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
Start of the UK Tour
Monday, December 05, 2005
Dave's larangytis brought our American tour to a screeching halt back in October and the healing process was slow. Plans for additional promotion were postponed and, if you listened to the doctor, the Irish/UK tour was in trouble. There had long been plans to play Alibi on Parkinson with the string section that played on the record and Chris Elliot, the arranger, conducting so we were all crossing our fingers on the day of the taping and the camera run throughs were really tense. The band, the record company, Dave's management, the crew, the TV people were all standing there, looking at him, holding their breath and crossing their fingers. Dave sang the song three times, each version getting stronger. It was such a relief, this taping was a big deal for everyone concerned, this song is one of our favorites from the record and playing live with that string section was as good as it gets. We played the song with them five or six times in total that day and I savoured every second of it.
Next we recorded Hospital Food for Top of the Pops. We all mimed the music while Dave sang the vocal live. The Top of the Pops experience is always great, they get the kids in the audience really hyped up and their enthusiasm is overwhelming...you can't help but have fun. My favorite part of the show is seeing the other artists practice their songs. This last time I got to watch Enya do the same song about ten times. She had a lot of candles and a lot of string players...big bunches of both. She was sort of goth looking, not what I expected. I got to see Liberty X too. I can't watch that group without thinking about their Bo Selecta appearance with the bear in the tree in Hampstead.
Finally we recorded Later With Jools Holland. We did three songs on the final show of the season. Roger Waters was sat right next to us when we played our first number and Robbie, our bass player, didn't know this until he looked up and saw him right at the top of the song. He talked about it like his life had flashed before his eyes. All the implications of playing bass in front of the Pink Floyd legend filled his head at once. Unfortunately, Roger did his interview bit then took off. Next there was a guy named Richard Hawley who played with a guitar player and a drummer. He did a note perfect version that had a technical glitch. Then, towards the end of the next version, his drummer got up from his seat and left in some sort of distress and did not come back, so the drummer from Jools' band sat in and the song was done. I never did find out what happened to the drummer.
Touring resumed in Belfast with two shows at the Waterfront. This was an especially poignant moment to be in Belfast as George Best had passed away just before we arrived and the city was preparing for his funeral. Dave made special dedications to him both nights. My personal favorite Belfast experience was at the breakfast table on the second day...Van Morrison was seated two tables away. I didn't even entertain the thought of talking to him, just sitting there at breakfast looking at him was really cool. I ran upstairs and told my wife I'd had breakfast with Van the Man. She thought I'd actually sat with him for half a second. I was so happy...it reminded me of seeing Bob Dylan on Sixth Avenue in New York back in 1996. Dave, Clune and I had just finished recording some demos at Electric Lady the night before and I was sitting on Sixth Avenue listening to the mixes when Dylan walked right past me. As I'm Leaving was playing in my head and the songwriter's single biggest influence was walking past. It made me really, really happy at the time. Seeing these people up close and unbothered meant a lot.
After Belfast we went to Dublin for two shows at the Point. Both nights went really well. The whole feeling both nights was almost like a homecoming...it was really nice. Our bass player and tour manager are both from Dublin, one of Dave's management team is from Dublin, there are tons of people from Dublin who he's known and worked with over the years, some going right back to the early 90s. My family was along for the whole Irish trip and the second night at the Point Dave dedicated a song to my six year old son James who had been going on about how much he liked Baltimore. I had no idea he was gonna do that, I don't know who was happier, me or James. It was the final night of my family travelling with us and it couldn't have been better.
That's taking us right up to the Manchester Evening News Arena which I'll talk about next time.
