POWER POP, MY EYE
MUNICH 10/30
And so it goes, that I had a 37th birthday to rival that great 25th birthday night with Teenage Fanclub in 1993—I spent the day observing the fall colors thru the van window—Germany has such an abundance of gorgeous wooded countryside. We stopped for wurst and gluhwein, which made it easy for me to go back and nap in the van for the rest of the ride...at TFC’s soundcheck, I made a birthday request, which was honored by the guys as best they could—they played as best a version of my fave TFC number, ‘Every Picture I Paint’, which they hadn’t played in 15 years (luckily, Francis McD, who played on the first TFC album, is playing with them again)…I was feted with champagne brought onstage by Norman hisself (whose birthday is 10 days before mine, FYI). And then the show—can I get a hell yeah? I think I can, because this was a fucking monster of a set, with an audience that was behind us completely—chanting our name for an encore, even—really, the audience this night was so superb, we couldn’t go wrong. But the night didn’t stop there—I had dinner at Zum Dornbrau, a Bavarian beer hall/resto, where I had all sorts of pig bits (lung!!---OK, let’s not get into too a lengthy discussion about vegan/veg./carn pros/cons, I admit, esp. after spending lots of time in France, I am a carnivore. I was veg. for the better part of 11-12 years, and I think it’s an excellent choice of behavior in terms of personal health and planetary health….I just don’t do it.). We got back to the venue in time to see the end of TFC’s set, which was in full swing (the club was so packed you can’t believe it—and poor Jose Feliciano was playing the larger concert hall next door to about 100 people at most…) and your friend, mine and theirs, Eugene Kelly, hopped up to play ‘Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam’ with the guys…people were cheering for a second TFC encore for about 15 minutes after the gig was done! I drank lots of champagne, chatted with Francis, went to a funky bar, and eventually went to bed…!
BRISTOL 11/1
We spent a day traveling up from Munich, stopping for the night in Calais, achingly only two hours from Paris by car. I did enjoy a great meal however, something we try and do on each rare night off on tour. Lapin aux pruneaux and a bottle of Bordeaux.
In Bristol, were escorted onstage by a phalanx of Star Wars-style Stormtroopers (having just left Munich I wanted the distinction to be clear…glug glug) and Darth V. himself, who spared our lives after being rocked to the ground! Our former tech, Matt Thomas, who lives in the UK now, was there—and a very drunk Liverpool Dave, who now lives in Bristol, stole the mic from us at several points during our ‘in the crowd’ jam…cheeky monkey.
BRIGHTON 11/2
Early in the day I went with Jon to a tiny village in the woods (and rain), and I spent the afternoon in the studio with Snowpatrol, I lent my talents to a few tunes in progress for their next album. And walked away with a fine bottle of 15 year old Dalwhinnie for my troubles! As if I had troubles spending the day playing music! Thanks to all.
As Jon & I arrived at the Concorde 2, it was raining and blowing like you wouldn’t believe; incredible, Newfoundland-esque weather…so, the crowd was a little spare—the club itself is on the road that runs along the water, so it (the club) is snuggled up against the massive wall that shores up the rest of the city and prevents surfboards from lodging themselves in the chippie.
Our friends Beachy Head Music Club (descended from the Steamkings, whom we have long championed) had a hapless encounter with the club, we had invited them to play as a second support act…but somehow, the news didn’t get thru to the club, and they were turned away! I was still en route at the time and thus couldn’t sort it out—they had left by the time I showed up!! Our show was OK; the layout of the stage is kinda weird, with a big barricade so the audience feels REALLY far away (for my tastes). OK. After the show, I was in the dressing room in the middle of opening a bottle of champagne, when in walked my friend Chris, with a bucket full o’ tequila shots. I was so pleased to see him, and the booze, I became distracted and forgot about my champagne project…BIG mistake. The cork decided it had spent enough time in that bottle (it was a 1998 Nicolas Feuillatte), and, with the muzzle removed, worked itself out. Boom. Flash of light. Pain. Cork to the eye! Magic!
OXFORD 11/3
I went to bed feeling like I had been lucky: my eye looked OK, I had iced it, etc. I had seen colors like when you stare at a bright light, but those subsided soon after the incident. However, when I woke up in the morning, there was a black spot, kind of shaped like Russia, floating in the lower half of my vision. Off to the Sussex Eye Hospital I went. The morning in Brighton was bluster-tastic, massive breakers coming in (and people were still going out on the pier…). I cabbed over to the hospital after looking it up in the phone book, and found that my first visit to a hospital in the UK was free. I waited for about 10 minutes and a nurse had a look, and put some drops in to dilate my pupil, and then I waited about half an hour and a doctor had a look as well. More or less, I had been given a very slight bruise on my retina. He said in 99% of cases this kind of injury will heal itself, but for my case I needed to take it really easy (no headbanging!), rest a lot, and see another doctor in a week’s time. The other condition I had caused was a kind of snowglobe effect, where a handful, literally, of red blood cells were knocked into the front chamber of fluid in my eye. Anyway, if they don’t heal themselves, or if it worsens either on its own or by me not taking care of myself –then, yes, I will have to have surgery, possibly. That’s the worse case scenario, and I’m not going to give that the power of suggestion—positive thinking says that when the eye doctor in Brussels takes a look this week, he or she will be pleased with what they find.
Not that this night’s show was an afterthought—but I did have some concerns! The Zodiac club has a rotten, multi flight of stairs, load in…but the club people were very generous about helping. The first time I have worn prescription glasses onstage for a rock show, maybe ever—I wore my Alain Mikli persc. shades. And I stood stock-still. And made fun of myself. It was a great change of place to stay in place, tho—it gave me space to really concentrate on my playing—I thought our jam on ‘Burn & Shine’ was incredible! Lots of twin lead madness—
Kudos to ‘Spice’, one of the best Indian places I’ve been to, which on some quiet road away from the center—worth a special trip if you’re in town. They claimed to be Radiohead’s choice of curry when they’re home, but I imagine every curry place says that…but, read it, folks—Spice is Posies endorsed!
Continuing the Indian theme, I watched what I thought was a really well done (the reviews on IMDB don’t do it justice) Indian film called ‘Ab Tak Chappan’, loosely based on the real life story of a Mumbai police officer, one of many officers who, by manipulating the circumstances of an attempted arrest, would kill criminals whom they didn’t imagine would be convicted thru the proper methods. Great ending…won’t spoil it, check it out if you can find it. It was shown with subtitles on regular UK TV, so it’s at least available here in Britain I would suspect.
LEICESTER 11/4
A real toilet of a club, but run by massively friendly folks. The show was totally fun; I think we opened with “Song #1”? I walked thru my fear and opened, without injury, and consumed, ditto, a bottle of bubbly.
NORTHAMPTON 11/5
During the day we visited a music instrument trade show held in the exhibition center part of the Birmingham NEC (REM played the arena part earlier this year). The good people of Fender, whose Twin Amp guitar amps are what we use while in Europe, invited us. We signed some stuff, chatted with fans and the Fender people (our buddy Neil leads the charge for us there, many thanks!); and did a short acoustic set on a stage that Kerrang! organizes. We did some tunes that we haven’t done in awhile—‘Open Every Window’, ‘Golden Blunders’, and ‘O-o-h Child’.
Tonight’s show was one of the most fun shows we’ve done in the UK, for some reason it was just a total blast…we switched instruments, played a Smiths cover, whipped out ‘It’s Great to Be Here Again’ for the first time in weeks, and generally had a real cool time. The Roadmenders club is a really well run organization; Jo, our point person there, was as sweet as pie. Save Roadmenders!!
I might add that we played two Northamptons in two different countries only 36 days apart! Beat that!
Love
KS
Portsmouth UK
