In the middle of my other shows going on i recieved a phone call that the Killers were going to play another show. This one would be for charity so they didn't want to say to say no to this one. So we rounded up the troops and headed to London. The show was part of an evening in aid of ARK, which is a childrens charity and took place at waterloo station. It was a good night and millions of dollars were raised by ticket sales which were rumoured to be almost $25,000 per person so needless to say there was quite a bit of money in the room, particularly from the financial sector. There was the usual smattering of celebs there and i did get to meet one of my favourite actors, Kevin Spacey..... as well as Uma Thurman. There was also an auction and the band donated the original 'K' keyboard stand and rumour has it, that it sold for over $200,000 although i can't confirm the final amount.
So that really is the end i guess. Almost 2 years on from designing the K and sketching it on a scrap of paper i got to see my little idea sold at auction and a lot of money go to a very worthy cause.
Bye bye 'K', before you know it. It'll be time to think of your successor
After a little bit of time at home re-establishing my relationships (girlfriend, family, friends, playstation). It came time to earn some more money so off on tour i went with a band called JAMES for a few weeks in the UK and 2 shows in Greece. The shows went well and it was a big departure from the Killers as the JAMES guys have quite a big back catalogue and like to mix up the setlist every night (sometimes in the middle of the show). Here is a couple of shots from the tour.
After that ended myself and a friend i work with quite a lot got a call to go and help out a tour that wasnt going so well so we had one day to redesign a show and get it out on the road. Its always interesting to go to a country that is so close to home and see an artist you've never heard of playing to big adoring crowds. The person in question is CHRISTOPHE WILLEM. He was the winner of the french version of pop idol 4 years ago and has built the years between recording and touring and building up a huge fanbase. It was a little strange for me as pretty much the entire show was in french So after shows in Marseille, Montpellier and Paris, i am home again for 2 weeks before heading out on a european tour i have been looking forward to for quite a while.
After all the problems beset by the Asian leg of the tour, everyone was excited to head to Australia and end the uncertainty surrounding the bands future to play the last few shows. So, bag in hand off i left from Dublin - Hong kong - Sydney. Upon my arrival in HK i learned that the first 2 shows would now not be happening either. So i went onward to Sydney anyway to wait and see what would happen. There was a weird athmosphere around the people who had already travelled as we flitted between disappointment that the shows were not happening to being glad of a few days off to guilt because of what Brandon was going through. After 2 days in Sydney we received the tragic news that Brandons mother had passed away and that he would be joining us immediately after the funeral to perform the last 2 shows of the tour. I was a little surprised to be honest as i don't think i would be interested in playing a show if this had happened to me but it is testament to his determination to end the tour on a high that he was able to attend the funeral and straight after get on a plane to the other side of the world to play a concert.
You see how trivial some things really are at times like this but he was determined to not disappoint any more people after the initial cancellations. Unfortunately the rest of the tour could not be re-arranged as the Australian dates were festivals and a lot of the Asian dates take months and months of planning due to strict visa applications and paperwork etc etc. a lot of effort was put in by everyone involved to find alternate venues and timings but alas nothing came of it. Trying to organise this show is not just a case of turning up with a guitar and away we go. There is a lot of equipment that the band own and also that we rent from companies that go into making this happen as well as all the crew who have to be transported around the world. The band were willing to take on all this cost by themselves to get these shows re-arranged so any one who said on Facebook/Twitter etc that they took the easy way out by not re-scheduling needs to take their head out of their ass and realise they weren't the only ones inconvenienced because everything that could have been done was done. Unfortunately sometimes this is just how things happen, but they will be back, they are not breaking up and will reconvene for another album after some time away to do whatever they want to do whether it be spend time with family, lay by the pool, make music with other people or just do absolutely nothing.....quite frankly after 7 years of touring/recording almost constantly, i think they deserve it.
They will be back as the Killers....recharged and ready to roll on for another 7 years im sure
So here we are after 151 shows in 36 countries the Day & Age tour has finally ended
Thanks to everyone who came out and supported the shows over the past 18 months
