S*T*U*F*F* Reloaded

Every tour has a low point - this is it. We left Coachella festival in California on an extreme low - it was nothing short of a disaster… I can’t even go into it now, but it couldn’t have been worse, as gigs go. In front of such a huge crowd, it was so disappointing [...]

The lights of Las Vegas are starting to glow in the dusk. The blue MGM Grand is towering in the distance. There’s the Bellagio… planes flying in overhead, bringing the adventurers into this twisted adult Disneyland in the desert. Its one of the weirdest places I’ve ever been… nothing in my brain nor my heart [...]

We’ve just played a TV performance for “Canal Plus”, concluding the European phase of the tour. Strange, and an inevitable come-down after last night.
The final show proper, in La Cigale, was destined to be a highlight show, and it certainly lived up to its hype - the venue is so beautiful, and it was outrageously [...]

Every tour has to have a “worst show” - and it will be hard to beat the appalling nightmare that bestowed itself upon us last night. Something happened to JB’s midi controller which put all of his keyboards just shy of a quarter-tone sharp. The racket was hideous, from the very first notes of “Radian”. [...]

Flat landscape. A canal. A solitary wind generator gracefully turning in the sunshine. It must be Holland. I slept for a long long time… almost forcing myself to avoid facing the longest trip of the tour… a mammoth 14 hour drive from Milan to Amsterdam. In fact, as we left at 7pm last night, and [...]

Such a miserable day is not conduisive to taking long walks in Milan. The sky is a mottle of stained greys, rain hardly even having the energy to fall. I decided, looking at the map, that Stazione Centrale was close enough to venture towards, perhaps with the vague notion of picking up something to eat [...]

What a gig last night - one of those life-affirming shows that remind me why it was so good to do this for a living. You could tell from the start that the audience were along for the ride - every tiny change in mood or tempo would have them cheering and swaying… fantastic. JB [...]

So here we are, on the cusp of the tour proper. After 2 shows in London, which were pretty good by London standards, as the crowds can be a bit on the cool side. Last night (Saturday) was the first time the set has felt under control, and the right “shape”… at least Nico and [...]

When your tour bus bathroom has a heated floor, crocodile-skin print wood-panelled walls and a porthole revealing a virtual aquarium, you just know things are going to be OK.
In the past, I have come to associate tour buses with the curious perfume of nicotine-infused cushions and portable toilet fluid, a foul and heady concotion [...]

I’m on the train from Edinburgh to Glasgow Queen Street. I can barely guess how many times I’ve made this journey in my life - way back in student days, a long time ago, it seems. I went to meet my mate Ian Hartley, from both those days and these, for some very fine sushi [...]

I’m going to try really hard to be disciplined about writing during the Air tour… which is now more than I bargained for in the beginning, in that they’ve asked me to stay on for the full world tour. It transpired to be a lot more complex gig than Leo or I had originally thought, [...]

I’ve just been to the pizza place across the road from the hotel. Its so pathetic I want to scream… here I am in one of the true gastronomic capitals of the world, and I’m eating a pepperoni pizza in a grimy little joint next to a granny wearing Pumas and smoking filterless cigarettes so [...]

Well, I’m breaking my musical drought in what is, for me, pretty spectacular fashion. I’m going on tour with one of my favourite bands - Air, and can hardly wait.

Seeing those scenes of the poor people in Heathrow makes me feel more grateful than ever that we managed to get out of London yesterday - COME ONNNNNN!!!!
Our attempt to get on our flight was broken down into five trials:
1. On arriving at Sydenham station to catch the 6:30 train to Caterham - the only [...]

We are caught up in the current flight-cancellation nightmare that is gripping the UK airports. Following a two-hour grind through Gatwick security yesterday, we had just enough time to let Luka circumnavigate the departure lounge once before we were rounded up and shown the path to baggage reclaim. Grim. And the earliest possible rebooking we [...]

There it was. A text from Brian Eno saying “We’re on for 12 at … Brondesbury Villas”. The day had finally come - I was going to be in an all-day freeform recording session with the legendary Herbie Hancock. Almost amazingly, the fact that he is such a legend put me completely at ease - [...]

Yes. I have what is known in Latin as “cerebrus friedum”. The fried brain. Too much Flash over the past few days, designing and building some web apps - quite cool ones actually. One was helping out my mates at Spook with a Christmas Tree project to raise money for Cancer Research. The other is [...]

My son Luka is one year old today. A year, almost to the minute, since he was born on a cold blustery night up in Paddington. When I try and gauge all that has happened in the days from then until now, I just get so lost and confused I don’t know where I am.
Something [...]

When Diane was watching “24″ - we were living in Australia at the time - I was not. I probably scorned her for watching “more American shite”, as I was in the midst of a total anti-TV year. Now, 3 years on, I find myself sitting tucked up in bed with a glass of fine [...]

I was in Ireland for a few days - I brought little Luka back to see all the relatives, who were beside themselves cooing over the wee guy from the minute we arrived until today, climbing out of the car at “George Best” Belfast City Airport (catchy name - I can just see the huge [...]