Euro Festivals Pt2

After a little break at home we were back off to finish off the European festivals. First up was the obligatory club warm up show, this time at the Rockefeller club in Oslo.


Before we headed onwards to the Hove festival where we played after the fantastic Fleet Foxes. Back in January in rehearsals, the band were messing about with a cover version of "He Doesn't Know Why" by Fleet Foxes but never got around to playing it since they were already leaving out some of their own songs but since Fleet Foxes were on the bill and didn't play the song, our guys decided to break it out for one night.





Next day we were off to London for the big show at Hyde Park. While i was programming the show on the Thurs night i was talking to a friend who was just back from Los Angeles where he had been working on the new Micheal Jackson show. Needless to say say we were both a little shocked when not even an hour later the news came through about his death. You can say what you want to about his later years and the controversy but you cant deny the quality of his early work such as "Off The Wall" and "Thriller".

Anyhow, after the opening sets from Howling Bells, Passion Pit and The Kooks. The guys hit the stage for what was a brilliantly received set for one of the biggest headline shows that the band have played.








Of course with this being London, there was the usual VIP liggers etc hanging around including Tom Jones, Natalie Imbruglia, Justin Timberlake (who in a bizarre twist was put the guest list by yours truly) and Prince Harry (3rd in line to be King Of England)



That's him on the left meeting the band right before the show.

Also wandering about during the day were Spinal Tap, very strange seeing them in person


Next up we were off to Athens, Greece for a couple days R'n'R before the next show.


Tis a hard life sometimes!!!


Little did we know we should have def made the best of the good weather cos as this have a habit of doing, come show day it'll all change.

When we arrived in the morning everything was nice and calm, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, bees were trying to have sex with them.....as is my understanding!!!

But just as we were getting ready to return to the hotel rafter set up was finished, the skies turned grey and the heavens opened unleashing some sort of precipitatious wrath of the Almighty upon us (Whoops, got a little too Old Testament on you there...sorry bout that)

In other words, shitloads of rain



Just check out the video of the backstage area



Needless to say after that downpour it wasn't possible to allow people into the venue and the gig had to be cancelled unfortunately. By the way, there is a myth i'd like to dispel, we dont like cancelling shows. Generally, once all the gear is loaded in the hard part of the day is done. if the show gets cancelled we still gotta take it all back out. I would much rather just do the easy part (the show) and then move on as planned. There is nothing like the uncertainty that a cancelled show brings with it.

Unfortunately this time there was no way around it, the venue was flooded and a lot of our gear was absolutely soaked.


So onwards we went to Romania for another rain soaked show at the B'estfest in Bucharest. We did however come across some of the weirdest translated chinese menu's we'd ever seen.









Have a read through, my particular favourites were

Sheep with Onion
Pork With Wood
Soup with Com
and last but by no means least

ANTS IN A TREE....(HOT)


???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????



Anyway, off to Belgium we go for one of the best organised festivals in the world....the Werchter rock Festival where were on the bill sandwiched between Bloc Party and Coldplay . We did get the magic spot on the bill that i love when the show starts in daylight and ends in darkness.






I did get to meet a hero of mine at this festival also.....Henry Rollins



After a quick trip on the Eurostar train under the sea( Yep) we were off to London for a 2 night DVD shoot at the Royal Albert Hall. The band chose to shoot the dvd here after the show here last year. In addition to the 2 gigs we also shot a plethora of extras as possible extras so just like you im looking forward to seeing the finished product.









We also did some crew interviews so we'll see if they end up on the DVD, during mine there was a box of Jack Daniels bottles that the director was giving out to people to say thank you and daring little scamp is caught on film stealing one....we'll get you : )



After the frolics of London we were off to the Hultsfred festival in Sweden, unfortunately there was no commercial flights for us to take so we had "Air Killers" for a couple of days which was good times.



After that we off to T in The Park in Scotland which has always been a great gig for the band with this being the 4th time in 6 years that they've played at the festival and the scottish crowd didnt dissapoint as ever


Although when i arrived on site on the friday night i was most perplexed to see only maybe 3000 people watching the fantastic Nick Cave and The bad Seeds while 65,000 thronged the main stage for the very average Kings Of Leon......for shame Scotland!!!
And before i get a bunch of hate filled comments from KOL fans, i like em too and loved the early albums but they pale compared to someone like Nick Cave.

Anyway, next day it was my almost home town show at the Oxegen festival since i live about 15 mins from the site on a good day and as ever the crowd did me proud.

Check Out Brandons attempt at my native tongue

and of course i had to slip in the Irish flag at the end



UNfortunately there is never enough time at home and next day it was off to Rome for the Roma Rock festival alongside White Lies and Franz Ferdinand as well a trip around the wonderful city itself. if you ever get a chance i highly reccomend the Coliseum, im not posting pictures cos you really need to see it for yourself

So we were almost on the home stretch now, France was next to fall as we played another show with Bruce Springsteen before high tailing it to Lisbon, another of my favourite cities but unfortunately i was very ill for the whole time here. The load in the night before the show was particularly interesting to say the least with very high winds making it impossible for us to hang our screen until the next day .



But nevertheless a great show was had and we were off to Benicassim in Spain for the last show of this leg, we were lucky to be able to play after high winds and storms had hit the site all weekend forcing the cancellation of Kings Of leons set on the Friday night but we soldiered on on the makeshift stage and masde the most of what was there.

So there we have after it. After 15 shows and 26 flights in 30 days it was time to head home for a few weeks and relax!!! PHEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!