I just spent the last week on tour in England with a
band I work very closely with, Manchester Orchestra. This is a band that
regularly spends two hundred to two hundred fifty days a year on the road, so comparatively
what I did was nothing, but it was enough to get a peek into the lives of
people who we as an industry, and more accurately we as a label, completely
depend on. If I had my way I would insist that everyone who does what I do for
a living experience what I just did. Not because it’s cool to live the rock n
roll life for a few days, although it definitely was, but because we should all
know and understand first hand what band life is like. We all grow up with the
perception that being a rock star is the easiest, coolest job on earth, and
don’t get me wrong, it definitely has a very large upside, but it also has a
side to it that we tend to forget about. The absence of family, friends,
stability, comfort, and overall familiarity with whatever place you happen to
be in, can weigh heavy on anyone who experiences this on a daily basis,
especially when the return is paid off in potential,
not immediate earnings.
When I got home I reviewed my Tweets from my time over there
and thought I would re-post some of them here with some expansion as they
capture fairly well what we did over the past several days, starting the first
night in London (Tweets in bold).
1. Quick taping at
The Fly then off to WaterRats for a Right Away Great Captain show (and food) Right Away Great Captain is Andy’s (singer
for Manchester Orchestra) solo side project. This is one of what seemed like a
hundred promotional things the band did while in the UK. Basically, they video-taped a couple of songs acoustic. The Fly is a free weekly music
magazine in London,
huge circulation as well as online presence. Here's what was recorded.
2. @jonathancorley has taken a vow of silence
until the end of Reading–if
he makes it he gets $70–he's two hours in–not a peep yet This vow was broken after three straight hours of silence.
Jonathan (bass) and Robert (guitar) went outside of the hotel for a smoke. A
homeless man walked up to them to say hello, and when he found out what
Jonathan was up to he promptly picked him up and spun him around helicopter
style to illicit a sound—it worked.
3. Andy's killing it (Right Away Great Captain) Manchester
Orchestra does well in England and so does Right Away Great Captain as
evidenced by the almost capacity crowd at the venue that night.
4. At Reading-so
happy it's cold and windy–takes the edge off It was about 59 degrees when
we arrived on site, a welcome temperature considering the very late night
before. Nothing like cold air to wake you up and to help do away with the
sweats.
5. Showtime–5k
plus-people freaking Turns out this was a gross underestimation
6. Festival organizer just told
me there are 10,000 people in front of the stage right now–this band is
blowing up. Couldn't be prouder The guy who books the entire
festival was watching the band and told me that the tent holds 12,000 people,
it was totally full at the time. He said 10,000 is probably an understatement. This was amazing considering it was 12:45 in
the afternoon. What made it even cooler is that the tent cleared the minute
they finished playing.
7. Hanging with The Black
Lips backstage-can't believe I've never met these guys before-cool dudes in
spite of their @mayorofponce
association-I kid We all wanted to meet these guys and find out what
they’re all about considering we’re from the same city. I admit I was a bit
skeptical based on their reputation. We ended up hanging with them for several
hours before and after their show. Great dudes indeed.
8. On stage for
Kings of Leon-seeing them in
The UK is a much different experience-wow. http://twitpic.com/fm6f9
These guys have been touring non-stop for several years
and it is finally paying off in the US. It paid off in the UK long ago,
hence the headlining spot at the festival.
The crowd was 85,000 strong.
9. Great day at Reading–heading
back to the hotel then off to Leeds in the
morning We left the site at about 230 AM. The boys hung out with
their old touring mates Kings of Leon until then. Regretfully, I fell asleep in
the van during this time. The prospect of an early morning breakfast with my
in-laws was haunting me so I crashed. I know, I know…
10. Enjoying
listening to our tour manager and driver discuss the age old rivalry of Blur
vs. Oasis The news of Noel Gallagher leaving Oasis had hit England like a
tornado and EVERYONE was talking about it. I was eavesdropping on our English
tour manager and guitar tech as they discussed the merits of both bands.
Surprisingly both agreed that Blur was the better band.
11. Coupla drinks with Pete now
hanging with Airborne Toxic Event at the worst pub in Leeds–worst in a good
way We arrived in Leeds at around 4PM, after a five hour drive
from London. We
had the day off so we checked into our hotel and made our way to a local pub to
meet up with some folks. The Pete I was referring to is Pete Wentz from Fall
Out Boy. He’s a fan of Manchester,
and a partner of mine on another band I signed. The Airborne Toxic Event is a
band from LA, and some of the nicest people ever. Ended up hanging with them
the rest of the night. There was a lady at the pub who looked like she was
straight from the middle ages. This pub was kinda awful, but kinda great at the
same time. We later found out that most of Leeds was this way.
12. English coke
on the left (no ice), American coke on the right (proper ice) http://twitpic.com/fqv7w England is one of my favorite places to visit, but if you’ve ever been, you know they
are not known for enjoying ice in their drinks. This pic was my case in point.
13. cool night
hanging with the FOB crew and the Airborne toxic event–all great people–we may have cut a rug—maybe There
was no maybe, we definitely cut a rug, and did a little “air band” to the soul
music the DJ was playing…this was a highlight for me
14. and by the way, Leeds may be the worst/best place on earth. Leeds seemed to be stuck in the mid-nineties a bit, tight
shiny dresses on the ladies, and equally tight shiny shirts on the guys, and
kinda awful music. It was, however, a blast.
15. Here we go…Leeds Festival http://twitpic.com/ftz9b We
had just arrived on site and as it turns out, touring involves a lot of
hurrying up and waiting. There’s a lot of idle time which explains why most
bands who tour regularly have watched virtually every TV series ever created. Also thought it was interesting that the
English people who issued our passes misspelled Manchester.
16. On to Manchester–short day at Leeds today After the show and about 2 hours of
press, we decided to head to our next, and final destination; Manchester (the
city the band was named after). When we
got to Manchester we checked in to what is definitely the worst hotel in the city, maybe the
country. We had some dinner and crashed early as everyone was exhausted and
excited to get home. I actually had to sleep with my TV on in order to drown
out the sounds coming from the room next to mine…enough said.
17. Awesome. Leaving hotel to go to the airport and we have a flat
tire-perfect We stayed about three miles
from the airport so we made arrangements to leave the hotel two hours before
our flight. We didn’t anticipate having a flat tire. Five of us drove the van
on its rim to a not-so-nearby gas station to fill it with air, by the time we
got back to the hotel to pick up the others we had about 75 minutes before our
plane took off. Needless to say, we got there on time, but not without a little
anxiety.
Okay, so maybe you had to be there, but it was a great
trip, and a great experience. It gave me a whole new respect and admiration for
the road warriors who are slugging it out each day all for the love and passion
of their art. It also made me remember why we sign bands who are young, because
my thirty-six year old body wouldn’t have held up much longer.
Jay Harren
Follow me on Twitter
Have to say, the last time I was in Leeds I was pretty intimidated by the super-fashion-forward kids there, so maybe you were in the wrong bit ha! They’re pretty damn hip, at least, from what I could tell – the uni and new money brings a lotta cool kids. But there is the “old” bit too with the slightly scarier birds etc.
Must have been in the “old bit” then—felt like we were in Leeds’ equivalent of Chaser’s from The Office (UK).
It was delightfully tacky.
Hey Music Man,
Guitar tech here.
Blur are definitely the better band. English cokes are the best! Yes, we were in the old part of Leeds.
It was the holidays so, a lot of the people from the local uni would have been back at home. Hence people like Margaret dominating our evening.
Bloody good fun though. We owned that dance floor!