Stage set, Prague
A lovely drive through the countryside to get to Prague, playing Guru Singh‘s “A Game of Chants“, a favourite from the 2007 tour. If you think songs called “I Am What I Am” all sound a bit new-agey, well just hold on a bit. The production and music on this CD is fantastic and has vocals from Seal and performances from Thomas Barquee. Guaranteed to put a smile on the day and I’m having to ration Manartha to only twice a day. Read more…
In which we play the city of Karl Marx and generally chill… I may have played some music on the journey, I don’t remember, but Manartha decided to talk the whole way from Nuernberg to Chemnitz. Plus it poured with rain… not a great day for travelling.
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In which we leave Russia and return for a home game in Nuernberg and everyone is invited on stage.
Flying out of Russia was as uneventful as flying in… which I guess is a good thing. I still had a few roubles left, so I’d planned on changing them at the airport, but strangely, I couldn’t find a change bureau. We had lots of hugs and promises to return one day… Read more…
For anyone who thinks that the touring life is a glamorous whirlwind of exotic places, then today is a good reality check. Although getting to bed sometime around 3am the night before (had to try the local vodka before turning in), we all meet outside the hotel at 10:15 to load up a van and head out to the airport. Although the flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg is only about 90 minutes, hotel to hotel works out at about 7 – 8 hours. Thats an hour or two hanging around airports and the rest of the time sitting cramped in a van moving through the traffic at a pace that makes London look like a race track. Read more…
I’m basically going to be in Russia on holiday, as there is no need for a van there, and we won’t be doing any merchandising either. So it’s just the musicians, the sound guy and the manager with me hanging around. I’ve not been to Russia before (in fact only one of our party has) and there’s quite a lot of music and sound equipment to get in and out, so we’re kind of curious how difficult it can be with the Russian bureaucracy. Will we be interrogated? Equipment impounded? Massive bribes change hands? Read more…
I only need enough stuff for the Munich concert, so I can unpack much of the van and store it in the cellar, but I need to add some of the musical equipment, so the van isn’t exactly empty when I head off to Munich and I’ve shifted a lot of gear to and from the cellar.
But it’s a lovely day for a drive and perfectly suited to Sarah McClaughlin’s ‘Rarities and B-Sides, Vol 2′ which I’d downloaded from Zunior.com last year It’s got a couple of duff tracks, but overall it’s a nice mix of unusual songs and collaborations. Being an odds and sods sort of album, one has to live with jumping from ‘Prayer of St Francis’ to a DJ Tiesto remix of ‘Silence’ (which is great driving music by the way). but overall, a good album. Read more…
I’m the roadie for Deva Premal and Miten while they are in Europe. When there are problems I get called the “Road Manager” to make me feel better about it all. Mostly I drive a van around with equipment and merchandising and make sure it arrives (and leaves) the various concert halls on the tour. I get to practise photography as well. These are some blogs from the European tour 2009. Read more…
Yesterday I was running to the sound of cheering and the (mostly good) music blaring from one or other of the 42 bands scattered around the course. It was the 6th Freiburg marathon (although only my first) and it was a lot of fun. Well, mostly… the last 7-8 km gave a slightly different meaning to the word fun and today, despite beautiful weather, I wasn’t quite up to a morning run. In fact, bed to couch is enough for now! Read more…
