Return Of The Snakes

Thurs 18 April, Clane – In the west of Ireland the wind was so wild you had to shout to be heard…if anyone was bothered to listen. Took the train to Dublin. It broke down for 15 minutes in some unknown town. With three new buttons sown on my antique grey coat I was feeling dapper but it all went terribly wrong when my travelling companion spilt orange juice over said garment.

Waited for an hour in the cold outside Houston, with the bus eventually arriving and taking us through Cellbridge, Barberstown Castle, St. Raffan, Green Cross and arriving into Clane town. Visited the Country Market looking for birthday presents and later had dinner as the rain came down in buckets.

Fri 19 April, Wicklow Town – No time for a rehearsal. Al was in Portugal and arrived back at 6pm and we met at Sonic Studios and hit the road straight away for Wicklow to play at the Castle Tavern on the banks of the River Vartry, which rises in the Calary Bog under the Great Sugar Loaf mountain up north. The Tavern is run by gentleman Ray. He’s organized a good PA for us and we chatted to a few youngish American tourists. (at our age, nearly everybody is young) They said they could only hang around for a few songs as they wanted to explore the town, but they stayed right to the end of the show….and bought a CD too, so we must have played in a fashion that could be described as entertainment. Lots of folks told us they really enjoyed it etc. etc. and when asked, none admitted to being tone-deaf. Then we drove to Dublin and I slept like a log in Al’s place in Finglas.

Sat 20 April, Dublin – A bunch of dodgy pop stars were arriving in to Al’s Sonic Studios bright and early. Some charity record was being recorded. I didn’t recognize any of the pop stars, but I was informed that Ronan Keating and the other Boyzone/Coronation Street guy and the skanger guy were due in so I left rather pronto. Later that night we played in Sin E down on the quays. Paul Gallagher and I engaged in our ritual CD swop. He had a few bootlegs for me including Steve Earle and Joy Division from the Paradiso, Amsterdam. I gave him a copy of “Things Aren’t The Way they Used To Be”.

Clarence had his full band with him, so I asked Cliff up to play with us on organ and he was great. We need more of this and an email address was procured. A late night listening session ensued with Drive By Truckers blasting through the speakers in Ed’s den. I introduced him to the music of Dave Kusworth and he expressed an interest in hearing my Lady Olivia track which I located in my gmail account in mp3 format. He nodded off half way through.

Mon 22 April, Dublin – We were sitting in the Czech Inn having a drink. The Princess suggested a plate of chips, and within 2 minutes the waiter arrived with a big plate of chips saying “these are on the house.” A good start to the afternoon. County music, some slightly dodgy Nashville type stuff, but also some cool sounds like Emmylou Harris and Waylon Jennings drift out through the speakers. Then it sadly turns into mindless euro pop and eurotrash dance music. And then silence which is most welcome. Time slides by. After about 20 minutes of golden silence Big Tom singing “Four Roads To Glenamaddy” blasts out at top volume. Maybe he’s big in Czech, but then I suppose he’s big everywhere.



Fri 26 April, Göteborg – Found a great Stones bootleg “Some More Girls” in a local record shop. Blue vinyl, good sleeve. Basically it’s out-takes from the Some Girls LP from 1978, if memory serves correctly. Keith sings “We had it all”. Another long lost gem is “Spare Parts”
Met Terje at Amerikabaren to check out his PA before going to see Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in Pustervik. They were great, wham bam …no stops between songs, straight into the next one….sweat dripping off Mr Spencer like a shower of rain on a spring day.

Sat 27 April, Allingsås – Found some old cassettes marked ‘song ideas’ dating back to 94 / 95. Slotted the tape in the ‘door’ of the old machine and started to listen. One song goes  “give me an airplane ticket, 9 to 5? you can stick it” Think I may need to rewrite parts but the chords and general vibe seems good. This one seems to be recorded in some long forgotten studio. Its got violin (probably Sheila Sullivan, sounds like her) but the organ player I can’t recall…or even which studio it was. Other songs are home recordings made with a ghetto blaster.

Mimi called around with home-baked biscuits - sugar rush time. A letter arrived from Lady Olivia Robertson saying she loves the track we have recorded. My only aristocratic friend in the world does a spoken-word piece over my long rambling tune and I had sent a CD to her home at Huntington Castle in Clonegal and thankfully she has given the project the thumbs-up. In her letter she tells me that the last time she was in Sweden was in 1936. That’s a long time ago.

I knew it would happen. I would arrive in to Allingsås and fail to get the PA working. After a frantic call to Terje he talks me through it and it makes noise. On with the show. Not a bad gig. Took a train back to Göteborg and then a tram and then a walk up the hill and home.



Thurs 2 May, Göteborg - After answering emails and doing boring chores such as registering new songs with IMRO, PPI etc, and trying to track down photographers to get prints for record sleeves, I sadly slipped in the back door to facebook. It’s usually a waste of time, and as time is all we have, you shouldn’t waste it. Occasionally facebook may lead to a gig or the discovery of something interesting such as Prins Prebens page, a Norwegian artist. 
Over on the Dangerous Minds site I learn that Alejandro Jodorowsky has made his first movie in 23 years. Watched the trailer, then put on a Burial Hex CD and boiled water for Earl Grey tea. Downtown the foxy barmaid in Pustervik chats away in Svenska in a very very friendly fashion before realizing she’s mixing me up with somebody else. I took off my shades and we thankfully swapped to the English language and I apologized saying “Sorry, I’m only myself today.” Sometimes it would be interesting to be somebody else….perhaps the guy she thought I was.