8.31.2005
SADDLE WORN SIDEHORN This has been R&R instead of R&R week for KS. Village life at the summer place. Sun, beach, family, wine, gastronomy domine, etc. Also, prepping via email and phone for the Posies North American good times. Other interesting things of note: 1) the Latebirds, a fine fine musical group from Finland, have a new album 'Radio Insomnia' thru Warner Music Finland...I hop aboard and do some oohs and ahs on a track. Good stuff (and not just my bits!) www.thelatebirds.com 2) Blonde on Blonde, from LA via some unnamed planet, have a CD out of demos recorded with such diverse producers as... myself, Nick Rhodes...what more can I say. My contributions are two tracks (*rough* mixes, that sound damn good, mind you)...I play keys, bass, guitar, etc. on the tunes, along with members of fabled, short-lived Saltine. www.cdbaby.comblondeonblonde 3) you may not know the Japanese edition of the Posies 'Every Kind of Light' has a brilliant extra track, 'Open Me To The Way', recorded last year at Ardent Studios in Memphis. You can order the Import Version from Video Arts Music in Japan via Amazon. Or, if you live in Japan...well, you know where to go I suppose. 4) See you this weekend at Bumbershoot...and beyond. Love KS Ile de Re, FRANCE
8.21.2005
MUNICH 8/15 In which, after much train-oriented hilarity (remember when all you had to do to make a tour-de-force farce was to put some wacky characters on a long train journey?) we arrive in Munich, and engage in a real German meal at about 10pm...furthermore, we load in to the Atomic Cafe, site of a very good KS solo show in 2001, and then have yet another fabulous German meal (thank you Justin!) and manage to play what might be the loudest show of the tour...ears and feet and feelings all get socked in the soft bits over the next couple of hours...I imagine what bar jokes Jesus would have told...Jon retracts statements about our friend Carsten's family only to insert *worse* ones...then all are dragged off to Trader Vic's. Holy mutha! STUTTGART 8/17 We were very curious about our hotel called Mos Eisley (an odd thing to call your biz, as per the famous quote: 'Mos Eisley: you'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy' from Obi-Wan K.). that we decided to boot scoot to Stuttgart on our day off...however, Mos Eisley the hotel is so small it can only fit 8 people at a time. And there was a band staying there that night. So, on the 16th we were booked at a generic traveler's hotel in the exoburb doldrums outside the city...no restaurants save for a McD's and I won't eat that...so, Matt H. & I found, miraculously, an Italian deli, and bought some salumi, cheese, bread and wine...and had a picnic in the hotel room. Watched the Simpsons and other US shows in German. I fell asleep at 11...and woke up at 11 the next day! Eventually, we set up at the Schocken club, which, in line with my jungle rants, has a sort of tropical themes...a few fake palm trees and rattan things around...great crowd arrived and I really enjoyed this show quite a lot! As usual, we got wild. And after the show, Matt H & I DJ'd as the dressing room was a separate bar in the basement...cool! With turntables and all...we had about 20-30 friends and fans dancing to the contents of our itunes...that's how you get it done, my friends. UTRECHT 8/18 This was one of the great ones. Sold out at the Tivoli de Helling (Spelling of Helling? or is it Hellig?). Earlier in the day Jon & I played for an hour at the Plato rec. shop, first time we had done an acoustic gig in public in quite some time (we've done a couple of things for radio on this tour). Whipped out a cover of the Replacements' 'Unsatisfied'!! Anyhow, this night's show was very special, and as always happens in these shows, I go somewhere dreamlike and detached from my body when the show really goes well. It's hard to remember anything specific (in contrast, when the show doesn't go well, I remember every grueling second). I know we did at least two encores, and many unplanned songs...'Will You Ever Ease Your Mind'! First time in how many years I can't tell you. Many thanks to our *many* Dutch friends, plus friends who came from Germany and France, for a fantastic night. It was an honor for us! HASSELT 8/19 We were moved at the last minute to the mainstage at Pukkelpop, likely as a replacement (but with a better slot) for Babyshambles (does that band actually *do* anything? Can they just go away now?). To be honest, we are not really mainstage material...audience familiarity at that scale (35,000) is limited at best...but, we benefit from the goodwill of promoters of these things, many of which have been long time fans. They want to help us and pass along a well-kept secret to a bigger public. Which of course we appreciate...the experiment doesn't always work...not only were we knocked out by the intensity of the Utrecht show, plus instead of playing at 11pm we are playing now at 4pm, broad daylight, big open air stage...we just didn't quite pull it off in my mind. I could see some folks enjoying themselves, and I saw some people (like some of the thousands of very young Nightwish and Marilyn Manson fans) digging it...but...perhaps we would have been a better fit in the tent we were scheduled to play in. However, these are things we have to try, we must stretch to grow, and perhaps by next year we will have expanded our stage persona to project to audiences of this size properly. Spoke a bit to the very friendly Jimmy Chamberlin who as it turns out is very much a Big Star (Jody Stephens esp.) fan...and the guys from Zornik, very kind. I was so tired I didn't watch much music, but the guys said that Maximo Park were superb, and of course the Pixies were great. Thanks to all! Hey, if you saw this show, and enjoyed it, please email me some positive feedback! I've already done my own self-critique, so no complaints please...already in my head. EXETER 8/20 And so it goes. Hellish overnight travel to the Eden-like stunning greenery of Devon. We passed ol' Stonehenge on the way! Showered at a truckstop somewhere...that's an interesting thing to do...oof. Anyway, this is a far out hippie fest. organized by the Levellers, who have always, but oddly from a distance, supported ye olde Posies. And I can only thank them! Although perhaps we were very much the oddity here--again, much of the audience had no idea who we were, but many curious and kind folks stepped up to the front while we delivered what I have to say was a very rockin' show...some great dancing...I invented a dance, sort of Snoopy like, for the occasion, and a few brave folks took to recreating it in the grass...fun! And the pixie-haircut girl in the brown sweater who appeared out of nowhere in the last couple of songs, pogo-ing like a fiend...this festival is full of fun things like that...lots of faerie-winged little kids, and a girl with prosthetic elf-ears...pirates, dragons, all that. Vegan desserts and all the like...anyway, Levellers, if you read this, thank you for the invitation...and thanks to Dave O. for coming down to help...and the donation of Uriah Heep shirts! That’s it...leg #1 done! I am now waiting to check in for my flight home...many, many thanks to everyone who made this the best tour in my Posies memory. It was in many ways the hardest--there were some *really* rough travel days--but I think we played the most consistently we have ever played--I would count Benicassim and Pukkelpop as the least spectacular of our shows but I would count Utrecht, Oslo, London, Catania, and a few others as right up there with the best we have ever done...fair trade...and we'll prob. do better in these big fests with a little more experience and our own soundperson (we've been looking hard, just didn't find anyone available for summer as it's such a busy touring time for all). And of course, I have to give props to a great Posies team: my bandmates; our tech Joe who did an incredible job working on his own; our tour manager, Matt who despite having only toured in his home country Australia, put everything he had into learning the roads, currencies and business ways of Europe; and our Euro-manager Marc, who has been nothing short of a lifesaver. On to the states...after a little pause. Please, email me your comments, photos etc. from the tour...I will post photos if you say OK in your email. Love KS Stansted Airport, UK
8.14.2005
STOCKHOLM 8/10 You like that? Screaming, diving and twisting, making fun of Bono? If you didn't like that, you ain't using your breathing bags. You would have to possess a heart of stone to miss the point of a great rock show like that. Fantastic crowd, great sound, a couple of Hotnights in the huset, all good news. I loved it so much I punched the hotel in joyful exuberance. OSLO 8/11 This is really about as good as it gets. We pulled into town, and discovered we had single rooms--it helps more than you can imagine--and after I cleaned myself up I was zipped over to a photo studio for a series of media opp's with Nordic rockerz Briskeby; we did an interview with one of the Oslo dailies, had photos taken together, and I was video'd singing my parts from the song I will appear on their next record on...for an undisclosed (but legal) use. Then, whisked to festival grounds to see Dinosaur jr, Kings of Convenience, etc (the others got to see the Spree while I was being shot over and over, ouch). Finally, we strutted over to the Rockefeller Club, where we aurally beat the living shit out of 1200 Oslowegians. Nothing but good times, great Posies oldies. We even whipped out 'Song #1' for the real diehards, myself included. Our support that evening, Maximo Park, were quite good themselves! After the show, we had about 2.5 hours before we had to head to the airport, I spent it sort of drunk, and repeatedly hugging and kissing the *male* members of Briskeby...and their linguist. Not as dirty as it sounds! LIGNANO 8/12 Up at freakin' dawn, hour and a half van ride to the airport, 700 bucks worth of excess baggage charges to get our gear to Italy (Discount airline? yeh right), detour to Stansted to get there...hour plus van ride to Lignano...then, with the hard part over, we had nothing but top class high times! Sun was out, our hotel and its staff couldn't have been more lovely. We played a small festival that is set in an outdoor amphitheatre in this cool little resort town. we played about midway thru the evening of music, perfect really, and won over the crowd (this being only our second show in Italy, we are just making introductions on this leg). We had folks jumping and yelping a-plenty. Spent much of the rest of our night with the members of headliners Afterhours, drinking their rum and lambasting our respective leaders! Thanks Roberta for the usual good company. Love KS Munich, GERMANY
8.10.2005
GLASGOW 8/1 Hey, you know, we can do this thing! Drive hours and hours, set up, and rip the face off the joint. Decimate a bottle or two of Jameson’s…well, we can almost hold it together. Evidently I was loaded into the van at the end of the night gurgling and screaming, and somehow, I lost my shirt. It was a cheapie anyway. But still! Had many muso friends there, Eugene Kelly, Snowpatrol Gary, all friendly in that Glasgow way…too bad I wasn’t able to reciprocate! Also, major props to Kate and Stevie, the stars of the REM catering team, for bringin’ wine n’ cheese…you are missed! BENICASSIM 8/4 Hideous overnight drive (for the others, I passed out immeditately!) to London, then had several radio interviews…we taped a session for BBC6 Music, that will also be broadcast on the BBC Worldservice…Jon on ac. Guitar and me singing, Noel G.-style (stance, not adenoidal timbre-wise). Had a boisterous interview with Phil Jupitus on BBC6, then headed to Gatwick, where we waited for a plane with a flat tire to be taken off the runway, finally we were in the air, and off to Benicassim! Europe’s most fun festival, site of an astonishing Posies performance in 2001…here we played on a dream bill—us, followed by Polyphonic Spree, followed by the Tears, followed by Underworld…holy shit…unf. our set was plagued by some seriously bad sound, onstage and off…so, I can’t say it was our best, we triend to make the best of it, and at least gor some Butthole Surfers-style nudity and destruction to happen…but, musically we were skwered by horrible monitors and truly random, dub-reggae-like effects by the guy out front. SUX!! Sorry to our Spanish fans who had to suffer thru the sound to hear us. We will be back with a proper sounding show. However, the staff at Benicassim couldn’t have been more kind and the Polyphonic Spree band and crew were outstanding, lots of fun—Brian Teasely, who we met when he was bashing for Shannonwright when she supported some east coast dates of the Posies acoustic tour, is abusing all kinds of percussion inst. for the Spree…we retired at about 5am to Darius and Matt’s room with some Sprees to discuss George Jones and other important topics…thanks to our handlers, Maria, Yolanda, Elvira et al for seeing us thru! KORSO 8/6 Too many days off! It’s killing us! As you can see, we only played three shows in the last week. We get too soft…give me a 15-in-a-row run anytime!! Anyway, the day following Benicassim, we were loaded (we were in no condition to do it ourselves) into a plane and flew to London…got in at 10 at night and had phone interviews til 12.30 in the morning on the phone…I know Jon & I fell asleep in mid answer at least a couple of times…up at 5!!! To catch a shuttle to Heathrow. Argh. Had to get our tix reissued as we had left the originals in the van…which was in Finland at this point! Anyway, we got on and snoozed, and arrived to Helsinki ready to go. Headed out to the Ankkarock Festival grounds…out in the piney suburbs of Helsinki…felt right at home, greeted by nice folks and given sandwiches and coffee. We were preceeded onstage by the mighty Uriah Heep! What a blast! They played hard and tight—I mean, they have been playing since about 1970 so I am guessing the orig. members Mick Box and Lee Kerslake must be in their mid-fifties—and were obviously having a great time. Trevor Bolder (Spiders from Mars, anyone?) plays bass…monstrously! One of their techs, Dave, turns out to be a big fan of all things Posies. Anyway, tough act to follow, but we gave it our best, and again, festival situations not being ideal, it took us a couple of songs to get the sound together, but, we gave the Finns a manic, slobbering rock show, destroyed the backline, and left the stage the ravenous kings of the afternoon, semi nude as usual. That evening we were treated to a Finnish smoke sauna and multiple dips in a lake, thanks to Marcus N. for setting that up, and our host and his family for accommodating us. The rest of our visit was vacation time! Partied with the Hellacopters, saw an excellent set by Jonna Tervomaa, got bored about 15 minutes into Franz Ferdinand (the fame to charisma inverse ratio is pretty brutal) and ended the day off on Sunday by heading to a tiny club in Helsinki with Lasse Lemonator (who releases their records…read on to see what I’m talking about) and other friends to see Niemanen & Lietmanen, a fantasic Hammond and drums duo, in the style of Hansson and Karlsson…our man on the drums is perhaps the top drummer I’ve seen in terms of tone and being that the Hammond is about my favorite instrument, well…we went out on the right note. GOTEBORG 8/9 Damn, no more days off! Please! I am going to call our agents and have them fill every hole in our calendar…sure, we spent a day on the ferry to get to Sweden, but, damn, next time, we’ll play a gig on the freakin’ thing! In any case, we managed to mount a top class rock and roll show, topping off a fantastic bill, with a couple of my Swedish heroes on board, Kristofer Åstrom and Hidden Truck, and Dungen. I’ve mentioned KÅ in articles and reviews before…and I’ve spun Dungen in my few documented DJ sets, at Schuba’s in Chicago last year, for example…I won’t bore you with ultimately unjust descriptions, but the most recent albums by both artists won’t steer you wrong should you pick them up. We took the stage at 10.30, and burned off the rust for the next hour. At some point, evidently, a bunch of blood was dripping off my face. Whose? I was fine after the show…spent about 5 minutes filming some video footage for a White Flag video…from the now fairly dusty album I played on (Eternally Undone, which was released by Houston Party rec. in Spain, and was just released in Italy by Valium Rec. in Italy with extra video footage). This was done in duet style with Kent from Sator –even more casual footage was shot today with Chips from the same band. After the show merry was made at the Jazzhuset, the Posies commandeered the dance floor…I’ll leave the rest to your imagination! Love KS Stockholm, SWEDEN
8.01.2005
GALWAY 7/24 What a fine little room the Roisin Dubh is. We had a nice mix of international students and local folks...played a damn fine show, got kinda tipsy afterwards...had to pull one of us out of the Special Club that was visible from our accomodations' balcony...had to hit the road at about 3am to head to the ferry to Wales...seen a lot of dawns in this country... NOTTINGHAM 7/26 Too much rest, too much good tandoori, too little bouncing around semi-sleeping slouched on a rock hard van bench--we went soft in 24 hours! Our set tonight was not as intense as every other one has been. Damn those days off! I did scream at the audience quite a bit...TAKE OFF THE GODDAMN SWEATERS...I guess I thought that meant something... CATANIA 7/28 Now, this is paradise for Posies. 2 days of top-notch hospitality, sun, swimming, eating like kings...Nottingham seemed like the world outside the illusions of the Matrix by comparison. Sorry guys! We were there to play the annual tribute concert in memory of Francesco Virlinzi...FV was a dear friend of REM’s, and a force of nature in the music scene in Sicily. Producer, radio DJ, musician, promoter. Sadly, his life was cut short by cancer. He died in 2000, only in his early forties. I met him on my first visit with REM to Italy in 1998. Definitely a positive person in every way, he treated me as if I’d known him as long as he’d known REM. He didn’t, as some people have, treat me at a different level of courtesy or cordiality than he did the key members of REM. Since he died, his family has maintained the friendship with REM and related folks, and thus I have been seeing his mother, cousins, etc. at REM’s shows in Italy ever since, and his cousin Manuela came to see my solo show in Milan last year. Having gotten to know me and the music I make outside of REM, they invited the Posies to perform at the tribute concert they put on in the summer in FV’s memory. Although the other Posies members didn’t know FV or his family before arriving to Catania, I had briefed them on the reason for the concert and our invitation to perform, and anyway, we were made to feel most welcome! FV’s mother and stepfather, Nica and Toto (nicknames, folks) had us up the family home on the day we arrived (having driven overnight to Heathrow from Nottingham in the pissing rain, to catch a 6am light to Milan, run to catch our connection to Catania) for a home cooked lunch; and dinner at a gorgeous rooftop restaurant near Catania’s famed avenue of churches, with the whole family. Matt and I went with Cousin Manuela (who really served as an excellent guide) to a lovely nightspot near a crumbling ancient seaside fortress, essentially a platform over the rocks at the seaside, with groovy funk being played, pillows on the floor to lounge on, and nice stiff drinks (of which I had exactly one!). Nobody got messed up, no fights, and we were in bed by 3am. Ah, yes, we also had a real press conference at the hotel that afternoon! Hilarious! Worked tho’, we had articles in all the local papers etc. Next day, with no great haste, we made our way to a private beach access...there aren’t that many beaches per se nearby, but there are concrete platforms that lead to the water amongst the rocks. You dive off, and swim out…we found some large rocks that stick out of the water, great for jumping off. The rocks you climb out of the water on are covered with velvety lavender seaweed, nothing sharp that would hurt you…OK, eventually we headed to our soundcheck. The venue, Le Ciminiere, is a cultural center built in a ruined factory (hence the chimney reference—there are large smokestacks all around). Modern structures have been built into and amongst the old crumbling brick buildings; it’s a great architectural effect. In the center, there’s where we played—a small outdoor amphitheatre, with room for a few hundred people. When our soundcheck finally finished, people started to trickle in. Amazingly, we filled the place. Nica & co. had done a great job to get the word out. The audience and band were able to synch up nicely, despite the fact that most folks only knew a little bit about us. By the end of the show, we had the audience on its feet, many folks onstage with us, FV’s young son playing guitar, a 70-ish year old man dancing wildly with me, and later, Matt…unbelievable! We were absolutely heartbroken to have to leave the next day…especially knowing England would be soggy and grey…thanks to all who put this together, Nica, Manuela & family of FV; Grazia and Alex; et al. LONDON 7/30 Well, no disappointments here! Packed venue, and a blistering set…we are really getting into a groove. The welcome arrival of semi-nudity by me for the encore…welcome for me anyway, I have (despite the 2 days of Italian food by the kilo) been shedding baby fat and thus all my trousers barely hang on my hips. The pink leather studded belt I bought in Camden when I was in town with REM last month is already in need of another hole—Leff Carroll, technician on the REM tour, helped me punch a clean hole to tighten it up in Cardiff…and my pants are barely hanging on as it is. So, I chuck them, and my drenched shirt, for the encore. You get to see the nice undergarments I wear for rock and roll shows...way more sexy than the grey boxers that Michael Stipe bared a couple times onstage with REM! After the show we had guests come up to the top level bar, which was held for us, hilarity ensued—we’re still waiting for a price quote! Many thanks and apologies to Duncan Arbor, who lent us his West Kilburn flat…again, we’re still waiting for a price quote. MANCHESTER 7/31 The best set yet? It keeps getting more and more over the top as we get experience under our ever-more superfluous belts. Another packed house, a successful rendition of ‘Any Other Way’, and multi-instrument madness on ‘Jungle!!!’ It’s working! Thanks to Roberta and Kirsty for merch help and hospitality… On to Glasgow—like that could even come close to sucking!! Love KS Posies van, in between Manchester and Glasgow, UK
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The latest release by Ken Stringfellow is a split EP with Spain's Muy Fellini, featuring never-heard-before music incl. Ken's take on Bob Dylan, released by
King of Patio records
in Spain on Oct 8, 2009.
Order it directly from Muy Fellini here www.myspace.com/muyfellini
10" VINYL ONLY!!!
older news :
8/3/2003
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