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I had the great fortune to have a four day break on tour (that wasn't costing my band any money--you might notice that KS/Posies take very few days off...every day off means that a hotel, crew, vehicle and backline are being rented and no income is coming in to pay for them. Also, truth be told, I'd rather be playing a show than just about anything else...the REM shows involve a level of production that make doing too many shows and too much travel in a row very hard on the crew...I think it's 8 hours from the time the equipment and staging is loaded in until we can even make a soundcheck happen! As opposed to the Posies, who need about an hour to set up luxuriously, or my solo shows, which can be up and running within ten minutes of bringing my stuff in the door! So, here I am enjoying a guilt free day off in Glasgow...and we come back around to the aforementioned four day break, in Rome no less...you thought I'd forgotten about that opening sentence...more or less, Dominique and I ruined our feet on uneven ancient paving stones, sweated in the shadow of your fora and curia, podia and statu..a... met some very nice people who extended hospitality as friends of friends of friends (fabrizio, fabio, christian, susanna, stefano et al)...I did an interview for Radio Citta Futura that was broadcast in part on the day of REM's show there, and will be broadcast in full this week...
Also visited country number 46 for KS' bid for the century club...the Vatican. St. Peter's is a most impressive bit of architecture...but it's easy to see the Vatican as a celebration of money as opposed to god. I didn't have a particularly spiritual experience in there, even the cultural one of the Sistine Chapel is dampened by the throngs you share it with, so it's not totally the Vatican's Fault, but...still...and, can anyone explain the Francis Bacon painting included in the modern art collection? I would think the Vatican has issued edicts against about 90% of his lifestyle choices!
At the Heineken Festival in Imola on saturday, I spent some time with my/Posies booking agent, James, who had the good fortune to tell me that all the Posies dates are solid--although I will wait until next month to post them on the site in full (many of them are up now, tho').
Yesterday at the Isle of Wight I spent a little time chatting (and, between REM's set and encore, sipping a bit of Bushmills) with the friendly Snowpatrols. Singer Gary was very enthusiastic about enjoying the Posies music of yore, etc...good stuff.
Night off in Glasgow. Monday, so a quiet one. Not Guilty!
One last thing: in Spain with REM last month, our bus driver was handed a very high quality DVD of my show in Valenica last year, by one Jorge Hunt. Jorge, if you read this, please write me at ken@kenstringfellow.com I would like to get another copy of this DVD!
Love
KS
Glasgow UK
