#satellites03

SATELLITES - In A City (live at Saint Saviour's Church London)

London

Monday morning breakfast at the Novotel with all the suits. Hundreds of zombies all stuffing their faces with all inclusive sausages. A quick glance outside the window and I see tonight’s venue The Hammersmith Apollo and am quickly very thankful for the path I chose.

I’ve played here a few times before but it still has a very special buzz this old legendary gig. There is an excitement felt by all concerned today.

Viktor, Pernille and I wander around Hammersmith which doesn’t take long. There isn’t all that much to do around here. Especially in the pouring rain..!!

Get to soundcheck and meet the others who all have the same inner buzz that I have. Especially Mikkel who is an Apollo virgin. It’s his final gig with us tonight. 

Security...get these people off stage 

We grab some food from Wilf and Chloe’s reggae kitchen for the last time. We won’t be seeing a lot of the regular crew again so it’s an emotional day for many. And probably a day of relief for others…!!! A day of farewell hi-fives for Viktor.

A quick re-charge snooze at the hotel later and we return to find all the management and record label in the dressing room as is often the case with a London show. Best behaviour tonight…!!

The sold out gig goes really well. Good solid performance from the band and the crowd are in good spirits. We take our bow and that’s that. UK tour all over. We all toast Mikkel in the dressing room for a job very well done.

Huge aftershow party. My sister, brother in law and nephews are all here much to the delight of Viktor who absolutely LOVES his older cousins. They walk around getting pictures with everyone. One of the presenters of Top Gear being one of the more notable ones.

Many of the crew are here too which is rare. The aftershow usually being the last place they want to go to after breaking down all the gear. It’s always quite an emotional experience on the final bus gig. Almost a year working and living with these guys every day.

Slowly the aftershow starts to thin out and it’s just the band, Viktor, a few friends and girlfriends left. I head back to the dressing room to get our bags and coats. As I do so, I see Viktor’s space suit hanging up with all the others. It suddenly hits me, he probably won’t be with us again. It’s going to be impossible to fly him out to South Africa and South America next year. I get quite emotional as I roll it away. It’s become such a part of this past year and who knows what will happen next year? 

Those still left all wander back to the hotel. Pernille, Viktor and I leave the rest to argue with the hotel staff to open up the now closed bar and we go to our room. Viktor announces he’s hungry. As does Pernille. As am I come to think of it…!! So I sneak out past my arguing comrades and go to the 24hour BP petrol station nearby and buy sausage rolls, sausage sandwiches and crisps. We all 3 sit on the hotel bed stuffing our faces until we fall asleep covered in ketchup. Rock n roll…!!!!!

Up early to meet my manager while I’m in London. A great meeting. We chat about the next SATELLITES record and hatch a plan. It’s all very exciting. He tells me the select few who have heard it are all very excited and say it’s the best one yet. I have always thought that but it’s nice to get verification from others. Very exciting year ahead next year.

Check out of he hotel and spend the rest of the day with my sister and family in Chalk Farm dodging rain storms and eating fish n chips.

The following morning is glorious in North London. The clarity that only comes after a storm. Beautiful day wandering around Primrose Hill and Hampstead. Eventually it comes time to head to Heathrow and go home. A great few days with the family on tour and now it’s all over. We get home to a very rainy Copenhagen and find water dripping through the ceiling of my studio. Welcome home...!!! 

Nov15th

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 coffee…!!! This must be it...!!!! no dressing rooms unlocked yet and I’m the only one around so I find a disused toilet and set up my studio. Not the most inspirational of settings today but as I’m only mixing, it doesn’t really matter. As soon as I blast out my new album I feel like I’m in a palace. So happy with it. I make a few adjustments on a track called “Electric Noise” 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 couldn’t be more fitting today as it is impossible to avoid the internet hyper-activity surrounding Kim Kardashian’s 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 that’s not what the people want to see so today it’s all about “that” 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 I’m back again. Great head clearing 15Km run and the mix sounds awesome. But needs a few tweaks tomorrow…!!! A songwriter’s 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.

Palace in Madrid 

Last nights party on the bus carried on way after I went to bed apparently so it’s a very short soundcheck today with lots of suffering on the faces of a few…!!! My smug, sober face not helping at all I expect…!!! Pembers and I decide go out for dinner as the catering hasn’t 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.

Nov16th

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. It’s days like this that I really appreciate their hard work.

I’m 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 it’s own little café 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 junkies 

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 scream…!!!!  So my leisurely jog temporarily turns into a sprint. Completely inappropriately, I suddenly get lots of ideas for my record. I guess I can’t 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 café and chill.

a tram in Lisbon....... (say what ya see)

Eventually go onstage and it’s a great gig again. Fantastic crowd. During the usual “Goodbye My Lover” break, I pop into the little café again and grab a coffee. I really do love this place..!!! It’s a great show.

Not one of us have any guests tonight which is quite rare so it’s 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 “Losing You”. It’s so awful it’s mesmerizing. We then can’t 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 escape…!!!! 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.

Nov17th

Get woken at 5am outside Lisbon airport by our evil tour manager Bobble. We’ve 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 “ham”. “This is a sandwich?” I enquire. I don’t 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 anyway…!!!!  Arrive in Zurich and grab a couple more hours at the hotel.

Get to the gig and my phone jumps onto the wifi. We’ve been here before then….!!! It’s 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.