The Stills Review, Ottawa, ON

Check out this review from the show we did in Ottawa on April 27. You missed a good one...

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/story.html?id=b0c9a598-450b-4f4e-a43a-97074f7e96c2

The Stills Day 16, Ottawa, ON

So how do you go from Glasgow to Manchester to Birmingham to London to Montreal to Ottawa in about 48hrs? With great difficulty. Woke up in Montreal today bright an early at 9am, felt like 1pm, went for breakfast with one of the guys, picked up the gear and drove in to Ottawa. Interesting bit of useless trivia: this is the first time in all my years of touring that I've actually come to my hometown as part of a tour. Quite odd considering it's the 4th largest city in Canada, not to mention the national capital, and I've gone across Canada maybe 5 or 6 times now... Anyways, like I said, useless trivia...

So we get to the Capital Music Hall, a place I used to work at and am happy to no longer do so, and we find out that the show is being broadcast live on XM radio and CBC webcast something or other. Ok, whatever, we do our thing it all works, we have a break, come back for the show which started at 12:30am (so 5:30am for us), find out the soundguys with the other bands changed all my settings (fun, really...) pull a show together and that's it, we're finally done. 14 shows in 13 days, my ears are burnt and my head is about to explode but now I can finally rest! Amazing!

After the show, we went back to the hotel the guys were staying at, had a couple drinks and said our farewells. The Stills are now off until June, when we'll be heading out across the US of A. Can't wait. Corn syrup, here we come...

The Stills Day 15, London, UK

We got back to London around 9am, made a couple stops to drop off all our rental gear, and then head to Heathrow. Helped get the guys and gear checked in (they were on a different flight than me) and I went over to check in myself and wait out the day at the airport. We were in terminal 3, where there was a British Airways counter, but I was informed it was not the check in counter I was looking for. I had to make my way across the terminal, go underground and catch a train to terminal 4. No big deal, I had 7 hours to kill, this was the least of my problems.

So I get check in, all is good, I sit down, pay for some internet time and my wireless card dies. I can't figure out why, especially now that it's working fine again, but in my 7 hours of need, I lost what I considered to be my lifeline. Then, I start getting phone calls for the band to do interviews, so I try to call them in the other terminal, and out of nowhere, my phone decides I'm an "inactive user" and cuts me off the network. I still haven't figured that out. So, I still have too many hours to kill and I'm totally cut off from anything that could help me. I go for lunch, stretch it out as long as possible and somehow manage to kill time while walking around the overpriced stores.

Boarding time finally comes and it's running a few minutes late, no big deal. We're supposed to take off at 5:40pm, plane is ready at 6, good to go, except for one little thing. They found a piece of luggage on the plane that they can't connect to any passenger, so for the next 90 minutes, they try and figure out what it is. And we got to wait on the plane the whole time. Then, as soon as it's sorted out, someone decides to tell a flight attendant that their seatbelt doesn't work, so we had to wait another 30 mins for an engineer to bring in a replacement seat. So we're ready to go. Ha. Wait, no we're not. We're in line on the runway, 25 min cue and the landing runway gets shut down for "unspecified causes". So that means the departure runway now has to accommodate arriving planes, so they do a batch of arrivals, batch of departures, etc... So, some time around 8:30 or so we finally get the bird in the air, I recline my seat to sleep a little and the 2 year old in the seat behind me starts kicking it right in the middle. The whole flight. My looks of disgust didn't do anything so I put two of those cheap airline pillows behind my back and wait it out.

I finally land in Montreal, make my way to my resting place for the night, we order some food, trade travel stories and 27 hours after waking up, I finally go to sleep. One more show tomorrow, and then we can rest for real...

The Stills Day 14, Birmingham, UK

On the way to Birmingham today we made a stop in Manchester to do an XFM radio interview. It's good support for the guys, so it was worth it, but it did make us 2.5 hrs late for load in and souncheck at the Birmingham Academy. When we finally got there, we threw things together as fast as possible and went to meet a couple people from the record label and Kerrang magazine for dinner.

Another good show tonight, pack up the gear for the last time, and we headed out to a place called the Actress & Bishop, which upon first inspection seemed a little weak, but it turned out to be 90s night, so we all (shamefully) relived the music of our youth and it turned out to be a pretty good time.

We headed back to the bus around 3am, with a couple record company people in tow (they missed the last train back to London so they could catch the show, so we gave them a lift on the bus), but we couldn't really hang out on the bus because the driver was still sleeping. So, we did the next best thing. Grabbed a bottle of wine from the bus and 5 of us sat just beside it in the loading bays at the venue til about 5am when it was time to head back to London.

The Stills Day 13, Glasgow, UK

We finally made it to Scotland. We had great visions of ancient castles and rolling hills, premium scotch, etc... so, when we woke up in an industrial ghetto, we were slightly disappointed. And there was no coffee.

We figured at least we could try and do something about the coffee, so we set out on foot to the downtown area, which, thankfully, was only a 15 min walk from the venue. We found what looked like a great little coffee shop, ordered our cappuccinos and watched in horror as the girl topped off the cup not with frothed milk, but with water?!?! Why is it so hard to get one good coffee in the UK?! So, brutal coffee in hand, we wander down a shopping strip, see a Starbucks sign that attracts us like a homing device, we ditch the "coffee" and settle for the sub-par standard, which we can at least count on to taste like something...

That adventure being dealt with, we head back to the Glasgow Academy, soundcheck, do a show (which happened to be the best one on the tour) and try to put together a plan for the rest of the night.

After the Kings of Leon set, the promoter broke out some bottles of premium scotch for everyone to taste, so that was a good start. They know how to make a good scotch. We then had a couple drinks with all the band and crew folks, as it was the last date of the KoL part of the tour, then we headed back to the Kings hotel, where we took over the pool table in the lobby and had the kitchen stay open late. And, with that, we said goodbye to all the Kings and made our way back to the bus to head to Birmingham for our last show before flying home.

The Stills Day 12, Doncaster, UK

I got up a little earlier than usual, looked out the window of the bus and was shocked to see a nicely landscaped riverside with picturesque little bridges and a fountain. I suddenly got a sense of hope for the day. So, I got dressed, quickly dropped off my bags inside The Dome and headed off to explore.

Upon closer inspection, the water was brown. The fountain was spewing brown water rather unceremoniously. Around the corner there was construction. Across the street on one side there was a 24hr grocery store, a cinema and a McDonalds. On the other side was a horse track. It became quickly apparent that we were in a developing suburb that may never fully develop. And so, my hope quickly faded, in fact it disappeared entirely, so I went inside, got online and killed the afternoon.

For todays aftershow gathering, there was supposed to be ice skating (we were in a sports complex), but unfortunately that got the axe due to "risk assessment" excuses, so we settled for the standard: a few locals at the upstairs bar. It looked like it would be a little painful; there wasn't even any music on when we went up. Thankfully we ran into a couple friends who made the trip to the show and who were essential in making the rest of the night entertaining. We were able to enjoy ourselves until the bus had to leave. Oddly enough, we kind of wanted to stay in Doncaster a little longer... Next, and last Kings of Leon stop, Glasgow, Scotland.

The Stills Day 11, Newcastle, UK

We got to Newcastle a little early, so after stopping by our wonderful catering area, I took it upon myself to walk around town for a bit. It was pretty cool, saw some things dating back to the 1200s, so for a person who likes the history of cities, such as myself, it was a good time. There was also a major socc... sorry, football, match happening in town during the afternoon, and the people were nuts. 52,000+ Newcastlers were swarming the streets on their way to the stadium, and once there, they made some serious noise. It was pretty impressive.

So after all that, I went back to the Academy, soundchecked, brought the rock for one of the 2 best shows so far, and then there was an after party at the venue. We stuck around for that, ran into some people we had already met during the last week, talked, had a couple drinks, it was all good. The club eventually closed, so the KoL guys got their hotel bar to stay open. We were led (somewhat questionably, but successfully) through the old streets of Newcastle to the hotel where we hung out for a while, then headed back to the bus to head to Doncaster (no, I don't know where/what it is either... I'll let you know tomorrow).

The Stills Day 10, Oxford, UK

Oxford is a beautiful town. It's insane. Totally drenched in history (for obvious reasons) and it's really incredible. I wandered forever after the show among the old brick walls and cobblestone streets and it was great. That being said, given its high-calibre university status, there is a fair bit of pretentiousness in the air, but whatever, it's all good. It is kind of weird to see people window shop for gold tipped walking sticks though...

As for the show, it was their best performance of the tour, bar none. The Zodiac was pretty full and the crowd loved it. Interesting side note: The Zodiac is co-owned by guys in Radiohead, Supergrass and some other big name band I can't remember right now. That's the rock n roll trivia for the day.

It almost felt like a day off with all the wandering, found a great little cafe called Coco's, so overall, it was almost relaxing. I will look forward to returning to Oxford.

The Stills Day 9, Manchester, UK

We woke up in Manchester and quickly went on a hunt for coffee. That didn't work out so well. The Manchester Apollo, which is a legendary venue, is for some reason located in a pretty low end, ghetto part of town. We were told it might not be best to walk around...

So, we proceeded with the normal soundcheck and show, and there was an after party at the upstairs bar at the venue. We hung out for a while, watched a street magician named Dynamo do a few mind-blowing card tricks, and then the bar shut down. We weren't quite ready to call it a night though, so we went back to The Venue to see the friends we made the night before. The bar was absolutely slammed, there was no room to walk, insanely loud, etc... Not too comfortable, so we decided to bail and head back to the bus. A few minutes later we were on the road to Oxford.

The Stills Day 8, Birmingham, UK

We got to Birmingham at about 3pm, rushed to load in, get some lunch, soundcheck, show, etc... The usual. What was different about today was that we had to leave immediately after the set, so we packed the bus in record time, sat down with our dinner and began the drive to Manchester. It only took a couple hours, but because of commercial drivers laws in Europe, the driver can only travel at certain times. It's kind of weird, but whatever.

So we got to Manchester around 11:30pm and decide we may as well go out, we don't have any nights off on this tour and this is as close as it'll get. We start walking one way, about 25 mins in we realize we were misdirected, so we hopped in a cab and went downtown. Once there, we still didn't know what to do, so we started asking some locals.

Oddly enough, it was the two drunk ones that had the best plan, pointing us towards a great little rock club called The Venue. We were just going to have a couple drinks, but then the managers recognized the band, turns out he's a huge fan, and we ended up staying til about 5am, listening to old school ska and reggae. Good times. We got invited back for tomorrow after the show, so we'll see what happens...

The Stills Day 7, London, UK

Today was the biggest show of the tour. The Hammersmith Apollo, a legendary venue, holds too many people to begin with, and it's London, so it's the media mecca of the UK. There were TV crews, extra security, more buses, more trucks, etc... Everything got bigger today.

The show went pretty well again, it's hit its stride now. I even got compliments on the sound from record label and MTV people, so I can't complain. But, all that considered, it was after the show that counted.

We went to an "exclusive" after party at a place called the Opal Bar. It was pretty small, kind of cave like in atmosphere. We had a back room for everyone on the tour so we had some space to breathe. There were also a few celebrity sightings, such as Micha Barton, Drea de Matteo, Natalie Imbruglia and none other than David Schwimmer, aka. Ross Gellar. Nice cast... It was a pretty low key thing overall, fun to be there and people watch, etc...

After a few drinks, we headed back to the bus with a stop at a 24hr. grocery store to satisfy our food cravings, went to sleep and woke up in Birmingham.

The Stills Day 6, Leeds, UK

So Leeds is actually a nice looking town. Lots to see and do, lots of exploring... We finally found a real city (not counting London, of course).

We were at a tiny confined space known as The Cockpit today, for the 2nd headlining show of the tour. It went surprisingly well, considering the show was only announced a week ago.

After we were done, we had three hours to kill before driving, and we were parked right behind the venue which had moved on to a metal night, and it was painfully loud so sitting on the bus was unbearable. So I went to explore the town.

One cobblestone road lead to another, went under some sketchy looking railway bridges and before long I was in the old part of town among all the rich people who were looking at me as though I was quite out of place, which, in fact, I was. Lots of old buildings from the 16-1800's, really impressive to look at. It actually had a very old European feel, as opposed to English.

I made it safely back to the bus for departure and ended the night watching tv shows on my laptop.

The Stills Day 5, Blackpool, UK

We rolled in to the lovely town of Blackpool (I know, but we didn't name the place...) in the early afternoon and had a quick bite courtesy of our traveling catering. We attempted to access the outer world through interweb technology, but to no avail. The internet just kept crashing all day, so we were forced to find our own entertainment during our downtime. In some towns, that's not a problem, but we were in Blackpool.

But, when all seemed lost, the Kings of Leon crew discovered the breathtaking Blackpool Tower, which could be ascended by tourists such as ourselves. So, 7GBP later, 8 of us were on top of the tower overlooking what is considered the lovely town of Blackpool. An astounding 380 ft. in the air, up a rust covered elevator, what more could you want?

After conquering that, we returned to the venue for a soundcheck and show, loaded the bus, and then it got interesting. As soon as Kings of Leon started, the 4000 kids in the Embassy Ballroom went insane. So much that the barricade in front of the stage caved in and hit the stage, which then started shaking. The band went off while security tried to fix everything, and a few minutes later, it happened all over again, at which point we were told that if it happened a third time, the show was off and people would likely lose their minds, so we should get everything on the bus and get ready to bail. Fast.

Fortunately, after the second fix, everything stayed together, the show happened, and the people loved it. I laid low after the show, trying to find internet access, made a couple phone calls, etc... Then, when I thought I was going to bed at 2am, everyone came back from wherever they were and we went out for food. We met some crazy Irish folks, one of whom (studpidly) chugged a bottle of scotch for our entertainment, to show that the Irish can drink, then paid the price by stumbling out the door and falling flat on his face in the middle of the street. The sound of a skull hitting pavement is really quite disgusting. His friends took him to the hospital for stitches and we went back to our bus for the ride to Leeds.

The Stills Day 4, Plymouth, UK

Today set the tone for what will likely be our standard day schedule on this tour. Pull into town mid-afternoon, run to catering for a late lunch, unload the bus, wait for soundcheck, have a quick supper, bang out a show, re-load the bus and wait to leave.

The show went pretty well tonight, things are coming together quite nicely. The 4,000 in attendance really seemed to like it. After the show we spent some time with the promoters talking about what the future could hold, and that was about it. I did take a short walk to try and find some late night pizza, or a suitable equivalent, but saw a drunken fight outside a pub and scurried back to the bus, where I now sit as we prepare to leave in the next couple minutes.

We drive overnight to Blackpool, a town that is surely cursed by such a name, but who knows... We'll see how it goes.

The Stills Day 3, Swindon and London, UK

Today was by far going to be the most difficult of the tour, so we were happy to try and get it out of the way, but it was a little stressful nonetheless. We left London fairly early, like 8am, to head out to Swindon for the first of the Kings of Leon shows. As soon as that show was over, we had to head straight back to London to play a second show in one night. Insane.

So we get to Swindon, meet everyone we need to meet and everything is great. We have full catering everyday of the tour, there's internet access, showers, great gear... essentially we're being treated like royalty, so that makes things a little easier. We were able to get all our gear loaded in pretty quickly, so then we had a lot of time to kill waiting for our 6pm soundcheck. Took a quick walk around, decided Swindon isn't really the place for us, so we headed back to the venue.

We eventually soundcheck, the show happens pretty soon after, then we hustle like no one's hustled before to get all the gear back on the bus and start the 2 hour drive to London. Show was done at 8:45, by 9:10 we were rolling. Total record for these guys.

We got to London at about 11:30, walk into the venue and it's packed. Not just busy, but totally slammed, people right up to the front of the stage. It was awesome. We couldn't even get our cases in the door, so we had to set stuff up on the side walk. So we pretty much just throw everything on stage, we had to start by 12am, and in true guerilla-punk-rock fashion, just go for it. And it worked out great. People were going nuts the whole show.

So after 75 minutes of loud rock music, we repack the bus and the record label folks brought us to this VIP style bar down the street where we hung out for a couple hours to finish the night. Couldn't get too crazy or stay out too late because we had to get up early in the morning again for the drive to Plymouth. After this, the rest of the tour will be a walk in the park.

The Stills Day 2, London, UK

So I landed in London at about 6:45am. By the time I got my bags, went through customs, etc... it was almost 8 and I made the trek over to the next terminal to meet the guys who were coming in on a different flight. We found each other pretty quickly, caffeinated our tired selves and went outside to meet our new home, the ever-popular tour bus.

Once loaded up, we made a couple stops to pick up gear for the tour, and then headed towards the hotel we didn't know we had. We got a call from the record label to tell us they booked some rooms so we could hang out with them in London for the night. So, we dopped off our stuff and headed down the street for a couple drinks at 3pm. A couple drinks ended up lasting through dinner and all the way til about 11pm, when we were just too tired to stay awake any longer, so we went back to the hotel and crashed. We may just end up beating the jet lag...

The Stills Day 1, Traveling...

Today was pretty basic. I got up, went to the airport, a plane took me to a second airport, and then I went to a third. It was fairly uneventful. I think the most notable event was when I had lunch at Pearson, they didn't bring me what I ordered so I sent it back. Good times.

The Next Round Begins...

So in about 36 hours, I being my next round of touring. I'll be spending the next two and a half weeks in the UK with The Stills, and we end it off by flying home for a show in Ottawa on the 27th. As usual, I'll have my daily updates from the road right here for your viewing/reading pleasure.

This should be a good tour. We're opening for Kings of Leon, who are huge in the UK, so the venues should be great. I haven't been to most of these places either, so at least I'll have stuff to look at while we're there. Just to spice it up, the boys booked a bunch of headlining dates on our days off, and the first day of the tour we're actually doing two shows (?!). So, if you're in the UK, head on out to a show, check out the loud rock music, buy me a beer, etc... You know you want to...