Tour diary 2005

16/03/2005 23:14. leeds

andrew and i are packing for our trip to berlin tomorrow. the first show is friday. updates to follow…
claire

18/03/2005 15:16 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ berlin

arrived in berlin yesterday after a hellish journey… missed our stop and ended up in london, got a train back and got fined, delayed on the plane due to a polish man boarding by accident thinking he was going to aberdeen (i would have stayed put personally), got off at the wrong s-bahn stop… but finally made it to strausberger platz on karl marx allee where philipp’s putting us up for the next few days. andrew suggested allocating points whenever one of us encourages the other to do something foolish or cause some kind of disaster… hopefully we’ve got them all out of the way early. popped down the road for a drink last night and bumped into alice and louis who were playing go with peter (lux nigra)… nice day, despite being totally wiped out.
tonight’s show is at zentrale-randlage, just down the road from nbi. we’re hoping alice will be coming to sing on ’switch it on’, and then maybe we’ll take a trip to auslander to see jason (donna summer) djing.
it’s pretty damp and grey in berlin but it’s still amazing to be back.
claire

19/03/2005 12:37 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ berlin

another raino-circuit disaster last night, this time a pretty major one. after a really good afternoon rehearsal, our bassstation packed in when we got to zentrale-randlage and we had to cancel our show. it’s the fourth novation synth in circuit history to have problems - the second of two bassstations which has suddenly and inexplicably stopped working. totally frustrating and annoying, especially since the venue was absolutely packed. today we’re going to frederik’s house to collect his yamaha so we can play at goldengate tonight… then we have to try think of a solution before we go to sweden. we’re just glad that it wasn’t the (borrowed) k-station that died really. anyway, the sun is shining and i’m off to neurotitan to look at comics and ministeck.
Claire

20/03/2005 14:55 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ berlin

andrew just told us about a dream he had last night, about playing guitar in queen. i reckon a raino dream diary would be way more entertaining than this one!
last night’s gig at goldengate was fun, and strange. there were people there that had been partying for 13 hours when we arrived (11pm) and were still there after we left. we played at around 3.30am to a very odd (monged, drunk, confused) crowd of people, but it was lovely that frederik and his friends stayed till we finished, despite the crazy atmosphere. goldengate is b under the s-bahn at jannowitzbrucke.. every now and again the room shakes from the trains passing overhead. it was nice to see all the repeat repeat guys again and meet kurt (the buddy system) and some other new people - chester and i chatted about chris morris for a while which was weird, especially since he’s american, living in berlin. came back to philipp’s at about 6.30 and had a very sound sleep indeed.
before that we went up to frederik’s, then for a nice meal with frederik, jan, francoise, tim gane, and a lot of people whose names i’ve unfortunately forgotten already. francoise gave me the new stereo total cd (german version, of course!) which has to most amazing artwork! haven’t had chance to listen to it yet. still haven’t been to neurotitan or dense, but it’s part of my plan for tomorrow.. hopefully we’ll catch up with norbert too.
incidentally, we borrowed a bass station last night which had a loose power socket… we were also going to borrow covox’s bass station in stockholm, but that’s broken too. we were thinking of going round the world with two of those - a very bad idea, it seems!!
claire

23/03/2005 22:51 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ stockholm

sweden last night we caught the overnight train to malmo from berlin which was absolutely crazy. we thought a “couchette” would perhaps be a reclining chair in a normal carriage, so we were pretty surprised to see two old-fashioned sleeper carriages waiting for us. our compartment slept six, and was incredibly hot. for the first ninety minutes we hung out in the corridor drinking berlinner and moskovskaya and then i saw a shooting star. wow. woke in the night and realised the train was somewhere in the bowels of a ferry which was slightly scary.
arrived in malmo at 8am, did a quick round trip to denmark via the oresund fixed link, then to gothenburg where we met ted, our booker, who took us for falafel and loaned us a korg poly 61… gratefully received, but extremely heavy and sure to peck us for the next five days. on to stockholm on the x2000, a great journey. now i’m sitting in rebecca’s lovely flat eating sweets and watching swedish tv!
claire

25/03/2005 12:30 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ internet cafe, stockholm central station

last night’s show was absolutely amazing!! i have no time left on this internet cafe computer and so much to say about it… rex42 and covox were incredible, we had amazing live visuals and dance mats controlling the images that were being projected. johan, christian and rebecca have been such GREAT hosts for our two days here!! now i have to let andrew check his emails! more soon…
claire

26/03/2005 00:00 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ vanersborg

a fairly dull and uneventful night has just taken a turn for the better; free credits on the ‘champion pub’ pinball table has led to a placing on the high scores table. 85 million was enough to be pub champion whatever that means. So i can leave here safe in the knowledge that even if printed circuit left no impression on this sleepy backwater i will live on briefly on the pinball table which seems to be one of the few sources of entertainment around here. I must also mention that the food was superb as were the fully vegan waffles and ice cream that were served to celebrate national waffle day. “you don’t have waffle day in england?!” “erm, no.”
Oh dear VBG RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! says a local named LISA-LO // LISON KARLSSON!!! love y’all!
andrew

26/03/2005 01:43 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ vanersborg

a small addendum to andrew’s views on vanersborg… yes, it was odd… the moment we showed up and learned this was a teetotal no-smoking youth club, i began to wonder how p.c. would work. as suspected, no dancing, no reaction, apparently people liked it but i felt slightly odd playing and kinda strange afterwards. we’re staying in the dressing room tonight, camp beds and tequila… i mean, er, diet coke.
we are looking forward to getting to lund tomorrow, both for a cathedral visit and because it means we can get rid of “that pecking synth” which has become a real hinderance to exploration and mobility. we ended up spending two hours in stockholm central station because we didn’t want to spend six quid on a ski-sized locker for the stupid thing. we’re also leaving for lund later than we’d like, just cos we have nowhere to put it.
i haven’t raved enough about the stockholm show. totally amazing. rex42 (gameboy, mobile phone, speak & spell and cddj mario-sound-fx scratching) put on an amazing show and covox was absolutely, completely insane and amazing. it was a tough act to follow and i’m not sure we really managed it. the visuals were amazing (midi dancemat action), the venue was great, the drinks were expensive but we got two free so that was fine. we also got introduced to the world of what the swedish call “snuff” (which isn’t snuff at all) by christian, who, along with johan and rebecca, hosted us so well and made us feel so welcome. beautiful city too. stockholm is DEFINITELY on my “must-go-back” list… as soon as possible, preferably.
not much to do except drink ourselves to sleep and mess with guitars until bedtime. free internet is good. thanks vanersborg.
claire

26/03/2005 18:22 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ lund

i’m sure jonny will be pleased to know that the venue here (mejeriet) has a shower at least as good as the ones found in your average travelodge. we are being treated amazingly well today, yet again. food, sweets, beer, showers, internet and we haven’t even soundchecked yet. winner winner not bad!
claire

27/03/2005 19:18 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ goteborg

another odd show today. played last (7pm!) to more unenthused swedes, although some did buy records so maybe they liked it? the music dragged and the reaction was muted, the PA wasn’t loud enough and we didn’t really know what to make of the whole event (again). it doesn’t help that andrew’s arms are wrecked from carrying the poly-61, so much so that he’s struggling to play his parts at times.
i’m absolutely knackered after lund yesterday too… we got treated so well, it was amazing, but the show was quiet and we played badly. resorted to raiding the fridge and dancing to f***z f*******d till about 1.30. mejeriet kindly gave us our own tiny apartment for the night. the clocks changed today so we only had five hours sleep and had to run across lund station with our enormous heavy bags to catch the train. pretty nasty.
tomorrow we’re off to norway and we have to take the stupid synth with us. but hey, gothenburg is nice so i will go enjoy it despite the bags under my eyes.
claire

29/03/2005 02:10 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ oslo

i am not really in a fit state to type, but olso is great… ole and maria and all the people here are amazing and the venue was full of mannequins, cool stuff, nice wallpaper and ministeck-style artwork. a can of carling costs 5 pounds here, cigarettes 7.50, pizza 15 quid. incredible. anyway, a great way to end the tour and a chance to celebrate dumping the poly-61 forever. we will write more when we are feeling more normal, i think! last stop is bergen… no show there but fun times hopefully.
claire

29/03/2005 19:09 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ bergen

last night was one of my favourite two gigs of this tour (the other being stockholm of course!). spasibar is a really amazing place and the small crowd were very kind to us… we even got two people up and dancing and they won a plastic frog for their efforts. oslo was a lot more ‘lived in’ than anywhere i saw in sweden which was quite comforting.
today we took the train to bergen, which is a seven hour journey through forests, round frozen lakes and big ski slopes, then amazing mountainous terrain, completely covered in snow in all directions. the sun came out and we could barely open our eyes, it was so bright outside. oh and the train had a kids’ play area that took up half a carriage, that was pretty cool! now we are staying with dagfin, another fantastically generous and accommodating host. we get the plane home tomorrow and start preparing for japan as soon as we get back.
claire

08/04/2005 00:03 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ leeds

just back from london and an AWESOME night at nagnagnag. very nerve-wracking to play inbetween regular DJs and therefore have the pressure of keeping the party going for 20 minutes, but it worked! the PA was insanely loud and the speakers were crunching with bass distortion… ghetto was absolutely PACKED too. short set, lots of smiles, amazing night. up there with new years eve in the ‘favourite shows’ stakes, for sure. it was so cool that fanny, norbert, joelle, adam, fiona, will and ben came down with their friends, proper party style. we also had to play facing each other due to the total lack of tables in ghetto, but that ended up being a real bonus, cos we could pull faces at each other and shout things across the table. so we’ve decided to adopt the new formation from now on, it looks pretty crazy and it’s an unusual way to perform. ok, nagnagnag is great and thank you jonny slut for making our night so special!!
ps. wendy james was there but alas we didn’t see her…
claire

21/04/2005 05:48 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ tokyo

hi there. we’ve been in tokyo a few hours now. i’ve been awake for more than 24 hours but less than 48, i can’t quite work it out. flying over siberia was insane. the first thing i saw as we landed in tokyo was a pokemon plane. i’m extremely tired and overwhelmed by actually being here. our first show is a massive party on friday with utabi, com.a and enduser!
claire

26/04/2005 09:31 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ harajuku

today is the first day we’ve been in japan and haven’t been rding subways and trains, dragging our cases around and feeling dirty and tired. after a relaxing 24hours in aya’s posh flat, and a bit of electronics shopping in akihabara electric town (where andrew got a decent dgital camera for about 45 quid), we were hurled into the gruelling world of japanese all-night gigs.
the first show was in ebisu at milk, and it was pretty poor. on the plus side, we did get to wander around shibuya with jason (6955), which was pretty crazy, and we sat in a park drinking japanese beer, which is made out of crazy ingredients like rice and corn, so we are told. we played at 3-4am and then had to pack up and move all our stuff across to shibuya bus station with utabi, and sit there for a few hours waiting for the bus to osaka. we felt a small tremor outside the station which was pretty exciting, then slept for the entire 8 hour journey in a super-comfy JR bus.
unfortunately that was the last sleep we’d really have for the next two days. andrew has affectionately declared our hosts “crazy bastards” for good reason… after a show, we’d have t hang around for about four hours waiting for something to happen (what we were waiting for was not entirely clear), before setting off to the next city at about 8 or 9 am, we spent two days eating pre-packed peanut butter sandwiches and baked goods, dried melon and packets of pea-flavour crisps, because vegetarian food is pretty much impossible to find anywhere, and the people we were with didn’t seem to want to eat anything anyway. osaka was great fun though… totally crazy shops and bars, lots to see, and we met some geat people there and taught the locals the british custom of handing a vodka bottle around at 7am.
by the time we got to nagoya we were ill. lynn (enduser) and steve (pale) had had about as much sleep as us and were also beginning to look kinda pasty. i felt dirty and exhausted, andrew was very sick and had to sleep in the van outside to recover. the show worked out OK despite poor attendance. decided to stay awake all night in the car to catch a glimpse of mount fuji, which was stunning.
japan is certainly everything i hoped it would be and more! it’s far less technologically advanced than i expected, and way more human, with a reassuring scruffy look to it. i’m surprised by the lack of internet cafes, and startled by the number of heavy smokers. but i’m also reassured to see cartoony engrish crap everywhere (i’m buying most of it), and vending machines on every street.
now we have a few days off to be tourists, see some museums and attractions, and seek out proper veggie food… all with jason’s help. on thursday we meet mark simms and hood for a wee reunion which will be awesome town!
claire

05/05/2005 14:29 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ sydney

hi there. yes, we are still alive and we have lots to say. unfortunately we haven’t had the time to update this diary, and the last few days have simply been spent catching up on sleep from our insanely chaotic, exciting and tiring time in tokyo. brisbane was calm and relaxing, and now we’re taking in the sights, sounds and drinks that sydney has to offer. more news will follow when time permits!!
claire

15/05/2005 08:14 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ adelaide

melbourne was great fun. the melbourne museum has jim robinson’s kitchen in there, perfectly preserved, plus the only working valve computer in the world which i was extremely excited about (the first computer music was made on it, in 1951). lasergun’s friday 13th party was awesome… kevin (the promoter), the bar staff, michael (the owner) and some of the punters dressed up as zombies and were covered in fake blood.
now we’re stuck in adelaide for half a day, due to a cancelled gig. the one good thing about this city is the morning glory shop with a 50% off sale. but we have no mates here, and there don’t seem to be any attractions to speak of. we’re also totally knacked due to having too much fun in melbourne… both of us slept most of yesterday chez mink engine. despite the boredom, there’s no time to update properly (again); we are going to snooze in a hostel now, before catching our 6am flight to auckland.
claire

17/05/2005 02:52 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ auckland

auckland is warm and damp. it’s our first experience of tropical weather and we’re not entirely enamoured with it. the colours on the smart trainers i bought in tokyo are running and changing from pink and white into grey and brown… disastertown. there’s not much in the way of public transport here either, and the only way to see things is to drive around, so we may ont make it to any sights or volcanoes. but at least auckland has $2/hour internet cafes to make up for it. we may just spend the afternoon looking for vegan pies. we’re on the radio here tomorrow i think… the station is called ‘national radio’, if anyone would like to tune in.
claire

26/05/2005 04:30 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ san francisco

i havent got time, but fiji was nice. more when we get the wireless working.
claire

26/05/2005 08:46 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ san francisco

hi there.
updates to the tour diary have been few and far between, and nowhere near as long as i’d like. we’ve both tried to write new entries, but often don’t get around to posting them due to limited time on the internet and so on. right now we’re at val’s house in sf and i have some time to catch up at last…
so yes - australia was great and i didn’t do it justice in the diary… but maybe it’s too late to enthuse about it now. new zealand ended up being a lot of fun once the weather (partially) brightened up. matthew, the promoter, organised a great party for us with charlie ash and musche… it was at eden’s bar on k’rd which had a pretty good selection of clothes shops, cafes and the like. our show was at a place called eden’s bar which was below a strip club, it was a really nice place and the show was all the more interesting as we’d downed some legal ‘party pills’ a few hours before we had to play. they were far more potent than we imagined they would be, and left us in a bit of a state. nz tv channel ‘triangle’ filmed us playing through a totally distorted PA, grinning at each other and looking confused. amazing. that’s on a show called ’something on tv’ (?) on 6th june, if you’d like to see it. i’m not sure i do. i believe the interview we recorded with national radio will be broadcast the same day. we did a quick slot on bfm in nz too, which was great. basically we just talked shit while everyone around us drank milky cocktails. nice one lads. wish i had a copy of that.
after a trip to piha beach with rich, we escaped rainy new zealand and for blistering hot fiji, along with a plane full of american tourists. we spent a day in nadi in a hostel that cost us about ?З¬Ј12 for the night. we arrived on the day that all of nadi lost its’ water supply, and the city was pretty full-on… or ‘a bit of a shithole’ if you want to be blunt about it. although there were a couple of interesting supermarkets where i (surprisingly) scored the best stickers of the whole tour so far. we decided to escape to kuato island on the second day, which is where we spent the rest of our time in fiji. andrew did a lot of snorkelling and i spent my time staring at crabs and starfish. we waded in the sea after dark drinking gin and gave ourselves horrific hangovers, and generally just got sunburned. good times.
now we’re in san francisco and we just got back from a manitoba show where we met up with david figurine!!! awesometown… tomorrow we’re going to go sticker shopping again! the pile of cool stickers we’ve bought on this tour gets bigger and bigger.
claire

07/06/2005 00:48 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ new york

we’re setting up in the lucky cat for tonight’s show (wrecking ball)… there are gameboys in the house and it’s looking pretty exciting. we have spent just over 24 hours in new york now, staying at an apartment in brooklyn. so not much exploring or tourism to report yet.
the same was true in miami… a flying visit to play poplife which was lots of fun. we had a static but attentive audience, and stereo total stole the show with their salt ‘n’ pepa cover. we didn’t see much of miami, but we did eat vegetarian hot dogs and swim in the sea at 2am after our show.
san francisco was a lot of fun in the end, thanks to our san diegan friends who came to hang out at the end of the week. we got to play ping pong with dat politics, debate political rock with miguel and kelly, and stay in david’s treehouse bed in the mission. the first show (with bevin, jay and dat) was the best, and the last-minute arrow bar show was amazing too… warbler are one of the best bands i’ve seen in a long long time!!
so off to soundcheck now.. more news of new york as it happens. maybe the excessive ipod advertising (on every billboard everywhere in the country) will persuade me to actually buy one before i leave.
claire

10/06/2005 18:59 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ brooklyn

we’ve played two fairly dodgy shows here in new york in the last two days, due to some kind of 24 hour stomach flu which took andrew out for the knitting factory and almost destroyed me before the loft party last night. tonight we play the last overseas show at luke and leroys, which is free, if you are in the area and fancy it!
claire

13/07/2005 01:14 ?ў‚ЗЁ‚Дъ leeds

the tour diary ended rather abruptly, as andrew and i got very ill with gastric flu and spent the last week of the trip throwing up and sweating in an apartment in deepest brooklyn. since we got back we have played some rather unremarkable gigs, plus one brilliant one at chinchillafest 3 at the brudenell social club in leeds.
i’d like to take a sec to thank everyone who helped us survive seven weeks living out of a suitcase, and especially the amazing musicians and new/old friends we encountered along the way. an incomplete list of these people would include utabi, jason, john, nao, caleb, holly-anne, kevin, adam, jessalyn, jesse, josh, dan… there are so many. thanks lads. really.
so now we are preparing for a short driving holiday/tour around holland, belgium and germany…
claire

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