I'm back in Winchester, and the year is officially done for me. I went out in style, typically, with a totally insane race against time to make the Union Chapel show, after the weather destroyed pretty much all cross-channel links. In a weird way, it seemed kind of appropriate, to have a heart-attack of a day followed by an amazing show. Hm.
My last actual show of the year will be in Gloucester on New Year's Eve. There are still some tickets left, which you can get from here. It's a full band show, an end of year party, and a champagne hangover-to-be, all rolled into one. See you there.
And here's part II of the European Tour Diary. Happy Christmas.
We're back in Munich, on a day off, after what can best be described as an eventful trip to Austria. After amazing shows in Berlin and Munich, we made it to Vienna, which was beautiful but mind-crushingly cold. At last, we'd found the snow, and the moon boots and longjohns that we'd all brought with us came in handy. Whilst ample protection for the cold, they could not, however, prevent an outbreak of Ebola (sic) among the band and crew. After a great show, a massive total of 5 (from 8) members of the touring party came down with a virus that meant a lot of violent retching, shitting, and quality time in the toilet. Not at all nice. Thankfully I was spared (though I was constantly paranoid about the state of my guts). Yesterday for the Graz show, after much considering of options, Matt and I drove across with the promoter, Silvio, and played a duo show, which actually turned out to be a lot of fun. Now everyone is tired but on the mend, and we seem to have weathered the storm. Still, no fun.
News, news, and more news of shows. Firstly, this year, the band and I will be celebrating New Year's Eve with a show in Gloucester, at the Spiegeltent. The extremely limited tickets are available now, so if you're up for a champagne-fuelled end-of-year shindig, come on down.
Next, to the North American landmass! I'm very pleased to say that I'll be returning to Toronto to kick off 2010. I'll be busy around the town a fair bit for a few days, but chiefly I'm playing a free show at the Horseshoe Tavern on January 26th. I had a great time last time I was in that neck of the woods, and am hoping for a rerun.
After Canada, I'll be in Los Angeles, where I'm playing a solo acoustic showcase type show at the famous Hotel Cafe at 9.30pm on February 2nd. Again, limited tickets are available now, and hopefully we'll have a great evening together.
Shortly thereafter, and just before the Flogging Molly tour kicks off, my band and I will be playing a special warm-up show for that tour in my favourite town, Austin TX. We're playing Emo's on February 8th, and I'm over the moon to say that the amazing Possessed By Paul James will be playing too. Tickets for this one can be found here.
Christ, is that enough info for you yet? Haha. To keep you all happy, and to give you an insight into the madness and stupidity of the current European tour, here's a first installment of a tour diary for you.
Molotow Club in Germany is a cool basement-type place on the Reeperbahn. We're soundchecking as I write. This place is cool, but with ll 300 tickets sold for tonight, looking around, I;m finding it hard to see exactly where all the people are going to go. It's going to be tight. Chuck Ragan warned me that this was one of the hottest shows going, and I think I can see why. Hm, a night for sweating some then.
My Helsinki-Manchester-Copenhagen adventure went off OK, although I managed to gather a massive total of 4 hours' sleep over two nights, which wasn't much fun. Nevertheless the shows themselves were all top notch. Now we're back in Germany again, which brings me to today's business. Lots of stuff to get through.
First up, Germany. This has been my first headline tour here, and I'm frankly gobsmacked to report that the whole thing has been sold out. The shows have all been amazing, and I and everyone in the band are now fully engaged in a love affair with Germany. So the good news is that I have 5 more German shows announced for next year:
29th March @ Universum, Stuttgart, Germany
30th March @ Raucherkammer, Wiesbaden, Germany
31st March @ Zakk, Dusseldorf, Germany
1st April @ Uebel & Gafahrlich, Hamburg, Germany
3rd April @ Lagerhaus, Bremen, Germany
The tickets will be onsale on Monday, and I'll post links then. We also have a bunch more European shows coming together around that run, but more on them later.
Speaking of tours, the UK run in March is selling insanely well right now. The Norwich show on March 22nd at the Waterfront has now sold out... So we've moved the show up to the UEA instead. All tickets still valid, obviously, but there's a whole bunch more now onsale. The other shows are getting busy too, with London about two-thirds sold already, which is, actually, barmy. Get involved.
Next up, this week's NME Magazine features an article - a conversation between me and Peter Robinson. It came out pretty good, I think, and it's my first non-review coverage in that magazine, so it'd be good to show some support and pick up a copy. The voting for next year's NME Awards has also opened now, and you can go and vote here. Obviously the choice is yours, but a nod for yours truly would be great.
Finally (for today), we've added a bunch more stock to my online shop for the UK - we have most designs in most sizes now, and it's well worth a look in the run up to Christmas...! Haha, can't believe I actually just wrote that. Anyways, have a look.
I actually have a bunch of other stuff to announce for the USA and Canada, but that, my friends, is going to wait for another day (probably Monday). Peace, love and George Carlin to you all.
I sit in a hotel room at the airport in Stockholm. Looking out of the window, it started getting dark at about 2pm. Added to that fact, it's arse-bitingly cold out. It's nice to be back in Sweden, haha. Last time I was here, I got stranded in the city with The Gaslight Anthem boys for four days, and after much exploring decided I really like this place. The show last night was a blast, and I have an expensive hangover to enjoy today.
This European run of shows is going well. It's the first headline tour I've done on the continent, and it's the first full band tour as well. Amsterdam and Brussels were cool, Germany was insanely cool (sold out shows on my first headline tour..! What?). The rest of the run looks great as well - Hamburg and Paris are sold out, most of the others are close to going, and that's a predictably good feeling. Tomorrow we fly to Helsinki for a show (ferry schedules didn't work out, long story), and on Wednesday I'm flying to Manchester for the XFM Christmas bash, which is a tiny bit insane, but what the hell.
We had a band meeting yesterday to discuss the next year or so of our lives. I won't bore you with the details (yes, we are coming to a town near you soon, basically), but it was a thought-provoking evening. First of all, it really hammered home to me how far things have come along in the last few years. I regularly have discussions about international full-band touring, to the extent that after the next album is released (early 2011 hopefully) we're basically looking at a bona fide world tour. That's crazy. It also made me think about the band and crew - the family - I have around me. It's a little daunting, sometimes, asking these people to come with me on my jaunts around the world. It's fine when it's just me booking insane tour schedules, but when there's 7 other people involved, I feel a bit more... responsible, I suppose. But it also made me realize what a great bunch they are, and how lucky I am to tour with them. I try to give them a shout out onstage every night, and I know some people think it's overly long, but fuck that. They're hugely important to what I do. A toast, then, to Matt, Ben, Nigel, Tarrant, Barbs, Graham and Sarah.
I finished a new song yesterday, an overtly political number that is sure to piss a whole bunch of people off. But to hell with it; it's good to stand up for something you believe in every now and again. Watch this space.
