Weekend Number 2 in Norway.

The week in between Norway trips was pretty relaxing. The only thing I did was DJ in the Garage Bar on Wednesday night. I played four hours worth of tunes to anybody and everybody who came and went. Towards the end of the night Ken Mooney arrived in, It was his birthday so i went around to the Workmans club with him for a late gulp. The clubnight 'Somewhere ??' was on. Despite feeling like a Paedophiles Grandfather, I thought it was a great buzz in there. I met Conor Paxton and Jimmy Cullen by buddies from House of Dolls and had a pint or two. Conor introduced me to a girl that was called 'Larry Murphy' - I aint joking.

Halden Town - Norwegian Rock N Roll Heaven

The work detail for this weekend was two gigs within about 30km of each other. The first was a return to Feelgood in Halden. We arrived the night before the show and stayed at the Grand Hotel which has been the scene of many a funny day and night since TMS first darkened the doors of this small harbour town in 2008. We arrived in town so late that we couldn't get any food, everywhere was closed. In our search for a Kebab shop i had a Hollywood style slip and fall on the ice. For a split second i feared id done myself in but i was ok, thank fuck.

The morning of the gig we took a walk around the town in the snow. It was cold, but it was beautiful, the freshness of the air took the edge off the few duty free cans of Carlsberg we had the night before. Around lunchtime we caught up with a few friends. Christian Sandanker of Gringo Bandido met me with a loan of his beautiful orange Gretsch that i have often used while in Norway. Christian is one of the best guys i have ever met on my travels in Rock N Roll. No bullshit, great sense of humour and really loves music, He used to front another cult underground rock n roll band called The Camaros, excellent group, great singer and songwriter not to mention Guitar slinger. We also met with Tor Arne Johansen, another great friend, Tor runs Borderline Records and last year released a split 7" with The Mighty Stef and Gringo Bandido. 4 Days a week Tor is a Shrimp fisherman which has earned him the nickname in Norway among the Rock n Roll fraternity 'Shrimp-Rocker'. We were also joined a little later by Tom Skjek another native of Halden and one of Norways most famous rock jouralists. He has been very helpful to us in our quest to do well in Norway.

Later that afternoon we did a Radio appearance at Prime the local station. We had a chat about our new album and previous trips to Norway and performed two songs; We Want Blood and a new one that we have been writing called 'Milk'. Our set up was incredible. I was just playing guitar and singing, Brian playing an analog synth application on an iphone through a little set of speakers and gary was playing drums on a packet of Norwegian crisps with a bar of chocolate. We got some footage of it. I hope we can share it with you some day. Remarkable.

We did a soundcheck for the gig, had some food and went back to the Hotel to listen to some Robyn Hitchcock, [a man that knows all about Norway too] His album 'I Often Dream Of Trains' Got us in great mood for going over and checking out the opening band. Vaya Con Satan are Roy, Hanna and Laurits, they are a 3 piece punk band influenced [i think] by Dead Moon full of beans onstage, great tunes and great energy. We loved every minute of them that we seen. Great people too. Our set was a lot of fun. The crowd were equally into the slower stuff as they were the harder stuff which was nice. After the gig i was pretty wrecked so i didnt join Brian and Gary and Tor Arne for a few late ones in Siste Reis, i didnt have the energy.

On the saturday our promotor and main man for the weekend Thrond Asker [better known as Big Daddy] and another local Rock N Roll pal 'Ole' took us to our gig in Sarpsborg. This was not such an Ideal venue at first glance but we really had a great night there. We played our set, the crowd were into it and then we went back to Halden. Big Daddy all the while was sucking from a big box of wine. Despite it being saturday night we didnt really have the energy or the money [Norway = the dearest gargle on earth] so we went back to the hotel at a reasonable hour.

Our last day in Halden was magical. We climbed the hill of the fortress, the towns most famous landmark. It was a little treacherous getting up and down there because of the ice and snow but it was one of the most worthwhile experiences i have ever had on tour. The walk was amazing. The view from the top was like something out of a fantasy world. We got some great video footage of that too which i hope we can share.

Once again the town of Halden took us in and made us its sons for the weekend. I missed having Bren, Steve, Dan and The Hog there [For sentimental reasons] and all the locals i spoke to missed them too. Great town. We got on our Ryanair flight in Rygge with an unusual spring in our step. The next stretch of road we will be on is in the USA but for now we are delighted to be spending a bit of quality time back in the land of the Dub.

Talk soon Muchachos.

The Oslo Experience.

Dublin to Rygge [an hour from Oslo but Ryanair naturally call it Oslo] was not a fun time but once we hit the ground we hit it running and the cold Norwegian air smartened us up fairly lively. We took the bus into the city and waited for our promotor and host Olivar to meet us. While we were waiting i got talking to an aged Norwegian speed-freak who was giving the sniffer dog who had just been all up in his ball-sack a great review 'That was a really well trained dog, i dont have any of drugs left but he can smell it off my sweat...a really good dog'. It was a nice dog too. I think both of us liked the dog a lot.

On our first night we had no gig so we hung out at Olivars apartment where he and his girlfriend Paulina made us most welcome. We listened to the new PJ Harvey album which was really good. We also Listened to a couple of records by Madrugada, one of Norways most famous domestic Rock bands. Olivars cousin Robert was the guitarist in them but sadly died in 2007. Good music, reminded me of the Bad Seeds with Jeff Buckley singing over it.

On the saturday we had an instore gig in a great little record store called 'Big dipper' if you are ever in Norway check it out, it has a great selection of Vinyl. We played about 8 acoustic songs on thier small stage, gary played guitar, i played guitar sang and brian played an improvised percussion devise that Paulina made out of Pasta. - Rock N' Roll. After our stint at the record store we went for a wander to a record fair at once of the City's bigger venues 'Rockafellers' then for a drink at a nice little bar called 'Bonanza' called after the famous US cowboy series from the 60's [or earlier?] in which Lorne Greene plays the earnest Trail Boss 'Ben Cartwright'. Nice bar, only fits about 20 people, lots of photos of Townes Van Zandt on the wall. I liked that.

The gig at Revolver was great, The band who played with us in a kind of a co-headline capacity were the Mono Sapiens, Great matching suits, loud guitars and Great catchy garage rock tunes. I really liked them a lot. They were really cool guys too. We played our 3 piece set up, which seemed to really impress the crowd. The sound on stage made it difficult for us to truly love the gig [The stage was deep and the 3 of us were very far apart] but the crowd seemed to love it. There were a few people there who have seen me play on many occasions in either the US or Norway and they said it was the best its ever been so i cant complain too much. After the show the venue [Revolver] turned into an underground 60s soul club, we danced our holes off. It reminded me of Bruxelles at the turn of the 2000's with Tomo Tighe on the wheels of death! - great night.

We went back to our hotel, full of drink and had a few sips back there too. I ended up with a minor head Injury from some kind of frolicking me and Gary must have been doing which was a bit bad but we did come up with 2 great realizations.

Realization 1 ) We are going into the Oil business [We are Oil Men now]

Realization 2 ) We are gonna get the Edge from U2 to produce our next album. Instead of paying him in money [He is loaded, giving him money would not enrich his life in any way] We are gonna cut him in for a slice of the action in our newly contrived Oil business.

After we got politely asked to leave the Anker hotel the following morning as we had pushed it about 2 hours past the required check out time we went and had breakfast at revolver. I only had coffee but the lads had amazing looking food. Our buddy Ivar and his son Adrian came and joined us, as did Olivar [Paulina must have been sick of us at this point. hehe] and we sat for a while and had a good laugh. We took an early bus to the Airport just so that we could feel settled and hang out for a while. We all downloaded an app called Baby Scratch on our iphones and started wrecking peoples heads by having a hip hop jam in the Airport. If i wasnt us, i would have hated, and possibly killed us.

Hope you all had a nice Valentines day, We are heading back to Norway again next weekend to play two shows so ill talk again after that.

ANOTHER WEEK OF 'THE HARDSHIP'

Ladies and Gentlemen, how the hell are you? I'm really passionate about keeping this blog up to date at the moment but Internet access is monre infrequent than ever on this tour. On my last entry it was sunday and it was our day off. Since then, we have done four shows and travelled many a mile. Let me break it down for you as best i can given the fact that i only have about fifteen minutes to spare.

On monday we drove to Bamburg, a beautiful old city in Bavaria, one of the few cities that wasn't completely wrecked during the war so it still has a lot of old architecture and churches. Seems like quite a holy place, apparently it used to be the centre of the Holy Roman empire at some point. The gig was a good laugh. For the second gig in a row we had some grueller up the front trying to wreck the buzz by trying to handle our equipment while we were playing it. The gig ended up great though and we got asked to do a summer festival out of it. Thats quite a few in Germany so far.

On tuesday we did a show in a legendary TMS haunt, Scruffy's in Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe is a decent sized city with lots of students. The bar is owned by a great man from Howth Co.Dublin, Paul Burke aka. Scruffy. Really great guy and folk musician in his own right, his band [brilliantly entitled The Krusty Moors] tour around Germany and the rest of europe quite a lot so he knows more than any venue owner i have met how to make a touring band feel welcome. The gig was good fun, first time id played an electric show in Scruffys and we all fit comfortably on the small stage. It was great. Afterwards we had a few Guinness and I chatted to englishman Jamie Clarke who was in the Pogues in thier latter days. Jamie has lived out in Germany for many years and has his own project Jamie Clarkes Perfect, a really great guy that has seen the upside and downside of rock n roll but still remains passionate about it.

Next up was Backnang, a kinda satellite town outside Stuttgart. This was an extra special night in an extra special venue called Casa Carmen owned by a lovely Spanish lady called Carmen. The gigs were run by her right hand man Michael. From the moment we arrived there we got treated like royalty. We drank some local beer, got served an amazing Paella [lovingly made by the landlady herself] and were introduced to the wonders of Danish garage psychedelic band Baby Woodrose. We listened to about five of their albums a legacy of work that simply blew our minds. How is this band not huge...Check them out!! The gig in Casa Carmen was really great, very small room so the people were right up in our faces. Great time. After we packed up we went back to Michaels, a shrine to rock n roll music, We found albums by The Urges and The Revellions in his collection. He was blown away when he discovered that Kenny was a member of the Urges. We also listened to a bit of The Lollipop Shoppe, Dead Moon and more of our new favourite band Baby Woodrose.

The following night we played to a packed house in Dortmund. It was only a short set but really great. Amazing crowd, nice little venue too. It was here that we made the decision beased on persistent problems with logistics that we would cancel All of our upcoming swedish shows and just play the Norwegian shows. This was gonna give us a chance to go home for a few days which for me personally was gonna be a god-send. Back to the gig, we really played hard fast and loud and i think we managed to leave an impression.

Rainers Kneipe in Sarstedt was the following night. Rainer runs a great venue, a shrine to Rock music, especially that of the 70s and 80s. We played a really enjoyable gig that night and had a great session afterwards singing and drinking until all hours with the venue owner and some regulars. great fun. Our last night with Kenny, and our last night in Germany was at Kapillo in Langenau. Owned by a guy called Dimitri and decorated by some sublime artwork that he himself had drawn or painted over the past 20 years. A really colorful place, like somewhere the Velvets might have played when they were starting out. The gig was really great. There was a great DJ in the club before and after too called Hans, he was playing everything from Television Personalities to Villagers and really putting us in great form. Afterwards we had a sentimental few drinks with Kenny and got to bed earlier than usual.

The gig of the tour was gonna be as a 3 piece in the Belgian city of Retie. We drove to Frankfurt and left Ken at the airport, said a fond farewell and continued on our long drive, leaving him there for an equally long wait. The Venue Folie - A was lovely, run by a couple called Yves and Joke. The gig was great, the 3 piece thing worked wonders as it always does. Brian playing drums with one hand and keys with the other. The crowd loved it. We loved Belgium. My favourite part of that experience [apart from the amazing Guinness they served] was the room we stayed in, it was in the attic of the Venue. It reminded me of the Leonard Cohen rendition of 'The Partisan' it was like the place where the old woman gave them shelter in the song.

On the final day of the tour Michael drove us to Eindhoven in Holland and we said our goodbyes. We hung around the city for a few hours before getting a taxi to the Airport. The driver gave us a bit of a history of the city. It seems Eindhoven was originally a workers town for the 'Phillips' electronics company. Even PSV Eindhoven was started as a sports club for the workers. The much revered 'Mr Phillips' who put the 'P' in PSV only died about 4 years ago at the age of 102.

Drunk on the history of Eindhoven, and stricken with a longing to see our loved ones back in the old country we took every ounce of hassle that Ryanair had to throw at us and went home to dear old Dublin town. The German tour was an amazing tour for gigs, we wrote new songs on the road and really enjoyed every moment of it as best we could. A great tour.

As i finish up writing here im just about to walk out the door and head towards another Ryanair showdown. Tonight we Fly to Oslo, we have an instore there tomorrow daytime and and Gig at Revolver tomorrow night. We love Norway. Ill report back when i can.