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 9th
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 12th.
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 14th
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 15th
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
———-
5/99 (fifth gig this yr/99th ever)
Detachments 
