God Damn it....

Oh yeah, thats the result of a seemingly harmless fall from a skateboard ramp, one trip to the ER room later and im now in a sling with a fractured radial bone in my elbow

It has however given me time to find stuff to watch online.
Such as.........


And not sure if i posted this before but have a look anyway
KENYA VIDEO

Bizarre but hilarious, as is this!!!
CSI Spoof

And if you get the chance go and see the 300 at a cinema near you. I saw it on the IMAX screen and was a bit disturbed at seeing Gerard Butlers ass 16 feet tall (If you`ve seen it you know what im talking about) but the rest of the movie is fantastic

Check This Out!!

If you get a chance then swing by this mySpace page for the band SOLARCADE
www.myspace.com/solarcade
Theyre a great new band from LA and well worth checking out. If you are lucky enough to be going to The Killers show in Staples Centre on April 9th or San Diego the next day then you get to check em out for yourself

Belated St Patricks Day!!!

After quite a while of not seeing any Family Guy due to being away all the time, i got home to see this episode which was shown just in time for St. Patricks Day. Still amazes me how they can pick a race or nation and manage to get every possible offensive joke about them into a single episode.



In all fairness if you are offended by this then you need to get a life!!

All that TV paid off....

Dont let anyone tell you that watching TV is a waste of time and that you should get out more and learn something....Theyre wrong!! After my years apent watching McGuyver and 24, I found it very useful a couple of days ago. Imagine my horror when i got out of the shower (Easy ladies!!) to find that my unlocked bathroom door wouldnt open and the handle just kept turning in my hand. So after a little while trying a few various ideas that didnt work and the realisation that i would probably be stuck there for days due to the Do Not Disturb sign on my door and not being one of those people who take theyre phones into the bathroom. I decided to take matters into my own hands and used the bin to smash the handle off the door and see if i could have a go at the lock from the inside. After about 45 mins with only a set of nailclippers as a tool, i managed to get the door open and seek freedom!!! Ever wondered what a door lock looks like inside?? Ye need wonder no more!!
Imagine if you can though the look of disbelief on the face of the hotel manager when i showed up at reception with the crumpled remains of a bin and pieces of a door lock to tell them i had broken it and wouldnt be paying for it.

The next 2 days were off wandering around Paris doing the usual touristy stuff like the Eiffel Tower


And the Louvre Museum

Which houses some of the most valuable pieces of art in the world, such as the Mona Lisa.


After 2 days of good food and drink it was off to Lille for the final show before driving overnight to London where i was dropped off at Heathrow airport to fly home. So thats Europe over with for a while, all attention shifts to North America in 2 weeks time, so until then i bid you Adieu and Bonsoir!!

Another Euro Adventure

So Cardiff turned out to be a great show again right up until the end of the show when we had to evacuate the building due to a suspicious package left at the sound desk prompted a bomb threat and the venue was cleared out for almost an hour before the bomb squad arrived to take it away.

After a delayed load out it was time to head off to Dover to take the Euro Tunnel train to Calais and the drive through France and Belgium to get to Amsterdam. A day off in Amsterdam for most people means sitting in "coffee" shops sampling the local wares and a trip to the red light district for the customary bit of "window shopping". Its quite funny how people think that its all hidden away and secretive but this picture was taken down the street from our hotel.
After that it was a show at the famed Heineken Music Hall which has seen bands such as Coldplay, U2 and R.E.M play here at one point or another.


Another day off in Amsterdam followed before heading overnight to Koln, Germany for what would prove to be landmark gigs for the band as they've had a strange relationshipwith mainland Europe but Sams Town seems to have struck a chord here and the venues are now getting upgraded to almost the same size as the UK and US shows. The day offf was spent wandering around the city and seeing the sights as well the rather odd people doing performance art in the the Leidesplan square in the centre of town such as this guy...

...whose sole purpose seemed to be wandering around and annoying people.
Also stumbled across a rather oversized game of chess.


So off to Koln and then onwards to Berlin for a show at the Berlin Arena...

...And a quick trip to what left of The Wall...


Also i thought i'd show one of my favourite pictures i've taken. This is from the roof of the the Reichstag building in Berlin.

So off to Frankfurt and then onto Paris for a couple days off.

Back In The Air

After the fun of the Hometown shows came the relative boredom of the NME awards. TV shows are never much fun for me as Union rules prevent me from operating lights for the band so i stand and offer my opinion to the TV guy, who most of the time will ignore you!! After finishing load out at 1.30am it was back up at 6am to go to Dublin airport to fly to London for a performance at the annual NME awards which were held for the last time at the famous Hammersmith Palais (The Clash song White Man in Hammersmith Palais is about the bands early days here)
Check out the bands performance of theyre cover of Joy Divisions "ShadowPlay" which has been recorded for the soundtrack to the Anton Corbijn directed movie "Control" which is a biopic about Joy Division singer Ian Curtis who died in 1980.

Amongst the people in attendance were Damon Albarn, Noel Gallagher, Arctic Monkeys, Pete Doherty & Kate Moss (who were apparently ejected after being found in the back alley behind the venue getting up to no good after being repeatedly prevented from trying to go to the bathrooms together). Performances on the night also came from Jarvis Cocker, The View, Kasabian and Primal Scream who also performed with Mick Jones from the Clash. The Killers won a gong for Best Video for the Tim Burton directed "Bones".
After braving the aftershow party which was held at our hotel it was off to Brighton for a much needed day off.
The show at the Brighton Centre personally ranks as the worst show i've had in years due to technical failures left, right and centre, thankfully the following night in Nottingham was much better.

If any of you remember the last time i was in Nottingham i found some fancy dress?? Well, yeas i did it again, this headpiece was just sitting around the backstage area so i thought i'd try do load out in it. I think it quite suits me..


So as the UK tour draws to a close you find us at the Cardiff International Arena in Wales before heading to Amsterdam tomorrow for the start of the European run.

Always a good crowd here right back to when we played the Cardiff uni right through to the Millenium Stadium show with U2.

Trivia fact - The Big Sleep Hotel in Cardiff has a very unique and special business partner in Hollywood superstar John Malkovich - How Bizarre eh!!

Home at Last.....

...well for a few hours anyway. Got back to Dublin for a couple of days for 2 shows at the RDS Arena. Due to the cancellation of last Novembers show at the Point Theatre this was the first time for Sams Town to hit Dublin and needless to say it was pretty well recieved even if the RDS isnt exactly the best venue in the world.

I even managed to get a mention on stage when Brandon noted that the band liked to think they took a little piece of Ireland with them everywhere they went because i was from Dublin.

Also, I did an interview for a website recently and here it is.....
www.avolites.org.uk/avonews/press/2007/killers.htm

Bizarre eh!!

London Calling....

Last couple of days have been spent in london playing 2 shows at the world famous Wembley Arena.


I did get my first look at the almost finished Wembley Stadium as well. Its looking pretty good, be nice to get to do a a show there one day......Who knows!!


I actually got time to watch our great opening act Black Rebel Motorcycle Club tonight as well.

Catch em if you can!! Theyre a good straight ahead rock band.

The Killers have been making some changes to the usual setlist lately, On Top replaced River on night one and River replaced My List on night 2. Seems to be working as night 2 was a much more energetic show than night 1. From both band and audience.


It was one of those achievement gigs where you felt a landmark gig had taken place as Wembley is one of those gigs up there with Madison Sq Garden and The Sydney Opera House.


Off to Dublin next for a couple more shows!! HOME!!!!

GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!

Ouch!!!

Well it had to happen eventually. Brandon has been getting more and more adventerous with his climbing on his piano, guess it was only a matter of time before he took a tumble.



Dont worry he's fine, think the only thing that was bruised was Ronnie's funny bone from laughing.

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

So after 20 hours on a plane from Perth to London via Dubai i landed to the sight of half a foot of snow. Then off to Bray film studios in Windsor for a couple of days pre-production rehearsals

After that it was on to Sheffield for the first show of the tour at Hallam Arena. Went really well for the first show of the tour with a new look show and set design, the band are playing the longest show that theyve ever done with every song from Sams Town making an appearance as well as a good deal of Hot Fuss thrown in for good measure.

After that it was off to Manchester and Birmingham for another two shows with another new song making an appearance. The guys have started playing theyre cover of Joy Divisions "ShadowPlay".

And after a day off in Newcastle, here i am sitting on the bus outside the Metro Arena after soundcheck for the next gig of the tour. Off to Scotland tomorrow for shows in Aberdeen and Glasgow.

And now...The end is near!!!

So here i am in Perth getting ready for the final show of Big Day Out! After our couple days in Adelaide (Yes that is Adelaide city centre, why i took the photo though a vase i dont know...but i did!!). We did a BDO show last night in Adelaide Showgrounds and watched a couple more bands such as

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE


JOHN BUTLER TRIO


JET


THE STREETS


VIOLENT FEMMES


TRIVIUM


TOOL


And of course the always fantastic MUSE


As well being a hot ticket it was also a really hot day with Temperatues pushing 38* C (103* F). After a couple of drinks at the now customary free bar i decided that our drum tech Rob would look better if he was wearing the inflatable basketball set up that was in the backstage area.

He wasnt convinced!!

After a morning walking around Adelaide and taking photos of my reflection in a giant set of balls (Thats me in the blue)

It was time to head to the airport!!

Speaking of a giant load of balls, that exactly what i thought when just as the plane was pushing back from the gate, some ASSHOLE!!! a couple rows in front of me decided he wanted to get off the plane because he wasnt feeling too well.

So while this idiot got off it meant of course that they had to retrieve his baggage from the hold before we took off, so we got to sit on the runway for almost an hour while they emptied the plane of luggage and eventually found it. He better hope that no one from Muse, Jet, Tool, The Killers or The Streets see him at BDO tomorrow because that adds up tp a lot of pissed off people he left sittting on the plane.

When we eventually got to the hotel, i got my key and headed to my room. However when i got to my room i could hear a TV on and a Privacy sign on the door, turns out it was one of the guys from Violent Femmes. Eventually got another room and headed out to find that there is barely anything open at 9pm on Sat night. So, luckily the local FOX Sports network here is showing the Liverpool/Everton derby match Live on TV.

So last show down here tomorrow before jumping on a plane to head to London to start production rehearsals for our upcoming arena tour. So. ill prob talk to you after that gets underway on Feb 16th in Sheffield. Take it easy!!

Check This Out!!

This probably ranks as one of the strangest, most pointless things ive ever seen but its still pretty funny. Just take a look at the link and see for yourself.

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/kenya/

Australia Day

So after the Gold Coast we headed south to Sydney. Def one of the coolest cities in the world. Ive a lot of great friends here and there is always a good time to be had. First up was a show for Lily Allen who i have been doing lights for during Big Day Out as a favour to a friend of mine who is her tour manager. The show was at Luna Park which is a theme park that sits just under Sydneys famous harbour bridge on the North side of the bay.

It was a good show and it seemed to go down very well with the crowd, if you havent already heard any of her stuff, you should def check it out.

Next day it was back to the Big Day Out for probably the biggest show, here is a picture that i stole from Lily Allens MySpace page of me working.

An hour later and it was back to the main stage to do The Killers again.

My valiant attempts at doing lights in broad daylight dont look that bad at all i think.
Soon as the guys finished it was straight across the road to The Acer Arena to see Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame play a 3 hour show...

.....including a performance of Dark side of the moon from start to finish complete with flying Pigs!!
A couple of days off followed and spent it hanging out with friends and with a trip to the Aquarium to see some sharks from the safety of a couple of inches thick glass.

After that it was a show at Hordern Pavillion on Australia Day, which is Australias national holiday so a good day was had all round.
Next day it was off to Melbourne for another big day out and then a another few days off which i filled in with another Lily Allen show and hanging out with more great friends from home who are living out here now. A day spent driving around and stopping off at various beaches.

Was nice to get out of the city even if only for a couple of hours.

Another highlight was a return visit to the Globe Skate Clothing Warehouse. Those of you familiar with this blog will know that last time i was in Melbourne we were invited to Globe for a look around and grab some free stuff, of course this became a grab all you carry affair....and guess what? After a few phone calls, it happened again so im laden down with an extra full of clothes and skate shoes and a couple of new skate boards. But it was all free so i dont mind too much :-)
Next day it was back to it with a show at Melbournes Festival Hall and a world live debut for arguably the best song on SAMS TOWN.....This River Is Wild was played for the first time ever in front of an audience.
A couple of drinks after the show and it was back to the hotel for a couple of hours sleep before getting up at 6am this morning to fly here to Adelaide for todays Big Day Out show. I was greeted with the bizarre sight of a load of hot air ballons flying over the city outside my window at 6.30am, unfortunately by the time i dug my camera out of my all too sensibly packed luggage, there was only 2 left. Oh well!!!

I did manage to get a shot as i waited on the elevator down to the lobby though!!