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.

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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.