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Steeleye Span 'World Tour' Diary 2004

Tuesday 10th Feb.
Village Hall, Nettlebed, Oxfordshire.
In the three days leading up to the gig, we rehearsed at the Warehouse studios in Kennington, just outside Oxford. These rehearsals did seem to go particularly well, and what soon became apparent was the overall good feeling of being, and playing, together again. It would perhaps be unfair to call this our 'warm-up' gig, as the Nettlebed club is one of the biggest and most successful clubs on the scene. It was though, an ideal way (geographically and otherwise) to kick things off.
One of the most striking and potentially problematic features of the hall is the curved shape of the ceiling above the stage area, this makes it pretty much impossible to achieve a good on-stage sound for the band, so one has to be prepared to not hear anything with any clarity once the band really gets going. Out front, of course, it's a different story, and by all accounts the band sounded good. I think we played well, especially for a first night, and the new songs 'Samain', 'Babylon', 'Child Owlet' & 'Si Begs Si Mor' integrated well into the set.
Read review of gig.

Thursday 12th Feb.
Tobaksfabrikken, Esbjerg, Denmark
Had to make an early start this morning in order to get from the hotel we were staying in Harlow and to arrive at Stansted by the 8.30am check-in time. At the check-in it became apparent that our overall baggage weight exceeded the allowed limit, in fact we were 100 kgs over. This resulted in us having to pay an extra £400, and that's just the outgoing journey.
The flight was smooth, and we arrived pretty much on schedule at 1pm Denmark time.
Great venue, large and stylish, and we had a good night despite the somewhat modest size of the audience. However, what was missing in terms of numbers, was easily made up for by their enthusiasm.

Friday 13th Feb.
Strib Vinterfestival, Strib Skole, Middelfart.
After a journey of some two hours, we crossed the bridge from Jutland to Funen, and almost immediately found ourselves in Strib, which lies about five miles from the town of Middelfart. There's no doubt, this is a very prosperous and atractive area of Denmark.
Their annual winter festival is held at the boarding school in Strib, this is one of only three boarding schools in the entire country, and it's quite apparent that those who send their children here are not short of a Kroner or two. Our accommodation turned out to be where the students themselves stayed as they had all gone home for what is the equivalent of our half term. The school hall we played in was, to say the least - sizable, and this wasn't the only one, other shows were taking place in various rooms and halls around the school.
Today was a good illustration of what a long and drawn out affair a day on the road can feel like, trying to fill the time between arrival, sound checks, and performance, can be just that - 'trying', and the 10.30pm scheduled time we were due to be on stage felt as though it would never arrive. In fact when it did arrive, 'Sebastian' the extremely popular Danish singer/songwriter, was still on stage - and he wasn't about to inject any urgency into his set.
Finally, at 11.15 we started, and to be honest, it felt like the energy levels of both audience and band were on an irreversible decline. I won't go into any more detail, but it wasn't what I'd regard as a roaring success.
We eventually rapped things up at 1.15am.

Saturday 14th Feb.
Skraen, Ålborg
Ålborg (formerly Aalborg) is a city and seaport and the capital or Nordjylland County. It's situated on the north-eastern part of the Jutland Peninsula. Population 161,161.
The journey today took about three hours before we arrived at Ålborg. There's a very good feeling in the band just now, and the three hours spent in the bus (even if a bit noisy for me at times) was full of laughter - with Peter being the one who was mainly responsible for it.
The hotel was kind of basic- but OK - lots of channels on the TV, some of them English language ones. Actually, talking of the English language, the Danes are incredible, with many of them you'd never guess they were anything other than British once they engage in conversation with you. They do also look after you very well here, with never any shortage of food and drink.
The venue - 'Skraen' or 'The Skraen' (I'm not sure which) is not that large - we probably played to around 150 people - but the atmosphere was good, and the band played well. It was a really positive way to finish our short spell in Denmark - especially after the uncertainties of the previous evening.
Tonight, the guitar amp I had provided for me was a Mesa Boogie 35 watt Maverick - it was fantastic. The moment I plugged my guitar in, I knew I had to buy one.
Tomorow it's back to Esbjerg, and then the return flight to Stansted. Once home, I guess it's a case of counting down the days to Feb 27th & the next leg of events which takes us to Australia & NZ.

Friday 27th, Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th Feb
Travel to Australia.
Today we leave from Heathrow - Qantas flight QF2 departure time 21.45.
It's a long day starting with a drive to Oxford - leaving Preston at 10am, and from there being driven to the airport, arriving at about 7.30pm. The first leg of the flight to Bangkok is considerable, with a journey time of over ten and a half hours. This will be followed with a break of about two hours before the next leg to Sydney - a flight taking a further nine hours or so. Believe me, after that first stint to Bangkok, the idea that we were only just over half way to our final destination was, well... pretty awful. Of course, air travel is a wonderous thing in itself, and technically speaking, the aircraft is fantastic, but the actual process of traveling on them carries a bit more baggage with it. From talking to more than a few people about this it's become apparent to me that the fear factor is quite widespread, but my experience is that the combination of both anxiety (even if it's somewhat subliminal) and boredom, is what can really wear you down.
On arrival at our destination we followed the usual procedures, as in - immigration, baggage claim, etc. My guitars were due to appear at the 'fragile' baggage section, and eventually one of them did materialise - my electric. However, as time went on, it became obvious that the acoustic I'd checked in at Heathrow was now somewhere other than Sydney. This is my brand new Fylde 'Ken Nicol Custom' model, a guitar that has been made to my own specs, and is, quite frankly, one of the best things I've ever had the privilege of owning and playing. The anxiety, boredom and tiredness scenario was now also being accompanied by an increasing sense of loss. And I was becoming more and more certain that I'd seen someone walking out of the baggage claim section with a guitar case sitting on their trolley that looked disturbingly like mine. In reporting my loss, I was told in a very resolute and consequently reassuring manner, that it would be extremely unlikely for someone to make off with an item like that....... "it just doesn't happen", the lady said. She also told me that it was probably on the next flight, still, I couldn't get the vision of this chap and his trolley out of my head, and I was becoming more and more convinced that it even had the same 'bmi fragile' sticker on it. I left the airport with one electric guitar.
I was desperate for a hotel room and a shower. It was about 7.30am Sunday morning. We'd been greeted at the airport by Richard James, the man responsible for promoting all the Australian concerts, he took us to the hotel - the 'Southern Cross Suites' in the Chinatown district of the city. Got there at about 9am - fantastic, a shower, a sleep...... relief and respite was now within sight. Then the receptionist informed us that the rooms were not available until 2pm. So we went in search of breakfast, and any other way we could waste the next five bloody hours. I washed my breakfast down with two glasses of red wine, it was brilliant, and apart from having fleeting moments of 'post baggage trolley recollection syndrome', I felt better for it - maybe I'll do that more often.

Monday 1st March
Sydney
Day off - a chance to recover and acclimatise oneself to new surroundings and an eleven hour time difference.

Tuesday 2nd March
Sydney
11.45am We traveled to the Channel 9 television studios to appear on the Kerrie-Ann morning show. This show goes out live on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesdays, and the Thursday & Friday shows are prerecorded. Our show was prerecorded for Thursday. We performed an unaccompanied song - 'The King', a song we usually open our show with.
Ralph (McTell) arrived from England this morning, he is to be opening the shows on all our concert dates.

Wednesday 3rd March
Sydney
Early start today.
8.45am Live interview with Angel Catterns (nationwide), plus live performance.
9.30am Pre-record interview and live performance with David Kilby for ABC Canberra.

Thursday 4th March
Canberra Theatre.
10.15 am: Left the 'Southern Cross Suites' and traveled to Sydney domestic airport.. Our flight, Q.F 1421 leaves on schedule at 12:05 pm, and we arrived in Canberra at 12:55 pm where we are met by two associates of Richard, Bill & Fred, who take us on to our hotel. It really feels like summer here, and when my back's turned to the sun, what begins as pleasant warmth soon develops into hot discomfort.
The theatre looks good and modern, however, this is what you might expect in Canberra - the capitol of Australia. The city, with a population of around 250 thousand, was built from scratch about seventy years ago, for the sole purpose of being the centre of government.
Theatre capacity is 1200: we've sold around 700 tickets.
I would say that - other than one or two sound difficulties that our sound man Daniella experienced with a new and unfamiliar PA system - it was an excellent first concert for us down under.

Liam in the soundcheck at Canberra

Friday 5th March
Sydney, State Theatre.
Flew back at 11:30 am, arriving at Sydney 12:20 pm. On both journeys to Canberra and back, the aircraft type we flew on was a De Havilland DHC-8 Dash 8, a small but surprisingly comfortable plane. Not only did I managed to get my preffered window seat, but also, I had the opportunity to talk with Ralph who was sitting on my left. We had an interesting conversation about the BBC Folk Awards, something I have some real issues with, and it was good to get a perspective from someone who's considered to be very much an accepted part of the folk establishment. Maybe I will spend more time divulging some of my feelings towards these folk awards, and the practice of creating, possibly, a 'folk hierarchy', all motivated, some might say, by commercial, and self interest. This is in an area of music that by definition could never really be affiliated with those kind of values.
We arrived at the theatre at 5 pm for the sound check. The theatre itself is one of the most aesthetically inspiring you could hope to witness, with its rich brown marble interior... an immaculate building.
The sound check was dreadful, everything seemed to go wrong. But the saying, "bad sound check, good gig" couldn't have been more true today. Ralph played an hour set starting at 7:45, and we took to the stage at about 9:15. The audience figure was in excess of 1200 people.

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