favourite being the Fischli and Weiss exhibit. Mad Swiss artists. The film of the Bear and the Rat is genius. The Tate Modern is such a good building too. When I left London a decade agothis part of the City was a dead area; it made me happy to see the City develop so much. In America I miss the sense of history and culture that’s evident in all the major European cities. I miss Europe a lot these days.

I went to visit my hometown to spend time with my family. Although the city has come on a lot since I lived there and feels cleaner and more welcoming than it did fifteen years ago or so it’s still very quiet and closes up completely at night. I went out at 11PM to try to buy a Mars Bar (well, that was a pretext…) but couldn't find anything open – not even a petrol station. Weird.

Late night Coventry. This used to be a Wimpy Cafe in the 70's, now it's a listed building as an example of post-war architecture. Class.



And this is the Devil on the side of Coventry Cathedral. When we were kids on school trips we'd giggle at his willy as it looked like a milk bottle (and we know it's not after doing the corporate gig in October. We know exactly what the Devil's Willy looks like now: it's a Hennessy Bottle). Thirty years later and I'm still giggling at the Devil's Willy. And don't pretend you're not going to click on the photo to look...



Coventry finally has it's own food specialty to crow about. The noble Pork-Batch. At last, a cuisine I can call my own. Cooked pork on a roll with stuffing. Simple, classic, and unhealthy. This cart is a recent addition to the precinct but you've got to love the captioning. Coventry, where crap jokes are given pride of place. Truly makes me proud, and explains a lot too.



From the Midlands I flew to Amsterdam. One of my oldest and bestest friends is playing guitar for George Michael and I didn’t want to miss the chance to see him (However I missed seeing Neko Case and Cat Power to see George Michael - I'm either on the turn or an exceptionally good friend). The show was exactly as you’d expect – professional, slick, packed with hits and very good. I have to say more power to George as he gets to throw in a few barbed comments during the set with the visuals, as this picture of an inflatable George Bush getting blown by a British Bulldog shows. Wonder if he’ll use this on the US Tour? Or at Earls Court, for that matter.



I had my final day in Europe in Amsterdam. It was a rare treat to be in the city without an entourage of stoners all gagging about numbing themselves into comas. (to be fair last time it was only a couple of people, but it was enough to have me spitting bile for the entire visit) The air was crisp, the light amazing and I get off on hearing all the different languages spoken. The Dutch have a great way of saying English slang expressions and sounding more English than the English. The guy in a record store where I bought a Burt Bacharach compilation managed to say, “Mind ‘ow you go.” to me when I paid for the CD. Like he came from Deptford.

I had a great time wandering around and my friend took me to a load of commercial art galleries. There were prints of Dali and Picasso on sale for Euro 3000. I was tempted. Maybe when I go back at the end of the month…

Flying home, the nice lady at KLM check-in let me off my overweight baggage fee, which was kind of her and means I’ll try to fly KLM when I can from now on. Nice people.

Sadly, during my 5 hour layover at Heathrow I had to start hearing idiots in American’s Business Class lounge. Why is it stupid, opinionated people can’t help being loud? On the flight I was sat next to a man who was reading Bill O’ Reilly’s book in Hardback. Why would you want to buy that guff in hardback? (The Book is Called Culture Warrior and outlines his battle to prevent someone turning the US into an image of Western Europe. The preface is as self-serving and self-aggrandizing as I could stomach, but people buy this – in hardback. That’s just plain weird.) The guy also never said please and thank you to the attendants as they served him drinks. That’s piggish. And you know how I hate bad manners….

To take my mind of the violence that I felt towards the fascist ‘muncher sat next to me I made a list of all the good books I’ve just read this past two weeks, and the genius playlist on my I-pod that I’ve been listening to for the past few days and that I’d recommend to you all. Buying 10-hole Doc Martens from Holts in Camden and listening to Madness on the tube home is still one of the best London feelings a kid from the Midlands can get. Listening to Metal Guru while walking along the canal on Prinsen Gracht on the way to meet your date is another legendary feeling; a way to feel invincible with super-powers. How can you not feel invincible with that guitar sound blowing through your head? How can you not?


MADNESS – EMBARRASSMENT
IAN DURY – HIT ME WITH YOUR RHYTHM STICK / WHAT A WASTE
XTC - MAKING PLANS FOR NIGEL / MAYOR OF SIMPLETON
FLEETWOOD MAC – BIG LOVE / TUSK
T REX – METAL GURU
THE SMITHS – THIS CHARMING MAN
ROXY MUSIC - LOVE IS THE DRUG
JACKIE TRENT - MAKE IT EASY ON YOURSELF ( i think this is better than Scott Walker's version...)
DIONNE WARWICK – I’LL NEVER FALL IN LOVE AGAIN
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD – THE LOOK OF LOVE
OK GO – A MILLIONS WAYS
SHAKIRA – WHENEVER, WHATEVER
EDDIE FLOYD – BIG BIRD
THE THE – SLOW TRAIN TO DAWN
THE SMITHS – I STARTED SOMETHING I COULDN’T FINISH
THE SPECIALS – GANGSTERS
BRITNEY SPEARS - TOXIC
THE WONDERSTUFF - IT'S YER MONEY I'M AFTER, BABY
NICK CAVE – SUPERNATURALLY
PAUL WELLER – INTO TOMORROW / YOU DO SOMETHING TO ME
DAVID BOWIE – I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU / PABLO PICASSO
GRANDADDY – ALBUM OF THE YEAR

BOOKS:
Alan Bennett – 3 Stories
M J Hyland – Carry Me Down / How The Light Gets In
Henry Green – Loving / Living (Living is the only book I've ever read written entirely in a Birmingham accent - It's bloody boss, it am).
Paul Bowles – Collected Stories
Issac Babel - Collected Stories

More Photo's from Turkey


A street market...kind of Dolcis on the riverbank.



This guy sat in the park and people came to him to have him write letters for them. He was kept very busy.



And this guy was in Uskudar. He had some scales where you could "check you health". Other health-specialists had rulers to measure height too, but this guy was just running with the basic fatty check.















Along the river banks everyone was fishing. All the men had their own rods and there was a guy renting rods (or so it seemed). I don't know that I'd want to eat anything that came out of the water there but that didn't seem to bother anyone else.



There were many stalls like this - barely more than a tray set up on a trestle on the pavement. They were popular with the fishermen. I guess a hard days angling makes you hungry for some lemony mussels. There was also a geezer serving the fishermen tea from a small portable canteen. The spirit of free-enterprise.















These boats were quayside near the Galata Bridge. And they were busy. With so many ferries on the river it seemed impossible to work on them as the wake from the passing boats would send them rocking from side to side violently.

Europe:

What does the experienced and exhausted tour manager do once he gets some time off? He goes on tour by himself, naturally; a week in Turkey on vacation and a few days in London, Coventry, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The simple joy of walking through an airport without dragging a posse of tardy rock-stars on to a plane. Such sweet, sweet joy.

After a one-night visit to London where I got to see a performance of Histoire De Melody Nelson and L'Enfant Assassin des Mouches by composer / arranger Jean-Claude Vannier at the Barbican. Guest vocalists came on for the Histoire De Melody Nelson (Jarvis Cocker, Badly Drawn Boy, Laetitia Sadier, Gruff Rhys, Brigitte Fontaine). Going to gigs without being paid for it, and enjoying it? Christ, don’t tell anyone. The show was fantastic. And Herbie Flowers was playing bass which somehow made me feel happiest of all.

Istanbul:

I’d never been to a Muslim country before. I liked seeing such a different culture up close. Our hotel was near the Blue Mosque so were woken by the muezzin and the call to prayer at 6am every day. It’s an amazing sound. In the background we could hear the other Mosques around the city come to life for the day. I liked that there was a sense of religion there and that people still offered devotions thrice daily. Even if some people are paying lip-service (as there are in all religions), there’s something to be said to having a society where some semblance of humility is part of daily life and woven into the day to day doings of people. I liked the humble and holy feeling I found inside the Mosques themselves. I was appalled at the lack of respect many of the tourists showed by not wearing headscarves or by talking and taking flash photo’s near people praying – and not just westerners either – Asians and middle-eastern tourists were all equally insensitive. I guess everywhere’s a theme park these days. I found it refreshing to realize first-hand that Muslims and Islam are not the twisted people and religion of the news propaganda or maniacs. Judging Islam and Muslims by the extremists that obviously do exist is like assessing Christians and Christianity by looking at the Klan. More than ever, people are people. Money seems the most divisive factor in the world to me, and not the way one chooses to worship, or not.

The Blue Mosque - shout-outs at 6AM, 1pm & 7PM.




Istanbul is where East and West meet. It’s evident in the city – in the old town it’s all mosques and history, across the river there’s a shopping street like any in the west complete with Pizza Huts and Burger Kings. Not that this is surprising anymore but it underlined that here is a border that goes beyond the physical barrier created by the Bosphorous.

In the tourist places I found people universally friendly and gracious, but not so always o the street. Being tall with long hair makes me stand out a little (and being vain and shallow makes me like this). In China, where I get a fair amount of attention I was met with stares but likely as not smiles and giggles. In Istanbul I was met with many many flat, dead-eyed stares. It took me a couple of days to work this out and in the end the only rationale I could come up with was that people were less fascinated by my appearance as they were faintly contemptuous of it. Not that anyone in Turkey was really giving me a second thought, but it was noticeable. And to be honest, I was being as biased in my own way about them, interpreting every blank stare as hostile and resentful. However, having seen how tourists wandered around the mosques it would be easy to understand why the two cultures have a long way to go in some regards.


Normally prudish about strangers touching me, I decided to go for a Turkish Bath as I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. How could I not? I picked a 300 year old bathhouse that was suitably very tourist friendly (ie: very good at relieving me of my money) and signed up for the Sultan Treatment.

Once inside I was given a cubicle where I changed into wooden sandals and a thin towel that just fitted around my waist and was the size and thickness of a large tea-towel.

Then I was led through to a room where several men were lying around and being bathed. Through this room and I was into a smaller chamber where I was to loosen up in the steam. After ten minutes or so my masseur collected me and began rubbing me down with what was to be the pre-massage. He looked like a bond-villain’s henchman. Piano teeth, thick black moustache, a large mole over one eye and a purple knife-scar on his eye-lid. He mimed to me whether I should be on my back or my front and ground my skin mercilessly. I was determined to be stoic about it and not cry out. I am British. And it sounded so undignified when the other men in the room were doing it. After he’d loosened the top layer of my epidermis he took me to one of the alcoves where there were taps with running hot and cold water and began to bathe me. Like I said I’m a little prudish about this so it was al I could do not to giggle as my masseur ran his hand up my leg soaping my thigh. Once I was slippery as a fish he instructed me to lie on the marble floor where he gave me another massage. This time I did cry out, and grunt, and I made noises that I never expected to make with another man. I think it was the only way I was going to get him to stop leaning on me and running his elbow down my spine (don’t try that at home). At one point I thought he was going to crack my ribs, such was the pressure he put on them.

Once it was over he spoke the other three words he knew (aside from “Good “and “Sittum”) which were “Fifteen, twenty euros”, as his recommendation for the tip I was to give him. He needn’t have worried, I would have been too scared to leave without tipping.

Here are some photo’s of the trip. I don’t know that I’d rush to go back, but I’m glad I’ve seen it. And I liked that I could take a boat across the river to Asia, which is, of course, my spiritual homeland.

This is Asia. Good, innit? The River Bosphorous was busy the whole time we were there. Huge freighters ferrying cargo to and from the Black Sea all day and night.



The bus station at the West end of the Galata Bridge....it's rush hour...

Fall Tour

We started the fall tour in Toronto at the start of September. Many of us were very sick. I lost 6 lbs in three days and was diagnosed with Salmonella by the visiting doctor. He got through a lot of Vitamin B12 that day. We weren't sure we were doing the show up until about an hour beforehand as some of the band were too sick to get up out of bed.

The show was on an island in the lake - about a half a mile from the City. The previous day they'd lost two boats that were to ferry artists to and from the festival site. The people were so nice to us that it kind of made up for the slight kluge that the festival was. And it's always nice to take a boat to the gig, even if Richard Branson is on site being a numpty when you arrive. The last time I remember doing it was with Pulp in Norway when we jumped on a powerboat after the show and shot-off across a fjord. That was fun. This is me on the way to the show. I hadn't eaten for three days and look surprisingly well for it, considering. My rusted, empty black soul was back in the hotel feeling sorry for itself.



We didn’t have a production manager for the first week. This meant I was covering the position. Not what I’d asked for and I wouldn’t want to do it again, mainly because it means I wasn’t doing any of the three jobs I was supposed to be doing well or even passably on some occasions. I was very relieved when we finally hired someone, as was everyone. Never again.

For me the initial over-stressed, over-worked, under-supported grind set the tone for the tour and I never really got into it. There was no momentum for me, as I was so exhausted from the first couple of weeks that over the remaining three weeks I was counting the days until we finished. I haven’t toured with a feeling like that for a long time. To be honest, as it was the last tour of a campaign and we were doing a strange mix of supports for Tom Petty (excellent) and our own shows (mostly good) to shows in B markets where we were trying to develop some support out of radio airplay (not always so good) I think it was hard for everyone to get motivated. The shows were good, the band never let those suffer, but off-stage we were all in the doldrums somewhat, and our heads independently immersed in what we’d be doing once the tour had finished.

There were a few moments that stand out. We had two band buses, to give the band a little more space on the road and this helped a lot. There’s a big difference between getting on a bus with 8 people and getting on a bus with 4 people. The most direct comparison is between economy class and business. This meant the long drives felt leisurely and our two drivers were quick and smooth. Much like myself. For the first time we were all excited by the prospect of a 14 hour drive. We’d jump on the bus after the show, change, lounge around eating the food and then go to sleep only to wake a couple of hours from our hotel. Driving into Salt Lake City was good like this – the view over the salt plains impressive and spooky. Traveling across the American West always makes me think about the pioneers. They must have had some 'nads.



Unfortunately for the crew they only had one bus and as some crew members hadn't ever learnt good manners and basic social skills it put an undue amount of stress on the others. Some people ended up flying themselves rather than travel on the bus, which is wrong, really.

Supporting Tom Petty was good fun. His crew were the most charming and generous people I’ve met in a long time and they helped us a lot. Plus we got to finish early and there wasn’t a lot to worry about.

Pompano Beach. Our hotel was on the beach and fine enough for what it was, only it was miles from anything like a store. I was in the gym, pedaling my lazy legs off on a Saturday night (there really was nothing to do there) and the hotel’s “masseuse” was in the gym too, waiting for her next appointment. I was pedaling and watching Dog The Bounty Hunter on TV (I’m a populist at heart). She sat down on the next bike over and watched the show too. She smelled of cigarettes. I asked her if there was a store nearby. She told me there was one about a mile away in the bottom of one of the nearby hotels. She told me it was open until about 9PM or so and, “it’s run by them sand…..er..people.”
I wonder if she really meant to say Sand Niggers? And if it was a strange point of etiquette in Pompano Beach not to say Nigger in polite conversation to someone you don’t know? I’m speculating of course. Maybe Sand ‘People’ is a common expression down there. The shopkeeper was Indian, not Arabian. I really don’t get Florida. It’s like an episode of cops played out in real life with the cast from Springer. (Except for the cool people I met whom I’ve omitted here as it ruins my rant.)

Looking at the photo below I can't quite remember how miserable I felt on this day, or why. But I did.

Churlish, moi?



On the same day off in Florida as there was nothing to do and nothing on the TV (and remember I was sulking) I stole a DVD from the bus. It was Season One of Grey’s Anatomy. I watched the whole thing inside a day, lying on my bed, staring out at the beach, watching TV on my computer; too listless and morose to move. That in itself sums up how I was feeling. I bought Series 2 in Los Angeles three days later. By that point there were four of us watching it, gorging ourselves on the show whenever we could. For about a week it was all we could talk about. When I got to Kansas City I was up to date and so I bought a subscription to Series 3 from I-tunes so I could watch the new episodes as they were screened. I wasn’t alone in this. And it wasn’t unusual to hear us discussing where we all were and what was going on with Meredith and Shepherd as we left the venues each night. I think in some ways it was a symptom that we all craved a little normalcy after nine months of traveling non-stop. I know at the end of the tour I was craving a day to hang-out in my apartment just to clean and do laundry. I think knowing we were finishing meant everyone’s centre shifted slightly. Mine did.

Our last show was a “private” corporate show. It was an extravaganza for the party goers and a cluster-fuck backstage. It’s up there in my top three worst-produced shows ever. Completely run by numptys. If it hadn’t been for us and Goldfrapp’s crew being cool it would have crashed slowly and messily. I was half-tempted to let it, but one can’t fuck up a gig out of spite. Not one’s own, anyway. Aside from the pernicious rain – which was a drag as the dressing room was a trailer on the street – and the disorganization, the lasting impression I took away from the show was that there’s no such thing as only half sucking the devil’s willy. No matter what you promise yourself beforehand.

In a magnificent display of pre-planning this three and a half foot wide passage was where all the bands' equipment loaded-in and out, and where the many hundred waitstaff caried tray after tray of crap liquor from to get everyone in the crowd lathered-which they did, and was everyone's route backstage. That no one got hurt is a small miracle. Sometimes the gig is an afterthought to making sure that the branding is in place. Oh well, what do I know..?




And that’s nine months on tour….now I can rejoin myself. Being disembodied was getting old towards the end, that’s for sure.

Mexico

When we finally got to Monterrey - including a 3/4 mile sprint to change planes at Dallas/Fort Worth airport which we just made by seconds - I discovered my luggage hadn't made it. It's been a recurring theme this year that I've had to buy new clothes in various cities when my luggage has gone AWOL. By far the best was Lufthansa at losing my bags - all the other airlines seem like amateurs at losing luggage by comparison. Lufthansa give you an amenities kit, spare undershirts, and can tell you where the bag is at any given time. That wasn’t quite the case in Monterrey.

I left the hotel late at night to go to a convenience store to buy toothpaste, deodorant, etc and on the way back on the steps of a club I saw a pimp with three girls. They were obviously waiting in plain sight of our hotel's lobby on the off-chance a guest felt like some company. The girls were all fat and dressed in tight shiny yellow and purple boob tubes; comely would be a generous adjective for them. I wondered if the roles were reversed and there were groups of male prostitutes waiting on a nightclub’s steps to attract trade if it would work if they were fat and stuffed into day-glo spandex? Must say something about men, right?

While the way things get done in Mexico can be a little excruciating, the people we met--aside for the Mexican equivalent of the TSA Guadalajara Airport who were dicks - were uniformly the kindest and warmest people I've met in some time. Everyone was gracious and tried to be helpful. America, are you listening? It's that manners thing again....

Outside the shows in Mexico City a small market appeared each night devoted entirely to Strokes swag – all bootleg of course. We were told the only group to successfully prevent this happening was U2. We all took turns to go out and buy some souvenirs. I was wearing a suit and the price was an additional 10% for me on everything. Suit tax. Fuck it, I bought loads of stuff anyway – there were some great shirts and mugs. I think the band will be ripping off some of the designs for their next tours. It was overwhelming just how much Strokes merchandise had been made for the 2 shows for sale. There were at least fifty stalls selling tee-shirts, mugs, posters, key-fobs, etc.






The venue in Guadalajara was a new 5000 capacity arena. We were their fourth show. When I asked what other shows they promoted I was told, “cock fighting.” I wondered how 5000 people could see two tiny chickens scrapping on the floor. Unless they have some big, fuck-off chickens down there bred just for fighting?