Little Fish

23rd June 2010

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Tour blog: Westonbirt Arboretum (Don’t get paranoid)

We arrive late, maybe two in the morning, our brains dead but our hearts happy and in full swing. There is no time to rest. This tour is like bouncing from one end of the country to another. There are many shows to be done in a short amount of time, and tomorrow Little Fish have two festivals to play in one day. I suppose that wouldn’t sound so bad if the festivals were close together. But our first is situated in Croyde (North Devon, a four hour drive from Oxford) and the second in Tetbury (a three hour drive from Croyde).

We wake early. It’s seven and we have only had five hours to sleep. For some reason, I don’t feel as tired as I thought I would or should be. In fact, I feel quite the opposite. I know why that is. It is because when I wire my brain up correctly, my body follows. I have prepped the longitude of the day ahead, visualised the lunacy. I feel that I can approach it in a calm manner and why not, when things could not be any better?

I am lucky. I am spend my days surrounded by four great guys. First up is Nez, my loyal and long standing friend who has played the drums now with me and Little Fish for the last five years. Then there is Ben, our friendly ghost Hammond player who has only just joined with Little Fish recently, but who has quickly integrated and become part of the family. He is calm and thoughtful, fun and hard working. He has a good band attitude and is prepared to dig in and join in the crazy fish affair. Then we have Mitch and Chris. Mitch and Chris are the two young lads who have taken on this tour and made it happen for us. Between them, they drive the van, do our front of house sound (that’s Chris), fix up my guitars (that’s Mitch), organise our journeys and generally help us out a lot and always with a smile. The best thing about all of these men is that they are kind, caring and lots of fun to work with. I have a wonderful team that makes life in the Fish-touring world fun and possible. If it weren’t for these guys all giving something, from time to love, there would be no tour. Blessed.

So, as I said before, its 7am. We set out to Devon. I have heard of Devon, but I haven’t really been there. Devon is situated on the south west coast of England. We are headed to Croyde. The van, once again, chugs its way through beautiful English countryside. When we arrive in Devon, I see the sea for the first time in a long time. I feel ashamed that I have forgotten what the sea looks like. What a summer looks like. There are hundreds of people walking the small winding roads that lead us to the beach. The beaches are sandy yellow and lined with holidaymakers, all wearing shorts and dressed for the sun. I am reminded that it is the summer. That people are on holiday. I had forgotten. Holidays haven’t existed in my world for a long while. Seeing this makes me happy. I am really happy to see people enjoying themselves and living for the time it takes to sit on a beach and watch a crab, lick an ice cream, talk, play in the water, come to a festival. Live life. I am excited to feel part of this moment.

OceanFest is the name of the festival in Croyde that we are to play. From the stage, I can see the sea. It is amazing and I wish that we didn’t have to leave in such a hurry; a day hanging out at the seaside with loads of relaxed people would have been right up my street. Why do people live in cramped up concrete cities when nature is so beautiful and offers so much? The problem with people like me, is that we forget. Anyhow, I don’t want to get into that. All I know is that when I have a couple of days free, I will take my lover by the hand and drive him to the sea.

The festival is fun. The laziness of the spectators is lifted as they clap and cheer. We feel appreciated but cannot stay. Now we know what the festival is, and who the people are (the festival organiser and the people there were all lovely and welcoming), we know that we will be back. On stage at two, off stage by two-thirty and on our way to Tetbury to play with Blondie by ten-to-three. Not bad going.

We don’t have much time to get to Westonbirt Arboretum, in Tetbury. Our tour manager, Mitch, has already alerted the festival organisers that we will be running late and that we will not have the time to sound check. Instead, we will be doing a simple line check. That means, instead of checking the entire sound of the band before show time we will only have the time to set up our equipment and check that everything is working. Our front of house man, Chris, will have to mix everything on the fly, as he goes. Rock n roll.

Although we arrive later than expected (due to an accident on the motorway, lane closures, diversions…) we make it to Tetbury. As we drive through the back entrance, I don’t really realise the exactly how big the festival that we are about to play actually is. It is only when I get on stage, carrying my guitars, wearing my little shorts and summer T-shirt that I realise that I am in fact standing in front of 6,000 people, all having bought tickets, all waiting for Blondie to come on stage and that we, Little Fish, are about to be the opening act.

To be honest with you, I am a little taken aback. I can feel my throat choking and my heartbeat magnifies. My heart is beating hard. My hands are trembling. I realise that I had never prepared myself for standing in front of so many people and that I had no idea today would be so big. There is a sea of people all standing in a field in front of me that I can see right out to the horizon. I can see heads but no faces. I can’t see colour, just a haze. Freak. Me. Out.

We are used to setting up our gear and so we do so with good speed and haste. There is something quite embarrassing about setting up in front of so many people, it kind of takes away the surprise of musicians magically appearing on stage, but you know what? We had no choice. By the time we have set up, we have a good forty-five minutes to prepare ourselves before going on stage.

My hands are shaking but I am ready. We give ourselves a group hug and then head for stage. We have performed many shows now, and so we know what we are doing. We can take all that we have learned up until now with us. All this work, all of our past shows, gives us the experience and strength to perform as we always do. Although we are now standing in front of a sea of people, we play hard and perform as well as we know how.

The set goes well from start to finish. In all honesty, I was properly nervous for the first time of my life. I have never performed in front of so many people. Being on such a big stage, in front of so many people, is not the time to become paranoid. It is hard enough opening up for one of the most loved pop bands in England as it is, but this was in a different league. This show truly made me feel like we were Blondie’s children. It was like them saying ‘Welcome to the successful world of rock n roll’. This show was different to anything I have ever done before.

When we come off stage, I run off and stand next to the first person I see, which is Debbie Harry herself. She smiles at me and says “your voice sounded great tonight”. I look at her and my mind started to tick ‘two shows in one day, three shows in the last twenty-four hours. What was I thinking? That I was some sort of super-hero? Singing so much and so hard is challenging for sure. Singing hard and so much in front of thousands of people is a potential recipe for suicide. I must be crazy’. I look at Debbie and say to her “Truly? You thought so? Well, thank you.” It is then that I can’t help myself and say to her with a smile “Well, you really did throw us in at the deep end today didn’t you?!” She laughs at this and gives me a little knowing nod. She then heads for the stage herself. It is then that I realise that she and Blondie are all used to this. Playing in front of thousands, and I mean THOUSANDS of people every night. For them, this day is like many others and has simply become a stroll in the park.

Dare I say that today was the first time that Nez’s dad ever saw him play the drums. Feelings and emotions are running high. Time for some beer and time to enjoy another Blondie show. We watch, smiling. We are starting to know the set well, and the songs even better.

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