1st week of July 2002

What follows is a taste of our recent trip to the UK where we were fortunate enough to have shared bills with Arthur Lee and Love, Counting Crows & Television. Rodewald and I loved it over there (we always do) and we'll gladly move to London any second now if you’ve got a free room for us. Honestly.

Gotta say right off the bat that Rodewald has now upgraded her road warrior status to the international level. Yeah, maybe you've driven some boring English highways, some quaint Irish country lanes, but HR was wheelin' it thru central London at rush hour like it was Burbank on a Sunday morning taking Bob Hope to breakfast at the Tallyrand. All hail.

At present I'm only remembering a fraction of the funny stuff, the cool people and the amazing places we were so privileged to have experienced. We'll have to save all that for my book – yeah. I just had to get this little note out to y'all while SOME ASPECTS of the tour were still fresh in my mind. There are, one hopes, more specific notes in the as yet not unpacked suitcase. Save 'em for later, I say.

And so it went...

3 Liquid Room - Edinburgh SC
Edinburgh is beautiful, just beautiful - it's the kinda town we see and after 5 minutes in the cab we know we wanna come back when we're not carrying guitars and rushing to sound checks. I am thrilled by the fact that I could understand what most folks were actually saying earlier at the train station. However, our cab driver might as well be speaking Mandarin. I think I'm getting 2 words tops out of every sentence. Its like being trapped in a Proclaimers home demo while someone hangs you upside down and spins you around while spraying Jell-O in your ears. Our dressing room is decorated in Early Prison Cell. In fact, it WAS a prison cell. Heidi and I must be nuts going onstage in front of hundreds & hundreds of people without having played a single note of this set since the last show of the Dan Bern tour in ...mid April??? Ah, whatever. It's only the first gig of the tour. We say hello to Mr. Lee and its great if not a bit surreal to see our dear buds Rusty Mike Daddyo and Chapple in the hizzy.

During our set some guy yells something completely incomprehensible at me so I tell him to shut the fuck up and suck my dick. Funny how even a world away some sentences retain their meaning and power. Of course he could have been saying "Yer the best thing since sliced haggis."

Afterwards we hit this wonderful pub just a few doors down where many of the patrons happened to be at the show. So we got to sit down with the nicest bunch of people we'd ever met and listen to their kind words about our set and accept their kind offers of more and more alcohol. And so, before you know it, we're on the road again.

4 King Tut’s - Glasgow SC
The mantra coming out of everybody's mouth is Glasgow is gonna be wild and crazy and the crowds there tend to be tough…etc…Well, I don't think we had a more attentive crowd on the whole tour. Ok, we did, but my point is they were completely cool – they got the jokes and made me and Rodewald feel completely at home. Now we're in the groove. Earlier that evening I'm sitting in the downstairs bar section and I have this Guinness that is just pure religion – I mean I have never tasted a Guinness with such depth – and this is only Scotland – imagine how they must taste in the mother country. This is a cool town, we have decided. The sound guy at Tuts was very cool and played Bert Jansch which was extra cool.

5 Stables Theater- Milton Keynes
Most things in England are old. Milton Keynes is not. But that's no reason to diss it. We were treated so wonderfully at the Stables Theater both by the audience and the staff that I have nothing but fond memories of the place. It was PERFECT for us i.e. people were seated and focused. It was like a television theater out of the 60's. Sort of a larger Austin City Limits vibe. Great gig.

6 Concorde 2 – Brighton
(Edited version of a post to our yahoo group)

The current world cup fever is a bit annoying -- I feel if I root for Nigeria this Wednesday against England in a voice above a whisper I'll be lynched -- or worse, forced to listen to Kajagoogoo remixes.

Last night we played an amazing show in Brighton Beach (by amazing I mean the whole vibe of the night). The club was right on the beach... THAT beach.

Anyone who listened to Quadrophenia as religiously as I did at age 12 will understand why it was one of those Life Landmark moments. Sipping a beer outside the club, looking out at the dark water with "Some nights I just sit on the beach/Remember when stars were in reach" going thru my head while Arthur Lee's music glides thru the club walls and into the fresh night air. I'm enjoying this.

On the way back from Brighton, at a Brixton fried chicken joint around 1am, our car was approached by two crack heads. While everyone else seemed somewhat terrified I couldn't stop giggling -- it was so much like home and they both looked straight out of central casting. And there we were, after FRIED CHICKEN of all things!!!...IN ENGLAND! Well, I thought it was funny. Plus I was on a cell phone at the time, which just magnified the situation's hilarity. But then again a guy in Brighton had given me a sample of some, er, uh, special English tea he'd procured and I guess after a bit of that stuff one could find anything funny.

8 The Brook – Southampton
I’m sure I had a great time. All I can remember was the sound guy having a good laugh at the lyrics. Good show, no doubt. Heidi said it went very well.

9 Lomax @ Nation- Liverpool
What an intense music town. It’s easy to see why Gerry and the Pacemakers and that other group came out of here. This was an amazing gig for us. Hundreds of people standing holding beers and yet listening like it was a folk club. We met some of the coolest people after the show. AND GOD I had the best chicken tikka masala I'd ever had in my life at this joint on…?

10 Manchester University
Anyone who is familiar with my rare online posts will know that I have in the past placed more emphasis on the restaurants we've run into on the road than I have details about the sets we've played. I truly think talking about music that has already disappeared into thin or fat air is a job for the misguided. With that in mind, I take you to The Royal Naz, located just down the block from the university we played at. The Vegas like neon sign that screamed THE ROYAL NAZ made it easy to find and gave us that optimistic happy feeling that one associates with Las Vegas (Neon seems to be rather common signage for some Indian joints around here – and why not? Any meal taken in any restaurant these days IS somewhat of a gamble, after all, don’t you think?) Our host was chatty & extremely witty. The food took long. And t'was absolutely worth every second of the wait. This is the kind of food that makes it really hard to go home again. I can't imagine eating anywhere else if I lived in Manchester. The Royal Naz is to be worshipped. Do make a pilgrimage, won't you? Ah, Manchester…would have been nice to see a Fall gig here or run into Barry Adamson.

11 Boardwalk – Sheffield
This crowd was amazing. Gotta start by saying that. They got so many jokes it felt home. And the staff was very cool – Big props must go out to the sound guy who worked very hard trying to get our keyboard together. Thanks a lot dude. My only regret is that I didn’t get to eat at Halal Southern Fried Chicken.

But I did get a picture. They also had a Malcolm X bookstore there that I didn't have time to check out. Sheffield definitely has its gritty vibe but don't let that stop you from making it a holiday destination! I’m going back for sure.

12 Astoria London w/ Counting Crows
Lest you think EVERYTHING at the big rock star level is pre-planned for months with managers and lawyers working out every little detail be advised that spontaneity is still alive and well – at least in Adam's twisted brain. I think we got the call a day and a half before -- "Wanna play Astoria in London and Bristol Academy with us?" "Uh, yeah dude, uh…lemme check my schedule…"

We were of course on the road at the time of the call. But that's rock. It's fun. The Astoria was really cool. Its really right there in the thick of London – I mean it really makes you feel like yer playing IN LONDON and not some non-descript joint on the outskirts of town. The crowd was really great to us. And the fact that Adam was cool enough to intro us – like he always did on the 2 tours we did with him before – sho don't hurt.

13 Robin 2 – Wolverhampton
Actually, the town was called Bilston. I think its fair to say that these folks had never contemplated a fraction of the issues I deal with in song. I'm not even sure these people had ever contemplated a fraction of the issues that Kylie Minogue deals with in song. Folks seemed so completely dumbfounded by us that Heidi and I actually played what we think was the best gig of the whole tour. We had the most fun we’ve ever had onstage because at that point the audience became the entertainment. At least they were quiet. The soundmen were really cool and after our set the dj actually would interject into the tunes he was spinning comments about our songs such as "Hey Stew, what's a strap on?" I think he was letting us know that there was at least one hip cat in the room. That was cool.

14 Queen Elizabeth Hall – London
Nice joint. Shower in the dressing room. Loving it. A downstairs bar just for the artists. Luxuriating in it. Amazingly helpful staff. Worshipping it... And it was only a hop & skip away from our London headquarters. I'm looking forward to seeing the video that was made cuz I don't remember much about the show. By this time London has become our home so the excitement of coming into London doesn't hold a candlelight to say, rolling into Sheffield. But nonetheless, London is the jizzoint. We did our funky fresh thing. The way I see it, if yer sitting down and listening, we're all up in your breast pocket and yer soaking in it.

16 Bristol Academy
I must give it up to Bristol as being the sweeter of the two Crows shows. Damn, the crowd was just so focused. It was really a beautiful experience. It’s a real & rare pleasure for Rodewald and I to go out there - just the two of us - in front of a ton of people who ain’t there to see us and don’t know who we are AND without the help of rock out volume – and have people dig it and get it. Its really hard work -- but not as hard as working for real. And the town of Bristol - what little we saw and felt of it - really impressed us. We’re excited about going back someday soon.

18 Borderline London
I remember this gig like a murky dream – everything was real dark, and yet red-hot blinding lights were making me sweat like one of those electric blues guys. In many ways a harder gig to play than any of the giant shows that came before it. Got to do the entire "drug suite" finally after having earlier only done excerpts. That was very refreshing. Our french friend was very cool. But I can't drink Red Stripe. Its sort of like Rolling Rock was for me many years ago – I thought it was cool when it was hard to find but once I had enough of it I had had enough of it.

20 Queen Elizabeth Hall – London (W/ TELEVISION)
This one I think was more fun for us than the first QEH cuz we knew the stage and the crew WHO WERE GREAT, by the way – they knew what we were all about. I got to play with the acoustics of the room more – I think I even sang a bit off mic at the crowd, broadway style. God I enjoy those kinds of rooms. The acoustics, the lighting, the drama. I know we'll have to make do with many beer stained dives and folks standing around moving from one foot to the other... but theres nothing like a proper theater for what we're doing.

--

Well, in conclusion, I didn’t have enough time to explore my Scottish roots while in the step-motherland. But we’ll be back. Newsflash! -- haggis does not suck! It’s actually quite good. But the Scots eat more meat for breakfast than we do for dinner. Its a bit overwhelming. Poor Ms Rodewald was not always up for the challenge.

A sincere thanks to all you swingin’ cats across the pond who made things easy for us. We deeply appreciate all your hospitality and hard work. Please keep the key in the same spot under the flowerpot and we’ll see you all again very soon.

Ciao,
Stew & Heidi


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