England Tour Update #3
Day 6 (cont.):
I'm at home now and free of the tyranny of the internet cafe, so I should be able to do a better update, but I probably won't. We were in Cambridge to play The Firepit Festival, an Autumn Equinox bonfire party organized by Daniel Watts, who was responsible for last year's magical punt gig on the river. What better way to spend the Equinox than in the hometown of Robyn Hitchcock, Syd Barrett and The Grasshopper Clock? After not being able to hit any high notes the previous night in Derby, I had completely lost my voice by the time we got to Cambridge. Luckily, Helen from Fun Of The Pier knew all of the Corner Laughers' harmonies and was able to cover for me. She's a better singer anyway. It's just kind of annoying that I spent 3 months practicing the parts and wasn't able to do them. So for this show Mark played my basslines, Helen sang my backing vocals, and I played only guitar, which is what I don't do in the Corner Laughers. It was a fun gig nonetheless, with much dancing and revelry by the guests and plenty of food and drinks. Karen Eng (who took many of our promo photos when we were in London last year) was nice enough to cook up a potion of ginger, lemon, and honey that was supposed to cure my voice. It didn't work, but it was delicious.
Cambridge Photos
Day 7: Helen & Mark drove us to Colchester, through many, many roundabouts. Seriously, there was one every 100 yards or so. Martin Newell's Golden Afternoon was the impetus for the entire tour. We've been dreaming of going to see it for the past 10 years, and when we got the invitation to be on the bill for this year's event, there was no question about it; we immediately booked our plane tickets. With a little good old-fashioned American ingenuity (and a lot of help from our various British Facebook friends) we were able to book 5 other shows around it, but we would have gone just for the Golden Afternoon, so large does it loom in our own mythology. It didn't disappoint. Martin Newell is even better in real life than on record. (Most of his American fans have probably never seen him play live, as he rarely tours or plays outside of Essex.) He's one of those rare musical and literary geniuses who's always thinking a million miles an hour ahead of everyone else. He's almost incapable of saying or doing anything that isn't brilliant. It was a little intimidating to play in front of his audience. They're so English, educated, older, and reserved. It was hard to tell if they hated us or liked us at the time, but after the show everyone was very gracious and complimentary, and we sold out of CDs so we must have done OK. The venue is amazing too. It was originally a Norman church, first built in 1206 and rebuilt in its current form in 1713. The stage is in front of a huge stained glass window and there's a creepy graveyard in the back. And there's a mid-show break for tea and cakes. After the gig we checked into our B&B and tried to go for a walk around town. By this time it was pouring rain so we cut the walk short, had dinner, got some British chocolates and enjoyed a season 3 episode of Downton Abbey on British TV (It doesn't air in the US until January.)
Colchester Photos
Golden Afternoon recap from Martin Newell's website.
I'm at home now and free of the tyranny of the internet cafe, so I should be able to do a better update, but I probably won't. We were in Cambridge to play The Firepit Festival, an Autumn Equinox bonfire party organized by Daniel Watts, who was responsible for last year's magical punt gig on the river. What better way to spend the Equinox than in the hometown of Robyn Hitchcock, Syd Barrett and The Grasshopper Clock? After not being able to hit any high notes the previous night in Derby, I had completely lost my voice by the time we got to Cambridge. Luckily, Helen from Fun Of The Pier knew all of the Corner Laughers' harmonies and was able to cover for me. She's a better singer anyway. It's just kind of annoying that I spent 3 months practicing the parts and wasn't able to do them. So for this show Mark played my basslines, Helen sang my backing vocals, and I played only guitar, which is what I don't do in the Corner Laughers. It was a fun gig nonetheless, with much dancing and revelry by the guests and plenty of food and drinks. Karen Eng (who took many of our promo photos when we were in London last year) was nice enough to cook up a potion of ginger, lemon, and honey that was supposed to cure my voice. It didn't work, but it was delicious.
Cambridge Photos
Day 7: Helen & Mark drove us to Colchester, through many, many roundabouts. Seriously, there was one every 100 yards or so. Martin Newell's Golden Afternoon was the impetus for the entire tour. We've been dreaming of going to see it for the past 10 years, and when we got the invitation to be on the bill for this year's event, there was no question about it; we immediately booked our plane tickets. With a little good old-fashioned American ingenuity (and a lot of help from our various British Facebook friends) we were able to book 5 other shows around it, but we would have gone just for the Golden Afternoon, so large does it loom in our own mythology. It didn't disappoint. Martin Newell is even better in real life than on record. (Most of his American fans have probably never seen him play live, as he rarely tours or plays outside of Essex.) He's one of those rare musical and literary geniuses who's always thinking a million miles an hour ahead of everyone else. He's almost incapable of saying or doing anything that isn't brilliant. It was a little intimidating to play in front of his audience. They're so English, educated, older, and reserved. It was hard to tell if they hated us or liked us at the time, but after the show everyone was very gracious and complimentary, and we sold out of CDs so we must have done OK. The venue is amazing too. It was originally a Norman church, first built in 1206 and rebuilt in its current form in 1713. The stage is in front of a huge stained glass window and there's a creepy graveyard in the back. And there's a mid-show break for tea and cakes. After the gig we checked into our B&B and tried to go for a walk around town. By this time it was pouring rain so we cut the walk short, had dinner, got some British chocolates and enjoyed a season 3 episode of Downton Abbey on British TV (It doesn't air in the US until January.)
Colchester Photos
Click to viewGolden Afternoon recap from Martin Newell's website.