"3,500 Miles Away, What Would You Change If You Could?"

My first proper American adventure is not yet properly over. I'm sat in the venue in Olympia, WA, killing time before the last show of the tour. Tonight we drive back to Portland and tomorrow I catch my plane home, where I have a meagre amount of time off followed by more UK touring. On the plus-side, this is apparently the home of Courtney Love, and I've been singing that Rancid song to myself all day too.

I have learnt much on this little jaunt. America is huge; this is a fact everyone knows but that it's hard to appreciate until you've been driving for 8 fucking hours and you're STILL IN TEXAS. There's such variation as well; the North-West versus the Arizona desert, for example, and I haven't touched the East coast on this tour. One of my big impressions is how little impact people have made on their natural environment here compared with Europe. Human civilization here feels like it's perched on the edge of the landscape, resting on the surface, transitory and impermanent. And there's so much empty space here as well. It's sort of reassuring in its own way.

The shows have been great and I'm hoping to come back here as soon as I can. Big thankyou's need to go out to Josh English, my ertswhile touring buddy / driver / sarcasm well, and of course to Scrabble failure Jonah Matranga. Big ups to Justin at Welcome Home, to all the promoters and floor-space providers as well. Thanks people.

Well, the new video should be here any day, the tour dates are all up and the shows are all on sale now, the tour supports are finally figured out (check the gigs page for details, it's complicated). Back to blighty.

"Did You Hear The Baby Crying In Wichita Today?"

The title of this blog is derived from one of my more profound experiences of Americana. We were searching through stations on the radio en route to LA and stumbled across Bible Radio. It really exists - they were in the middle of a section explaining why it was OK to be Christian and rich, haha... A few stations later we came across a bunch of pro-lifers patting each other on the back. The DJ introduced a song (with the above as the title), which was apparently written by a policeman and his wife after hearing the said DJ discourse on abortion politics. It sounded like the verse to "Earth Song" by Michael Jackson on the wrong speed, dirging along without a chorus in sight. It was, in short, horse. This country is odd.

Our other amazing experience this week has been (possibly) chasing Yngwie Malmsteem (sp?) down the I-10 highway at 80 mph for about half an hour. I say possibly because there was no 100% confirmed sighting, but basically we were tailgating a black BMW with personalized "Yngwie" plates, and I really can't imagine it was anyone else...

So yes, America is fun and culturallty intriguing. They're good at food, and San Fransisco is good at pretty much everything lefty or liberal, but then they collectively suck at Tea making and Scrabble (hahahaha). It's great fun though, and I'm already talking to some folks about coming back out here again, maybe covering some new ground as well as coming up the West coast again.

In LA I did a quick session for Mike Davies' Radio 1 show, which will be out on Monday night, so keep ears peeled for that one.

I kinda jumped the gun on the tour support thing, incidentally. It's all a little hazy at the moment, but will essentially feature a mix of some of my favourite bands (The Tailors, Captain Black, Jay Jay & The Pistolets). Kid Harpoon can't make it, sadly, but everyone should check out his myspace all the same.

Right, that's quite enough blurb for one day. Over and out.

"Have A Nice Day"

In Yanksville at the moment, at SXSW festival. It must be said this place is pretty horrible this time of year. Don't get me wrong, Austin is a cool town and the actual real people at the shows are great, but this place is full of industry types, hipsters, wannabes, rockstars and the rest. Not really my cup of tea to be honest. But it's great to be in the states and I can't wait till we head out onto the great highway and start touring for real. Hanging out with Jonah and Josh is loads of fun too, and we're playing with Steve Brodsky today, which is ace. We got ripped off by the promoter in San Antonio, which was shit (never play the Sanctuary, people), but otherwise the septics are ok, haha...

The UK tour dates are now up on the gigs page. I'm covering pretty much everywhere apart from Wales (not sure why that is, sorry). So enjoy. The support will be from Kid Harpoon and Jay Jay & The Pistolets, which is the best news I've heard all year. See you there.

A venue I've played many times over the years is under threat, and you should all help out in trying to save The Harlow Square. There's a petition you should all get on with signing here: http://www.petitiononline.com/SHS/petition.html.

And don't forget about the EP in May, we've finished the artwork and the B Sides and so on, and the video is getting edited at the moment, it'll be posted up here as soon as it's done.

I Columbus

Tomorrow morning I'm hitting Gatwick Airport and flying to Portland, Oregon, where I'm meeting up with Josh English. We're then zooming down to Austin, TX, and driving over to San Antonio for a pre-SXSW gig, the start of my first US tour. I'm pretty damn excited about the whole thing, I think it's going to be a blast. I had a look at our route on Google Earth, and discovered that there's curvature of the earth involved in our itinerary. Wow.

In other news, I'm knackered. There's been video shooting going on throughout this week, as well as a last minute gig, guitar designing (fuck yes) and lots of preparation for another UK tour (to be announced shortly). Essentially, my week off has involved not much time off, but there you go. Shit happens and then you die.

Lots more to do before I head off. I'm going to be reading Steinbeck and listening to Springsteen. Wish me luck.