Diary Archives
08.23.2006
Final Diary Entry
Our final leg of the year long Life in Slow Motion tour started with our bass player Robbie's Dad being hospitalized for what the doctors said would be his final time.
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06.15.2006
European Festivals/South Africa
We got back together to rehearse and perform a radio show at the Church at the end of May, but our bass player and his wife had their first child, Finn Malone, on the 21st and Robbie needed to stay home.
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05.08.2006
Byron Bay/New Zealand
Our first show in Australia was the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival - a really cool hippie festival held over five days in this amazing part of the country.
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03.11.2006
USA Tour
We started March 1st at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. We've played here before and remembered it fondly. Like the Fox in Detroit, this is an amazing looking and sounding venue.
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02.07.2006
European Tour
2006 began for the band with a couple days rehearsal in the Church where we learned a few new songs and ran over the others. Everyone was in top form and looking forward to our European tour.
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12.13.2005
UK Tour
Manchester Evening News Arena...we got in to Manchester on the Saturday of George Best's funeral. Robbie threw his bag in his room and got a taxi to Man United game...
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12.05.2005
Start of the UK Tour
Dave's larangytis brought our American tour to a screeching halt back in October and the healing process was slow.
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10.16.2005
Toronto, Washington D.C. and New York City
We started our latest tour in Toronto, two months to the day after our last show in Toronto.
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09.26.2005
UK Tour
So this has to be the shortest tour I've ever been on. It lasted six days! Can you really call it a tour if it's less than a week? Maybe it should be called a leg.
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09.16.2005
Promo, TV Tapings and the Record's Release
We have been taping a lot of television shows since getting back from America last month.
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08.30.2005
Promo Tour Wrap Up
From Boulder Colorado we flew in to Seattle for a day off which also happened to be Clune's Birthday. Dave had something special planned, we were told to meet at the pier at two in the afternoon.
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08.16.2005
Boulder Colorado
Boulder Colorado is the site of the long running, annual "Triple A" Radio Convention. This was the original show that this tour was built around.
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08.05.2005
The Tour Begins
So I am in the back lounge of our bus, driving from Boston to Philladelphia overnight. Our show at the Avalon tonight went really well, for everyone except Dave.
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07.13.2005
Rehearsals in North London
My name is David Nolte and I'm the guitar player in David Gray's band. Dave has asked me to update his website weekly in the form of a tour journal which will start today.
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Diary Entry
Byron Bay/New Zealand
Monday, May 08, 2006
Our first show in Australia was the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival - a really cool hippie festival held over five days in this amazing part of the country. There were a few stages with stuff going all the time and we got to see Sigur Ros the night before we played. They are great, this was the first of many sightings over the next few days. We played on a Friday night right after Jamie Cullum who recognized Clune when he came back after his set. It was funny to watch. Our set went really well. The crowd were very cool, the weather was good, and everything went better than expected. Byron Bay is a small, beautiful oceanside community with rain forest and all the wildlife that goes along with it. I have an aversion to nature, especially animals and the hotel we stayed at was in the middle of a rain forest where you had to walk a dirt path through the forest to get from reception to your room. That's alright in the daylight but the night was terrifying. I had to go back and forth two nights in a row (4 trips!) It never got easier. At dawn the birds would wake up and sing for about 45 minutes. It's amazing how loud they were - there must have been thousands of them. Nature freaks me out, I was happy to go to a city.
The next day we flew to Auckland, New Zealand. Our show there was the same night as the Rolling Stones and Sigur Ros. Sigur Ros were staying in our hotel. I got to look at them while we were all waiting in the lobby...I should have gone and talked to them but I chickened out...not for the last time on this trip either. I always regret that but I just couldn't bring myself to interrupt them. The Auckland crowd were very quiet and attentive which was cool and everything but when Dave encouraged them to get out of their seats and participate it was like a whole different crowd had shown up. It became a different kind of gig and everyone was very happy. Next was Wellington and another good show and audience. Another Rolling Stones night as well. This time they were staying at our hotel. There was a velvet rope by the elevators and tons of people waiting to see them pass. We were all waiting for Tim to come down for the soundcheck, standing in the Rolling Stones crowd looking at the elevators in anticipation. When he finally showed we gave him a round of applause that the punters picked up on and contributed too. Tim handled his sudden fame well.
Next was Christchurch, our final show in New Zealand. Everyone seemed more enthusiastic compared to our last time here three years ago but nothing prepared us for the show in Christchurch. The crowd was a lot younger and really into it. A lot of the people up front were on their feet for the entire show. It was sort of a shock compared to the last two crowds, a welcome shock, it was very cool.
The second half of the trip had us back in Australia. I'll go over that next time.
