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Steeleye Span 'World Tour' Diary 2004
Thursday 8th April
Florence.
This was my first day here as a tourist, and though I'd been looking
forward to it I spent most of the time resting - I guess I needed to.
Ernesto sent me a text message today asking me to be the guest on his
show this Saturday.
Friday 9th April
Florence.
It rained all day today.
Just starting to think a little about the UK tour, it begins in just
over a week from now. I need to work out how to get to Oxford on Thursday;
there's no point taking my car down there when the final gig is just
ten miles from home in Blackburn - I'd only have to travel two hundred
and something miles to pick it up again.
Looking forward to Ernesto's show tomorrow evening. He wants me to go
in for the second half of the show - 9pm to 10pm, and sing / play two
or three numbers. He's going to E-mail the address of the studio to
me - along with instructions of how to get there.
This tourist thing's great, caught a bus to Siena - it's amazing. A
city thirty miles south of Florence that's survived virtually unchanged
since the 16th century - that's what it says in the 'where to go' section
of our pocket guide book. We visited the 'Piazza del Campo' and the
'Duomo'; quite breathtaking.
Took a shower on our return, and initially I couldn't work out how to
get the water to go through the shower head instead of the tap, so I
pulled and tugged on anything that was there thinking it was probably
some fancy Italian system. The next thing I knew was Carol banging on
the bathroom door shouting and asking if I was OK. Apparently, the television
had gone off in the other room and a digital readout on the wall read
'HELP'. It seems I'd pulled the emergency chord.
Would've posted some of my own pictures on these pages by now, but the
computer has decided it can't communicate with the digital camera.
Saturday 10th April
Florence.
Decided to take a look at some of the sights that I haven't had
a chance to see so far, so we took a walk from via Nazionale, where
our hotel is, through piazza dell'Unita Italiana, and then along via
de Panzani which took us to the quite spectacular Duomo (cathedral).
The size and grandeur is something else; it raises many questions in
my mind as to the level of conviction and belief that would have to
exist in order to push human kind in it's creation of such elaborate
structures on this scale. I often wonder if this is testimony to enlightened
human potential, or perhaps blind human compulsion. From the Duomo we
continued to the Piazza Signoria and then over one of the most amazing
bridges you'll ever see - the ponte Vecchio.
Ernesto sent me the address of the radio station (Controradio) - I have
to be there just before 9pm for the last hour of tonight's show. Originally,
he offerred to personally come over to the hotel - during his show (can
you believe?) to get me, in response I insisted that both Carol and
myself would make our own way there. We ended up walking, which was
fine apart from having to carry a guitar case each - maybe a cab would've
been smarter.
The interview, that lasted an hour went well; I played three songs live,
and something like five tracks were played from CDs - two from the new
Steeleye album.
After the show we, yes - you guessed, we ate; genuine Neopolitan pizza
- fantastic. I have to say though, I'm looking forward to an 'Indian'
when we get home.
Travel home.
Not much more than a day of waiting for things and then getting on them. Everything, thankfully, seemed to arrive and then leave on time, and the last leg of the journey - from Stansted to Blackpool was incredibly convenient, leaving a car ride of just eighteen miles to Preston.
My next entry will probably be Thursday when I leave for Oxford, and we start the rehearsals that lead up to Steeleye's UK tour.
Thursday 15th April
Travel to Oxford / Rehearsal
Maddy came to Preston on the train yesterday evening, and I drove to the
station at 6:30pm or thereabouts to pick her up. The plan today is for
everyone to meet up at the rehearsal studios (The Warehouse) in Oxford
and to start working on putting, not just some of the more recently written
material into the set, but also maybe a few of the older Steeleye songs
that haven't been performed in a while. First of all though, the main
consideration for me was that I had agreed to do an interview on radio
Lancashire this morning to promote the final show of the tour in Blackburn
(17th May). Of course, when I informed everyone that Maddy would be accompanying
me to the radio station, the interview took on, let's say, a little more
gravity. We performed a couple of songs live on-air - 'Babylon' and 'Mantle
of Green', and they play two or three others from the album.
After the interview it was a case of getting back to Preston, loading
luggage, guitars, amps and the rest, into our hired van, and driving south
down the M6. It must've been noon by the time we left, and 4pm by the
time we arrived. It was good to see everyone again, and we managed about
three hours of rehearsal before checking into the hotel.
Friday 16th / Saturday 17th April
Rehearse
The songs seem to be coming together quite well. The newer songs we're
rehearsing are: 'Van Dieman's Land' and 'Mantle of Green'. The older one's
are: 'Tam Lin', 'Padstow', 'Prince Charlie', '4 Nights Drunk' and 'The
Butcher'.
The rehearsal is not just a process of recapping on the old material,
or learning new songs; it also gives you a chance to reacquaint yourself
with certain guitars, wiring / cable configurations, etc, as well as getting
your head round newly acquired equipment - in my case, it's a Mesa Boogie
Nomad 45 amplifier. Back in February when we were in Denmark I had the
good fortune to use a Mesa Boogie Maverick on stage for the first time,
and was knocked out by the sound. Although the model isn't the same, it's
a very impressive piece of gear. I've decided to still use my old Laney
tube amp, but slave it to the new one. I will report on how we get along
with eachother as the tour progresses.
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