Manchester

The first night was more chaotic than I could have imagined for a first night of a tour. The Damned and most of their equipment arrived late because the trailer that was attached to their bus with the equipment in it broke. I can't imagine how it broke. Whether it snapped in half or came adrift in the middle of the M1 motorway I'll probably never know. But it meant that the soundcheck was delayed which meant that I didn't get a soundcheck and neither did the Weirdos who went on immediately their gear was set up and played to about fifty people - it seems the Damned's audience come in at the last minute having filled themselves up with snakebite in some local pub - they aren't interested in support bands. So the Captain told me anyway. But it was alright when I went - a bit disconcerting in that there was a fully fledged gimp standing right in front of me chatting to a Captain Sensible lookalike. I felt strangely disconnected because I hadn't had time to eat anything all day and because it was Manchester so it was raining outside. The sound was pretty good considering the total lack of a soundcheck - I couldn't hear my amplifier very well and my ancient homemade fuzz box was fucking up a bit but I think it was fine out front. Because everything was running late I kept the set short - I played Joe Meek, Same, Continuity Girl, Whole Wide World, Local and 33s & 45s. It took almost exactly twenty five minutes to do.
Sadly the Weirdos have had to leave the tour after only one date due to personal difficulties back home in LA. So I'm the only support act now which means I'm going to have to cast around for some more material to fill the set out to forty minutes or so. I just don't know how I'm going to manage.
I didn't see the Damned last night because I met some friends and talked to them instead. So I can't really comment except to say that they were extremely loud and they did a cover of Alone Again Or by Love. I expect I'll get to see then on one of the other nights.
I may get a soundcheck tomorrow night. I'm bringing a bigger amplifier - I get a great sound out of the Ampeg Jet that I usually use for solo gigs but it just isn't loud enough for big stages - it's only 15 watts so it tends to disappear when the stage is the size of a small club. I'm bringing a Hi Watt combo which is so loud I've never turned it up full. I got half way in my living room once but it started to sound like a nuclear attack and the windows were threatening to blow out so I think it'll do the trick. Those gimp people won't be able to talk over that.
I'll try and file a report from Cambridge but it could be that it just turns into more of the same so I might not. And if I can get my camera working I'll take some pictures - lots of redeye and bare bottoms I expect - a fearless expose of life on the road with a top pop group.

I had a great time. I drove down from my place in the afternoon listening to We Love Life, the last Pulp album. I haven't heard it for a while but it was a favourite with me. It still stands up, still gets me off. I like to listen to something uplifting on the way to gigs - another favourite for that is Who's Next - from Baba O'Reilly to Won't Get Fooled Again. Some albums just give me a feeling that everything's going to be alright at the gig - they help me get it in focus. Wild Honey by The Beach Boys is another favourite though it's not reckoned to be their greatest - Pet Sounds is sometimes a bit too overwhelming. Last year I was listening to the Small Faces compilation, The Darlings Of Wapping Laundrette - it's got just about everything they ever recorded for Immediate on it including the whole of Ogden's Nutgone Flake and all for the ludicrous price of £4.99 which made me feel so guilty that I bought two copies and gave one to a friend. Sometimes I listen to stuff like James Last doing Latin American or Bert Kaempfert but that makes me feel a bit silly like I've been smoking pot and then I don't think the staff at the venue take me seriously. I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this.

I actually got a soundcheck tonight and did a much longer set - in fact I over-ran but nobody minded because I was doing quite well. I just enjoyed it so much - I didn't feel the pressure of trying to do it right , hoping the crowd would be won over and all that bollocks, I was just pleased to play and I thought the audience were great - very receptive. I haven't played in Cambridge for years and someone told me the other night that Cambridge audiences are notoriously difficult but I don't think that's true.

It was a good night all round - I got to watch the Damned tonight and they were fab. It's great talking to Captain and thinking back to the lunacy of the Stiff Records days - not for the nostalgia but for the fact that we've come through it all and straightened up and we're still able to do it.

I could get quite maudlin if I carry on so I think I'll stop. My set tonight was Joe Meek, Reconnez Cherie, Same, Continuity Girl, Walking On The Surface Of The Moon, Whole Wide World, The Final Taxi, Local and 33s & 45s. Tomorrow night I might do a new tune (or I might just lose my bottle and not do it). A very nice girl came and talked to me afterwards and then I listened to a Yo La Tengo album, I Can Hear The Heart Beat As One on the way home. Here come some crappy photos as promised - lacking in redeye and bare bottoms but I don't think it's that sort of tour.

the stand-in bass player (don't know his name)

I'm determined to produce some sort of documentation of this tour even if it's just for me so that I don't have to try and hold the memories of it in my chaotic mind. But I can't be arsed to cart a laptop around and now I already can't quite remember the drive to Preston - it was grey for the most part but now I come to think of it I saw the sunset on the M62 and whoever the lighting man was for that he was doing a great job.
The Mill was a mill I suppose but now it's a grubby rock box - that isn't meant to be a putdown. It's a fairly standard idea - a large bar, metal furniture bolted in place and posters advertising forthcoming tribute band events all over the walls. Most of the audience seemed to be talking through my set which I thought was fucking rude of them. Apparently I went down well though and afterwards lots of large Northern men came and shook my hand.
When I got to Shrewsbury the following afternoon The Damned's bus had broken down - the clutch went a few yards from the venue and they were all evicted while the bus was towed away and a new one was delivered. So there were lots of homeless band members and their luggage kicking about. It was like a centre for refugees. The owner of the venue was appalled by the crash barrier. He told me he'd been resisting this sort of event for twenty years. He was told to block off part of the balcony to prevent audience members from dropping things on the band from above the stage. He couldn't understand this and asked me what sort of people would spit at their favourite band. He'd certainly done his homework their. I don't know why he latched on to me, perhaps I look sympathetic. I told him they'd pour beer on the band. He looked aghast - but that would ruin all the fun he said, not that he was planning on having any.
I had to tell the audience to shut up because they were having one massive private conversation. But I played well and it all came out fine. When I got back in the dressing room the Captain was talking to a bloke who turned out to be Tony McPhee of the Groundhogs. Later on they got him on stage to do Cherry Red with Captain on bass.
I drove to Bangor after the gig and stayed in a hotel there because it's nearer to Holyhead and the ferry for Dublin. I found the worst fish and chip shop in the world - for some time now it's been on the seafront in Felixstowe but now it's next to the ferry terminal in Holyhead just along the block from the boarded-up kebab shop.
Dublin was a great gig for me - I over-ran by ten minutes but I made it up the next night in Belfast by only playing for half an hour. I can never quite work the figures out. In Liverpool I did exactly forty minutes which was my allotted time. There were a lot of beautiful women in the audience in Dublin and they were spectacularly lit up due to the atrocious lighting.
Some of the Belfast audience were quite ugly, especially the two gits who spat at me. But they were forcibly ejected. I didn't enjoy playing in Belfast because the audience were making more noise than I was. It was the aural equivalent of trying to play darts in a blizzard. I met some charming gentlemen afterwards including a couple of Millwall supporters who fortunately thought I was a geezer (whatever that is). They hung over me, bulky, drunk and broken-nosed, and one of them recited their party piece like a five year old: we are Millwall we are here to drink your women and fuck your beer. I didn't correct him. As he said, thas wossall baht innit geezer. And then he belched in my ear.
Liverpool was quite different, the audience there listened intently. They were the quietest of the whole tour so far. I like Liverpool.

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