Gothenburg 20:0ct:2012 Romo Night

got up about 3:30am. taxi to Golders Green looking menacing, very quiet driver looked like he thought we were gangsters. Coach to Stansted listening to new Elysium for first time on ipod. packed coach full of other easyjet types.

Stansted read some mag about 80s electronic bands in WHSmiths. Found Pete. Bought a round for the lads, went down well. knocked over a chair on way out…let the rock n roll begin!
picked up some orange juice (and sarnie)

compact fkn Ryan Air. got a bit of zip, dozing off not enough though.
arrived at gothenburg city airport (15min or so early), saw a little mouse dead as we were in passport queue. Quaint place, looked like a shed/barn. Tried promoter’s number, got text back ‘wrong number’ oh shit. stood around getting worried. Bastien conspiracy theories/paranioa kicked in “is this a stitch up? a wind-up…sometimes the whole Detachments project seems like a wind-up” (only semi joking). Ended up resorting to paying about 30kroner to get 30min internet and right on queue, Tobbe arrived. I guess he was only about 15min late as we arrived early.
He had a sturdy old volvo that he said would die after him.
Had a chat about how we don’t play much in England, helped clarify for ourselves – we’d sacked Primary disgrunlted with them for not getting us enough good shows and taking a percentage on all shows inc ones they’d not booked (also Bastien was paranoid/uncomfortable with the agent who was a friend of sacked mgt). Also mentioned the swearing incident with the new bookers after that. Perhaps we should have stuck with Primary, but anyway.
Had a good chat. Listened to Cabaret Voltaire.

Hotel Posidon. Nice cozy place. Pete and Edward got the twin rm. Bastien got the lead singer suite.
Went for a cheerful wander in the quiet Goteborg drizzle, went into a rec store saw some amusing but somewhat unnervingly weird covers – e.g. the guy with his big hairy dogs all had the same (red)eyes. Nordic occult shit etc. Soon found the charming old town,

wooden buildings, cobbled st, market – tried a bit of beetroot sample. Sat down in a restaurant, but sneaked off we realised we didn’t have enough SEK.

Had a look in a

few pubs


shops.

not a real dog!

Finally settled for meatball(kottballur) dish from a chain in town – school dinner type mash – not so jeti bra…inter bra. Good recommendation reply text from Bastien’s Gothenburg Ex(now in spain) wasn’t read in time.

Wandering back (now in rain) to hotel realised how small (but perfectly formed) Gothenburg is.

Hotel chilled with some beers and get some rest.

Looking out at the rain

mused over which European countries produce the best music…no1 obviously UK, but second – most probably Sweden. Maybe it’s partly to do with the melancholy weather.

The swedish TV was a bit notably risque for daytime – gay sex, hanging suicide in one drama, ‘Penis’ said on a programme advert etc. But maybe we’re too stuffy in england. Dunno.

Saw the football scores come in online, City comeback to win 1-2 in the dying mins! Av it.

Venue was up some stairs.
Soundcheck+beer, spent a lot of time getting it right.

Decided to use live bass guitar on Never Knew.

BAckstage Had sate and fat rice, pretty good.

Freshened up back at hotel. Short walk back to Jazzhuset venue showed that Gothenburg nightlife streets seemed quite quiet at 10pm.

Backstage

had a good chat to Andy, Tobbe’s right hand man.
Sat out in the club area…old school telephone decor

he complimented Bastien’s coat for Ultravox Vienna look. lol. Bastien then namechecked it to Cavalli, +shirt Versace, belt Westwood, shoes Loake.
All switched from beer to white wine.

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Live stage room totally filled up…

THE GIG
Audiovideo – nifty start
Morning Light – sounded really good, first time ever played with Pete and Edward.

Play – cool

Never Knew Me – intense, something went awry with order of parts though (but probably was unnoticed)
HAL – power
Words – elegant
Hol Rom – impactful as ever
FNF – hypnotic intensity.
Circles – end section stuttered a bit on bassguitar but everything else kicked ass.
nothing you can do – didn’t have quite as much impact withpout ac guitar.
Flowers – energetic as always

After what seemed like ages we didn’t return for an encore despite the all the shouts. Pete didn’t want to play a song twice, right decision actually. Ba stien sat down with towels, needing wine
Good chat with more intense fans backstage, all v. serious with their knowledge of the genre. Passionate hearts.

Got out to sell the merch and do signings. Almost everything went including the last Hol Roms and vinyl albums, this lot deserved them actualluy. Good to meet and chat with the fans. Some fans had travelled 3or4hrs up from Malmo.

Ended up on the dancefloor for one song – tempted by the Soul Inside (soft cell).
Backstage one of the main guys was saying Detachments did one of the top gigs he’s ever seen on that stage.
More wine. Mem blurry,
Good times. Everyone on danceloor in end.
‘seeing double…’ said a forgotten text (seen next day).

Got back about 4am.

Pete banged on the door at 8:45 or something.
Quality breakfast downstairs, decent meatballs with all the fish relish etc, ham, eggs, krackerbread etc. Unfortunately we were in too much pain to really get stuck in.

Drive through the countryside

back to the quite charmingly quaint airport.

Everything was very straightforward getting on the plane quick in the little airport (it’s not the main Gothernburg airport). pity we couldn’t have stayed a bit longer perhaps. Bravo Sverige.

Managed to sleep all the way back on plane.

All in all: Thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Great memories.

STOCKHOLM CALLING: 15OCT2011

Stockholm____|_____EBM/Darkwave/Synth type club
Club Ultrafoxx http://www.facebook.com/groups/26514831583/

Sat 15 oct2011____|_____

Norwegian.com air. Free WIFI. Frequent flyers Steve and Bastien, delighted and very impressed.

Arlander Express to Stockholm; Clean train, TV screens, pine windowsills, warm, comfy.  We concede Sweden’s taxes provide a superior standard of living than UK.

Met Tina and a big dude witha car at station. Lift to quaint looking basement venue below a bustling Irish Bar, close to river, in a touristic area (the old town). Got on the pear ciders within 5min of putting down our gear.
Brief wander down street, winding cobbled streets lined with charming shops, had a laugh at a convention of about 100 Swedes dressed in 1930s clobber, Plus4s, big taches etc. fair play, looked good.
Back at soundcheck…
Premier League is allowed to be shown live on sat afternoon’s (uk3pm) outside UK. Perfect: Man City4-1 Aston Villa! Onscreen behind us onstage.
Went up for an interview on phone in street outside venue. In good spirits.

Swedish meal: Veal, meatballs and jam, mash, beer. Good stuff.

Hotel.
Little evening wander. Calm streets.

Security outside busy venue.
Went in.

A crowd were gathering, defintely a particular scene; Alternative/Gothic/EBM crowd.
Bastien slinked off to gather thoughts, prepare.
meanwhile: Toilets began to slowly flood.

Bastien made friends with Irish barstaff and got free booz. Sat at sounddesk sipping Grant’s.
Place was now buzzing, bustling.

Took to stage around 11pm? not sure.
1.Audiovideo, 2.Play. steve couldn’t hear monitors, stopped gig for a few mins. Kicked in again with 3.HAL, crowd went mad.
Art of viewing, You never knew me

Words Alone set scene for eruption of HolRom
firing on all cylinders out there!

Straight into holiday in hyperspace Fear No Fear,
Circles, Flowers That Fell.
5min  chants of encore nonstop

Encore: Rewind to Holiday Romance
Fucking tremendous gig.

Engaging performance from Bastien fully switched on to the songs;
soulful connection to inner landscape of the songs, shamanic projection, inner smile, steady grounded, core engaged.

Sold vinyl and CDs to a lot of drunk swedes.

Staggered a few metres up to insane circular, roundhouse type building overlooking river, descended to enormous club in the catacombs. Wolfgang from Kraftwerk on the decks. How bizarre.  Drunken haze…. descended into 1M radius of consiousness. . ….Somehow got back to hotel (with some ‘help’)

Cold air, smells like midwinter.
Hints of the arctic.
— – — – — – — –

(Sun)day after the night before

Bastien felt very ill, drained. Went for a stroll for a few hrs across city. great views.  Fresh/chill,  sunny day. Up to the park overlooking the river to the city centre where we looked at archicture from afar.

Shattered.

Mission of Bari. Detachments by name…

 
and then there was one

Day before flight max says he’s not sorted his (lost on previous tour)passport out in time, also unable to legally leave Belgium due to unpaid fines.
Few days before that pete drummer reported problems, needed the weekend to sort his suit and wedding ring out. Admitted he’d fucked up the timing.
New synth maestro Steven would have been available, but he joined after the 3 tickets were bought by the promoters who were unable to swap Pete’s tickets to his name.

Therefore – staff in the Detachments office reduced to one.  Uno detachment dispatched.

Valiantly, though not without apprehension in his heart, Bastien agrees with distraught Italian promoters to undertake a solo mission to Bari.

SAT23JUL
Bastien’s solo mission commences….

“Paranoia. There are ominous things afoot in the world. Unsettled about the Oslo killings.  Having to stave off thoughts of impending doom.  For some reason I couldn’t help thinking there could be the death of something on this trip

HeathrowT4 – Alitalia…

Milan
had a little wander. Chilled out back in airport restaurant with salad and peroni.  Went through security, got on the Bierra Morretti at bar near gates, free peanuts etc.

Milan-Bari

Listening to a lot of Scott Walker on the plane. Drfiting off.

Bari
Sat around for a bit in ariport, waiting feeling slightly edgy. always put a 00xx not a 0xx code when texting foreign numbers.

Got lift to hotel in Molfetta
from Saverio, who likes Man City – Lazio, Mancini connection. Molfetta is on the outskirts of Bari, near the coast.

Had been promised scorching sun. Clouds. But still, warm humid temp a good change. Good to be in Italy. 

Hotel, large rm 3 beds, I usually get my own room so no difference here. Sorted out the merch, clobber, got ready, messed up the rm.

Got picked up by Gae from club Discipline and driven to soundcheck.
Picturesque, by sea. Though the wastelands nearby though privately filled heart with dread -momentarily!

The clouds in Bari were something else actually, at sunset I was quite overwhelmed with awe. Quite spectacular.

Venue looked like a huge festival tent by the sea.
 Firecrackers went off during soundcheck. Sounded powerful.Moog onstage, Korgs.

Went to restaurant in Bari, gourmet, fresh pizza. Never overcook pizzas, the centre should be a bit soggy, like these. Bene. Apologised to Barbara for the lack of staff aboard the Detachments ship. Slightly fucking embarressing really. Got a Bierra Moretti. Everyone else soon left. Saverio mentioned the news…Amy Winehouse dead. I was genuinely stunned; see her knocking about in camden randomly e.g. pulling pints in Dublin Castle (incidentally, the place I discovered Bierra Moretti(not found it anywhere else)) to ‘keep busy’. I always kind of thought she’d have a long career after riding out her rough patch. Death. That voice – genuine, deep talent capable of embodying real truthfulness and pathos.
Didn’t complete pizza. To assist digestion we ordered shorts Grappa – hmmm, despite the initial, lethal smelling fumes…I like this stuff.

Back in car on way to venue, heard a few tunes, Saverio DJs and learnt his stuff in Berlin. But his DJ name is Gazza, he was obssessed with Gazza back in the day apparenntly he’s a bit of Lazio legend, all the ultras envied him – he was a footballer and a drunk. Got a bit nervy passing the Polizia stopping someone on the highway.

Sat backstage feeling weird, felt urge to drink even more.

Gin&tonic rider, italian bierra. Before gig a had champers with everyone.

A local musician donned a hooded robe to get behind a moog and assist Bastien onstage. Hundreds of expectant people inattendance. 1:30am….

Dry ice everywhere. Audiovideo sounded a bit odd, couldn’t hear the drums onstage.
Halfway through trk 2 – I don’t want to play, I checked the lead for the Hard-disk, pushed it in further and ,voila, the drums came through, not just for onstage but the whole venue. A good start then. Towards the end, now with guitar, really managed to lose self – got into it on a visceral level for last 3 songs Fear No Fear, Circles, Flowers. Could feel the energy really kick in, an element within feeling like I’d had injection of blood from e.g. simenon or jones. Just felt the music more, in the dry ice. FNF injects the intensity.
I think a possible future for Detachments as a group (if there is one, the future is in doubt) will involve more guitars and yet another personnel shake-up… for the much asked about second album.

Apparently promoters heard whispers/rumours in the crowd the band had split. Some people were a bit pissed off, they’d paid to see the full band. But overall it was a good gig.

Post gig, had a Negroni (cocktail), strong stuff, set up merch stall – this should have been organised before. After recent Athens gig we’re’ always aware to bring more merch, we completely sold out of everything there, even ‘not-for-sale’ promo CDs.

The rest is a blur. Nattering to a few random people.

Got escorted/driven home around 3:30 I think.

SUN24JUL

Room, bit of a mess, had difficulty opening some plastic cups last night and… anyway. left 2pm.

Would have liked to have gone to beach. Found a pavillion, sat at the edge, in sun for a couple of hrs, the whole place to myself. Hungover, took it easy in the heat, just whimsically looking at the clouds and the shapes they suggest and thinking of ways to sort out life.

T;
‘Taking it easy outside in the hotel’s luxurypavilion amidst palms,limetrees cedars. Bari’

Got some aspirin in hotel. Lift to airport. flight 5:55pm.

Airport.
swore at toilet assistant for closing place down.

In an abandoned restaurant, seafood and couscous, average and 11E – rip off.

Went through, no queue, ducked under barrier, hench poliziaman went for me. The cops and cops and security in Italy are  sadistic and fascistic looking fuckers.

On other side picked up a fancy looking bottle of Grappa.

Flight to Rome. Empty seats next to me, enjoying the space. Incredible window views, utterly sublime.

Horde of clouds approacheth.

What inhabits the clouds? Observational Tourists from the future? Departed souls? Alien, zoologists?…

—

Roma airport, had time to kill and as usual, got into some shit to keep me going; went to check if they’d messed up luggage transfer(well these things can happen), went to check if it was in baggage reclaim but then couldn’t get back in after that. Should have gone straight to transfers. Anyway, asked an infodesk bloke where to go – he glanced up, absentmindedly pointed to another security check. when it got to me I turned back and went under the barriers, off and out, concerned for my grappa. Asked Aliltalia, another memeber of staff to point me in right direction. T3 – OK gratzi. So that nobhead at the info desk before would have sent me into incorrectly into T1. Useless fuck.

Cuttng it a bit fine now. Custom check again, they clocked the grappa. Told me I could send it as baggage…queued at check in for 25min or something, found out it was 55E to send it. Back at customs, they seemed a bit shocked it would cost that much, stupid incompetent fucks – do departments not communicate at Roma? Anyway they checked my bag again, the grappa bottle was empty. They let me through, I’d bought some containers from a pharmacy and transfered the liquid into 75ml bottles and swigged some of the rest. went through…yet another slow moving queue WTF – extra Passport control. finally got through had to run to G11. had I missed it? G11 is a flight ot moscow! asked/disturbrd someone filling a form at info… transpires that despite g11 on ticket LDN is now g10. fuck’s sake. squeezed onto shuttle bus to plane. Delayed take-off.

Airborne. On Alitalia – you can have as many beers as you want for free, pity I didn’t realise this before.

——–

Epilogue

Well.
Back.
Heathrow.
Almost midnight? No tubes to central London. Missed last ones.

got a tube one stop, then another tube, waited, one more tube to Acton Town, 3 miniature journeys, streching to about 45min, usually that distance is 15min one journey. Then nightbus to liverpool st. waited and waited. discoverd no buses to archway. wandered off trying to find finsbury sq, took a while s aw a 43 bus, followed that waited in cold. donned the robe for a while. cold. finally got a deserted bus to archway after waitingf about 25min. what a wretched journey that was. Got out some guy stood next to freshy dead fox. I agreed I’d find something in my flat to cover it. noticed iranian stire still open, the newagey type bloke should have asked there. outside neighbours door some bloke curled up on floor. quieltly turned key and went to bed. 

thanking lucky stars I’d made it there and back OK. must’ve been about 3am

Adventure complete.

Well anyway, travelling solo is not so bad, can be engaging and entertaining depending on how one responds to new stimuli. Certainly more fun than being trapped in this shadowy tower here in Archway.

Considering relocating to Vietnam or Goa or somewhere hot and alien for Jan,Feb,Mar2012, but that won’t be possible if I do further actor training.”

Bastien signing off

25July2011.

Athens 19-20-21:05:2011 Greek Mythology

18
as usual before any gig, stress precedes. Last min packing and sorting out other stuff til about 2am.

19
Sun shining in London. Security alert at Victoria.,Gatwick Express -anxiety inducing- running slow
Tweet “aboard the gatwixk express 1stclass. En route to Athens the city where the name ‘Detachments’ was concieved “

Made it to checkin 8:30am on time though.
it’s a long flight to Greece
Bastien (reading up on 3,500 yrs of Greek history) was stuck with; to his left some fidgety bloke picking his face , to his right; some massive fatwoman eating smelly meaty food.  Pete sat behind with  selecting places to roam in Athens from the recently picked up Athen guide, and perusing Tim  Burton book ‘Oyster Boy’ and

Arrived at airport – mobile phones, rather worryingly – unable to send/receive. Luckily, Second Skin club promoter George Fakinos recognised us.
Cloudy skies out there.  The Georges drove us to hotel,

Salem on the stereo.

…
Stunning 5-star hotel, feeling good.

Noticeable Riot Police and soldiers presence in area. Remember this is a country in crisis.
Checked in then went out for a 3 course meal with George and Big George.

Big George (3 degrees and PHD) imparted knowledge regarding Athenian history and discussed the philosophers.

The 2 Georges drove back to airport to pickup max.
After slipping through the free subway
Pete n Bastien mosied on up to the Acropolis area. Sun now out.

Climbed up to the rock with the classic view of Athens.

Wandered round the entire circumference of the Acropolis hill.
Back to hotel for coffee…

went up to roof terrace, blown away – Pool, jacuzzi, bar etc.

And incredible view.Max arrived, everyone digging the 5-star hotel.

Went out to a bar, DJ played some rather interesting tunes; mainly UK Alt early 80s.
Saw some band nextdoor, acoustics good, all walls padded, no echo at all. Only problem – could hear us 3 joking around n shit a bit too loud.
Got steadily drunk.
With our excellent hosts, swayed over to another joint, again with intriguing music policy, e.g. DJ drop ‘United’ by Throbbing Gristle.

All, foggy, memory now. …

Ended the night with shish kebab.

20
10:29am Sgt Bastien somehow made it for breakfast by 1min. Waiter then informed him 20E+ breakfast is ‘not included’, message relayed to Pete and Max as they blearily staggered in to do a 360, heading up to rooftop.
5min later waiter informs Bastien that breakfast actually IS included.

Spent several hrs sprawled out on sofas by pool on roof terrace,

cushions and chairs all messed up, assorted pastries(brought up for the lads) littering and crumbing the table in front. feet on tables,half dressed, dozing in sun getting patches of burns. Eventually got told to put feet down. WTF! Sodded off for a pleasant stroll around local area. Greek coffee – ooh, not so nice.

Wandered into central
really feeling like lads on hols.

shopping district, . Search for toothpaste continued, all chemists closed despite neon signs pointing to sidestreet illuminated. Eventually located some in a mimimart.

Got back on subway to Panepissoffimo. Soundcheck time. 5pm.
Very high stage. Venue had a balcony, impressive looking joint.
Thorough check, pleasing results achieved. 10% beer to accompany.
Afterwards on way to cafe, Bastien stormed up to a quartet of Detachments posters that had been postered over and tore off the offending selotaped waste paper.
Out in the open, cafe, Din dins, gourmet shish type kebab with Big George. Excellent.

Chilled out backstage, then went out to chill and get fresh air boozing…

Checked out Support band, audience slowly building.

Stagetime- marched out from sidestage, the place was now packed.

Bastien wears Versace, Max wears Fred Perry ltd edition.

Crowd attentive. 45MIn full set.


Slipped out down the stairs to backstageland. Got called back for the encore, threw down Messages.
Heard ALL merch sold out. We should have brought more Album CDs.
Free bar time.
Backstage powdered our noses.
Entourage Cruised over to another another joint,
Peaches on decks.
 She climbed up and performed Fuck The Pain Away live. Mental. Too packed in there, strolled back to Second Skin. Later,

realised it was 6:00am! WTF. Home James.

Max crashed  into early quick breakfast at 6:30am.
bastien staggered there 10:10
Pete didn’t make it.
Max woke up on floor.

Orangejuice,coffee,slowstroll,
endedup at acropolis area again.
Big George drove us to the airport. Played us CD of his band.
Sat out in early dusk sun admiring the landscape.
Athens, we love yer.

———-

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-fuck writing blogs. justice is never done.
next time we’ll just do  a photoblog.

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Maxback flew to Belgium.
Bastien and Pete flew to Gatwick; In flight -hypothetical forfiets game. For x amount would you… …everyone’s got their price. For £1,500 would you…etc. Got pretty sick
.
OK back in the LD…

To save £20 (on a taxi), sober would you….
wait around for ages(40min?) amongst scarey shouty drunks and to catch a slow bus fromVictoria to Camden. Then get the (usually quick short distance bus) 134 from Camden to Archway…. The 134 is the nightbus from HELL. If you are sober(senses not muffled) and surrounded by these cretinous  chavvy fucks shrieking/screaming… faith in human race begins to dwindle. 3 incidents where driver had to stop the bus, the amount of abuse he got, what a nightmare job. This is London. But anyway these are the things in life to forget. Trips like Athens are to remember.

22
black in LD, bleary, but content.

Portugal, Abril: LISBON28, PORTO29.

The Breaking Tweets [Bastien’s phone]

porto bound. Max slept on bench, got robbed. My mem is gone from 1am. We did a lot of crazyshit. Most rocknroll nonRockNroll band in europe

rue de sanra apolonia 59. heading there now. hopefully max is back at venue…his phone is dead. s

we´re at Rua da Escola Politecnica, 159. Pieter Jan Van Campenhout needs to know this. Mess! canºt remember much but beers n cocktails.

29 Apr

WE,ve LOST max(bassp player).Anyone seen him?! 15missed calls from him. Pete,s lost his phone. Free bar wrecked us. good gig last night tho

29 Apr

caipirinha. Mojitos. Lisbon. SUN. Enchanting city. enraptured

28 Apr

»

max(bass) has missed his coach from Antwerp to Ldn airport. He’s now driving to LD to catch Dets flight to Lisbon

—————————————–

BAND TRAVELOGUE

Pre: comms with promoters – a bit vague.

—

WE27 Max missed his coach! Emergency – borrowed a car and drove to Antwerp-Deptford,  ETA 3am…

THU28 MAx rrrived S.LDN 5:45. pickup up pete .
then picked up Bastien (N.Ld)then drove stright to Luton.

Got to airport in good time.

LISBON got picked up in a hippie type old van.

Drove through Lisbon, in glorious sun. What a beautiful city. Blown away.

Hotel: ornate.

Donned brits abroad beach clobber.

Waited about 50M opposite hotel, in sun. that must be him!… ‘oi NUNO!’ gizza £100, we need to eat. Wandered to park with beer.

had cocktails at a cafe sunning ourselves in deckchairs . Mojitos and Caipirinhas. great view of city below. Contentedly wandered back to hotel,  got lift to soundcheck.

Ended up on roof terrace,

continuing to steadily drink Bock beer.

Great view of massive water + in distance; longest bridge ever seen!…

eventually: Pretty good soundcheck though it took the soundman 5hrs to set up(!)

So kept drinking up on terrace. Ate 3course dinner…… Veal and red wine up on terrace. Splendid.

Dressing rm.; looked like a primary school toilet. but still. one cubicle each.Gig was alright! They called down everyone from terrace. Bastien wore versace top. Red socks. POST GIG Sold records, signed em.

POST GIG madness

…

messy can;t rem much more Bock beers

more cocktails…..

whte russian, blk russians, whisky …….that’s what happens with a free bar. apparently we stowed loads of rum in our rm but in the a.m. it wasn’t there

.

—————————————————

FRI29 woke up 10am or something for breakfast. 15missed calls from max! last call 5:05am bastien and pete too zonked to hear. Very worried. Considered we may need to call cops and/or hospital

Pete cancels lost phone.

royal wed on TV – the woman in the hotel was watching it, Bastian put thumbs DOWN at the screen but I went upstairs and put it on in the rm, kind of 3/4 asleep watched it hungover in and out of dozes, annoyed by the organ/choir. Glad not be in UK with all those snivelling sycophants reinforcing the sad old class system that blights Blighty. Silly, inbred-blueblood worshipping cunts.

Pete’s missing blackberry turns up presented by maid!

re:Max – we contacted promoter – S.O.S., put our messages on twitter/Fbook.

Taxi in sun, with beach clothes on. taxi got lost. finally found venue. max is at venue! he’d been out all night. …HE’d GOT ROBBED on a bench, woke up without phone and wallet. schoolkids were waking him up around 9am. What a nightmare for him! shit. How did this happen??? apparently max had gone into a sandwich jointand got 3 sandwichs when he came out bastien and pete had vanished. all they remember is wondereing wher max had gone , wandredd rnd in a delirous, stupor, 99% alseep bubble. got 1 cab. ended up nowhere. got another. stumbled back into hotel. MEMORY ERRORS.

1st class train to Porto. feeling very rough indeed/ shakes. naps. felt like a v.long journey. Porto: last stop. max nearly left his bass on there,we ran back to collect. beach gear on, towels draped. Overcast and puddles. Got lift to hotel. Then venue.

late dinner. Went for a meal with tough looking rockabilly guy- turned out to be one of portugal’s ‘top10 wanted men’ Porto FC Ultra. Ate local dish thing that was apparently like ‘croque Monsieur’ but with layers of meat; brutal. curry type sauce, lasagne like topping. 1slice of bread. surrounded by fries. weird. Not exactly delicate. Stuffed. vChoc mousse and tirramasou

Back to hotel. Fell asleep. Got up about 12:15am.
Apparently venu was straight up the rd. GOT LOST where’s the venu?? bastien now officially pissed off. arrived 2min before 1am stagetime.

ended up on at 1:30am pretty Good gig.
people SCREAMING after.

Kept on boozing, hassling the rockabilly owners for more booz. 2 rms – hard French-like techno or Rockabilly/Northern Soul etc stuff. Definitely prefered the latter.

———————-

SAT30
almost impossible tyring to wake Max.

Pleasant airport, nice and quiet, live jazz duo in background. bastien bought port and sausages.
All seperated on tedious flight.
Ran for train; gatwick to LD got busted and fined Bastien now officially pissed off.

London Bridge: overun by riot police. Another Millwall game.
Pete dashed back to Sarf London, Bastien to North LDN, Max to Luton to pick up borrowed car and then drive back to Antwerp.

Back in London, quite sunny. All good!  In time for Dr Who
new series 2nd episode!

TURKEY SLAUGHTERED [Istanbul, DogzStar: Sat02/ April/ 2011]

monday4th, through bleary eyed exhaustion…

————–

Sebastien Frinight:Up late getting shit ready/SAT02April2011: bedtime 2am+

got up 3:55am taxi to Paddington. Took about 10min from A-Tn, same length of time to write/send email via smartphone to AudioVideo film-maker in Germany. Ah, clear roads in London – only for the nocturnal.

“paddington Heathrow express at an ungodly hour wondering where the fuck is drummer pete!”4:57 AM Apr 2nd via Mobile Web

Onboard heathrow express. Sinister news channel…
“telescreen news on heathrow express train is Orwellian. Western propaganda and petty alarmist sensationalism “

Pete’s fiance sped him to airport (he’dgot up late) in car.

TERMINAL5. Impressive ultra modern.
Duty free: Dre’s career was built on glamourising criminality, we got his earphones.

Glorious sunrise.

BA Flight…
BA has gone down the drain, it was a like a giant Easyjet but with unfriendly curt staff. British class system in full glory. ‘Not in economy class’.
No booz til 1hr before landing?!! Both fell asleep during gash film on 1970s TV scrn – Narnia Prince Caspian – sod those nauseating upper class little shits.

Looked like the plane interior hadn’t been updated since 1981
similar to the IBM scrn on our album cover! ha.
Cold waves of air – they ran out of blankets…the heating had broken down!

None pork breakfast was OK but a bit cold…

————————————————————
TURKEY arrival. Got our visas

Istanbul airport met our guide Hemi – a most genial fellow.
Taxi to hotel through rain.  Looked like we’d brought some classic English weather with us.

At hotel Maybe have seemed liked divas; demanded new rooms. Went round a few. Fine in end. Bastien got his own room. Pete and Max shared.

Had a wander round local Galatasary area. RAIN. COLD.

Hemi, Pete, Max

Huge multi-storeyed modern Turkish coffee house/restaurant.
One of entourage ran to get Bastien plasters. All trod back through relentless rain. Despite saturated footwear and coats , good to be out in Istanbul. Always great to explore a new country.

nap.

Thorough Soundcheck lasted rather a long time. Had a few problems with gear. We need to upgrade.  Got Efes beer on.

Through bustling night, main street (‘istanbul’s oxford st’), with entourage to Turkish restaurant – ‘LifeLung Friend’ (AKA My Lovely Lung). …Consumed lung shish kebabs. Rather delicious.

+ Raki. Interview with a cool Istanbul blog – really into the album; ‘masterpiece’. Time Out had Detachments as main attraction for the night.

DOGZSTAR multi-floored Venue, looked busy.
1:30am THE GIG: 1or2 probs with sound after 1st song.

(mid-set)very impactive HolRom with crowd erally bouncing around and mouthing the lyrics! After that, the energy of bastien/band+Audience dipped. Heard we seem ‘a lot darker live than on album’, more Rock than expected.

Got stuck into bar after gig.

great people in Turkish entourage.
The gregarious promoter had spent time in Sarf London (he had a bit of a wideboy LDN geezer edge),

he plied us with non-stop shots til 7am.

Detachments entourage – messy stagger back through winding streets.

SLAUGHTERED.

–
Day After Night Before
So we didn’t manage to go over the bridge to the Asian half of the city as we planned yesterday.
Hungover to the extreme.

taxi back to airport in pain.

—

BA flight back much better. Cold airwaves again though, but didn’t affect our alchohol soaked systems

Better seats and bit better film . Collected wine and shots.

Refreshing beer.

Tolerant, pleasant staff. Much better.

———-
LONDON Heathrow T5.
03April2011. Sunday Evening.
that was Detachments’ 101st gig ever.
100th was at Queen of Hoxton, LDN.

Detachments: Fr.+Be. tour Feb.2011

Jeu 10.02 : RENNES (35) – L’Ubu
Ven 11.02 : LORIENT (56) – Le Manège
Sam 12.02 : BRUXELLES (B) – La Maison du Peuple
Dim 13.02 : ROUBAIX (59) – Alcatraz
Lun 14.02 : PARIS (75) – Le Baron

Wed 9^th
S.Ldn: Pete (drums)stressed by day sorting van whilst simultaneously trying to teach a percussion lesson

N.Ldn: ‘Bastien (vocs/guit/keys&HDD) – stress packing all day and still adjusting programming, printing itineries etc etc.
5:30pm Adlee to Deptford (S.Ldn) ‘bastien had good natter taxi driver mandem from Moss Side.

7pm Pete behind the wheel (of loaded up,  rugged Alt-Delete Mercedes Sprinter) and Bastien (sipping booz), both feeling good, at last on the open road.
S. London to Portsmouth

Bastien tweet: boozed up in van, Portsmouth ship to Le Havre soon. Currentky being searched. Still a bit ill

23:00 Ship to Le Havre
tweet: in Jockey Lounge on ship. Feels like something out of the hotel in The Shining…

In otherwise silent lounge, Pete & Bastien listened in on neighbouring, very  entertaining slurring drunken aristocrats e.g. ‘Yah, Queen Victoria used to have the place on the Isle of White’.  e.g. “she’s got a house for her daughter in London, surrey…… Hampshire – creaming it she is the old bitch”

4am
‘bastien woke up, cold,
strolled out onto windswept deck – saw stars so bright, brightest ever seen.

Thu 10th
(fuck knows what day it is, being on tour is like christmas/new yr hols – time/days go fuzzy)

8am arrive at Le Havre
At first toll – stopped by cops, asked about and searched for drugs.  Guys probably looked like stoners – just scruffy, sleepless and hungover a bit (+ bottle of red wine in bastien’s hand) in a grimy looking white van.

Atmospheric, misty drive to Rennes.

Rennes
1960s-esque hotel room included a downstairs with ensuite barthroom  with a huge table and another double rm. very friendly woman at desk.  Ca va. Venue opposite. Met Max(bass) (travelled by train from Antwerp).Unloaded gear.

With vaguely vague sense of direction, wandered round the picturesque Old  Town.  Sunny and warm. It’s like spring here. Needed to shed coats. Bought some bits n bobs, including Pete’s ‘Slimer’ Ghostbusters sweater.

Long rehearsal/soundcheck, afternoon 2hrs+… Good practice.

Rennes. Dinner duck slices (looking like steak) cooked rare, excellent. In pepper sauce

UBU.

50min SET. Powerful.

Audiovideo, Play, Viewing, Holrom, Never Knew, Sometimes, HAL, Human Shield, Fear no Fear,Words Alone, Messages, Circles, Flowers

post:
Vinyl/t-shirts  snapped up. Detachments products shifting fast! T-shirts and vinyl and albumCD.
Champers with promoter. Drunk, rider whisky, ltd ed heineken in alumium bottles, line gift

after: Went for drink out on town with small entourage. Little chats with random folks meandering in sts.

Fri 11th
a.m.  in sun strolled around Old Town, extremely leisurely(on jamaican time). bought shades.  Sat in a cafe sipping bier – got asked if we were English/in a band by a random old geezer who goes out round Camden.

lunchtime load out at venue. Stocked up on rider booty.
Gave lift to a fan couple from last night.

Drive: Sinatra(wee small hrs) on stereo, followed by WuTang(36), followed by Marc Bolan comp.

Driving into gritty looking coastal town of Lorient – Detachments posters around town

FNAC
(huge multi-storey rec/book/tech Fr chain store) instore show

in special cinema/conf type rm
; stripped down mini-gig; personnel – Bastien(guit) & Pete(eDrum). Experience: ‘a bit weird.’ People were enchanted though…
Flowers (acoustic), Words Alone, Circles, Sometimes, Holrom.

Proper gig venue:
We didn’t like longhair soundman who’d seemed to take a dislike to Detachments first – what’s wrong with jamming Nuttin But A G-Thang in soundcheck? bad vibes. animosity with staff or just paranoia?

Showtime:
Kids going crazy at front, singing along, even stagediving. So we cut out all slow songs.
Audiovideo, Play, Viewing, Holrom, Never Knew, Sometimes, HAL, Human Shield, Fear no Fear,Words Alone, Messages, Circles, Flowers

So many drunk  kids spilling about around venue.

Sold loads of merch,

got loads of requests for signed copes from people chatting.
One tall cat (who bought 1 of every single item(vinyl:circles, flrs, FNF. tourCD, T-shirt, CDalbum)Detachments had for sale) proclaimed to Pete that what he witnessed onstage was ‘better than fucking’

Everyting cool with everyone.

Twitter: Lorient. C’est fou! Kids going nuts down front, stagediving etc. Selling out of merch, mad. Early night Now. 500mile drive soon

Earlyish night, midnight bedtime.

Sat 12^th.
Hotel (modern, 4-star, very nice actually) too warm.

Big breakfast. Empty restaurant, just band around 6.30am. Fancy catering mgr looked like james ford, but well camp.

Huge mission drive
from West Brittany to Brussels.
Set off 7am. Perilously blacked out rds. Nervous.  Sunrise failing to occur. Unnerving. Max(at wheel) and Bastien were thinking ‘is this the apocolypse?’ had we slipped into some kind of Midnight dimension.

Sun did not rise til 9am.

Pete & Max took turns driving. ..


on rd heard things like Fade To Grey and Situation by Yazoo on daytime radio, no wonder they feel what the band are doing in fr/be – also homelands of MinimalWave/Cold Wave.

Around 2pm, After crossing border to Belgium, Max covered van walls (picked up from service station) in soft porn,  of course all done with a sense of irony. Road madness setting in.
Brussels
Belgian beers are delicious/impressive – went IN.
Antipasto platter backstage.
All rather redfaced/drunk
Brussel, La Maison Du Peuple Played shorter set, frenetic songs only.

Audiovideo,

Play, Holrom, Never Knew,

HAL, Human Shield, Fear no Fear, Messages, Circles, Flowers

Gig: towards end, people screaming e.g. ‘this is the best thing imaginable!’

Actually obliged encore demand this time…Encore = 1Words Alone + 2Art of Viewing

“good review here: http://www.darkentries.be/nl/concerten/?cid=210 . You probably won’t be able to read most of it, but it boils down to them saying it’s a league up from Mirrors and Hurts, comparable to Gary Numan and John Foxx and a welcome escape from White Lies and Interpol. Furthermore they seem to think it unimaginable for Detachments to play this sort venue in the UK… They seem to think Detachments only play massive venues over there.”

Merch;All vinyl:  SOLD OUT

Gang(+Belgian based entourage) stormed around Brussels very drunk . Mem fragmentation. Heavy duty night  for all.

Sun 13th

chilled out watching  vid of last night’s gig at a fan’s joint sipping cocktails.

3pm-ish. Discovered van had been towed away from venue front! Not a joke. We’d not been reminded enough that there was a fckn market there next day.

Moody, grey day…
0. taxi1 to all meet back up venue

1.Taxi2 to depot (in a notorious ghetto hood)

2.Taxi3 to venue for Bastien to pickup fine money (a most unfortunate266E )

3.Pete & max Taxi to copshop Brussels Town Hall
to show papers.
4.Scowling Bastien stomps up hill to Town Hall on foot with money.

5.Taxi back to depot to pay bastard fine and rescue van

6Drove back to venue to load up all gear.

Drove across to Roubaix
Got there just in time for stagetime. Quick set up. Got on with gig.
Audiovideo, Play, Viewing, Holrom, Never Knew, Sometimes, HAL, Human Shield, Fear no Fear,Words Alone, Messages, Circles, Flowers

Strange kind of huge self-contained multi-storey arts centre/complex. Sun night.

Ate in arts venue kitchen. Had our own chef.
In dark wandered tipsy, joking around utterly deserted town. Nothing open whatsoever.

Went back to our own apartment in the huge spiral staircase infested labyrinthine building, sipping Duval and Leffe

Mon 14^th
chilled at apartment. Bathtime. Found some crazy, hilarious Miami booty bass CD, perfect for van.

Drive to Paris
Good to be back, yet again. annoying traffic and colder temp up here though.

Wandered streets vaguely searching for Notre Dame,  found biers in a cafe. got rather tired and one contingent perhaps slightly melancholy. Returned to hotel(same one as drunken Dec2010) via Metro for quick kip.

After driving across insane anarchic lanes of Arc De Triomphe Found venue on the fancy Avenue De Marceau. Exclusive, decadent, private type joint, Eiffel Tower on view from entrance.

Trudged to posh Lebonese restaurant.

Interview with a webzine.

G&T woke us up!
Used fully electronic drums. Decent little gig.

Audiovideo, Play, Holrom, Never Knew, HAL, Human Shield, Fear no Fear, Circles, Flowers
People dancing in our faces. Sounded great. Played superbly.

All continued with Gin&Tonics til about 5am with new friends.

Tu 15^th

3hrs sleep, all looked very fucked up leaving hotel;
pete unshaven, mad curly hair, bad skin, small eyes and Ghostbusters jumper(from Rennes) back on. Drove to Lille (dropped off Max)

2:20pm
Eurotunnel, Calais – Folkstone.  concluded: Great little tour that! Throughout we were given a lot of intensely fervent feedback from fans, quite inspiring. Healthily attended venues. We do like France.  Good times, lots of laffs.

…

By COLLIN the tour van

———-

 

 

 

1/95,  2/96, 3/97, 4/98,
5/99 (fifth gig this yr/99th ever)