Played two gigs with Acoustic Ladyland, subbing for Chris Sharkey (who's amazing). Pete, Seb and Ruth - great musicians and such nice people, which only made the privilege of being onstage with them more enjoyable. It was liberating to just wig out on guitar, improvise, noise up, and not worry about keyboards or computers. It was a shame I was only doing two gigs but hopefully I'll be involved in the future of the band somehow.
Straight after the second gig in Newcastle I had to make a 7 hour bus journey through the night back to London so that I could rejoin with TTT and drive to Holland the next morning. Ugh.
TTT EUROPE
The European dates were amazing. First up, a big, city festival Motel Mozaïque in Rotterdam with Fuck Buttons and others on the bill. Fun gig.
Next night, Belgium supporting Fuck Buttons. Some dude mistook me for FB's Ben Power after the show:
Him: "Hey man, I really like what you guys are doing. I don't think anyone else is doing anything like it.” Me: "Hey, thanks for saying so man” Him: "I mean, you two have a really great chemistry onstage…” Me: "Us two? What about...oh...hang on..."
Finally, Domino Festival [photo by VInce Kmeron] - an immense Brussels city festival headlined by 65DOS [big supporters of ours] and Fuck Buttons, with us on second. IMMENSE. What a privilege.
For gigging, EUROPE rules. The gig reps, crew and staff are all so friendly and helpful. You get nice hotels. You get fed really well. I even get the impression that the audience are less militantly trendy and just more open. [For added Euro pimp shit, look here at how the Domino festival stage stuff works: all set up on risers ready to wheel on/off for quick turnarounds - so simple but pretty common in Europe.]
TTT UK TOUR
UK tour for EP3. Cardiff and Bristol we had to cancel as Betts was stuck in Mexico due to the Icelandic volcano debacle. Our support band Talons played anyway and reported that Cardiff was rammed....damn. So we kicked off in Manchester [Deaf Institute], followed by Edinburgh [Electric Circus], Birmingham [Hare & Hounds] and Brighton [Freebutt] which was awesome. Here's us debuting 13 at that gig:
Last stop - ICA, London. I'd never been to this venue but I'm glad to have played it considering there's talk of it closing. Immense. Great vibe to the gig, loads of mates, loads of actual fans who'd come to see us...even promoted by friends of ours RockFeedback - it was sold out we were told. Everyone said the sound - especially the bass - was fucking loud. Well, better than it being fucking quiet.
Now that we'd released and toured 3 EPs as planned, it felt like the end of 'Phase 1'. I'm proud of we've achieved without being signed or really having any financial support. Instead, we been lucky to have just some serious believers who've worked their asses off for us and made stuff happen.
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