Wake up in Madrid. The first one up as usual so the customary half an hour trying to find the venue entrance as it has not been signposted yet. Eventually find a tiny door with a table just inside full of stale bread and fly covered croissants and a pot of cold coffeeâŚ!!! This must be it...!!!! no dressing rooms unlocked yet and Iâm the only one around so I find a disused toilet and set up my studio. Not the most inspirational of settings today but as Iâm only mixing, it doesnât really matter. As soon as I blast out my new album I feel like Iâm in a palace. So happy with it. I make a few adjustments on a track called âElectric Noiseâ which is about the relentless modern day media and its focus on celebrity and gossip as apposed to actual talent and real life news. I wrote it in Los Angeles last year while watching Fox News one morning, and its meaning couldnât be more fitting today as it is impossible to avoid the internet hyper-activity surrounding Kim Kardashianâs big photo-shopped ass that the whole world seems to be talking about and sharing via all and every social media. This at a time when hostages are having their heads cut off slowly in front of HD cameras in a war where children and whole families are being tortured and murdered not all that far away. But I guess thatâs not what the people want to see so today itâs all about âthatâ ass.
I decide to head out on a I sightseeing run while I check out the mix on my headphones. A great 90 minute run along the river, through a park, around the palace and Iâm back again. Great head clearing 15Km run and the mix sounds awesome. But needs a few tweaks tomorrowâŚ!!! A songwriterâs work is never finished. What you hear on the radio and on your iPods is just a snapshot of where that song is at that particular time.
Last nights party on the bus carried on way after I went to bed apparently so itâs a very short soundcheck today with lots of suffering on the faces of a fewâŚ!!! My smug, sober face not helping at all I expectâŚ!!! Pembers and I decide go out for dinner as the catering hasnât really improved from this mornings offering. A ridiculously cheap but wonderful Spaghetti bolognaise later and we go onstage.
"Nope.... I have no idea what I'm doing"
Good gig tonight. Not as crazy a crowd as yesterday but its still a goody. Big aftershow again. We eventually get on the bus after signing a few autographs and I beat Pembers at FIFA twice before retiring undefeated to bed. After much gloating of course.
Big drive last night. Wake up as we pull into Lisbon. We are right in the heart of the old town. Beautiful part of the city but a nightmare load in for the crew. They have to unload the trucks into the back of a smaller truck that then reverses up a very steep hill into the back of the venue. Itâs days like this that I really appreciate their hard work.
Iâm not really feeling in the mood to do much creatively today so I abandon my planned album work and just chill backstage all morning. The venue has itâs own little cafĂŠ that is a really nice place to hang out. Kind of like a London greasy spoon but with awesome coffee. Scrawled on the walls is graffiti from all the bands that have played here, dating back to 2005. The Libertines, Keane, Kings Of Leon, they are all here in marker pen. It makes great reading and a great place to hang out.
Just behind this building are junkiesÂ
Go for my usual tourism run. I get to the water and turn left which soon becomes apparent is a mistake. I end up running past lots of very scary looking junkies shooting up behind shipping containers and all staring at me. There is absolutely nothing and no one near by to hear me screamâŚ!!!!  So my leisurely jog temporarily turns into a sprint. Completely inappropriately, I suddenly get lots of ideas for my record. I guess I canât just switch it off so easily. Danger must be my inspiration. Get back to the venue after 10km (2 of which have broken all known land speed records) and work on the ideas and they sound great. A good day at the office and we still have the gig to go. Go back to my little cafĂŠ and chill.
a tram in Lisbon....... (say what ya see)
Eventually go onstage and itâs a great gig again. Fantastic crowd. During the usual âGoodbye My Loverâ break, I pop into the little cafĂŠ again and grab a coffee. I really do love this place..!!! Itâs a great show.
Not one of us have any guests tonight which is quite rare so itâs a gentle chill backstage with no after party. We watch awful music videos on YouTube which is always very entertaining. Until we find a video by a woman called Jan Terri called âLosing Youâ. Itâs so awful itâs mesmerizing. We then canât get the song out of our heads for the remainder of the evening.
James and Sofia head to the bus to get some sleep. The rest of the band use him as the perfect decoy and slip out un noticed. We decide a late night kebab is in order. A nice midnight walk through a deserted town centre until we find a place. Wonderful kebab and chips as we sit outside. But then Blunty comes on the radio while we eat. There is no escapeâŚ!!!! Ha ha. We get back to the bus and every single one of us has that bloody Jan Terri song stuck in our heads. Blunty declares that he actually likes it. Bed time.
Get woken at 5am outside Lisbon airport by our evil tour manager Bobble. Weâve had 3 hours sleep. Horrible, half asleep check in and security check. We have a small gig in Zurich tonight. We are all exhausted. 5 gigs in 5 days without hotel. The flight is a blur of head bobbing and neck pain as we all drift in and out of sleep, only getting woken up by the arrival of a cup of water, 2 pieces of cardboard and some pink substance that, upon questioning, is apparently âhamâ. âThis is a sandwich?â I enquire. I donât think it would take a particularly good lawyer to argue in court that this has never been anywhere near a pig. But thanks for waking me up anywayâŚ!!!! Arrive in Zurich and grab a couple more hours at the hotel.
Get to the gig and my phone jumps onto the wifi. Weâve been here before thenâŚ.!!! Itâs all hire gear today so the sound onstage is strange. Mikkel arrives today. He will be replacing Pembers for the next 2 weeks of the tour. Pembers had already committed to a John Grant tour before I asked him in to do the Blunt gig. Mikkel is an awesome keyboard player friend of mine from Copenhagen. He is the Danish Pembers. He looks like him, plays like him and dresses exactly like him. So we run through a few of the songs to get him settled in. Sounds great as I knew it would.
During dinner, I get an email from my manager with a link to a 5 out of 5 review of SATELLITES.02 from a newspaper in Hanover. The great German press just keeps on coming.
We go onstage. A great intimate gig of competition winners for us tonight. Short set. No uniforms. Great fun and a great crowd. I love these little gigs. But itâs over before we know it. Straight back to the hotel and a quick drink in the bar before a much needed star-shaped sleep in the big hotel bed. Bliss.
