The Stranglers in Canada 2004
ok........
It is 36 hours since we landed in England
from Aus and we are about to take off again....just
the 7 hours to Canada this time.....tired,emotional,half-cut,vague
and yet excitable.we are to hit our third
continent in three days......and some choice
weather brrrr (Aussie beach weather please!!!)....we
arrive at 14.30 local time which is 5 hours
behind the uk but 15 hours behind Aus..well
western Aus that is.... - i think!..oh you
can work it out for yourselves - I don't
really know any more but we now have the
sticky task of remaining awake until a
reasonable hour in preparation for the three
shows out here....good night then.....
tues 19th oct....OTTAWA BARRYMORES
THEATRE
 ...Not bad,a good 8 hours sleep ready for
our journey up to Ottawa,a short (36
min)trip turns into a two hour trip as we
cannot take off due to a technical
failure-and it is not Daves keyboard rig for
a change-.Eventually we are airbourne and in
Ottawa....tonights show has also been moved
due to slow ticket sales but the venue is
really nice,a bit like a kind of multi
tiered bordello...and a great
acoustic.However when switching on the
heating system it freaks out and goes up in
flames....erm the Stranglers are in town
then!Needless to say myself and Jet Black
leave immediately as the gig fills with
smoke-nice-....the crew are now running late
and people are getting very agitated as you
can imagine,also our fans have to be
informed of the venue change which pushes
our stage time back to 22.30 as opposed to
21.15...myself and JJ go over to little
Italy for a big radio show to do an
interview with a lovely lady called Kath
who,on air is actually known as 'THE BEAR'.........on
arrival back at the gig we are cheered by
the sound of a very respectable and
enthusiastic audience...we smack into
Norfolk coast and..........they love it
....no technical hitches no aggravation so
all is good....except for the woman who
tells me to ..."tell Tony Blair to stop now'....mmmm
very interesting that one as a/I don't have
his phone number and he doesn't visit
anymore...and b/I really don't think he
fancies a Stranglers gig..still that's
entertainment....we meet up with 'Attila'
our 6ft7 Hungarian/Mexican !! record company
rep and some press people after the show and
everybody seems genuinely into us - in fact
Kath is ecstatic and is now on a mission to
deliver us to as many people who care to
listen.... which is always a bonus
haha....all back to mine for ovaltine and
bedtime stories then.............
weds 20th...MONTREAL CLUB SODA
....Today we drive up to Montreal which is
basically French....where most folk consider
themselves that and all the road-signs etc
are written in French...however there is the
accent....very hard to grasp if your French
is not great.....Montreal is a very lovely
place and you do feel like you are at least
near home.The way of life here is very
different to the rest of Canada and it is
considered the party capital..plenty of jay
walking here!!.....as we entered we crossed
the beautiful 'Lac de deux montagnes'....look
it up...which is surrounded by maple forest
-as is most of Canada!!- in various stages
of autumnal change...this is one of the
highlights of the whole of this side of
Canada at this time of year..a huge tourist
pull,in fact my uncle used to drive tourists
to New York from Toronto to see just this....The
show is in a purpose built theatre and is
very well sold tonight...we are tired but we
survive soundcheck until our 22.30
stage-time...the crew are working their
socks off and we are set for a great night.....the
audience here is fantastic and we have a
very comical night in-between songs...lots
of young people too who seem to know all of
the lyrics - both to old and new material
which is brilliant....I do my French thang
as best as....but when asking a young guy..."quelle
jour et il?' I get the reply "..no more
heroes..."...erm did I miss something....anyway
JJ gives me a bit of vocal..'Help-Francais'...
and we enjoy a rapturous finale.....back to
our beautiful but window-less hotel...that
really sucks....
thurs 21....TORONTO THE MOD CLUB
  ...Up at 9 for the flight back to Toronto
and a sell-out show....lobby call at 18.15
for soundcheck and we spend most of it
re-laying the floor beneath Jet's drum stool.............today JJ
and I will do a 'live to air' interview
apres the show with local station 'The Edge'
who will also broadcast the last song of the
night....this station is very big and very
cool...they are supporting us very strongly
over here too.......we also get to meet the
record company and promotions and agency
people who are doing a fantastic job for us
in Canada....and again yes they really do
like us!!!scary eh??!!?hahahaha...........the
venue itself is...ok...through China
town...past uni-or college town and out into
little Italy(yes another one...keep up!)
turn left and into the backdoor....we bump
into a guy we met on my first tour here who
saved our lives in St Catherines....he owned
an Italian restaurant!!!!which we ended up
in until daylight...but that's a whole other
story...Tonight we hit stage at 21.45....mmmm
nice and early....so after our drum-riser
re-build we just have enough time to go back
to our hotel for a wash and cup of tea
??....This really is a great venue,built for
gigging and it is rammed full and people are
milling about all over the street ...excellent
...that is a brilliant feeling...the crowd
love every minute and tonight one of my old
flames turns up....a 6ft 6 tranny...'I would
take you home love but I couldn't afford the
hair products..this one is for you..' I
apparently utter as we launch into 'Something
better change' she then spends the next 20
minutes trying to pull me off stage..(no not
pull me off...stage)..until someone pulls
her wig off - very unkind - until she
topples,pissed off her heels to disappear
under the front few rows....ah love is lost
then....we reach the end of the set safely!!
and....'thank-you one and all and we hope to
see you all again soon' ....were the last
words they heard before we were ushered away
to meet our allies!!........................looks
like we'll be back then......
fri 22nd...
 ....Today the crew return to blighty and the
band and tour manager remain for our
appearance on 'The Edge'... I went up the CN
tower in Toronto with Louie, Sil and Al (our
soundman manager and co manager)...it is or
was the tallest tower in the world...350 odd
metres wow and we stood on the glass floor -
awesome .... me JJ and Baz will do an
acoustic version of 'Big thing coming'...which
we have never done before so that should be
interesting! After that we are free to do
hair,shopping,tea...erm
tennis,dentistry,rafting,fly fishing(whats
the point of catching flies?or do you get
the flies to do the fishing for you?answers
on a p/card pls)....erm eating ,drinking,waking-up
a bit more,sleeping a lot more and TYPING UP
OUR TOUR DIARY!................on saturday
we are to do a full band signing in a record
store-which went from a half hour acoustic
set to three songs to one song to a
signing-erm good planning that one!....I
shall be under the needle again-no not that
one the scribbly one..and then on sunday we
head home for a well earned 8 day rest to
charge up the batteries for our French trip....we
all look forward very much to returning as
things look very cool for us here...we have
had great press and everyone really seems to
love us!??...scary....thanks for reading and
see you somewhere in some time-zone or
another soon.watch this space.........PR x
On Saturday (23rd) Paul, Baz & JJ did an
acoustic gig at The Bovine Sex Club in
Toronto.
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