Wow, the 7th of April. Has it really been that long. Steven, you lazy bastard!!!
In my defence you will see from the next few posts that we have been extremely busy and to be honest during my little amounts of time off i was more into the idea of relaxing and catching up with friends than doing nything that involved an sort of thought, so for that i apologise.
I believe last time i checked in we were just finishing up the European tour right?? C'mon i can think of everything around here you know : )
So off to Sydney we went via Singapore for the first show of the V Fest Australia shows.
First up though was the Mtv Australia Award show.
Which was presented by Pete Wentz of Fall Out boy and featured an appearance by scary early 90's throwback Vanilla Ice
The band also won an Mtv NZ award for the "Always Bloody Awesome Live Band"
Next up was the first show at V Fest in Sydney Showgrounds
Also on the bill for these shows over the various stages were Kaiser Chiefs, Snow Patrol, Madness, Razorlight, Elbow, Duffy as well as previous Killers opening acts Louis XiV and Howling Bells
Speaking of Louis Xiv, is it just me or is Jason(Lead Singer) starting to model himself more and more on a cartoon version of the Joker
Next up was a couple of days off on the Gold Coast before Melbourne and Perth rounding out the festivals.
After all that we were off to New Zealand for a show at Auckland Arena, unfortunately due to some family reasons we had to postpone the Auckland show from a week previous and even more unfortunately had to cancel the show in Christchurch due to shipping times for our gigs in the US being a problem but im pretty sure we will be returning to this fantastic country in the near future and will make up this show. as for the Auckland show, as NZ is such a remote country the cost in shipping our video wall out was too prohibitive to allow the promotor to make any money at all so we decided to make something locally out of the available lighting etc that could be provided locally. I think it worked out ok in the end
So here is a bunch photos i found on my phone from the first part of the Euro tour
This was a sign on the toilets in the rehearsal hall, i think they should have specified that the "rooftop" in question was the nearby "Rooftop Cafe" and that we weren't to go and drop trousers on the roof of the building.
This is a warning sign on the bottom of our tour table tennis table. What does it mean? "Don't let your child ride a folded up ping pong table like a bucking bronco while his smaller brother crawls around on the ground beside it" apparently. Whats worrying is someone, somewhere obviously had this happen hence why it is on the warning sign now.
Now as anyone who has ever driven in London will know, a red line is an "absolutely no stopping here.....ever" symbol. Our bus drivers care not for these signs and since the buses are mostly prepared to drive in Europe, the doors and luggage bays are on the wrong side of the road for the UK, if you don't want to get splattered whilst getting your bag that is. Not only do our drivers stop on the wrong side of the road but they will pull over onto a red line on the wrong side of the road to make sure we're safe putting our bags away. Nice one chaps!!
Whats a "BOB" and why would you rent him?
Its good to see everyone keeping up with their diets isnt it? Thats what happens when there is a Nandos in the same building as the show
Like my new headwear?? I am mirrorball man
I didnt realise busking had gotten this competitive but apparently in Cardiff it has. Multitasking is the key
Saka is a brand of water in Germany and ever the resourceful lad that he is, Brian from Louis xiv decided to add a little change to the title on every bottle of water in sight. Purile? Yes Childish? Yes
Funny? You betcha
This sign may seem simple. Its indicating the prescence of public toilets for men right?? Only problem was it was on a wall in the middle of Amsterdam with no other buildings around in sight. Least it didnt smell that bad.
Now as anyone who has been to a show in Newcastle or Glasgow can tell you. For some reason they are fond of throwing drinks(amongst other things) around during the show. I can count on 3 hands the amount of times i've lost lighting desks in these cities due to these idiots throwing liquid at expensive electronics. So i've got my new method now. It may be a little rustic but it works.
To the people who left the comments on the page re the flags. We try and be as sensitive to peoples feelings as we can when using the national flags as this is not a political move by myself or the band and we don't want it to be seen as such. In Germany we took on board the opinions of many of our local crew and promoters and we were dissuaded from the use of the flag for these 3 shows as apparently not everyone in your fine country identifies positively with the national flag so we were conscious of not wanting to offend anyone, i dint ask for any more reason or explanation, i just went with the local knowledge. We also did not put up a flag at the show in Belfast for these reasons, however being an Irishman myself i understand the reasons more in this case. This was a simple gesture of appreciation at the end of the show for the country we were in and was not meant to be seen as anything else. Hopefully we didn't offend anyone by not using the flag, this was certainly not our intention either
So as anyone who has been to any of the Euro shows knows we were ending the show most nights with the flag of the country that night for a bit of a local favour
Here's a collection of the pictures. You've already seen the irish one in an earlier post im sure but here it is again all the same
England
Scotland
Wales
Holland
Italy
Switzerland
France
and Finally the 2 spanish flags, i thought it better to show the Catalan flag for Barcelona
Off to Wales we go to for a show at the Cardiff International Arena before heading back North to Sheffield for a day off where i brought Mikey, my lighting tech from Canada to his first football match. He seemed to enjoy it even tho it was only Sheffield United v Birmingham at a 3/4 full Bramall Lane on a Sunday morning. Sheffield may be a dead town on a Sunday but its a pretty nice place to walk around. After shows in Sheffield and Nottingham it was off to Aberdeen via a drive through the beautiful Scottish highlands.
We had a day off in possibly the best hotel room i've ever had. Huge bed and a bath in the bedroom. Also a damn good resturaunt with a butcher shop that you can pick your steak before its cooked. It also has a very good whiskey tasting cellar with over 250 different malts. We also got a great hook up in Glasgow with Bulmers having dropped off 12 crates in return for tickets. Sounds like a good deal to me.
After 2 great shows in Scotland (the 2nd one being in Glasgow) it was off to Newcastle and then on to Manchester for the last few shows of the UK tour. Not quite sure what the hell this guy directly behind the security was wearing but gave me a laugh nonetheless.
After that we headed off to Amsterdam for a day off amid the usual craziness that Amsterdam has to offer. Started with the usual calmness before descending into the usual Jagermeister fueled madness.
Next morning we were off to the venue in Amsterdam for load in. I couldnt help but feel like the traffic signs had been Killers-ed up a little.
From here on in the day got a little strange. Upon my arrival i found all of the local crew outside because of a bomb threat in the area of the venue. As the day progressed it became more and more possible that the show would be cancelled but we proceeded as normal and the band came in for soundcheck in the hope that we would get to have the show. Unfortunately it was not to be and the local Dutch Police were forced to cancel the show just before doors. So we now go back to Amsterdam on May 29th to make up the show. Apparently a threat was made against the shopping mall that is attached to the venue and the threat specified targeting a large scale gathering of people. 7 people were arrested and an undefined amount of plastic explosives was found in an apartment a couple of hundred meters from the venue. Luckily the police took the responsible approach and meant that no one was put in any danger. It was a little weird loading the show out at 6pm knowing that the building was a target though.
So with nothing to do we were off back into Amsterdam to waste a few hours before heading off to Dusseldorf and then onwards to Berlin. i've no idea who this band is but its def one of the cheeseiest pictures going After the Berlin show, it was off to Munich for a show at the Zenith which is an old steelworks which is desperately in need of not being used as a venue anymore. For some reason it has a random 50's style sandwich cart/bar in it I did manage to spruce up the front of house set up at this show though. Ahhhh comfort!!
Next up we were off to Milan for a St Patricks Day show at the DatchForum Arena which was recorded by Italian TV for a broadcast soon. My crew chief did find a rather nice Dolce & Gabbana Bathrobe to wear for the load in though which relieved some of the boredom.
Next day we were on our way to Switzerland, we didnt get any swiss chocolate on this trip but we did have a good stock of Cadburys Choc Fingers on the bus.
After a quick overnight drive we were off to Paris for a show at the Zenith.
And so the long drive came around. After driving through the Spanish countryside. 13 hours later we were in Barcelona. Which is one of my favourite cities in the world. I always have a great time when i come here and this one was a little quieter than it could have been but was a good time nonetheless. We did end up at the strangely named "OBAMA" British& African pub. It was a fantastic show at the Pavello Olympico though i am not sure what the relevance of the name of the in house security company is.
Here is a little video to show how great the audience from the show was
I also recieved a gift from the girls of the Italian fanclub who were at this show. Might just look like a cat but its actually a small vaccuum cleaner. Can be used quite nicely to clean up my lighting desk.
That night we were off to Madrid for the last show of the European tour. Another fantastic crowd awaited and a great night was had by all.
Unfortunately this meant we had to say goodbye to our caterers who had been taking great care of us for the past month or so. The food on this tour was some of the best catering i've had on a tour for a long time. Particular favourite has to be the "Snickers Cheesecake"
So, there we have it. the first European leg has come to an end. Next up Australia and New Zealand.
