We spent our last weekend in Melbourne as if already sitting in the departure lounge, so keyed up were we for this tour. We packed and weighed and printed tickets and all manner of stuff we might need. We run our own show.
A delightful Echidna wandered up to our back door to entertain us. It hung around all day.
On the Monday we caught the train and the bus to the airport and we flew out on Qatar airlines.
The flight took about 14 hours to get to a place called Dohar and it was a quick sprint to make the next leg.
I watched a new film about the Krays called LEGEND with actor Tom Hardy playing both twins. It was better than the Spandau version. I also watched Will Smith in Ali and found it to be great, Michael Mann never seems to fail me. Also watched a horrendously violent flick about Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger starring Johnny Depp. He is very watchable as has made himself look most unlike himself.
The best film I saw was "The Big Short" with Steve Carrell and Christian Bale, an attempt to dramatize/explain the 2008 sub prime housing loan collapse an ensuing global financial shitstorm. I highly recommend this film. I read some reviews of it. I find it amazing that people try to approach it as simply a film - another piece of business to rate as to whether it could have been done better. The story is horrible! The banks fucked everybody and then laughed and paid themselves bonuses when the bail out happened! And- they're gonna do it again.
We landed in Edinburgh and went through BORDER FORCE! I asked about the name and the young man said it was more than a bit inspired by the Australian version. How depressing!
We got our papers and headed to Leith where we would be staying.
Before we'd left we'd been trying to get flu shots but they would arrive in Australia until after we'd left. Everybody we were running into was coughing and sneezing and wheezing and drizzling and the cold - though it was not yet really cold in Edinburgh- was really smacking us around.
It was just a matter of time. Stu and Clare went down and, after a few days, so did I. We suffered and sweated cold and hot. On the Wednesday and Thursday we rehearsed and on the Friday we played at the Voodoo Lounge, a place we've played several times.
A band called the Trama Dolls played first. A six piece band with Russell Burns (from the Fire Engines) working out on keys. A female drummer, bass player and guitarist, another guitarist and a glammed up singer called David. At their best it had a kind of Roxy charge to it.
Then we got up and backed Malcolm Ross on some songs, two of which also involved Georgio "the Dove " Valentino on guitar. Then Georgio and his bass player Patrizia were joined by Clare Moore to do two of his songs.
Then we got up as Dave Graney and the mistLY and really rocked the house. Had a ball.
The next two days were spent indoors as the fever came and went and the mucii rose and got blown out. Weak as a kitten.
On the Monday we drove to Glasgow to play. Very, very cold.
I got up to play as part of Malcolms band and, luckily, chose to sit on my amp. I'd taken some sort of caffeine filled local cold and flu capsule and it was making my brain boil. As the beat was counted in I found it impossible to concentrate , or to even hold the guitar. If I'd been standing up I think I would have fallen over in a faint. I sat there and tried to pull myself together, putting my hands to my face or on my knees. I thought I should perhaps slide onto teh floor and lay down or put my head between my knees. I didn't know what was going to happen, whether I'd spew or pass out. Then Georgio appeared in front of me and took the guitar (the band was still playing) from me saying something hilariously American like "I got this Dave!" He put it to the side and handed me a big glass of ice water and led me to a chair just to the side. After Malcolm's set I thanked Georgio and he said "hey! we look after our own!" What a fucking guy! I owe him.
Georgio, Clare and Patrizia did their two songs and then I got up to do our set.
The venue was not as good as the Edinburgh room and we had sound problems but hey --- NOBODY DIED!
Susan Buckley drove me back to Edinburgh and I fell asleep snoring as soon as I sat in the car.
Another few days of rest saw the bug behave quite tenaciously but gradually lose its hold bit by bit.
On Wednesday, yesterday , we drove to Manchester. The climate seemed positively balmy after Scotland. We set up at the BBC6 studios at Media City in Salford and met up with Marc Riley, his engineer and producer.
This rebuilt part of Salford really shames Melbournes Docklands. Hey it looks amazing and is full of life , activity and young people. Very futuristic. The equipment was amazing. Clare was in a drum booth with her vocal mic, Stu, Malcolm and I were in the same room , as was Marc Riley, and we each had a headphone mixer already labelled with each instrument or vocal line to manage as to how we wanted it.
We were to do three songs live on Marc's show and pre-record another for Gideon Coe, whose show followed later. At 5:30 we did the pre-recorded track and this took four takes. All down live to two track, no mixing later on. Bang.
The show went on air at 7pm and we filed in and out twice. Marc chatted with me about the Falls tour to Australia in 1982 which saw the Moodists opening for them. The whole show was very relaxed and cool. Before the second song we did he was playing a Radio Birdman song called "Hanging on" and wanted to chat about Birdman and the Saints.
Had an absolute ball doing the show and tonight we play in Salford at a small pub called The Eagle Inn with Poppycock (who feature original Fall member Una Baines) and Franco Bandini.
Bob Osborne wrote about the show.
