The day after a tour, however short, whether it be three gigs or thirty gigs, you just wanna crash. There’s been rehearsals, the postings, the travelling, the late nights, the early mornings, the soundchecks and ultimately the gigs. Sitting in a van for hours, checking in and out of hotels, different beds, different showers, trying to keep track of all your stuff. Then there’s the food situation, if there’s food at the venue and you don’t eat meat, fish, eggs, tomatoes, melted cheese and peppers then you have to find food outside in an area you are not familiar with and you have to find it in between soundcheck and the gig. Plus the food at the gig is free whereas you have to go and pay for it outside – then, you have to wait for it. In Stockholm the Thai was so busy with takeaway I stood there for about fifteen minutes before they could even take my order. This brings up the issue from the other day, do I go onstage hungry or full, bearing in mind that playing when you are full is no good whilst coming off stage with everything closed is also no good. Then there’s the fact that the day that the food at the venue suits you, it doesn’t suit someone else. It’s not like touring with Duran Duran who don’t just have ‘catering’ – they also have ‘wardrobe’. My shirt in Stockholm was in serious need of a thorough ironing, when I mentioned it out loud, one of the support band said ‘I thought that was your look’.

We moved out of the hotel today after a late night and trying to squeeze in as much time in bed as possible whilst packing up and checking out in time – they called us to remind us. We moved to some other accommodation c/o bassist-singer Jan Erik in Aspudden in the near suburbs. We took the subway, carrying our bags, it’s just easier and cheaper than a car. JE met us and left us with the keys. Almost immediately, Olivia went to sleep. We have two days of bunk beds – novel. I watched the final day of the snooker world championship between Ronnie and Judd. I nipped out for some lunch food from the psychedelic psupermarket nearby. Olivia woke up and I snoozed and in the evening I watched the conclusion of the final (Ronnie won).

I was staying an extra couple of days to see my daughter and grandchildren but all the hoo-hah of moving the day after the shows and her busy day having kids means that we will meet up tomorrow instead. I’m also hoping to meet my friend Jan again, he took the MOAT cover and HOIH reissue cover art pics and is an old friend of multiple decades. So when the kids are getting to dinner and sleep time I’ll leave them to their routine. I hope to see Nicklas guitar/vocals again too and then meet Niko (MOAT partner) for the Liverpool/Villareal game before the last night’s sleep in Stockholm and our return to Porto on Wednesday.

It’s been great to play, hang with the band, travel, be in a different country and see my daughter’s family. To make a racket on stage with an electric guitar is always a thrill. The next definite gig will be in Spain in September with two possible Swedish shows beforehand, should they happen – a festival and a multi-band event. We’ll see but for now, when I get back to Portugal I have a lot of sessions and sessioneers to catch up with as I’ve done no sessions whilst being on Anekdoten duty. Back to the gym and the pool, although I did manage three gyms whilst I was here.

Music today has been one of those great post-Pet Sounds albums, Wild Honey (1967), that few bought in the period when The Beach Boys were neither hip, cool, young enough, cute enough or accessible enough but were still writing great songs with incredible vocal arrangements and groundbreaking production. There were still sporadic hits but the albums weren’t selling at the end of the sixties, Smiley Smile/Friends/20/20/Sunflower (1967-1970). The title track of Wild Honey made it to No. 31 on the US charts and Darlin’ to No. 19 on the UK chart but it’s all about the deep cuts on all these albums. In the UK the album made it to No. 7 and in the US to No. 24, still an achievement in those days with the fierce competition and the changing times for a band who were judged by the new youth on their earlier look, surf songs and massive popularity rather than the genius of their contemporary work.

Music Of The Daze

(A cover of Stevie Wonder‘s I Was Made To Love Her appears on the Wild Honey album.)