Quart Festival

Well, what a day eh!! The quart festival is without doubt one of the best organised and fun small festivals in the world and in the most amazing setting.
Just check out this quick video of the backstage area behind the main stage.

We had a great day all round, relaxing on the beach in a city where everyone is incredibly good looking and we got a trip on a speedboat

And just look at what we saw!!

Yes, that is a submarine!!
Anyway onto to the bands, today saw Wolfmother

Placebo
Tool

And our good friends in We Are Scientists

And check out this video i forgot to post during the American leg of tour.


He does after a couple days on the bus you know!!
Here is a meassage that was on the wall of the dressing room from a few years back from Foo Fighters to Audioslave

Anyway thats enough for today i reckon.
On to Sweden we go and ill leave you with this pic from the hotel bar. The only place in the world ive ever been where you can win "Pirate Equipment"......Bizarre!!

NEW NEW NEW!!!

Well, hang onto your hats there kiddys. There has a veritable orgy of new posts and photos from the last couple of days.
Also i have posted some video, so check the re edited post from the Hurricanne festival last weekend to see some good stuff!!!

We're now in Kristiansand in Norway after a long travel day today. Left Roskilde last night at midnight. Got on a ferry at 2 this afternoon to Norway across the north sea and got to Hotel at 7pm. Time to hit the town so i leave you with this picture i took as we arrived in beautiful Norway.
Quart festival tomorrow with Placebo, Tool and our good friends We Are Scientists.

Roskilde Festival

Roskilde is one of the most legendary festivals going. It has over 150 bands on 6 stages over 3 days. The site itself is enormous, beisdes the music it has markets, fun fairs and all sorts of other activities to enjoy. Christ, i know a guy who even got married here! But back to the music, over this weekend alone they had major acts such as Bob Dylan, Guns N Roses, Morissey. Today alone saw Arctic Monkeys

The Strokes

Franz Ferdinand

Placebo


Not to mention Roger Waters from Pink Floyd playing an almost 3 hour show.
Including a complete performance of The "Dark Side Of The Moon" album.


Also on site were bizzare things such as a wool maze????

And A Silent Disco!! Everyone listens to the Music through headphones but tis quite amusing when you dont have any headphones on!!

Any way, off to Norway now!! So see ya later

Werchter Festival

Here we are then. Belgiums Rock Werchter fesival. 60,000 people in a field. Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, The Raconteurs, Goldfrapp, Placebo, Deus and Sigur Ros on the bill today. This is one of the most organised and best run festivals in Europe i think. Always love coming here. Heres the boys in action on a huge stage!!
Here is Franz Ferdinand mid-way through "Take Me Out"


Unfortunately it wasnt such a good day all round as England were dumped out of the world cup yet again on penalties and for once even i think they were hard done by!!!
Oh well. Off to Denmark

Eurockennes

Here we go then, Eurockennes Festival in South of France. Great gig, tent was rammed to bursting point and about 30 deep outside trying to get a look in.


Great show despite Nicks pedals deciding not to work during Who The Fuck..??







Just back from watching the Strokes and Daft Punk, Strokes were theyre usual aloof selves and Daft Punk were on at 2.30am so i think suffered from a little of an exhausted crowd, otherwise they played a great show.




So on we go to Rock Werchter in Belgium tomorrow!!
TTYS

On The Road Again....

Well here we go again. Travel day yesterday so nowt much to report. Dublin-Sheffield-London-France. And here we are at the Eurockennes festival in South of France. Other bands today include Daft Punk, The Strokes, Damien Marley. maybe some show photos later if the wireless internet in the middle of the forest is still working later on tonight.

Some People Are So Rude!!

This is what i awoke to at Calais this morning. Some bus drivers are just unnecessarily rude arent they!

Hurricane

Contrary to the fact that we played at the Hurricane festival on Fri, we just had almost a real one as we tried to leave site here at Southside festival. Came in really quickly, high winds, rain, tents flying thru the air. Bands were taken off stage and the site was cleared. Looks like they will just cut to the last band of the day now and get it over and done with asap. Check it out here. If you look closely you may recognise a few famous faces running for cover.
Oh well.
And here is a little video of Julian Casablancas from The Strokes showing his love for TV Cameras

And if want to watch the whole song for the on going saga with the camera....Look no further!!

Southside

Hello from The Southside festival.


just finished show and band are watching england v ecuador. Good show, lively crowd as im sure you can see from the amount of dust being kicked up while the band were on stage.



I also had my very own private dancer at FOH today, she didnt even look for a tip or anything afterwards. Me likey German festivals : )

Also saw Jack White/ Brendan Bensons new band The Raconteurs for the first time. Im sure they will resurface again and again over the summer on the festival circuit. Thought they were pretty good for a mid afternoon main stage slot and they certainly drew a large crowd. if you havent already, you should def check out theyre album.


Anyway, time to dash. We've a 20 hour drive to London to get to and 4 days at home before the next festival in France next Friday.

TTYS

International House of Monkeys

Well, show is just over in Berlin and thanks to the wireless of an unsuspecting local household i am sending this post from the bus. Good show tonight, great crowd. Particular highlights were "Cigarette Smoker Fiona" and "Mardy Bum". A big travelling contingent tonight and not just from the UK. Polish, Czech and Dutch fans in the house tonight adding to the party athmosphere (Prob helped by the football results and a day in the beer gardens of berlin!!)
All in all a good night and on we go to the Southside festival tomorrow!! (Oh and England are playing while we are on stage tomorrow) We`ll have to find a way of hand-signaling the score to the boys i think.
Bye for now, i here the bus doors closing!!

German Celebrations

So Germany won and we decided a bit of a celebration was in order.
And then we thought why not include football in the celebrations!!

World Cup Fever

Here we are in Berlin then, and work has come to a standstill as Germany play Sweden in the World Cup. They are winning 2-0 at the moment which should make for a good athmosphere at the show tonight if it stays this way. The local crew have proved themselves to be a resourceful bunch, as you can see above. One guy even brought in his own projector and turned the stge right wall into a giant screen. Show pics to follow later on.

Europe Again!!

Well here we are sitting at the docks in Dover,waiting on the ferry before we go to the first batch of festivals. First up is Hurricane in Germany tomorrow.

America!!! F**K Yeah!!!

So heres the first proper post. We have just returned from a 3 week tour in USA/Canada. Every show sold out, lots of people met, lots of shows played and lots of great memories.
Some particular highlights were the great shows at Los Angeles Wiltern Theatre, NYC Roseland, The fantastic facilities at Norfolk Norva (Jacuzzi, Sauna, Pool table, Ping pong and Basketball court backstage- I kid you not!)
Hot days in Tempe and Austin.
My personal long running tabletennis fued with Keith from We are Scientists(Its not over-Murray). It got so bad, he literally tried to steal the food from my mouth!!!

Good fun had all round from Exceptionally loud crowds in Montreal to guest lighting operators. But now it is over. Thanks America but its time to go!
Roll on Europe!!

Introduction

Here we go then. This is my first post on my new tour diary. I am currently touring as Lighting designer for the band Arctic Monkeys.