Friday 25 February 2011

Tour Dates Firming Up

UK & French dates sorted ..( almost ! )
9th april @ Water rats , London
10th april @ The Hydrant, Brighton
12th april @ Le Sambre , Rennes
13th april @ La Féline , Paris
14th april @ Deep Inside Klub , Dijon
15th april @ Chez Paulette , Pagney ( near Nancy )
16th april , Nîmes , Club TBA


I'm really excited now, looking at maps. 

We played Chez Paulette 25 years ago, too. The support band were Clash-y punk rock, and one of their posse had brought his pet rat with him. I remember being absolutely shattered after the gig there, and lying down on the floor of the dressing room because I couldn't catch a breath. It took a right good cough to get the air moving again. David Belcher said afterwards he only started worrying when he realised that nobody seemed to have noticed. Ah, vive le rock. It will all be different this time, I'm sure. 

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Sustenance


Another solid rehearsal, set for London pretty robust now. We had time to try out a few more tunes. 

The rehearsal started with a photo shoot for The Herald - there should be a piece in Saturday's paper. 

Most tour dates seem to be set now, but it looks like we'll be using local amps & drumkits to save cost. 

I have now unwound with some cheese, some wine, and Alice Coltrane's "Journey In Satchidananda"

Working working

Thursday 17 February 2011

Stretches and picking

I've been away on business for a few days, so no guitar time. I managed twenty minutes last night, where I re-organised the rhythm guitar part for Prairie Chain - it's now much simpler as the song sounded messy in the last rehearsal. Tonight I played the set for London, in order, blasting along with the iPod, then spent 5 minutes going over some slide parts. 

Right, I could do the gig tomorrow. Shame it isn't till April 9! I'm delighted that quite a few of my friends in The Word Massive are coming along, and that other great friends will be able to come along too. 

Waiting for news on other gigs. 

Monday 7 February 2011

Workmanlike

A solid rehearsal, not quite as much zip as some earlier ones. Balanced against that - we are now paying more attention to the details & nuances, and we are also not settling for just getting to the end without bumping into each other. We tried a few adjustments, checked the pace of several songs - I am guilty of romping off like a startled horse if I'm starting a song by battering out the guitar riff on my own - so while it was an enjoyable evening with valuable results, the level of progress is less steep than earlier ones.

We have organised the set for London (as a first pass) and played these songs tonight -

Probables
American Road Trip
St Jack
Pauper's Grave
Stream Of Life
Someone To Love
I Don't Feel Free
Bones Are Buried
DT Blues
See That Skin
Venus Discovered
Primeval Call
Eternal Hotfire
Prairie Chain

Possibles
Sister
Justify
Ho Chi Minh City
One Sweet Drink
Elixir Of Life
I Happen To Love You
Clean

20 - not bad at all, and there are another 10 at least that we can get up to speed very quickly.

Some to & fro on the detail of the French gigs, availability of backline, van requirements, accomodation, etc - but the feeling is very much "que sera, sera". Things will change, things will turn upside down - but we'll do some gigs, and we'll live a little.

Ready!!

Friday 4 February 2011

Some gigs now fixed

We are playing in London as part of a Shindig event at the Water Rats, Grays Inn Road on Sat April 9. May be late - will update once I know.

Paris now set - Wednesday 13th April, La Feline http://paris.unlike.net/locations/304159-La-F-line - good enough for Tav Falco, good enough for us!

More to follow

Rehearsal update

Another good rehearsal earlier this week - we now need to pick through the tunes and organise the heirarchy, work out which songs are the core of the set and which will be used sparingly, as required.
London gig confirmed at the Water Rats, Grays Inn Rd on Sat April 9 - sounds like it might be a late one - don't know what that means for attendance.

We rolled in a few brand new ones as well as going over songs we had worked on previously.

Brand New
Long Screaming Slide
Wild Chemical Rush
I Gotta Do Things My Way (Tim Rose song)

Previously on Soap...
Ho Chi Minh City
Spiritual
One Sweet Drink
Have Some Fun
Pauper's Grave
Clean
Early Grave
I Happen To Love You
Elixir Of Life
Prairie Chain
Primeval Call

Tons of songs, I think that's 34 now.

New fuzzbox sounded good, all went well.