Electric Garden, Oya, Summer Sundae

Hi
The last few weeks saw brakes play 3 more of our summer bookings at festivals in europe and at home. First up was electric garden. None of us knew what to expect from this first time kent affair but it was pretty good. Had a nice drive there in the van, had to take a de-tour at one point for warnings of long delays. The kent countryside was all looking very picturesque until we saw a huge white crucifix engraved into a chalk down near Lenham. That scared us slightly so we made our way quickly to the site. Got there just in time to see Field Music who, despite some obviously crippling technical difficulties, sounded cool. It was very hot so we spent most of the hours before our performance lying around drinking cider. Gig was good. We were up against the charlatans and mystery jets so the tent wasn't packed but those who were present made us feel very welcome and seemed to have a good time.
I spent the next few days seeing family and friends before heading off to oslo very early on wednesday. Last time we'd been in oslo the whole country of norway was under about 20 inches of snow so it looked a lot different than i remembered. We went straight from the airport to the John Dee venue, the same place we'd played in february. Although variety in the places we play is a good thing we weren't too annoyed to be playing here again as john Dee is directly above a ten pin bowling rink. After dinner we got a couple of games in before heading upstairs for the show. second support cam from The Dears who brakes had played one of their first shows outside of brighton with at bath moles in mid 2003. How the tables turn. We had some technical difficulties which hindered our performance somewhat but it was still pretty cool. My friends vegard and elisabeth were there and had bought a lot of their mates so it was good to have the support. Headed out to a bar called mono afterwards, made me a little homesick as there is a mono in glagow too.
The next morning i put the telly on and realised there was no way we were going to be able to fly home as planned due to the terror alert in britains' airports. As glad i was that nothing on the scale of what the british intelligence claimed they'd prevented had actually happened, it was extremely frustrating to think of the disruption back home and the paranoia and anxiety the events would cause for years to come. I dont think i'll be too comfortable flying to america from now on. So in the meantime we got to spend an extra day in oslo and moved to a better hotel. It was ironic because a girl we'd met the previous night had begged us to stay an extra day to go to the outdoor part of the festival. Managed to meet up with some pipettes who had just about got out of the uk after hours of waiting around at stanstead. I headed down to the festival with them to catch Liars. They were lush as always, well maybe that's the wrong word to use but i fucking love them, their performances have no boundaries and rely on rhythms more than tunes. Plus they seem to repulse most of the people who see them which is always funny to see. After that i watched a bit of Nordic death metalers Enslaved who really didn't rock at all and then it rained loads and i got very wet and started feeling ill. I decamped to the hotel which wasn't far and had a kip, something i do quite a lot these days. Some of the schedules we've been keeping recently have been so tiring that you just have to sleep whenever you can or you'll fall over. I awoke later that evening and we all went out for more fun. The next day at the airport a norwegian news presenter and her cameraman got us to do an interview about the terror crisis. I think she was looking for a bit of chaos for her story but when she asked us if we were worried about going to the uk we just said "no, not really". In fact the flight was fine, no delays or problems at all.
The next day we left early again to drive to leicester for summer sundae. We were all quite chuffed to be playing the same stage as the proclaimers, in fact there's been talk of a proclaimers cover being thrown in the repertoire. We were playing in de montfort hall so we were safe from the turbulent weather. BBC radio 6 got us to do a quick session with phil jupitus, he's shaved his goatee off! Bumped into steve lamacq who scared me slightly by pointing out the uncanny simmilarity between the new razorlight album and the boomtown rats, or more poignantly, jonny borrel and bob geldof. Saw howling bells who played before us, quite like their sound. Our show was cool, healthy sized audience and a good reaction. Shortly after the gig i made my way to leicester station to travel back to glasgow. Unfortunately my train to nuneaton was canceled which threw my whole schedule out of whak. I went to see the station manager where there were two girls also travelling to glasgow in need of an alternative route. After standing in the station managers' office for about an hour he finally got his shit together and worked out that we could go to donnington, then newcastle and then the train company would pay for a taxi from newcastle to glasgow. It seemed a bit of trek but this is how i got home, walking through the door at about 2am, 7 hours after i should have left leicester. The glamour of it all!

Lisbon

Well.. here we are in portugal!
I arrived slightly later than the rest of the troops cos... well it´d take too long to explain but lets just say i thoroughly enjoyed my free bloody mary on b.a. Its fucking hot here. I got to the hotel and looked out the window to see that we are by the sea. So i headed out armed with my camera and smothered in sun cream. About 5 minutes after id left the cool confines of our hotel i started sweating and all the suncream got in my eyes and really hurt! Then i realised my slr was out of battery so i couldn't work out any shutter speeds, bugga. Off to the site now, its 3 hours down the coast apparently so it should be a good drive.
Ta-ra