Tour Diaries
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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