SLOWSECRET

S L O W S E C R E T

OCTOBER 09

11.09.09

SLEEPINGDOG TOUR DIARY: YORK

Today is a good day. Jesy and Chris come over to the house to hang out and we get three Tiny Vipers songs recorded in the basement for my friend Cam's Tapes Podcast. An hours of eating and chatting and we're off on the short drive to York. It feels like we've made some new friends in Jesy and Chris - these guys are really beautiful, soulful people and it's a pleasure to hang and get to know them better. Joe - the promoter treats us with his usual welcoming manor, nice beers and great food. The night feels a little rushed tonight and with only a 30 minute set it's over and done with before we've even started. Jesy plays amazingly again and once again we manage to keep the crowd silent for both sets. It's nice to chat with some enthusiasts in the audience before saying our goodbyes to the lovely people. One show to go!

SLEEPINGDOG TOUR DIARY: LEEDS PT2

A day of catching up on work in Leeds before a show at the Brudenell Social Club - again with Tiny Vipers. Tim comes along to help out on sound duties and we go to town on micing everything up as we have a big room to fill tonight. It's good to see Jesy and Chris again too. Today is Chantal's good friend Sam's 60th Birthday and she has arranged for his son Will to come and play on a couple of songs with us as a surprise. The sound is huge and it feels really good to play and be able to hear everything perfectly. Tiny Vipers is exquisite again, her songs just induce this trance-like quality.. amazing.

09.09.09

SLEEPINGDOG TOUR DIARY: NEWCASTLE

A nice short trip from Leeds into some weird kind of almost-storm in Newcastle. Luckily it disappears before we have to unload. We are playing at a cafe called Belle & Herbs and we are greeted by great warmth on arrival. Tonight both the support acts are friends which is always a pleasure, John Egdell and Matthew Childs... lovely gentlemen indeed. We are fed and watered well before the show and yet again we play a good one... out come the jokes and our now almost routine comedy sketch. The atmosphere in the room is great and people seem very much into it. After the show we hang around for what seems like a lock-in with a lot of folk from the show, drinking and talking, we met a lot of amazing people tonight, the owner of the cafe even gave Chantal a bottle of whiskey for us to take home! Amazing! The drive back to Leeds on the pitch black roads descends into a lot of talking about sex for 2 whole hours and Chantal craving the whiskey that is on the back seat of the car. Interesting.

08.09.09

SLEEPINGDOG TOUR DIARY: LEEDS PT1

A rather pleasant journey north - homeward bound for a show in my basement. I love doing house shows and the last Sleepingdog Leeds house show was really special so we are excited to be playing to a lot of friends. Even my folks are in attendance so Chantal trys to be on her best behavior. It's an emotional night on a lot of levels, the songs took on a whole new intensity tonight and we are left feeling pretty empty and a little drunk.

SLEEPINGDOG TOUR DIARY: CAMBRIDGE

Cardiff to Cambridge is a real shit drive. However we are staying at my Brother's house in cambridge so it's worth it for sure. The city is beautiful, we take a little tour around and head to the CB2 - the venue for this evening. What a cool little place this is, a cafe with amazing food and the room in the basement where we play feels like a miniature church or something. However the seating is removed and replaced with cushions! The lovely Xavier of Fuzzy Lights is organising the show, we eat awesome food and watch Six Toes play - these guys are really good - although the singer has the same boots as me which is not cool for me or him. Much alcohol is consumed and we play what feels like a punk-rock sort of show. That's the only way i can describe it. Chantal is on good form with her own comedy show for the audience and the whole vibe of the room feels great. Good times.

05.09.09

SLEEPINGDOG TOUR DIARY: CARDIFF

A nice short drive today, over a bad-ass bridge and into the lovely city of Cardiff. Having been here many times before I know of a good place to park up as we are a little early. There is a wonderful park which runs the length of the city, it’s refreshing to see some beautiful scenery having been stuck in various grey cities and on boring roads for the last few days. Not that I’m complaining, I like these places, it just feels a bit like when you haven’t eaten any fruit or veg for a few days.

So the venue this evening is called Chapter Arts Centre - the description is in the title. We park up and I go on the hunt for the room we are playing in (this place is pretty big I soon discover). I find the room, open the door and scare the shit out of some lovely ladies doing yoga. They soon leave and we can load the gear up four flights of stairs. The room is basically a small sports hall but we manage to convert it into feeling like home. We meet the very welcoming folks we will be staying with for the night, Alex and Lynette and also Leon the promoter who after much emailing it’s good to finally meet up in person.

Much whiskey is consumed prior to playing but the set is perfect, the crowd silent and receptive and we play really well. I have to say after the show it felt genuinely like it was one of my favorite shows ever, the intensity and emotion in the room while we played was amazing, I’m happy to keep this feeling with me for a while.

Tiny Vipers is also playing tonight - Jesy is from Seattle and has a new record out on Sub Pop, she plays a really beautiful set - we have two more shows on this tour with her which is fine with me. After the show we meet a lot of really nice people who are all very kind and help us with our mass of gear back to the car. Back at the house our wonderful hosts feed us wine until the early hours. Hangover looming.

SET LIST: Touching Leafs, Prophets, Scary Movies, Waiting For A Superman, Untitled, Sun Sinks In The Sea, Quiet.

04.09.09

SLEEPINGDOG TOUR DIARY: BRISTOL

Lets set the record straight here. I’m not a fan of London. There are a lot of reasons why, which I will not endeavor to go into now, however one of the reasons is the time is takes to get anywhere. Luckily for us we had the sense to set off early to Bristol. We were still late.

I have only ever been to Bristol when on tour so I have never seen the city in its true colours, it seems like a decent place on the surface. We are playing a venue called The Lansdown, it’s a small upstairs room of a beautiful old pub. Walking into the bar to find an ale of choice I’m greeted by an exuberant young pup who reminds me of Oscar. I take a licking and some attention and I miss the little man.

Toby the promoter is a wonderful man, always treating us well and a real pleasure to be in the company of. We play a very quiet, almost acoustic set for an hour, Chantal plays a couple of songs alone in the middle of the room which are hauntingly special, we get an encore and roll out dEUS’ Hotellounge.

Toby is putting us up for the night and we are promised some fine whiskey on arrival - he doesn’t disappoint.

SET LIST: Touching Leafs, Prophets, Scary Movies, Waiting For A Superman, Untitled, If Only, Quiet, Your Eyes, Sun Sinks In The Sea, Hotellounge.

03.09.09

SLEEPINGDOG TOUR DIARY: LONDON

After Chantal’s 13 hour drive from Belgium to Leeds we rehearse for 2 hours, sleep and hit the road to London Town. Accompanied by Pinback’s Blue Screen Life which repeats 4 times in a row, we now appear to be amongst a ruck of soaking wet, homeward bound London types outside Highbury tube station whilst we attempt to load our insane amount of equipment into the venue.

Last time I toured with Sleepingdog I met Chantal in Chichester having got myself and all my gear to the south coast via public transportation. Not this time baby. Chantal’s little box car is full to the brim and we are already sick of loading and unloading with just two of us after just one show.

And so the first night goes well, London folk are surprisingly quiet and attentive for a change and we retire to our good friend Antony’s place for the night.

SET LIST: Touching Leafs, Prophets, Scary Movies, Hotellounge, Your Eyes, Waiting For A Superman, Untitled, Sun Sinks In The Sea