Two to Go
Hello,
We’re back home after 13 days of music, travel, fun etc. in both Japan & Thailand.
Japan was great as usual, except for one big storm that made us cancel one of our shows, but we’ll take revenge at next year’s Summer Sonic (it’s official!), so I guess that’ s cool. There’s too much to mention, but I think the first show and aftershow party in Tokyo was definitely a highlight. My voice sounded like Nick Cave’s after going out of the Rocrococoro (I guess I’ll never get that name right), but it was fun.
Osaka was warm both in the climate and the audience. By the way, thanks to the 2 guys dressed up in what looked like Elmo suits (one red, one yellow), it must have been incredibly hot inside.
Here’s a story for you: once the show was finished, we got back to our dressing rooms. One band member had stolen a few bottles from Kasabian…I scared him, saying the crew was still there (to be honest, I didn’t have a clue), after much talking (“are you sure” etc.) Julien, (shit, have I just said his name?) put them back where they were, luckily, cos 5 minutes later our neighours were all in there, celebrating the end of the festival.
Can you imagine the headlines,”UK #1 rockers get in a fight with a bunch of frogs”, plus we could have caught the Asian flu virus (if you’ve followed the news). Woops. Anyway.
Then, we arrived in Bangkok. We basically stayed 4 days in a building including hotel, live venue just below, and a shopping mall underneath. except for 45 minutes by the pool, I must have spent 15 minutes outside during that period: the temperature was just unbearable for me. Not proud, but that’s how it was.
The venue was huge, our show was short but it’s always fantastic to stay and to play in Bangkok. Thai audiences are amazing.
Then the rest of the troops were sent back home, except for pedro & I who were to work with a Thai band called Sqweez Animal. The sessions were great fun, recording studios are the same all over the world, but the people working in them are different. On a musical, cultural and sociological level the experience was revealing. We loved it, they reminded me of us when we first came to NYC to work with Andy Chase on Puzzle. Pedro ended up playing the drums on one song, something he hadn’t done since our “20 minutes” days…Look forward to hearing the finished versions.
What next?
We’ll perform 2 shows this week. One in France (St Quai Portrieux en Bretagne), and the other in Brussels. The latter will be quite special for us as we were booked on the same festival last year (check the archive). It marked the beginning of the tour (we’ve been on the road for a year now), and also it was the first time any of our shows had been stopped by the police!!
And you know what, the forthcoming BXL show looks like one of the last we’ll do in Europe for a while…sad, isn’t it…
Afterwards, we’ll work on new songs, we’ll visit the US for a couple of shows in November (YEEEEEPEEEE!), and then we’ll see.
(there are a few other options, but I’ll mention them, if we can make them happen…)
Love as always,
Xavier
ps: thanks to denis for the pics
