Sweet endings.

Beautiful Elbow!

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

Olah!

Another road trip entry.....

The drive today from Madrid to Barcelona was pretty special. 

After trying my best to catch up on lost sleep, I finally gave up and joined Glenn up the front, where we sat for a few quiet hours just taking in the desert landscape, abandoned buildings and in between, visited one helluva truck stop starring one weary, once beautiful waitress and 2 highway policemen drinking filtered coffee....was all feeling very David Lynch for a minute or two....

not a bad thing really...

Was cool to finally pull into Barcelona and check out the beautiful, old theater, Apolo, upon which we're supporting Elbow on our last show of the tour tonight :(

You couldn't hope or wish for a warmer bunch of lads, it's been an absolute pleasure!

Zurich to Madrid.

We played Zurich a couple nights ago, our only headline show of the Elbow tour. It was an absolute pleasure, everyone involved was super cool and the venue was sweet. 

Only issue was having to leave that night to begin the unimaginable drive to Madrid, which our heroic and esteemed drummer Glenn, somehow managed to pull off without as much as a hitch, well, apart from a £100 fine for holding his Iphone to close to his ear......!?!?!?

Today? Well, lucky ol me got to spend the day alone walking around Madrid, what a bustling, hustling, cracker of a town!

I got to see some magnificent things, libraries and incense filled churches, I then spent a few hours at the Museo Del Prado, found some new all time favourite paintings, some made me teary eyed, some made me smile, some made me cringe. But that's the beauty of aesthetic form isn't it.

Moments like this make you appreciate every moment of touring!

XHB

A Paris!

We never get enough time in Paris! 

All that we've experienced of the whimsical city is a well lived in bus, a crammed dressing room and just enough time to squeeze in a buttery pastry of some sort. However, last night I got my first flash tour of the city! What a beautiful time, we had a kikass dinner, ran drunkenly around Place de La Concorde , saw the Eiffel tower sparkling, walked through the Ritz Hotel at Place Vendome and stumbled back to the bus in the wee hours.

I look forward to more adventures in Paris....

Miles&Miles.

An 8 hour drive from the Rolling Stone Festival in Germany (which was kikass btw) to Amsterdam yesterday....8am start, all is good until you hit that half way mark,  difficult to comprehend that you've another 4-5 hours to go, depending on traffic. 

I got through a few episodes of 30 Rock and finally saw Serpico for the very first time......Al Pacino, the 70s, peace beads&dirty cops, totally awesome!

Now at the Heineken Music Hall waiting for sound check, seems evereyones a little worse for wear after last night....but then, we were in Asterdam :)

Off duty

 Some days are just more interesting than others.......

Load in, load out

Sleep.Wake.Sleep again

Truck stop.Shite food.

Stop.Go.Red.Yellow.

Should i have a drink now or later?

I wonder what the town looks like beyond these walls?

 

XHB

The Music

Last night was the first of the Elbow shows I sat through from start to finish....there was a nice little dark corner from which I could sit on my own and really take the experience in. From the opening chords of The Birds, the first track off their new album to the blistering peaks of Tower Crane Driver, there honestly wasn't  a moment where I wasn't completely engaged and inspired.

Being on tour and getting to know them better only contributes to a greater feeling of beauty and camaraderie. Not many bands can say they've been preaching the same message for a couple decades! This tour actually marks their 20 year anniversary, and we feel privileged to be a part of that celebration

xHB

On the road again.....

On the road, the road, the road, the road ..........

Cologne to Munich

Filling endless hours with whatever one can manage to entertain oneself with.

Books: reading The Old Man&The Sea, Ernest Hemmingway 

Movies: Less Than Zero....Robert Downey Jnr at his best 

Over&Out

XHB

 

Street Art.

You gotta love Europe in all its expressive glory! 

Pioneers of artistic poetry. Theater, art, film,music and more recently I should think graffiti.


You always know you've hit Germany, for the sheer scale of street art that covers its walls. It's a different kind than what we're used to, somehow they've more artistic license here than anywhere. Provocative, poetic and sometimes very beautiful. Driving from Antwerp to Cologne today reminded me of this.

 3 Pigs...found on a wall in Brussels

Girl in Cologne

 And then of course there's just mind blowing crudeness that one could only find here....

You gotta love it!

XHB

Belgium Baby!

Again the wheels are turning, retracing our footsteps throughout Europe.

Once trodden by rusty buses and hopeful troupes.

  

Yesterday we awoke at dawn, packed the trailer and off our merry way, a relatively easy trek between a towering jungle of a city, on to the ferry and from there, to Belgium, our first pit top of the tour.

Tonight is the second of 13 shows with the very lush Elbow, a band whose musical journey any band would be more than content echoing I'm sure!

Brussels was cool, we mostly played songs off the new album, The Loudest Engine.

Elbow put on a spectacularly beautiful show. Liquid Gold they are.

XHB