Final Tour Entry

Beasly, swimming back to cupar.

The York gig having gone well we had a day of driving back up to anster and another day completely off. Desperate for some kind of exercise, I walked further this time, on to pittenweem, the next village south on the fife coastal path. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. i had originally intended to walk down to elie to try out the chain walks there, these slightly treacherous paths along the rocky coast that have chains along them for climbing. after a 2 mile hike to pittenweem i gave up and bought an icecream cone instead. i sat there in a little park next to a swing set and looked out into the north sea. not bad.

Last gig of the tour, glasgow, the gargage. a massive place, probably 700 capacity, and by my 2nd song (i started at 7:30, not expecting many to be there), all the people came up to the front. it looked like a music video audience, i kept my eyes shut for most of it, finding the glaswegian hoots and hollers hard to decipher as friendly or not, but they applauded generously, so i figured they mostly dug it. what a crowd. they loved johnny and kenny. this was a sort of homecoming. apparently when we were not allowed an encore (things had to finish by 10, for some sort of nightclub or ritualistic lamb-slaughtering or something), people got slightly lairy and the security all congregated to the front to get people out. a suitable ending to a remarkable outing. it has been quite an experience to see britain this way, i am most grateful and humbled by kenny, johnny, gavin and pete. in our conversations, jokes, travels and music it has been most rewarding. i am definitely looking forward to being home. until next time, lots of love-

J.

Entry 11

Played Birmingham, at the Glee Club.

glee clubbing.

The crowd all sat in chairs, which is a little off-putting, especially if you're really going for it, but at least they're comfortable...they were very well behaved, no real heckling---i keep expecting someone to shout at me, i really go off on tangents sometimes, with mixed results, and people so far have been pretty patient, bless them.

Loading in...

Next stop, manchester, the ruby lounge, an underground lair that had a cool secret passage to the stage from the dressing room:

what would become a familiar scene...

So afterwards, i saw julie mclarnon, one half of analogue catalogue records, hanging out with a couple of people. i walked up to say hi, and julie said, 'jeremy, this is hmmmf hmmf' (i didn't make out what she said). i said 'hi, sorry, didnt catch your name---', julie repeated a little more intently, 'this is mike joyce, the drummer from the smiths..." ...uhhhh. hello mike joyce, the drummer from the smiths. fucking hell, didn't see that coming, probably good i didn't. mr. joyce was a friendly guy and i only spoke to him briefly, but i suddenly had the sinking suspicion he might have seen my set. VERY good i didn't see that coming.

So all of these places i visit i have associations with, mostly bands, and there's an infinite number of bands you could associate with manchester, but with birmingham, the clear association is sabbath (which i fucking love sabbath, the early stuff)---its a bit ignorant, i suppose, but i've got no other frame of reference, culturally. i suppose thats a bit of a cross to bear for birmingham, england. birmingham, alabama, on the other hand has the burden of being the battleground for the civil rights movement in the 50's and 60's in the US, little children getting blown up in churchs by the klan, that sort of thing. which leads me to my next photo:

mmm hmmm...

(warning: i go a little political and self-righteous here...)In York. to the un-initiated, these are called gollys (or more historically, gollywogs, wog dropped as it's become a racial epithet). heres a link to some explanation. um, lets not mince words here: this is completely racist and fucked up. because it is perceived by a lot of people as a part of their childhood, and it is a harmless child's toy, which perhaps they have fond memories of, these are still sold, rather shamelessly. what my american friends should understand is that racism in the UK is a bit more insidious and subconscious than in the states. slavery wasn't as much an integral part of their society, alot of the people of african descent here had ancestors who came willingly, not brought on slave ships, and integration was a seemingly much more peaceful affair here (as far as i can tell). i grew up in mostly black neighborhoods and went to mostly black schools in middle america. my sense of american culture was very much shaped by that experience, and my observation of black people's (sorry, i don't know if there's a preferred nomenclature there) culture in britain has been a real eye-opening experience, in the differences and similarities. as i feel people of african descent have had an overwhelming influence on our culture worldwide, particularly in music, which is the world i occupy, i don't take this kind of stuff lightly. i regard britain as being one of the more forward-thinking places in the western world, but i suppose people are people no matter where you go. you'll always have an element of NIMBY (not in my back yard) if you don't understand why golliwogs are a very negative image of black people, i'll cite some american counter-parts:

1. Lawn Jockeys

2. Blackface

3. Aunt Jemima

4. Mammy Two-Shoes

What's interesting is that i've experienced all these things in my lifetime. the imprint of how we view cultures different from ours is placed at an early age, and is hard to shake. how must america be viewed by the children of today in the muslim world? how must they be viewed by the kids in america?

The BNP. in regards to the idea of keeping britain 'british'...how british do you mean? can you be part french? how about italian? do you really mean white? face it guys, things change. there's nothing you can do about it. culture, like music, is a fluid thing. it changes hands and evolves, hopefully. and thats pretty cool, when you think about it.

sorry, there's lots of time to think about shit when you're on the road, but there's lots to see as well. and by the same token, the good people of york shouldn't be judged by the contents of one window in one shop in the tourist-y part on that one narrow street...

last gig before glasgow here. hope it goes well.

xJ

Entry 10

Not much to report here today, played Leicester last night at the aforementioned Musician venue. I will say that the folks that turned up were very nice, and an interesting phenomenon was, being that the venue was a bit off the beaten path (as you might tell from the photo in the previous entry), the folks that did turn up were there because they wanted to be, which is a nice idea i think. There's obvious points of contention about that, ie, your music should be for everyone, music shouldn't be so exclusive and scene-y, sure, i pretty much agree with that, but its nice when you're made to feel welcome by an audience, simply put.

Some thoughts:

How do you tour as a band, solo act, duo or whatever incarnation of your art you might do and make a living out of it? I think the question isn't a new one but its becoming more pressing these days. It costs an awful lot to put a band on tour. It involves transport (petrol, hire or vehicle maintenance, a driver if you're really doing it proper), lodging, food...Thats not even considering getting the gigs in the first place, which usually requires an agent, and then all sorts of other things that go into actually being a band, like having a manager, paying press people, radio pluggers...its actually even more boring than that sounds...and then there's the actual playing of music, believe it or not.

The odd thing is: the time we're living in is one of HUGE upheaval, and the whole structure of all that is endangered. I think its mainly because it operates on the premise that this all pays off somewhere along the line: people buy your record, in mass quantities. Obviously, thats changing. I kind of feel two ways about the whole download thing. I found this today. someone has posted my EP up as a rapidshare file. pretty fucking funny, i thought---it hasn't even been released properly. there's no way around this kind of thing. and downloading is already there, as an option, always---people are already used to it. and its not hard to get whatever you're after, if you're willing to trudge through a few rapidshare or torrent pages. i've enjoyed pirated material before, programs, music, books, its all over the web. and i've felt somewhat entitled, as most people probably do, as everything always seems so expensive, and i also rationalized that i also spent plenty of money in my friend tom's record store. now i feel a little less anarchic about it. i have a greater appreciation of whats at stake for the artist. i remember when mark volman (from the turtles) gave a lecture at indiana university and broke down how much of the $18 for a new CD actually goes to an artist---less than a dollar, and thats after the label has recouped their loss.

You know I believe there's a happy ending to this---as the massive record companies begin to leave the equation, not being able to adapt to a smaller, tidier more intelligent economy, i think i see a brighter, smaller future on the horizon. the idea of the long tail, and that us smaller folks can actually carve out a living by selling our own music on our own terms, to people who really want it, for a fair price. it sounds good, doesn't it?

I dunno. just thoughts. in all honesty there's the lingering of the notion that one day it might all just be really easy, but like most fantasies, its probably not the thing that would make you happy...hmmm.

Entry 9

Gig in Reading yesterday, involved decent ethiopian food, again playing my set on a full stomach (not recommended---pausing every so often to burp off mic), and afterwards, as if the gods were smiling down upon us, we were treated to individual rooms! Luxury! God Almighty. We went to the hotel after packing up to drop off our bags and go out, but when I got there and found out I had my own room, without a snoring bear in it, I went straight up fully intending to get a solid nights sleep (i like my sleep), only to end up watching a couple of hours of mindless TV (which is equally fulfilling in a way).

Some beverage related photos:

Possibly the worlds largest cub of tea. My thumb is there for proportion.

...including two examples of overt sexual campaigning:

Hey, I didn't buy it, ask Pete.

And where did I encounter this brilliant piece of beverage propaganda? Directly in front of me at the urinal. I've never felt so important as a consumer...

Now we're in Leicester. Playing at this place, the musician.

Who else plays the musician? Why none other than Dumpy's Rusty Nuts.

TTFN. xJ

Entry 8

Brighton gig was interesting. Weirdly enough, I always wanted to put a gig on in a movie theatre, a bit like rocky horror or something, so this was cool. I really like movie theatres, there's an element of the fantastic, so this was cool in that respect, and it is a lovely place. Johnny started to come down with something and he said his voice wasn't all there. I hate when that happens. I've been making every effort to stay healthy just to avoid that, apart from a passable amount of boozing. The other novel element to this equation is kenny's sobriety. It's been a good influence, and made the slightly tight arrangment of darting off to the travelodge right after every show a possibility.

Next day Windsor, at the firestation. Posh little town, obviously, I suppose, with the castle and all. Rather pretty, and the firestation was originally a--you guessed it--firestation. Also attached in the same complex was originally the old magistrate's court, which was very elegantly rebuilt into a very nice theatre/venue. We played in the basement. Fun gig. I had the jokes that night. Somehow.

Then onto Cardiff at the globe. The interior was a bit like the set of temple of doom. There's weird moulded plaster that looks a bit like elephant tusk that runs around the room and up the stairs to the balcony, and you half expect lit torches on the wall. Disappointingly, no, just pedestrian lamp fixtures. Why stop at the tusk, I ask. Damn the fire codes. After gig we went to a fella named Pete's house, along with Paul, Mr. Buoywonder himself, whom I had only read about on the fence records website forum (most of you will of course know it as the beefboard, but my folks are reading this so I've got to be thorough...). Cider and bread and cheese in vast quantites (not so much the cider, mom, dad...).

Now in Reading, and it's raining constantly, putting an end to the long stretch of beautiful weather we've had---all over Britain. I'm going to lie down in my keyboard case now. G'night. x J

...and those pics from Radio 1

hmmm...nice batman angle.

the world zooms around ed

eugene, and his pedalboard

outside the charity home for drummers

Entry 7

2nd 100 club gig last night. Before setting up we had a photo shoot with a friend of Kat's named Harriet. She was very cool, we did some interesting shots, and then some really cliche 'band in the alley' shots as well, can't wait to see those, tried to ham it up. At first she called yuuki 'eugene'. so he's eugene from now on. definitely.

Slightly different vibe playing this time, but band sounding really good and the dudes seemed pleased.

This morning up at 7:30 to go to maida vale for radio one session with rob da bank. Can't pretend it wasn't exciting doing that. Did 4 songs: mercy, anything at all, mad dog and backwards invention. Real piano in studio! I think it'll come out nice. Rob was cool, brought in doughnuts--class. Also, I pilfered loads of free ear plugs, like a true crumb-snatcher. I shall endeavour to post some pics asap. In Brighton tonight. Playing the duke of york's, a venue/movie theatre.

Entry 6

Ok, been writing this over several days, it covers the past week, been difficult getting it posted due to hecticness and generally shit phone reception...

Couple of days off. Went down to London. Went out to see our friends the Callino Quartet (who played on the EP) play at Dingwalls with the Bell Orchestre.

They were brilliant. They did some Bartok, it was really heavy, surreal to experience in a "rock" venue. The quartet (Sarah Sexton, Micheala Girardi-violins, Rebecca Jones-viola, Sarah McMahon-cello) met The Bell Orchestra and the rest of The Arcade Fire at the Banff Centre in Canada while they were doing a residency there. They've performed with them several times before---then they played on MY album---thats when things really took off for them...anywho, bell orchestre were pretty amazing, although i kept wanting someone to sing...it was entirely instrumental. Great musicians, though.

Lazy rehearsal with the PP guys the next day. So much so we planned another one on Sunday. Long train ride up to Barrow-in-Furness the next day. Beautiful small train ride between Lancaster and Barrow. It goes along Morecombe Bay i think. Sheep grazing on the grass in front of you, beyond them, the sands of the estruary, which stretch out for a mile, beyond that the sea...

Got to Barrow and no one was there. Waiting out in the sun for 2 hours with my £1600 keyboard on my back, dodgy-looking kids on bmx bikes riding by casing me out...finally someone turns up and lets me in, had a bit of the rider, which has been very consistently made up of hummus, pita, beer, water, jar of peanut butter, white bread. i suppose i can't complain, but thats often all we eat...Place was funky, big cavernous place called the Canteen, walls all painted white, felt a bit like skating rink. Turn out wasn't great, maybe 25 people, which really, was surprising, cos I didn't see 25 people out in the city. Maybe they're all in the submarines, testing radiation levels, that sort of thing. Still managed to sell a few EPs. Long, late drive to middlesborough to check into travelodge. SLEEP. Poor johnny gets up at 7 to catch train to London to do some Moondog-themed gig at the Barbican. Had an amazing lie-in, somehow.

Drove into Hartlepool, weather being uncharacteristically beautiful. Walked around the town. There was an old steam ship called the P.S.S. Wingfield Castle that was made into a museum that you could walk around on.

Heres a picture of the engine room. Look at the creepy mannequin engineer:

We were all standing out on the deck of the Wingfield, when we heard an earth-shattering KA-BOOM! Some re-inactment actors had a group of schoolkids out on the dock, presumably giving them a history lesson, accentuating the finer points with a good ol' bit of canonfire. i suppose thats what it takes these days.

Hartlepool gig was funny, venue was a repurposed church, bar/venue/community recording studio. Great people, about 30 of them, good vibe, all the same. As we were loading out, an unruly mob poured out of the pub across the street. The engineer said "If that lot comes this way, you guys better head back inside." Don't know if i mentioned this but things are VERY tight in the back of that truck, will only all go in a certain way, so we're desperately trying to load this shit in the back, meanwhile this blob of riff raff is slowly moving closer towards us---i could hear the cellos playing the theme to fucking JAWS...

Exciting!

Drove back down to London the next day and I went immediately to Ed's in Stokey to rehearse with the PP dudes. We felt better for it and i slept like the dead. 1st gig at the 100 club last night. Showed up and there was a mostly in-tune Yamaha grand piano on stage. I was so thrilled. And the engineer was cool about using it (pianos are kind of a bitch live, with a loud band). Played a really fun set---man, being behind a real piano live was fucking AWESOME. I've only ever done it one other time i can remember. Happy days. Got the same again tonight. I'm very pleased. Tomorrow morning doing a radio one session with rob da bank. Radio one. You're the only one. For me. Radio one. you stole my gal. but i love you jus' the same. jimi hendrix? anybody? radio one album? nevermind. xJ

Entry 5

Day off in anstruther. Decided to walk down the Coastal path a bit, having suddenly adjusted to using my legs for roughly 2.5 hours out of the day. Walking into the harbor there was the view of summer coming on--familys with their dogs running around, kids with ice cream cones, sun shining---it was downright balmy for anster---then the smell hit me. The tide was out, and there on the jagged black rock receded shoreline lay tons of rotting seaweed, wafting a smell that was a combination of sea brine/dead fish/decaying vegetation. No one seemed to mind, but I quickly made my way downshore, walking past the golf course, watching kids aimlessly (literally, without aim) swing around. I found a quiet secluded rocky perch, and sat thoughtfully for a while. The best.

drove up to Inverness the next day, listening to dave atell's stand up CD. It was really raunchy, but damn it was funny. Good idea for road trips--a good comedy album. My side actually started to hurt after a while. Pretty much laughing for an entire hour. We played the ironworks, which when we arrived and I saw the size of the hall, I began to realize what the guys were talking about---it would be hard to fill. Another posh (for me) venue, dressing room, rider, etc. I'm used to being treated like a second class citizen, esp. during my brief time playing bass in a wedding band---entering through the kitchen, kept seperate from the good proper Christian folk. I tell ya, America is a weird place.

Went to an "Italian" place, the waiter was over the top, speaking partial cod Italian, I reckon he was albanian, and the food took aaaagggggeeessss. And was alright. Got back and there were people in there(!). Probably around 150, which was good. Johnny went first this time, and some of his jokes were met with stoney faces. When I went on, I looked out and saw people at tables looking at me. "So how's the chicken salad?" A few confused giggles. "It feels like dinner theatre---maybe we should do some bad Shakespeare..." a few laughs. I gave in and started my set. It's hard when you spend a lot of time with a small group of people and then try to share that world with complete strangers. I like it though. Cause there'll be that handful of folks that get it. Sometimes. I learned johnny used to do comedy. He's a funny motherfucker. He's provided much comedy relief on the tour so far.

On train down to London now, to rehearse with my regular band, as they'll play the two London gigs. So. Very. Tired.
Xxx J

entry 4

Aberdeen. I think I know what FOUND mean by alsatian gull scene.

Those mothers are big. mind your kids. these guys played an instore:

i played a song--anything at all--and these clever fuckers totally recreated the backing vocals on the recording---my respect for their musicality continues to broaden.

it had been a while since i had actually gone into a CD store. hmm. its a cultural thing, internet/convenience be damned. in bloomington, indiana, i remember a guy named tom donahue who used to run a tiny, tiny little shop--it was actually inside a coffee shop--it was pretty much a closet with him a cash register and a desk, covered in inventory he was never done going through, and a great selection of CDs and LPs. it was called TDs CDs and LPs, oddly enough. i would go in and ask him---tom, whats a good roots blues album? 'country blues, delta blues, what kind?' he was something of an encyclopedia. i spent a small fortune in that place, happily, and the personal relationship i had with tom and his CDs and LPs was something you can't get on the internet. tragically, towards the end of my days in bloomington tom developed liver cancer and his health very quickly deteriorated. i'll leave out my gripes about the american healthcare system (or lack of it), but i can't help but wonder if he would still be with us today if he were a richer man. he definitely left an impression on us, and there were several benefit concerts done in his honor to help out his family---my band played one of them--and it was pretty heart warming to see how many people were touched by this guy and his modest, human business...

whew. SO. we played the lemon tree in aberdeen. what a great venue! really top class sound--probably the best onstage sound i've ever had--and friendly people, food, tea, clean toilets---these are the things that make a difference when your life is either in a car on a train on a plane or in a venue. i think me gav pete and johnny are starting to sound like a band that has rehearsed---i suppose we did--at the gigs. in all seriousness i'm spoilt with these musicians, very little explanation is needed. i see why kenny can get away with never rehearsing...

day off today. whew. oh yeah. yesterday: THIS happened. yup. its the homegame picture*. in the sunday times---what? with my shirt off. that's right. of course, this is great news, and naturally i feel stupidly lucky to have such a great press spot, but guess what they fucked up---the link to my myspace. whats with these online editors? the same thing happened with my song getting on the Q website. its probably the online link utility in whatever program they use---it put in extra spaces. well, i suppose beggars can't be choosers...? it is a really ace review. thanks to whoever wrote it, i'll try and live up to it. right. i'm gonna walk around anstruther while the sun is still----shit. too late.
xJ

* calum--you got your credit in there--copy this link for your CV, and maybe you can actually get paid for being such a brilliant photographer...

Entry 3

Edinburrrrrrrrrrrr...gh. The GRV. A packed house full of happy music going types. Spent time worrying about the future of music and live gigs and people turning up...300+ people paid £15 to see us. Fuck it, screw the economy, it's not our fault anyway, let's buy CDs records and see gigs when we can. I'm getting tired of all this negative talk about things, shit won't get any better if we just piss and moan about it. Ok, rant over.

Set was fun, johnny making very handy contributions vocally and tamborinally. Found played rocking set as usual, did a song to the CCTV cam stage right, for the folks watching the tv in the corridor. Kennys set was proper, full-length psychedelic freakout ending, towards the end couldn't hear my keys at all so started playing tamborine. Despite a fair amount of feedback in the monitors and a few bum notes people seemed to really dig it, and the vibe was real.

A very drawn out exit (around 3am), and we were on the road up to anstruther, an hour and a half---don't know how kenny does it. Suppose his self imposed sobriety helps, but we were all pretty exhausted. Been taking to singing along en mass to bill callahan's new album, mainly the "end of faith" song---"it's ti---ahhhiiiime, to put god away...". Vicky, who hitched a ride, was most amused. And then all the bum jokes. Oh what a night.

Tour entry 2

So. Bradford, eh? Kenny was there in the morn doing a session at bcb radio with Laura Rawlings. Strangely familiar vibe in that town. Reminded me of the near-eastside of Indianapolis, lots of pound stores and gaming casinos. Just as we were walking in a band I've done sound for a few times, 'stricken city' was walking out. Now they're touring with maximo park. Good on 'em, good band. Meanwhile, as we climbed back in our nissan qashqai...on to Leeds to play the stag and dagger festival at the brudenell social club. Really cool venue and good sound. Beth Jeans Houghton (sp?) played a great set, really great voice, did some amazing stuff with a looping pedal where she recorded herself singing the chorus into the pedal, then the next time it came around she played it back and harmonized with, recorded it, another harmony on the next one--fucking clever and really musical. Ace backing from the band as well, esp the drummer's vox.

My set was good, Gav and Pete are getting their heads around the songs really quickly, not hard to play with those dudes. Was a real comedy moment where my mic stand started to get lower and lower, and whilst singing I was trying to gesture to johnny (who's been a real help with harmonies and tamborine action) to help me out---classic. Lower and lower it got...

I've got a picture, don't know if I can post it from my phone---maybe later. Today on to Edinburgh, at GRV. In the car absorbing radio one's finest drivetime fare...ttfn xJ

On tour with King Creosote and The Pictish Trail-entry 1

Hello blogosphere. My name is Jeremy Radway and I make music under the moniker Player Piano. I'm putting an EP out on June 15 on the fence records label, and I'm currently on tour with the two fellas who run the label, King Creosote and The Pictish Trail (real names Kenny Anderson and Johnny Lynch respectively). So the next few entries will be something of a tour diary.

Some of these will be short, like this one, cause I'm thumbing away on an iPhone here...

Last night was the first show, in Durham. A very nice little town, which we thought had quite an impressive cathedral, for a town we'd never been to, heard of. Upon wikipedia-ing, come to find out it's a rather important and famous cathedral indeed. Interesting townfolk, mostly friendly, did meet a guy on the way to the cafe this morning with a huge chunk missing from his ear, blood dripping down his shirt, and he was holding a crumpled up newspaper up to it--" is it bad?" he asked. " yeah man, go to an A&E dude. What happened?" "I was reading my paper and I bumped into these guys watching the football." Later saw a guy with a really awful black eye, with proper iris/cornea damage, discoloration. It's a violent world I suppose. It's a boozy testosterone-fueled football world out there. I fucking hate sports.

Anywho, the gig was excellent. The folks were very kind and attentive, and also bought a decent amount of our music. We were all on pretty good form and Gavin and Pete (the drummer and bassist, respectively) who are playing as me and Kenny's rhythm section--with very limited rehearsal---did an exemplary job, under such duress as a lack of bass amp and shitty monitoring. Today onto Leeds. Playing the Stag and Dagger festival. These things are often interesting. As in, no soundcheck, lots of bands, that sorta thing. Let's do it. J

Oh, and we also went mental at the playground on this totally dangerous, totally awesome balance/tire thingy. I almost puked. Awesome!