Peter's Tour Diary

Peter's Tour Diary Entry #5
An Entry in Two Parts
Sent Sunday the 11th of July

Part 1

Note: This email, spanning 5 weeks of my touring, is so long that Start won't let me send it all at once. So I'm splitting it in two. Here's the first half.
[Editor's note: Start is an Australian version of hotmail. I use it for email when I'm away from home, as it's web-based, but it's incredibly annoying and this is one of the things it forced me to do. Ah well.]

When I sent the last one it was over a month ago and we'd just played a show in Amsterdam. The next day, Saturday the 5th of June, the morning was taken up with one of those about-weekly time-wasting exercises in the laundry. Well, not time-wasting as it results in clean clothing... but it's certainly very boring sitting around watching clothes go round and round. A black guy was in there preparing his hard drugs to sell to people, but got chased out by someone thankfully.
After that I went walking around Amsterdam, remembering it from a month earlier. I bought a new A-string (every time the cello goes in a plane the strings get let down, and I break an A-string winding them up again... grrr), and went to the nice Blue Note jazz shop I'd found before.

That afternoon we busked in a square, in front of a cafe/bar. Had we known the reception we'd get we would've brought more CDs. As it was, we sold about 30 CDs in about an hour, boding well for our trip to Amsterdam next year.
 

On Sunday the 6th we flew back to London. I rang my friend Fiona Leung in Nottingham and decided to go straight to Nottingham rather than staying in London that night. I took the train right after going home and dropping off my cello, having booked into the Igloo Hostel. It was of course raining *chuckle*
 

The next morning, Monday the 7th, I explored Nottingham. It's a lovely University city, with a very nice atmosphere. I'd love to go back. Page 45 comics, one of the best comics shops in the world, is in Nottingham. On the same street there was a very large Selectadisc, which I spent quite some time in, after which I went in to Page 45, and was too overwhelmed by the range to buy anything (don't worry, I went back later!)

At 2pm I met Fiona and her friend Jess, who'd introduced her to FourPlay (Jess is Australian). Fiona does philosophy and used to do maths as well at Nottingham Uni, and we've exchanged emails for quite a while. It was great to meet her in person. After lunch we went to a cafe in a converted church - very pretty ;)
I went back to Page 45 and ummed and ahed about getting Cages, by Dave McKean. This is probably the greatest graphic novel ever written, printed in hardcover, after which the published went out of business, so Page 45 had some of the last copies left in the UK (I haven't seen it anywhere in the USA now either).
Dave McKean collaborates a lot with probably my favourite comics author, Neil Gaiman, and is a wonderful artist in multiple media. The book is an enormous tome, and is amazing technically, and deeply affecting as well.
Eventually the guy gave me a (fantastic) Will Eisner book whose cover had come off for free to convince me to get it, although having read it now it was worth any price.

When I got back to the hostel I found out that Richard Czeiger (who I knew would be in Nottingham) was at the same hostel. That evening we went to the "Vodka Bar" with two Irish girls who were studying at Cardiff Uni (and wanted to work in Nottingham, confusing yes...) We drank rather a rather nice cocktail out of a jug for a while, but it wasn't very alcoholic (doesn't bother me!) and we eventually went home and watched TV till late.
 

On Tuesday the 8th Richard & I went in to town to meet Kirra and her boyfriend Chris. Chris took us to a rather cool street with great clothing shops, goth shops (I almost got a beautiful tie-died purple and black shirt, perfect for me, only it was £22 or something mad like that), and a most excellent record store called Funky Monkey. There I got a promo copy of the up-coming µ-ziq album, only four tracks from it, but superb.
This was all the more superb because that evening I was going back to London to see µ-ziq live.

µ-ziq (That's the Greek letter µ, pronounced "Mu"... get it?) is Mike Paradinas, friend of Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher and Luke Vibert etc, all of them central to England's experimental electronica scene (although there are more experimental groups around these days). He performed only tracks from the new album (a pity, considering the quality of his back-catalogue), with an 8-piece live string ensemble(!), and a very annoying vocalist for one track.
Despite the relative shortness, it was a pretty amazing experience for me, as I've been into Mike Paradinas' work for a long time.
 

The next morning, Wednesday the 9th, Tim & I met with Jordan, FourPlay's agent and manager, in Soho Square in the morning, to chat about what was coming up. I then took the train to Manchester, and checked into the rather overly modern and cold YHA Hostel there. Manchester is highly industrial and bleak, and would be depressing to stay more than a few days in. It is, however, one of the centres of experimental electronic music in the UK; I was there on the wrong night for clubs unfortunately.
 

However, on Thursday the 10th, I carried around my big backpack and everything (rather than pay the exorbitant amount to leave it at the hostel and then have to return there before leaving Manchester) to the various fantastic record stores in town. They were all located around the same few blocks. The best, pelicanneck, is in Affleck's Palace, which is a 3 or 4-floor building full of basically a cross between markets and small shops, quite fascinating.

I then took the train all the way to Oxford, about 3 1/2 hours, staying two nights at the Oxford Backpackers. Oxford is beautiful, all the extremely old colleges and other buildings and the Thames flowing through it. That night I noticed that the Matrix, officially opening the next day, was playing at 8pm. It was great fun sitting in Oxford watching all these locations around Sydney and Australian actors speaking in Amercian accents! Not a bad movie. I had Chinese for dinner, and they were playing a CD of Chinese versions of songs by the Cocteau Twins and Tori Amos and stuff - very odd.
 

Friday the 11th began with laundry. Afterwards I explored Oxford, enjoying the old streets and buildings, and spending some time in the various Blackwells bookshops. Nothing much in the way of record stores though ;)
Needing a restful day, I listened to some of my new music in the backpackers, then went to the (rather horribly expensive) internet cafe for a bit. Later I met some Australians at the backpackers, one of whom was completely blown away to meet a guy from that string quartet Triple J play... *big chortle*
That evening the last bed was taken by an English girl who'd been in Bath looking for a place to live and missed her last train home. After chatting with her I decided I'd like to visit Bath for a night or so.
 

On Saturday the 12th I wandered around Oxford in the morning with an Aussie guy called (I think!) Lachlan. We saw a few of the colleges, and walked down to the Thames. It was extremely pretty and relaxing. That evening I took the train to Bath, where I stayed at the YMCA. After dinner I decided to stay in the room (I got a single for a couple of pounds extra) until it got dark. This means until literally about 10:30pm or so - insane country! It got as late as 11pm in Ireland...
So after it got dark I plugged in my discman (with Plug what's more...) and went out exploring. A most enjoyable way to see a place. All the beautiful old buildings were lit up; very atmospheric. I stood and watched the river Avon for ages - the river bed has been altered to create little waterfalls and things, it's lovely.
 

Then on Sunday the 13th I discovered that, it being a Sunday, most things were shut. Damn! In disgust (not really *grin*) I went back to London. To go to Cambridge, my next destination, I'd have to go via London anyway, so I decided to spend the night there before going on. I went to Guildhall to do some internetting (cheap (free) and nasty (old Macintoshes ugh) as usual), and then we went to a pub near Kirra & Danae's. Richard had left to return to Australia the night before but Tim & Willo were there, so I ended up replacing him in Danae's bed [very generous of her - it was *slightly* more comfortable than sleeping on the floor next to Tim & Willo in the living room...]
 

The next morning Tim & I both went to Cambridge, to stay with some family friends, the Brooms. Before leaving I dragged Tim to the Moorgate post office to post my second parcel home. This included all the vinly I'd bought to date (there was too much to fit in my cello case - 21 12"s and 5 7"s I think!), comics and books... An absurd 15 kilos. I don't want to discuss the price of postage OK?!

We had a most pleasant time in Cambridge, discovering the Heffers bookstores (equivalent of Blackwells in Oxford) and walking through King's College among other things. I shall astound some readers no doubt by saying that I think I preferred Oxford to Cambridge. Somehow Cambridge as a town just isn't as quaint or pretty as Oxford. Nevertheless the punting along the river Cam looks wonderful, and it was a lovely place.
I caught up some of my walking (hadn't done as much since Europe) as we walked home.
That evening Oliver Broom, one of the sons, took Tim & me out to a pub next to the river, where we were accosted by some French acquaintances of his but had a good evening anyway (erm...)
 

On Tuesday the 15th Tim & went into town with luggage... Tim had to leave earlyish as he was going to theatre in London. I stayed on and met Fiona (down from Nottingham) for lunch. Earlier on, Katie called on my mobile, and after it discharged and I rang her back from a public phone we talked for a rather silly length of time; but it was good to hear from the real world - I had begun to go a bit crazy again.

After bidding farewell to Fiona, I went back to London, and went down to a pub next to the Thames with Kirra - not quite Sydney Harbour but lovely nonetheless.
 

Wednesday the 16th was a fairly free day. I went to Notting Hill Gate, exploring the second-hand shops, then up Portobello Rd, stopping at an internet cafe, and then to Rough Trade records.
That evening Tim & Willo & I went to Lara's, all the way across town, for dinner. We left late and caught the last train into the city, but missed the connecting ones home. We had to wait until 1am for the night bus, and rather than wake Danae I slept on Tim's blow-up mattress in the living room. Ouch.

Speaking of ouch, the London Underground, unreliable at the best of times, had degenerated into insanity. The City Circle trains were meant to be unoperational between two south-western stops, but due to some spurious problems stopped operating altogether. A few days later they actually acknowledged this fact officially - but didn't really increase any other services to compensate as far as I could see. Lots of fun!
 

Thursday the 17th marked our first gig in London. After waking up late (big surprise!) I went to Guildhall for internet, enjoying driving my cello through the school (I'm just an eternal student at heart), and then went to Camden Town to wander around before the gig. It turns out I could have walked a few blocks up the road to Bartok (the venue) instead of taking the tube - we walked all the way back to Camden Town after sound check.
In Camden I wandered around the market, and went to Mega City Comics, probably after Gosh the best comics shop in London. Lots of Australians turned up to the gig, including a close friend of my friend Mim who I hadn't seen for ages. We sold 10 CDs, and had a great reception. Not a bad first gig in London by any means!
 

Friday the 18th was quite a fun day for one reason: In the morning I got a letter from London Transport Lost Property (to whom I'd written the week before) telling me they'd found my duffel coat! YES! IT'S TRUE! I took the tube to Baker St and paid £3.20 to get it back. All my little tickets and memorabilia were even still in the pockets! Lots of entirely justified exclamation marks - I even rang home to tell Mum & Dad ;)
Afterwards I went into Soho and found Wire Magazine's office in Poland St. Wire is the only music magazine I consider worth reading - it covers all the experimental music from the electronic to the avant-garde Jewish, jazz, classical and so on. The chap in the office was so impressed I actually went in in person to re-subscribe that he gave me a free backissue, which came with a complimentary CD...
I then went to Gosh again - the guy at Page 45 said it's UK's "second best comics store" *grin* - and spent some time looking at their non-mainstream stuff. Got a few goodies there.
 

Saturday the 19th was a very sedate day. Danae hadn't gotten home until 6:30am, having been working at college until then (mad... luckily I was sleeping in Kirra's bed as she was in Nottingham, and didn't even stir when she came home).
We eventually went out to a pub down the road, and when I got back from internetting in town Tim & Danae were still there. We played games until late that evening.
 

On Sunday the 20th we stayed home all day, playing yet more silly games.
Eventually Jordan came over and played a Pictionary-type game with us (Jordan & I, terrible artists that we are, won!) I went off to pick up some big boxes Danae needed to pack all her stuff in (as she was going back to Greece after finishing Uni) and then we continued to do nothing much.
In Oz-speak, we 'adagoodweegend.
 

By this time I was well into reading the brilliant new Neal Stephenson novel "Cryptonomicon", and on Monday the 21st I got a good amount further through it. However, it's about 950 smallish typeface hardcover pages - so it took a while! I went to my dearest darling Berwick St Soho, to pick up some 12"s (µ-ziq remixing Bjork!) and some CDs, then did some internetting, had a yummy but exorbitantly expensive Italian dinner with Jordan in Piccadilly circus and then went home. Damn fascinating eh?
 

Well Tuesday the 22nd was even more scintillating. Up at noon again, read book, went to post office (no really I did! - posted a book to Chris), went to Rough Trade in Covent Garden (a fantastic record store), Comic Showcase (another good London comics store).
In Berwick St I got an advance copy of the new Art of Noise album, for about AUD$20. It's superb, a pastiche of Debussy quotes, ambient drum'n'bass, and bits of cheesy narration and cool rapping.
 

Wednesday the 23rd began once again with... waking up. Once again this event was delayed, but eventually Anna (Mim's friend) rang, so I had to get up and chat (not that I minded).
Then with Tim I went shopping for schnitzel stuff. This is a soul-destroying activity in England. It was impossible to find veal at all, and chicken is prohibitively expensive. So it ended up being pork. In addition, there are no real breadcrumbs. I had to get these hideous fake ones, which somewhat ruined the fun.
Still, I managed to make the best of what I had. Can't wait to get home to sensible Sydney!
ITV (I think) were having a James Bond special over a few weeks, and this Wednesday it was You Only Live Twice. Fun.
 

Thursday the 24th, the second Bartok gig in London. Tim wanted to post some stuff home, and I wanted to send my duffel coat (which I certainly don't need in New York!) and my speakers, which won't work on America's voltage. This parcel was "only" 7.5 kgs. Mad.
This gig was even more fun. By the end of the evening we had a great crowd, including various other people I'd met over email, some amusing Italian girls who wanted our signatures, and my friend Andrew Usher who I hadn't seen for about 4 years but have known since we were 5. We sold about 30 CDs and generally considered it quite a success.
Trish from the Mean Fiddler had a great time at both gigs - the Mean Fiddler are a very big organisation and have been very helpful. Hopefully now they'll be even more so. And Jordan told me afterwards that she told him that some members of Primal Scream were there - if only I'd known at the time!

[Continued in Part 2]

--
Also found at raven@fourplay.com.au
Peter: http://www.fourplay.com.au/me.html
FourPlay: http://www.fourplay.com.au/
Experimental Electronic: http://www.fourplay.com.au/sound.html
 

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