Steve's Tour Diary

  • New York City

    1999-06-05: It's eight in the morning and my first day home since late March and the tour already seems like a distant memory. The distancing was aided by a rare vacation (I travel but usually for shows) in Amsterdam with my wonderful hosts Andre, Marion, Anne-Britt and Lars (and cat Jip) and Jeroen and Thessa (and cat Pushkin. Four days ofmore

  • New York City

    1999-06-05: It's eight in the morning and my first day home since late March and the tour already seems like a distant memory. The distancing was aided by a rare vacation (I travel but usually for shows) in Amsterdam with my wonderful hosts Andre, Marion, Anne-Britt and Lars (and cat Jip) and Jeroen and Thessa (and cat Pushkin. Four days ofmore

  • Leaving Belgium

    1999-05-30: It is 7am and today we were quite literally 'up with the chickens,' having spent the night near Brussels in the country home of Luc and Nathalie from Belgium's Betty Goes Green. The lovely couple took us in for an afternoon picnic, evening of conversation and then a quick brush with slumber all in the gentle surroundings of flowers, trees,more

  • Tongeren

    1999-05-28: Oh, how many great things can I say about the Velinx club in Tongeren? I hear that Julius Caesar once lived in this Belgian city (only to be defeated and eventually return and burn the town to the ground). I imagine those times were filled with thrills and adventure but I can't imagine he could have matched the joy wemore

  • Leaving Germany

    1999-05-27: And as we wind our way into the final shows the drives get shorter and shorter, good news except for the reduced van typing time which means that the tour diary entries get shorter and shorter as well. Had a good show in Frankfurt last night despite stiff competition from the European Cup Soccer/Football final that pitted Manchester United againstmore

  • The road to K�ln

    1999-05-25: I really didn't mean to embarass Dave but I honestly thought I had been told that the Beatles had played Hamburg's Markthalle where we performed last night. He was quite curious and ready to undergo a personal pilgramage to the various nooks and crannies until one of the club's employees laughingly told him that it was nothing more than falsemore

  • The road to Hamburgh

    1999-05-24: Chatty van ride today, our last trip with Leslie B and Meike C. Topics include Stacy Keach, George C Scott, Mister Rogers (the greatest man alive, sez me) and Manchester United's winning of the Double, a subject very difficult for Arsenal supporter Barry Everitt. had a wild and wooly and wonderful show in Hameln last night, piping the pundits notmore

  • Leaving Dortmund

    1999-05-23: Tapers tapers everywhere. Barry estimates that last night's show at Dortmund's FZW club was captured by no less than five tapers and I'm glad that last night's show was well-documented as I was quite pleased with the music, banter, playfulness and energy. I'm sure that the sudden plethora of late checkouts, full nights of sleep and, uh, candy bars throughoutmore

  • Bielefeld

    1999-05-22: The Kamp club in Bielefeld recently built some apartments over the club to house wandering bands and this would usually mean prison-like bunk beds, graffitti covered walls, outhouse-like aroma and the occasional bit of lively vermin. But these digs are an exception and resemble something out of an Ikea catalogue, very modern and wooden and quite clean. And our livingmore

  • Somewhere in Germany

    1999-05-21: Another stau. Traffic jam. Bottle neck. Call it what you like, we are in the thick of it and the sound check, gig and inevitable stop for bratwurst is that much further down the road. We are joined today (and for the next few shows) by Chris' sister Leslie who is in the back seat swapping stories and laughing andmore