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
Toronto, Washington D.C. and New York City
Sunday, October 16, 2005
We started our latest tour in Toronto, two months to the day after our last show in Toronto. We flew in early to have a day's rehearsal before the tour which translated to a couple of hours in the evening, in an amphitheatre by the water. It was freezing out there and we were all severely jet lagged but we still managed to get through a few new songs and polish up some others. The next night we were in a hockey arena that we'd played back in 2003. Everything went well, everyone was happy with how the show went, all was good until I went outside to overhear one of the security guards slag us off "That was brutal, like Jack Johnson meets Coldplay" (???) Then he looks over at me and goes "Sorry Dude" What a jerk! I went back to the dressing room and just sat in a corner 'till it was time to go. That dude's comments have become my only vivid memory of the night.
Next night was the Daughters of the American Revolution Constition Hall in Washington D.C. A British band playing at the Daughters of the American Revolution venue was sort of funny. We really liked this place, the sound was great and the crowd was really cool. It was a nice seated theatre and as the set progressed I could see little pockets of people stand up to dance or whatever and the people behind yelling at them. This happened to me at an Iggy Pop show a long time ago...as soon as he came out all of us in the front stood up. The duration of the show was spent half watching the stage and half watching the people behind yelling and throwing stuff at us. I was only 14 and as much as I loved Iggy I didn't want to get hurt so I tucked myself between my brothers and sweated it out. So I don't know what to say...people go to a gig, get excited and want to get up, you can't really blame them. From the stage it's a beautiful thing. But if you're stuck behind some big dude and can't see anything then you're only getting half the show. When it's a seated theatre you buy a ticket expecting to see the show while seated so the standers and dancers are always gonna lose out in the end.
The following day we were due to arrive in New York City around four in the afternoon but I had my wife and kids coming in to see me in the morning so I hopped a ride on the crew bus overnight to reunite with the family as soon as I could. I had last seen them on August 22nd. The crew bus ride was great. They were all cool, cleared out a bunk for me welcomed me into their back lounge and played me 'Dub Side of the Moon' We all had a great time, the party came to an end in the wee hours when our British crew started questioning the American crew about the Boston Tea Party "Why did you waste all that perfectly good tea? What was that all about then?"
New York City went by in blur, the two shows at Radio City Music Hall were really cool. That is one of the most impressive theatres I've ever seen. I've seen it on television a million times but this was my first time inside. On the day of the second show we were on the David Letterman show. The next day we had off and we all went to see U2 at Madison Square Garden. I was just about to put my son in his pajamas when we got the call that tickets were available. We all got changed and hopped the subway to the show. It was so cool, another first for me, I'd never seen U2. They were unlike anything I'd ever seen, a proper arena gig. We were as far back and as high up as you get in the venue (the tenth floor!) and the basketball score thing obscured the screens showing the band but it didn't matter. They were amazing. Our bass player Robbie is from North Dublin and everytime Bono mentioned North Dublin (which was a lot) Robbie would go "WaaaHeeyyy" Everytime...it's like they'd worked it out ahead of time. My kids really liked it but my son wanted to go home early to hang out with me so we did. My wife and daughter hung in there through three encores to the bitter end. Dave and our tour manager were right up at the front of the stage and had all access laminates as well. When Dave accidently walked in to their manager's secret lair in search of a bathroom that laminate saved him from the security guys that converged on him. Everyone had a good time, it was a great way to end our New York trip.
The next diary will cover Boston, Philladelphia, Detroit and will detail my imprisonment in the back lounge.
