From Shadow to Light

Plunged into the dark to better concentrate on the music, the 4 Londoners FDIO renew their psychedelic show at La Fleche d’Or on 4^th December.  As a reminder their last show was in July at La Maroquinerie with The Warlocks, where they made a strong impression.

Nine songs in just under one hour would have been enough to confirm all the good thoughts we have been thinking about FDIO.  Electric, intense and psychedelic, the show of these decendants of BRMC, the Black Angels and The Doors would have easily sent the Parisian public into a hypnotic trance with their tortured rock n’ roll.

Wearing a cap, the silhouette of Jakob Ohlen is cut off by one single ray of light.  His voice, clear and bright contrasts with the distorted riffs from his immaculate Gretch.  Next to him bassist Stuart North and drummer Captain Rick McKay play a savage wild tribal rhythm.  Gold is served on a silver plateau by the psychedelic touch added by second guitarist Doug Mallett.  Hidden behind his blond curls, gaze plunged towards multiple effects pedals, he sends the songs into another universe.

The two singles released on the Yoyo Acopulco label (Jesus won’t dance in my high heels, and then Taste Like The Good Love) show that the band is getting more and more tight.  The 4 Londoners create an avalanche of decibels without respite.

Short but intense the gig finishes on the excellent Peasants Prayer.  After a small hour the lights come back on without leaving the public time to ask for an encore.

A small taste of incompletion is quickly swept aside by the prospect of seeing them again soon with maybe an album to promote.

Hello Kids

It’s been a while since my last blog as we’ve been doing mostly ..London.. shows which aren’t that exciting as we’re based there, but it’d be rude not to write one for Amsterdam.  We decided to make a weekend of it and left on Thurs night laden with supplies from Tour Manager Alan.  For once the trip was uneventful.  We got lost in Holland – their road signs are very confusing, saying follow ..Rotterdam for Amsterdam, when it was completely the wrong direction from were we were.  This added on about an hour to our journey but we still arrived very early on Friday morning.  We had good intentions to get some culture go to a few museums but this didn’t happen – it was raining all the time and we ended up just hitting the bars...good night was had by all.  Still hedonism is the main part of Amsterdam’s culture I reckon anyway. Jakob & Guy our manager went to the Paradiso for the first night of the London Calling festival, Jakob was apparently on top form scaring the promoters daughter and falling asleep in the middle of the venue, well….he’s not Chris Martin.

To the day of the gig, I nearly missed the sound check as I got a bit distracted with the Liverpool V Man City game but I got there in the end and it was all cool.  The Paradiso is a stunning venue, a converted church.  It’s the main venue in the city, and legends like Nirvana and Hendrix have played there.  Jakob was pretty offended that a joker like Jack Penate was headlining on the main stage, in fact every band backstage didn’t understand why he was there – he didn’t fit in.  Not that we’re bitter! 

Myself and Jakob did an acoustic set in a lift backstage, which was a bit bizarre, my playing was a bit all over the place due to a chronic hangover but nevermind.  It was filmed so you might be able to find it online somewhere, let us know if you do.  We were on first at 6.30 and we were a bit worried that we’d play to ten people – who goes to a gig at that time? But luckily we wrong, it was rammed.  The gig couldn’t really have gone better, I think it was one of our best performances, the sound was brilliant and we got a great reception from the Dutch crowd.  A few comedy quips from Jakob “If you saw me last night – learn to forget!”, ha ha brilliant!  Stu did his dancing queen routine during “Taste Like The Good Love” which he always saves for the big European shows, look out for it in Paris next week. We managed to stretch the 30min time slot to 40mins without them pulling the plug on us, and the new song “Peasant’s Prayer” that we now end our set with is starting to sound dark and devastating.  It’s definitely a contender for our EP which we will be recording soon for release spring 2010.  Beautiful Thai food for catering backstage, and an endless beer supply, happy days!  I don’t understand why we get treated so well in Europe compared to the UK where you are lucky to get three Carlsbergs and a soggy sausage roll!  Another good night was had by all, and as usual we left late the next day as several band members had gone AWOL the night before.  We missed our channel tunnel time slot but luckily they let us on the next one for no extra charge.  So a great weekend in the ‘dam, we will be back there in 2010.  Onwards and upwards, next stop ....Paris....!

Doug

As this was our second trip to Paris we knew what to expect, overnight crossing, arrived at the hotel early morning, straight to sleep 'til soundcheck, with the usual chevy chase driving on Paris’ crazy one way system, despite having played La Maroquinerie last time we were there.  Warm welcome from Vincent the venue manager and then a nice long soundcheck where we tried out some new songs and also resurrected some old ones – Caught a Ride & A Southern Man, which we haven’t played for ages.  To the show itself, the venue was half full when we started, and absolutely rammed by the third song.  The crowd reaction was immense straight away, everyone was dancing, you could feel their energy as soon as we hit the first crowd.  Our visuals looked the best they ever have, and there was some serious strobes going on, somehow we avoided getting blinded but I think we’ll need to get our shades on next time we play there!  Stu did his dancing queen routine at exactly the same point in the gig as last time we were in Paris, it’s his special treat for the French fans.  It was nice to play a bit of a longer set than usual, and the crowd reaction at the end was amazing, it blew our heads off!  It was even better than Hyde Park.  Then we had a great night out, some locals and Germans tagged along and showed us where the cool bars are, nice. Captain Rick got chatting to a Turkish guy, and starting asking if he knew about Liverpool’s Champions League win in 2005, he said he did so Captain talked animatedly about this for ten minutes, and then asked who his favourite player was, he replied “Richard Ashcroft”, Captain was a little confused, and the guy then explained that he didn’t like football. Lost in translation or what!! Stu also befriended an English tramp and wanted to smuggle him back in the back of the van, but in the end we decided maybe this was not advisable.  Classic FDIO beaviour to find the only English tramp in Paris.

The second gig was at L’international, a smaller venue, and we were headlining.  We were bracing ourselves for a bad turn out as we haven’t released anything in France yet, and it was also a public holiday so half of Paris was away.  We didn’t need to worry though, again the venue was packed, with a lot of people who saw us the first night coming again.  Brilliant crowd reaction, especially as we had a few technical problems.  Jakob was on top form with plenty of banter between songs, I think he is planning to go into stand-up comedy when our music career is over.  Another top night out, job’s a good ‘un. 

A massive thank you all of you who came to see us, especially those who came to both shows, you were amazing!

We will be back later this year.

Doug

Arrived late afternoon, helped our selves to free haircuts, shoes, massages and more, it felt like the real deal!  We even had an “artist liaison person” to make sure our beers were cold.  With all this schmoozin’ I missed Seasick Steve’s set which was slightly annoying but I’m over it now.  It had been a beautiful day but black clouds started to gather around 5, we were hoping the rain would hold off until the end of the set, but it didn’t, it started tipping it down about 6.20 and the big crowd around our stage disappeared into the tent to watch the Magic Numbers.  I know it was wet but seriously sort your selves out!  I have to say that band have been a subject of many a joke in our van so it was quite funny to be playing at the same time as them.  The stage manager was threatening to cancel our set as he was worried we were gonna get electrocuted as there were pools of water all over the stage but we weren’t having any of that.  The stage was clearly designed by a five-year old, it was made to look like a bandstand meaning all the sides were open, and obviously if you hold a festival in ....England.... in June the chances of rain are very high!  Anyway towels were put all over the stage and miraculously the rain stopped just before we came on.  We cranked the amps up and went for it.  By the end of the first song we had a decent crowd which grew and grew as we continued.  Brilliant reception and it was 30mins after our set before we could pack our gear away as there were so many people queuing up to talk to us.  If you were there, we salute you!  If you watched the Magic Numbers well, you missed out.  As you might gather from the band name we are Neil Young fans, and I have to say he was immense.  It was a really intense, aggressive set, loads of feedback, string breakage, and a great version of Day in the Life with Macca.  So job done, ....Paris.... he we come.

Hope you are enjoying the heat wave,

Doug

We never seem to have average gigs, they are always eventful in some way, positive and negative.  As we did 11 gigs I can’t be bothered writing about every single day. Some of the high & lowlights for us this time were: puncture in Newcastle; getting clamped in Southampton; Police chase in Berwick; the return of Desperados Beer in Liverpool; our first gig in Scotland (Glasgow we love you!); my amp blowing up in Oxford (on only the second night of the tour!).  It’s never boring in this band, we’re not Snow Patrol, although it would be nice for things to go a bit more smoothly with less drama.  Having said that we’re quite happy with how we played, we’re getting quite consistent and if things go wrong it doesn’t phase us.  We weren’t too happy with the Oxford gig but this was due to technical problems.  Thanks to Scholars for helping us out.  To the village idiot who wrote a slating review saying there were too many pauses due to the lead guitarist fiddling with his set up, if you actually listened you might’ve noticed that there was no sound coming out of my amp as it was in the process of blowing up!  Rant over.  Luckily the crowd still got into it.  And 3 fans actually travelled from Exeter to see us, how nuts is that!  If you are reading this you made our night, and I’m glad you still enjoyed it.  . Surprisingly the best show was probably London, great performance & crowd reaction, the sound was spot on and the venue was not far off sold-out, definitely the best one we’ve ever done in the capital.  Liverpool was one of my other favourites, we played a stadium-sized set despite the venue being pretty dead, and captain Rick resurrected the random tribal drum solo on Hypnotic Psychotic, Moon / Bonzo eat your heart out!  It reminded me of an old Noel interview, where Oasis played a gig to just the barman on their first tour, and even did an encore.   What an awesome night out and city Liverpool is as well, mental note to go back more often, and if possible get in a visit to the mecca of football (no not Goodison Park!).   Glasgow was another highlight, good gig sound spot on again, great night out, and all the Scots we met were absolute legends.  We do meet some ‘Interesting’ people on our travels, most of the most interesting were in Hull, sample conversation:

Drunk Female Tramp: Are you in a band?

Doug: Yes Four Dead in Ohio, have you heard us?

DFT:  No but my friend knows you

Doug: Cool are they coming tonight?

DFT:  You’re gonna be famous can I have your autograph?  (Spends 5 mins dribbling and trying to find a pen)

DFT:  Have you got a pen, you’re really cool?

Doug: No.  Thanks

DFT:  I really like your hair (tries to stroke Doug’s hair)

Doug: (Squirms) err thanks

DFT: Can I have your personal email address?

Doug: You can have the band website

DFT:  No you’re really cool and you’ll be famous I want your email address

Doug: ??

Repeat the above for 10mins

Drunk Male Tramp:  I really like your scarf (tries to grab Doug’s scarf)

Doug: (Squirms) thanks….

Stu finishes cigarette

Stu: Shall we go back in?

Doug: Yes lets!

Tramps follow but are refused entry for being too drunk.  It’s good to know we are known in the tramp community though

Overall an eventful & fun tour, and it was good to play some new cities as well as some old faves.  Thanks to everyone who came and see you again soon.  We are booking shows for June as we speak so watch this space…..

Cheers

Doug