After Scotland, we traveled down to the southwest part of Wales and played T.J.'s in the town of Newport. Another goodnight's work with good friends and fans. Then across the country to London.
London is another city that I feel completely at home in. I first came here in 1970 with the MC5 and I've maintained a connection to the city ever since. I have so many friends and partners who are English, that, on occasion I feel part British myself. This visit was a whirlwind of work with non-stop press meetings the day of the show and the day after.
Folks ask me if I tire of answering the same questions over and over, and sometimes I do, but I look at it as part of the job. Frankly, I'm grateful that journalists are interested enough in what I do that that they want to talk to me. Sometimes it can be engaging if the writer has his or her own perspective on things, and a real exchange of ideas takes place. Plus, it's not like it's always the same questions anyway. Everything changes and there's always something new to talk about. I think it's a good forum to get ideas out there to examine. It's really a matter of search and research, always with the open mind.
The London show was a delight, with many old and new friends showing up. The high point for me was a special visit from Kate O'Brien. Kate is the soulful vocalist who joined Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson and all our other guests and me for the Sonic Revolution gig a couple of months ago here in London. Kate sang Rob Tyner's great ballad "Let Me Try." The girl is hot. I kept her onstage to join us on the choruses of "Back when Dogs Could Talk." I see a direct connection from the MC5 to undiscovered artists like Kate, and am happy to be a conduit for it.
After the show we all trouped over to Alan McGee's Notting Hill Arts club for a late night soirée of hootchie dancing and hanging out. Eric Gardner and Freddie Kron both cut a mean swath on the dance floor. Met a lot of young musicians and had a festive evening. I'm always grateful to meet younger cats that cite the work I've done in the past as an important influence to them. Their sincerity is an honor to receive and I know that part of it goes to the memory of Fred Smith and Rob Tyner and my fellows from the MC5. I know they're looking across from another dimension with some amount of pride.
We left London and crossed over into France via the ferry from Dover to Calais and cruised into Rennes the next day.
No disrespect to the British people or the culture of England but the food (and in particular the coffee) was less than fulfilling. Being back in France was good.
Arrived at the venue in the afternoon. It's hard to tell what's evening and what's afternoon over here. It's still light out at 9:30 PM. I expect this will get even stranger when we head into the northern territories of Scandi navia.
This club, Mondo Bizarro, is a regular stop on the Euro Tour circuit and although it's small, it turned out to be the best gig on the tour yet. The stage and room were very modest. It reminded us of The Baked Potato, one of our regular gigs in Los Angeles. We felt right at home.
The house was packed with 200+ fans packed into a room that could hold about 70. The excitement was palpable when we hit the stage. It was a full moon night and strange and wonderful things can happen on nights like this. Again we had a room full of folks with open minds who listened to what we were doing and really connected with the music. Some of the improvising was really inspired and we played things that were completely new.
The excitement built and built until, at the end, a woman threw her bra at me on the stage and one lovely young woman was moved to remover her shirt and get truly free. This kind of response is a little unusual for me these days and it's fun to return to the sexy excitement of rock and roll that got me into this game in the first place. It's a little difficult to report on this without sounding lascivious, but it was all in good fun and truth is, a half-naked woman in the front row is not such a bad thing.
The fans were crazy for the music and we spent the remainder of the evening hanging out and talking.
Doug Lunn had an amusing exchange with a rather drunken fellow who complained about hpw "You musicians come over here and steal all our women and go to hotels and take cocaine all night." I think he's seen too many VH-1 "Behind the Music" specials. I know that stuff still happens in the rock world, but me and my crew are a long way from that behavior. Sorry to disappoint, bro. Like I said, full moon nights can be strange.
We have mobile digital recording gear with us on the tour and Freddie and I are trying to get some shows recorded for future release. It's proving difficult, because every venue has different sound equipment and the mixing consoles are always rigged differently. Sometimes there's just not time to get the system set up in time or the outputs are not there to patch into. We're working on it and hope to come out of the tour with an audio record of what is proving to be an amazing time in your reporter's working life.
We're cruising across France as I write this listening to a wide range of music. We stopped at one of the best record stores in France in Renne Music. I bought "Out of the Cool" by Gil Evans, "8 Mile" by Eminem and a rare Red Rodney CD. We're listening to John Coltrane, Archie Shepp and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Sun Ra is cooking right now with "Space is the Place." Heard a cool record yesterday by NYC's, Speed Ball Baby. We be grooving.
God bless, w.
London is another city that I feel completely at home in. I first came here in 1970 with the MC5 and I've maintained a connection to the city ever since. I have so many friends and partners who are English, that, on occasion I feel part British myself. This visit was a whirlwind of work with non-stop press meetings the day of the show and the day after.
Folks ask me if I tire of answering the same questions over and over, and sometimes I do, but I look at it as part of the job. Frankly, I'm grateful that journalists are interested enough in what I do that that they want to talk to me. Sometimes it can be engaging if the writer has his or her own perspective on things, and a real exchange of ideas takes place. Plus, it's not like it's always the same questions anyway. Everything changes and there's always something new to talk about. I think it's a good forum to get ideas out there to examine. It's really a matter of search and research, always with the open mind.
The London show was a delight, with many old and new friends showing up. The high point for me was a special visit from Kate O'Brien. Kate is the soulful vocalist who joined Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson and all our other guests and me for the Sonic Revolution gig a couple of months ago here in London. Kate sang Rob Tyner's great ballad "Let Me Try." The girl is hot. I kept her onstage to join us on the choruses of "Back when Dogs Could Talk." I see a direct connection from the MC5 to undiscovered artists like Kate, and am happy to be a conduit for it.
After the show we all trouped over to Alan McGee's Notting Hill Arts club for a late night soirée of hootchie dancing and hanging out. Eric Gardner and Freddie Kron both cut a mean swath on the dance floor. Met a lot of young musicians and had a festive evening. I'm always grateful to meet younger cats that cite the work I've done in the past as an important influence to them. Their sincerity is an honor to receive and I know that part of it goes to the memory of Fred Smith and Rob Tyner and my fellows from the MC5. I know they're looking across from another dimension with some amount of pride.
We left London and crossed over into France via the ferry from Dover to Calais and cruised into Rennes the next day.
No disrespect to the British people or the culture of England but the food (and in particular the coffee) was less than fulfilling. Being back in France was good.
Arrived at the venue in the afternoon. It's hard to tell what's evening and what's afternoon over here. It's still light out at 9:30 PM. I expect this will get even stranger when we head into the northern territories of Scandi navia.
This club, Mondo Bizarro, is a regular stop on the Euro Tour circuit and although it's small, it turned out to be the best gig on the tour yet. The stage and room were very modest. It reminded us of The Baked Potato, one of our regular gigs in Los Angeles. We felt right at home.
The house was packed with 200+ fans packed into a room that could hold about 70. The excitement was palpable when we hit the stage. It was a full moon night and strange and wonderful things can happen on nights like this. Again we had a room full of folks with open minds who listened to what we were doing and really connected with the music. Some of the improvising was really inspired and we played things that were completely new.
The excitement built and built until, at the end, a woman threw her bra at me on the stage and one lovely young woman was moved to remover her shirt and get truly free. This kind of response is a little unusual for me these days and it's fun to return to the sexy excitement of rock and roll that got me into this game in the first place. It's a little difficult to report on this without sounding lascivious, but it was all in good fun and truth is, a half-naked woman in the front row is not such a bad thing.
The fans were crazy for the music and we spent the remainder of the evening hanging out and talking.
Doug Lunn had an amusing exchange with a rather drunken fellow who complained about hpw "You musicians come over here and steal all our women and go to hotels and take cocaine all night." I think he's seen too many VH-1 "Behind the Music" specials. I know that stuff still happens in the rock world, but me and my crew are a long way from that behavior. Sorry to disappoint, bro. Like I said, full moon nights can be strange.
We have mobile digital recording gear with us on the tour and Freddie and I are trying to get some shows recorded for future release. It's proving difficult, because every venue has different sound equipment and the mixing consoles are always rigged differently. Sometimes there's just not time to get the system set up in time or the outputs are not there to patch into. We're working on it and hope to come out of the tour with an audio record of what is proving to be an amazing time in your reporter's working life.
We're cruising across France as I write this listening to a wide range of music. We stopped at one of the best record stores in France in Renne Music. I bought "Out of the Cool" by Gil Evans, "8 Mile" by Eminem and a rare Red Rodney CD. We're listening to John Coltrane, Archie Shepp and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Sun Ra is cooking right now with "Space is the Place." Heard a cool record yesterday by NYC's, Speed Ball Baby. We be grooving.
God bless, w.
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