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Press
30 September 2010
Sea Change reviewed and featured as song of the day
Article
28 July 2010
Turin in Turin
Well it finally happened - we managed to play in Torino Italia after 10 years .And we didnt disappear into a crazy scientific wormhole - quite the opposite in fact !
A few or the good people of Milan had told us Torino wasnt really up to much but the wool was finally pulled away from our eyes. A beautiful city set against the Alps with loads of cultural activity . Its gotta be a number one holiday destination - everyone needs a Turin Break !
But really we had a great weekend - starting by lying on warm rocks of ancient Bologna watching live orchestration to a Buster Keaton movie and ending a couple if days later sitting in a small field in Torino under a glowing moon listening to brilliant ambience of The Field . I have to mention an australian band called A Place To Bury Strangers who played before us at Spaziale Festival - total intense smash up echo rock . It may not be a TB fans wet dream but some of you will get off on it - especially live . We plan on featuring a bit in the next podcast .
In case you were wondering about the food - it was just yummy with a peak in excitement coming as Ed decided he'd blend in with the locals and eat a pile of cake for breakfast . Theres no photo , sorry - lets all just imagine , picture - Ed ... and cakes ... Ed ... and Cakes ... ed and ..
Article
27 June 2010
Glastonbury.....
We woke up early in order to get to Glastonbury with enough time to relax before our show in the 5,000 capacity acoustic stage, we decided to take the word "acoustic" a little more to heart and did the show as a trio, we hoped we'd get a crowd that knew many of the classics and would enjoy the stripped down sing along....
We spent many hours of the day in crawling traffic, 180,000 people all burning to get there, one highlight was driving past stonehenge at a snails pace remembering running through the rocks as kids before they roped it all off, we wondered if those rocks were tougher than English Heritage thought, what with surviving a few thousand years or so.
We arrived at the site and were greeted by an amazingly friendly team of diligent worker's buzzing like happy bees in the blazing sunshine. What a change from the immense stress we felt arriving in 2003 for our main stage performance!
We noticed most of the other acts on our stage were full bands but these days we relish the chance to stand out a bit so figured we'd go the other way and I'm glad we did. As we line checked the instruments a large crowd began to gather and we could feel some serious electricity as they built up their static. We got ready to dish out a stripped down essential festive set....
Once we walked out for the show the tent was packed to the back and we all smiled to each other, having walked around the site earlier in the blazing sun we knew it was no mean feat for all those people to come to see us. We decided to play a set of what we consider stand out songs from the last ten years and this included one or two from the latest album, we played for an hour and built up towards a big spaced out finish with 72, to hear all those people singing along was really special and I think this moment meant as much to us as all those "moments" from our past, maybe more.... Lots of banter, lots of eye contact, lots of magic.
After the show we basked in the buzz for a little while with Edd and then headed over to see if the rumors at the Park stage were true..... Around ten thousand other people had the same info and we were all rewarded with a Thom Yorke secret solo show, punctuated by the inclusion of Johnny Greenwood, a setting sun and some Radiohead classics. Even Michael Evis was enjoying himself in the crowd celebrating the 40th anniversary of his baby!
A special night was had, many thanks to all the people who came to our tent, more please ;)
If you have any pics, videos and Glasto stories share them in our community are right here on the site....
Article
19 June 2010
Irie
Here is a picture of Ed and Ollie relaxing on the ferry on the way over to the Emerald Isle.
We're treating this like an extension on our USA road trip - the 10 hours or so from London to Belfast felt like nothing . It has been ages since we were here and I have no idea why really - but we're very happy to be back.
After enjoying the atmosphere at the Duke Of York we played show in the Black Box where the audience did most of the work for us . We could have practically mimed cos the audience were singing every word louder and clearer than we were .
Dublin yesterday was nice and busy and equally appreciative - even after a football match to bore the head off a fly . Just after soundcheck we ended up doing a small show from a park bench next to Whelans that was filmed for some kind of internet thingy - it would have a been a great thing to let everyone know about and twit like mad and get a good crowd but we didn't really know it was happening until it was , so we made a mental note to keep an eye on things coming up . We may have been doing this for a while now but that doesn't mean we're any better at it!
Off to Cork now, never been before, surprises await I am sure
Article
24 May 2010
Towards the East
As these latest photos show there hasnt been much downtime in our touring schedule. We are generally setting alarms, driving all day, doing the gig, checking into the hotel and repeating. We are grabbing every moment that we can though for sneaky enjoyment. Now we've hit the East coast the venues have become a but more suited to our acoustic needs ( dont speak too soon! ) its not that some venues havent been good its just easier to get inside the music when you're not battling DJs downstairs or a mass rock band next door.
We did manage to stop at Niagara for a romantic 20 minutes with Ed and we grabbed a quick burger in Gary, Illinois - Micheal Jackson's birth place and to be honest driving in this country is like a dream .
Thanks to everyone for coming out to the shows - they have all been great in their own way and we've met some great people (and some crazies!) New York was a big chaotic trip, (I've never seen so much sewage clearance from such big trucks so close to my window!) and Annapolis was the antidote, only 2 more shows and this tour blows - I wonder what will happen today?
Article
16 May 2010
from the west coast to Colorado
We've just got into the hotel in Denver, the last few days have been the busiest of the tour, we started with a truly majestic two day road trip from Portland down to San Francisco, through gigantic redwood forests (avenue of the giants) where the scale of the trees was so far beyond anything we know we could barely take it in until we saw the photos later on, we came across miles of empty beaches and perfect dreamy rivers with not another soul in view, not to mention the endless roads tapering off into the horizon, it's like the places weve lived in with our music come to life before our very eyes in living colour, it's been a truly soulful few days and some we wont be able to forget.
We eventually emerged from the wilds into San Francisco and had to snap back into tour mode, played the show, packed the gear, shot back to the hotel, forced sleep upon ourselves for three hours, got the 1st plane to LA, played a little showcase to some film/music people in the Hollywood hills and then played the LA show that evening. We managed to hang out with some pals after wards and had a beer, soaked up the scenery before a few more hours sleep and then on to Denver.
Tonight we will go for a meal and catch our breath, it would be great to drive up to some mountains before the sound check tomorrow, lets see.....
Article
12 May 2010
On the Road....
Were in Portland, it's an hour till stage time, I'm writing this from our hotel room at the Doug Fir, G has driven like a demon to get us here (He loves to drive) I've been time lapsing out the window and Edd's been holding court from the back of the minivan, he is the Oracle of knowledge.
So far this has been the adventure we hoped it would, just three of us driving ourselves across the USA, every five minutes we see stuff that makes us want to pull over, scenes from movies we know and love like Stand By Me, huge endless roads and miles and miles of logging trains, but we can't because we have to get to the next sound check!
Tomorrow we will take our sweet time to get to San Francisco, we've canceled our hotel there so we can get a motel in the woods instead, we've decided to go the scenic route, we want to explore.
Gigs have been super friendly affairs so far, it's always a buzz to see such avid fans singing along to stuff not even released here, and as usual we are finding new ways to explore the music, Gale is ripping up pastures new and Edd is now the band, bass, percussion and vox and electronica, it's harder work but very rewarding....
Were feeling the jet lag now, it's a strange distant feeling but actually you can ride it, like being slightly drunk all day, everything's extra colorful and hilarious...
I hope our spirits stay upwards but for now were really enjoying it and it sems the peeps at the shows are too...
OK nearly stage time now,
bye bye x