Secret Chiefs 3 finally made it to Europe this September and October. After something so fundamental as touring Europe (which took far too long to make happen!), it seems we were rewarded a billionfold by the audiences and the people we worked with. Every date on the tour was a good one. Such good experiences!
We MUST thank our friends who helped put this thing together, in particular Sergio, Oscar and Olga in Spain (Mondragon/Arrasate, Barcelona), without whose support, seriously, none of it would have happened. Also, Pedral (from Vladimar Bozar) and David in France, who believed strongly in the idea of us coming from the beginning, and woked hard and risked a lot to organize four really nice French shows (Nice, Nancy, our second gig in Paris, Rennes -- looking forward to coming back!!).
Julien (Paris), Sascha (Worm, Rotterdam), Jonathan and Filipe of Soopa (Porto), Manoj (Denmark), Vincent (Belgium, Amstelveen), Vuk (London), Alex (Madrid), Jodie (UK), THANK YOU!
Julien our promoter for the first Paris gig, and a true kindred spirit, really set the right tone for that event. The night was beautiful, and a success in every way ( la Maroquinerie was packed out!), but the main thing is that we really felt at home in that place --- somehow it felt like an ideal audience-situation for SC3. Obviously, we'll be back to Paris... both gigs there were a sincere pleasure for us.
One thing you learn on tour is that when promoters are on a similar track to the musicians, things turn out very well --- Sascha at the Worm in Rotterdam and Jonathan & Filipe of Soopa in Porto (all of whom believed in the SC3-in-Europe idea from a long time ago), had especially keen vision for these gigs. Their instincts led to packed, sold-out shows, and really absorbent crowds of 300+ (that we now know could have been booked in much bigger venues --- but the Worm and Plano B are both great places that we wish to return to even if we could play spots twice the size). Porto and Rotterdam audiences along with the London crowd were seriously ballistic. Same goes for the "surprise" gig of the tour in Madrid, which was utter madness. It was booked at the last second by Alex Nooirax, another longtime listener, who, due to the surpisingly packed club for a monday (same size as Worm and Plano B), more than doubled our guarntee at the end of the night. Such is the character of the promoters we were lucky enough to work with! (Sascha and Jonathan & Filipe made the same gesture, with no such contractual stipulation)
In Denmark, it must be said that our old friend Manoj saved our butts. He is not even a proper booker but a fellow musician, who managed to get us the two Danish dates for the front of the tour at the VERY LAST second (after we made some cancellations in the UK). His heroics led to us playing in the perfect venues, and opened our eyes to the possibilities in Scandanavia in general. We met some good people in Denmark who will, no doubt, help us do a proper Scandinavian tour in the near future. In the UK, Vuk, another longtime listener in a good position to make things happen, is the MAN for setting up the London gig at Cargo. He wisely anticipated that it would do ridiculously well (sold out well in advance), and really helped the whole tour come together by offering us a big show early in our tour planning process. Anyone who was there can tell you what a nuthouse that night was (with ZU bringing the intensity notch up to an extreme level as well).........
Deepest gratitude to everyone who came out, and travelled far, to make this happen! Our next trip to Europe will see us advancing Eastward. We are open to your suggestions! If you are in Eastern Europe, Russia, Balkans, Turkey, North Africa or the Middle East, and you know of a Sergio or Sascha or Julien or Pedral or Jonathan/Felipe in your town, (meaning someone in a position to make things happen, and also believing in the music of SC3) be sure and let us know!!!