Hey there you crazy kids!
Brakes have been back on the festival scene playing north, south, not east but also the west of this kingdom. We re-grouped in the first days of september up in Glasgow. Those punks at Jack Daniels got us to play a gig at the hard rockin' Cathouse club on Union Street and filmed it for a show due to be broadcast on the channel 4 channel some time soon. We did a posh interview too so you guyziz gonna get to see some brakes faces on your visual screens in the near future, holy moly! The show itself was a pumper, good crowd, good times. Thanks to all those dudes who came down from dundee especially to see us although next time do us a favour and leave your BSP t-shirts at home, as much as we worship the sea power Brakes are not them and its just kind of weird. I promise there will be an abundance of new brakes merchandise to acquire very soon.
The next day we were up early to fly to Dublin in time for our show at the Electric Picnic festival in Stradbally. It was a bumpy ride, high winds rocked that little plane around like it was made of paper, quite fun. We got picked up by a lovely man named Seamus who gave (stand in tour manager) Matt and I some good tips on giving up smoking. Matt was wearing patches and complained that they were making him hallucinate at night. Seamus drove us out of Dublin and through county Kildaire explaining a lot of interesting facts about horses along the way. We got to our hotel which seemed to be very golf orientated. Seemed like the kind of place where men go on holiday to play golf all the time whilst leaving their poor wives to soak in the executive spa facility. It definitely wasn't Brakes' bag that was for sure. Someone even looked at me funny when i asked for directions to the toilet. Turned out this wasn't our hotel, ours was nearer the festival thank god! We got to a place called Port Laois, found the hotel which looked a lot like the other one but without the golf crap and headed to the festival site for some fun.
It was a nice festival, everyone looked happy and non-threatening and there were kids and none of those stupid fairground rides or minging burger stalls. Had a little wander around, saw SFA who were great. Had another wander around and then went to see a bit of Belle and Sebastian who sounded lush despite being a bit quiet. I very randomly bumped into a girl who used to work in a cafe in Brighton where i used to eat brekkie every sunday. How we recognised each other was a mystery. I wanted to see Sparks but also didn't want to miss any of Yo LA Tengo so i got a good spot in their tent and waited it out. A girl asked my name, I told her it was Marc and then she introduced me to her friend as Paul, so i called her Sophie and that pleased her a bit but then she tried to steal my beer so i left. YLT were cool despite the sound in that tent being dreadful.
The next day it rained early but brightened up towards the afternoon. We were on later in the evening so once again i had a wander around. Saw Aberfeldy who were playing in the same tent as YLT and suffered equally to the bad sound and chaos of that stage. Riley the singer made a very witty joke about Razorlight's 'In the Morning' hit being about date-rape and enthused at how much they'd enjoyed their recent tour with James Bl(c)unt. Time passed slowly as ever before shows but eventually we took to the stage. Our tent was pretty massive and there was hardly a peep there to start with, it filled up gradually though and this pleased me as it meant that there was either very little or no people leaving the tent. We were a little confused at times but generally it was a good one. A good time in Ireland all round, only down side was that Matt had taken up the chuff again. Two days with Brakes and he was like a little smoking monkey.
After a boozy evening in Stoke Newington the next day, we went shopping for clothes in central London. None of us like shopping that much but it was surprisingly enjoyable. Tom was waiting in the queue for the till of Zara and the woman in front of him managed to cash up £1500 of clothes and she looked miserable as fuck. We were hoping she was a stylist or something and not some sick shopaholic weirdo.
That evening Eamon, Tom and myself went to sheppards bush to see Yo La Tengo....again. Well, im a fan..alright? They were most pleasing. All the songs off their new record sounded great to me and i haven't even got it yet (always a good sign) plus they did a few arthur lee covers and old fave stockholm syndrome as encores. Bumped into Becki from Da pipettes and Paul of maximo park. Glad to say they were both well.
Another day came and it was time to so some brakes work that didn't involve playing music.... a photoshoot! woohoo. We all posed, pouted and got our faces wiped by a swedish lady while the owner of the bar we were using as our set, Franco, laid on the beers. Prego! It was a bit stuffy down in that bar (Trish's of Greek Street) but the shots looked good and we got a variety of setups done with the help and genius of top camera dude Dean Chalkley.
We had a day off after that but then we got on a ferry and went to Bestival from where ive only just returned. Id never been before, well not to the festival but its location Robin Hill is where i used to play a great deal as a child. It was really nice to be back on the isle of wight. We took the back road so we could drive up the hill from where you can see all 4 corners of the isle, beautiful. Me and Eamon were staying the night so were erected our tents and then headed down into the arena. Did a quick interview for Radio 1 and then watched The FAll. They were superb, new band, sounded good. It was little chilly as nightfall came and the nerves were upon me so i felt a bit strange. Had a look at the tent and it wasn't as big as i thought it was going to be, didn't feel so nervous after that. Watched tilly and the wall who are quite entertaining with their tappy clappy folk. Our time to play came round, appropriately prompted by a cash number we took the stage and played an absolute blinder. The audience were singing along very loudly and were very appreciative. Luckily the whole thing was filmed by the Jack Daniels people as they were sponsoring the tent so we've got two really good gigs on film.
Scritti Politti did a great show after us, bit of a mind fuck as they were one of the bands my dad played constantly through the 80's. I love his voice.
We met with friends and made merry afterwards. There were people there who i wasn't expecting to see, pleasant surprises etc.. Before i knew it it was 5am, had to go to bed.
I woke at 9:30 and just had to get off the site. Everyone there was being real squeamish about the bogs. Maybe we're just a bunch of scummers (im pretty convinced of that actually) but these people were just being pathetic, like they'd never been to a festival before. There were as many showers as toilets in the artist camping and more of a queue for them too. The toilets were full of shit but they should have emptied them during the night. So I walked into the countryside until i feared dehydration, lack of orientation and a peril at the sun's mercy. I returned to find eamon had been woken by a boy called daniel who'd decided to have some fun with the horn of his fathers car at just past ten am. He was in a bad mood. We left shortly after this debacle and didn't look back.
Seems like a lot for 8 days huh? Good times for Brakes at the moment, album sounds fresh and i hope y'all going to like it as much as i do.
See you at End of the Road if you're coming.
Marc
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