Rock my blog . 1/11/06
Hello ya'll
I'm writing this in the midst of preparing to depart for our tour of Europe with Jamie Cullum. I have the nuts, banana chips, Propolis throat sweets, CDs, books, and practice materials all packed! We have only done a few shows in Europe, and never what could be called a tour, so getting to play to thousands of new people a night will be fookin awesome.
So. Apologies for not blogging since the end of September, we had two weeks off after the September tour. And it was great. I worked on a farm in Cumbria called 'Sprint Mill', and had a great time with Edward and Romolla on their beautiful small holding. Swimming in the river each morning, and eating the produce of the land we were working. It's a scheme called WOOF (search for it from google!) you become a member for £15 a year, and you are sent a book full of the Organic farms of the UK with a description of what the place is like and what they do there. You book yourself in at the farm you like the sound of, and off you go to work 4-6 hours a day and learn how to farm organically, with other nice folks, in beautiful places. In return for your labour the farm gives you full (usually delicious home grown and cooked) board. And educates you. It's really worthwhile doing it. You contribute to the local place and people, get fitter, and have a great time, and make friends.
Then I went up to my friend Adam's tree house in Fife and met Kate. We hung there for 5 wonderful chilled out glorious delicious laughing days. Learned some nice dancing, and that life can be wonderful. And came home.
John and me have spent the last weeks writing songs and developing existing songs for the next album. Two of the weeks were in Wales in a friend's house. It is great fun to work these songs and to deepen them. To craft them and feel them and have a laugh. We had a great time whilst we were there. Its good some times to be isolated and to focus on the art.
And we have been doing a lot of sorting stuff out at the label here. How do we want to proceed as an indie that in the last year has been in the mainstream? How are we gonna do this stuff in a way that is true, to us, to the music?
Oh and Merrick's (artist responsible for 'Half these song…' art work and 'Extraordinary' - along with Anna-) band came and played in our living room here. Rock N roll! Beautiful music. Great vibes rockin the place. Funny, Poignant, riotous.
And now we are off to Europe with our mate Jamie and his merry band. Seeing new places, laughing together, making people rock, and sharpening our songs and our playing.
Love to ya,
Luke
PS: I'll blog again on a fortnightly basis from now. My next blog will be posted week commencing: Nov 12th