Simon Little

Hello folks.
Well here we are again. Just got back home for a bit before we dart off again towards Denmark (via Sweden). Another six shows down the line and everything’s coming together nicely, thanks for asking.
Tuesday’s show in Melle was in a tiny theatre. We had a late soundcheck because we had to wait for the afternoon’s puppet show to load out. Yep. I wish they had a sign with us on the same bill as a puppet show. Very Spinal Tap. The gig was great, even though Stuart had a total keyboard meltdown as his soundcard finally went up the spout. He managed to rescue for the second set after much switching on and off and rummaging around in the dark.
We then went to some kind of Goth Rock club in Krefeld, which was great. The Garden Hotel was our home for the evening. Situated on top of a block of flats by the main road, this place was bloody odd. The reception was on the 10th floor (the tiny lift only held three people at once- christ knows what you’d do if the place was on fire) but all the rooms were on the 9th. And the notice-board in the lift was held up by a mousetrap. I kid you not. Didn’t bode well, but in the end it was fine. The woman running the place through the night was really friendly and she kept the bar open for us after the show. You’d be surprised how many of these places don’t bother.
When we pulled up at another enormous church on Thursday after a 600km drive, I thought we were doomed. Don’t ask me where it was because I can’t remember. The band’s got considerably louder with the new tunes we’ve added to the set and those church gigs were a struggle last year when we were doing finger-in-one-ear music. By some miracle the sound was great when the audience came in, but I reckon you’ll still be able to hear the last cymbal crash of Moonlight Shadow reverberating round the pews if you go back there any time over the next couple of weeks…
On Friday we played what we’ve now come to lovingly refer to as the ’Dawn of The Dead Disco’. Coswig is a very small town near Dresden which seemingly has nothing in the way of cafes, bars or restaurants. Our traditional mid-afternoon coffee and cake expedition was looking pretty hopeless. Maggie was the star turn at Coswig’s 80’s Classic Rock night and I’ve never seen such an odd bunch of people all out in the same place at the same time. Imagine if there was a disco scene in Night of The Living Dead….
We managed to tear ourselves away from Coswig early the next morning to venture into Dresden for a wander. So good to actually go to somewhere I’d heard of. We went on to Pirna to play another rock club. Pirna is a proper town with some fantastic old buildings, great little cafes and proper shops you’d actually want to go in. Of course they were all shut because everything shuts on a Saturday afternoon in Germany. The venue, Kleinkunstbühne Q24 (try saying that with your mouth full), was quite similar to the one in Zwonitz (I’ve still got a massive bruise on the top of my head) and we had a great show.
Last night we were really in the middle of nowhere in deepest East Germany. I think we were somewhere near Botzen, but who knows. Somewhere near the Czech border. This time we were in a big hall for a sit-down theatre-style audience. We were sold out again (where all these people come from I cannot fathom… I didn’t see a single soul outside all day).
Well, I’m back home for a very short stint before we charge off for round three starting off in Gothenburg. Never been to Sweden. Looking forward to the Danish shows too. There’s even talk of rehearsing up a few new tunes on the road for your delight. Hopefully see you there…
Cheers
Simon x