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.

SUNDAY SUNDAY HERE AND GONE

Look how orange that beard is. With the green hat, my head looks like a tricolor thats being hung sideways out a window on the day of an Ireland world cup fixture. Brian took this photo of me right before he walked in a hape of dogshite while we were out on the road yesterday morning. Speaking of the road...

Doesn't she look beautiful in this photo?? She is a harsh mistress at the very best of times but she must be served and obeyed. And its all worth it to see her beauty shining as immaculately as it is in this photo. This was also taken by Brian yesterday. He was in good photographic form. Today we had a day off. I woke up and did a bit of work on the computer. My voice has been a bit tired and hoarse from all the singing, Germany doesn't enforce the smoking ban in most places so the venues are back to the old-school way of being smoke filled. I like it on some level cos it gives it a much more Rock N' Roll feel but after six nights of passive smoking while trying to belt out 90 minute sets im a little bit off. Ill be back on form for tomorrow night Im pretty sure. In the afternoon today we took a walk around Langenberg filming footage of some of our favourite bits of this strange little town. Ill try edit the footage and post it sometime. In the evening we just had a nice home cooked meal and watched The Commitments on DVD. Fucking incredible movie, never gets old for me, and everytime i watch it i see more and more funny shit.

Tomorrow we drive to the lovely Bavarian town of Bamberg, Im anticipating that we are gonna blow the lid off the venue as we have been playing like monsters. Really enjoying the shows.

OH LITTLE TOWN OF LIPPSTADT

Last nights show could be considered a home fixture, not because any of the band have any ties [or affinity, or affection] to the little town of Lippstadt but because our German Label 'Tonetoaster' is situated a half hour away. The venue was pretty good and the crowd that attended was surprisingly our biggest of the tour. Not our most passionate but good none the less. The gig got off to a wierd start because of a fucking idiot who was making a cunt of himself up the front. Dancing aggressively [to really slow songs] intimidating those around him and getting up onstage and trying to grab the mic. I had to even stop and re-start a song on his behalf. Youd think there was one person in the venue who would have the authority to fuck the guy out on his ear...but no, his meat-headed handicapped-looking presence had to be endured by us, and by the kind people who paid in and were trying to enjoy the gig for about 8 tunes. It almost ruined the gig for me personally as i kept on getting blood visions of having to deal with him myself. That would have involved a broken guitar and a gormless inbred shitebag picking his face up off the floor. Thankfully it never came to that, although after the gig Gary told me that he was edging close to levelling the guy with his bass. At one point when he was trying to get up onstage Gary pushed him off in the midst of a bass riff, without missing a note - Keith Richards eat your heart out.

When eventually the piece of shit realized he had little audience left for his idiocy he left and a really good rock n roll show took his place. We played two new songs, one of which 'Horrid Prayers' we pretty much only got together in the soundcheck [i love that shit] and the second tune 'Milk Fight' let to an inspired moment where Brian went from banging the keys to doubling up on the drums with Ken to jumping out into the crowd embroiled in a wild feral carny-dance while banging a spare tom drum that was hanging about. Legendary actions from the curly headed fella, what made it even more entertaining [for me anyhow] was the stern looks of blank bewilderment in the faces of the packed audience [with the exception of only a few] while this was going on. I have a great love for the German audiences and they are always very good to me, I'm puzzled by them sometimes, but try to not let that puzzlement take away from how much passion the band and I believe is necessary to do what we do. We were firing on all cylinders last night, the gig ended in chaos, it was fucking great. Id also like to mention our support band 'Western Comfort', they seem like a bunch of young guys who have a bright future ahead of them, they did a great Devo cover and the singer had a really powerful voice.

After the gig we hung around to try and sell a bit of merch, offload some of our new record etc etc. Inspired by Brian's earlier antics i decided to stand by the merch stall beating a drum to try and 'drum up' a few sales as it were. It actually worked...I might try it again, sense of humour was in short supply in Werkstaff last night but im thinking in a more punk type venue such a marketing strategy might actually pay off. Beating a drum to try and sell more CDs?...that really is flying in the face of everything thats cool about rock n roll isnt it? But being on the road is what we do and selling our trinkets is what makes that possible so coolness [as ever] doesn't really come into it for me.

The post gig drinks was a lot of fun. We had great laugh with the Barstaff, they plied us with Tequila I gave Kenny a ring that i have been wearing on my finger since 1998 [when he was 10] as a reminder of life on tour with The Mighty Stef, we had a drink and an owl sentimental chat n' hug session and then we all ended up around a grand piano while Brian wheeled out as many Queen, Bowie, Elton John and John Grant tunes he could hash together and we had a singsong until home time. It was the earliest night of the tour so far, We are all knackered. My voice needs a bit of a rest so thankfully today is our day off, the only day off of the german tour.

Good times brothers and sisters, good times. We are still on top! - I think today might involve all of us lying in one double bed eating milk tray and watching the Commitments. We have given our souls to rock n roll, precious reader. There is no going back now. Happy Sunday!!!

Guest Books are popular, Bands are usually keen to express themselves with witty statements and cute drawings, here is our attempt at being 'funny'

STRENGTH TO STRENGTH - THE BEST TOUR EVER

Im reporting to you from Langenberg after a long drive on a cold sunny morning from the City of Flensberg which is close to the Danish Border. Last nights gig was really great. Small venue called Hummels Eck, great crowd. We played a lot of songs that we hadn't been doing the previous nights including 'Sunshine Serenade' 'Russian Roulette' and an amazing full band version of 'John The Baptist Part 2' which sounded big and evil with the full band. This mornings drive was nice, I listened to Velvet Underground 'Loaded' and Spacemen 3 'Playing With Fire' and was transported into an amazing state of mind. I even got to writing some lyrics which i never do on tour. Traditionally i write nothing down, or i do it on a scrap of paper and then lose it. I have decided this year that im gonna carry a notebook with me everywhere and see if i can become disciplined enough to write down my ideas. Hopefully leading to some great songs. We'll see how that goes.

Before Flensberg it was Kiel another Port town right on the Baltic Sea. The venue was great, the gig was enjoyable [setlist pictured below] Afterwards the venue owner 'Dicki' took us to a late bar/club that used to be an old social club for sailors. This place was amazing, the inside of it was completely decked out like a ship and it had lifeboats hanging from the upper level which you could sit in and have a drink. We got talking to some great heads including the bass player from German Hardcore Punk Band 'Smoke Blow' who come from Kiel. Really cool guy, looked like a sailor. I love Kiel, i have played there 4 times now and never a bad night was had.

Above Fredovich Plays the Mandolin, Below - There is gonna be a Rock Show, Both pics from Berlin.

I have to say, so far this tour has been one of my favorites ever, far from glamorous but full of soul. Every night the music is going from strength to strength the morale among the four of us and Michael our tour manager is really high. The borrowing of Ken Mooney from The Urges [Garage-Psyche institution from Dublin] has brought to the group a great drummer but more than that a great individual whose company is an absolute pleasure and who boosts the soul levels of the band an untold amount. It may be the hangover talking but its days like this that I really feel vindicated for choosing this path in life. Tonight we play in Lippstadt, i cant wait to get up on stage and sing a few songs. Thats pretty much what its all about for me.

GO EAST YOUNG MAN !!!

Chemnitz was cold as the proverbial witches tit but Subway To Peter (love that name) was a great venue. Really good crowd and despite my amp Getting a little bit fucked up we played a great Rock N Roll gig. The post gig pageantry (as predicted by exiled Irish Rock N´Roller John McKeever) involved the house special...Vodka with Garlic in it. Guess What....It was fucking lovely. Way nicer than ordinary vodka...It almost felt like a meal. The Highlight of the Chemnitz experience though was the Band Room that we slept in. Ill post some photos of that when i get the chance.

Next was Berlin. Colm joined us for the Gig and Shaun for a few tunes, Georgia Girl was a beautiful moment. The crowd were great. Best gig of the tour so far. Schokoladen is a top venue. Later on we went to Le Cercle Rouge - a beautiful new bar owned by Fredovich from King Khan And The Shrines. We had a couple of swallies a couple of Tequilas and mused over the inappropriateness of having a band called KKK Radio and having a song called Black Hitler but how amazing it would be to hear it announced on the radio. The simple pleasures of shite talk!!! - Great Night.

About to jump in the van to go to Kiel now. Ill post some photos soon.