Have to say: @seamusfog ‘s new album came out last week. It’s probably my favourite one of his, and that’s saying a lot as the other three are all amazing too. If you haven’t got yourself a copy yet, DO IT NOW. Also if you live in Denmark or Sweden you could go and watch a gig this week or next. Our gig at the Moth Club last week was very special and I felt very proud of him. Especially loved the bit when the whole audience did owl sounds at us. 🦉 Also Aram Zarikian was 🔥 on drums and bvs. Third photo shows the back of the album - check out that artwork! (All done by Mr Fogarty himself. What a show-off.) 📷 by @gareth33c
Very proud to have contributed to the score for this film! I added my viola and violin to the amazing music of Antony Genn @theantski and Martin Slattery, and then got to book all the brass and strings for some epic sessions with @elysiancollectivemusic last summer at @abbeyroadstudios - arranged and conducted by @richjonesviola and @josephedavies and featuring Grian Chatten, Amy Taylor, Lankum and many other brilliant artists. I’m looking forward to hearing it all in the film! Second and third photos show Martin conducting me adding some extra solo viola after the big orchestral session :-)
Eleven years of no Vince. Crazy. This was him and Seamus sharing a pomegranate and a whisky at a bus stop in Dalston. How I miss him still. Seems stupid that he’s not here. ❤️
Still trying to get my head around how absolutely brilliant Laurie Anderson and her band were at The Roundhouse on Saturday. Definitely one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen/heard. I actually felt guilty afterwards for not telling everyone to get tickets for it.❤️
Red Rocks Colorado - best venue in the world? A stage set between two giant, red, prehistoric boulders. There are even boulders in the dressing rooms (as demonstrated here by Richard “Rockweasle” Jones). Don’t talk to me about the raccoons who live under the stage and that almost everyone else met and hand fed apart from me 😭 🦝 I was definitely channelling my inner Bono during the show (actually maybe The Edge). Audience were amazing. The lashing rain stopped just before we went onstage and my pedals were all tightly wrapped in protective plastic. Slide 10 is a screenshot from the live webcam that shows some of us clambering up to the top of the seating :-D
Colorado part 1: must be one of the best places I’ve ever been to….? We stayed in log cabins by a rocky stream next to a forest on a hill. The local saloon had a band playing and served giant pretzels that also worked as a mask. Slide 12 is a lonely mushroom who was sitting on a rock by the river. Slide 14/15 PUMPKINS. Slide 17 - so many elks everywhere. Elksville. Some of them seemed to be having an argument that we got caught up in. Slide 19 - why didn’t I buy this instrument in the charity shop?? 😭 Slide 20 - the elks decided to come right up to the cabins 🦌
Minneapolis: I would have liked a bit more time to explore but we did see some nice crumbly old mills, a brilliant dive bar (Terminal, run by Joel) where you could get a “Hammjob”, Adam and Rich walking on water, a much needed dash out to a lovely lake to meet a Piliated Woodpecker with a nice red hair-do (looked massive compared to the ones in Epping Forest) and a slightly smaller black and white one, Richard Jones in his natural habitat, a nice man we met out for a stroll with his parrot Jimminy, venue dog asking me for chicken.
Detroit part 2: “The wealth of the mind is the only true wealth” (inscription on the public library). A truly incredible walk around Detroit with @richjonesviola . Most amazing building award goes to the Guardian building, otherwise known as “The Cathedral of Finance” - a very holy place! Opened in 1929 just in time for the stock market crash. It really feels like a beautiful church but is in fact a bank. I suppose that’s how some people feel about money.
Detroit part 1: I LOVE DETROIT ♥️ The beautiful Masonic Temple (my second time there this year!) - we did the tour of the venue and it was even more amazing the second time round. The Detroit audience was brilliantly unhinged and lots of screaming. Also the Motown Museum! Finally got there and it was amazing to see studio A.
Boston and Toronto: both very big outdoor venues, one (Boston) seemed to be in a freezing cold post-apocalyptic wasteland underneath a flight path, surrounded by piles of gravel and/or toxic waste (which is my favourite type of environment actually), and the other (Toronto) was on the lake and was warm and comfortable and not at all apocalyptic. Brilliant audiences at both, but Boston crowd had to endure lashing rain and wind. I enjoyed both of these cities but only Toronto has @cjsmayo in it, so that automatically makes it better, but Boston did have a raccoon with light up eyes….
Atlanta, Washington DC, Philadelphia and NYC with Pulp. All the shows have been great but I think my favourites so far are Atlanta (small, sweaty, unhinged) and New York (beautiful big outdoor venue, amazing and very responsive crowd). A strange time to be touring the States though, for sure….! Thanks to @blackfrances for taking such beautiful photos of us, and to @conversation_16_lnd for capturing the moment when Jarvis was grateful that @richjonesviola had his phone on him. Oh and slide 6 was the amazing Pogues gig we saw in DC 🔥
