London July '05

London July '05
Originally uploaded by HEATH!.
My buddy Dave gave me the hi hat on finding me and picking me up, so I trudged around in the rain, crestfallen, feeling a bit like little Oliver Twist must have felt. Must have. Finally I made it to Oliver's pad, his room-mate letting me in, and I crashed hard. The next few days were wedding stuff w/ Dave and Amanda, then I played my two shows, the Six String and the Brixton Telegraph. The shows were so much fun it was crazy. Very small crowds, local kids, and/or friends of the various bands that had tagged along to see their buddies rock. I was pretty nervous at first, but it all worked out. I met this guy Ceri ( hard C) who booked the 6 String, super nice, and he ended up coming to the states and crashing on my couch to play a few shows in L.A. after checking my example. Bitchin'. The promotors all paid me something, which was very generous, and gave me free beers. I was giving away 6 song discs, and wound up making money on them, which was a huge surprise. I'll talk about France in my next post. Back to England. My last gig was the most rocking ...more people there...Cathrine and her mother Pammie rolled...so did Katy, a friend I made a few years ago at Les Deux Cafes...and Oliver's room mates Sean and...ahh...damn, I forget his name. I hadn't had such a consistantly enthusiastic response to my music in a long time, and it was very nice. I ran out of CD's, filled up my e-mail list, and decided that I was coming back regularly, or moving there for good.

UK July '05

So my trip to London was an incredible adventure. I arrived at Heathrow Airport to no trains, thickening crowds, few taxi’s, bus lines hundreds of people long, and no phones. I was told there had been a bombing or something, but couldn’t get any real info until armored vehicles unloaded what looked like military w/ full body armor and machine guns. Then I was told the there had been a terrorist attack on the London tube system. It took about three hours to get into London, which was deserted, and another five or so to get to my accommodations. I wound up taking a cab w/ a german guy and a kid from Africa. The kid was super shy, but I rapped out with the German. He had a son my age, so he was very interested in my tavails. We got the the kid's destination, and he tells the driver he has no money! The cabbie was enraged! " Do you know that when you get in a cab, you must have money to cover your fare? " etc etc. The kid kept saying, " I'm sorry, I'm sorry", and the cabbie kept saying " I am supposed to, by law, phone the police ". Finally, the kids aunt comes out of the house we've been in front of for almost half an hour, and pays up! So we got to central London, the German paid the cab, I was stocked, and I wandered to the nearest phone booth. My cell phone wouldn't work, and I had been told cell signals were off to prevent terrorist comunication, so I tried my phone card. To no avail. Over and over and over and over... The energy in the city was just manic, everyone hustling around, trying to get home, so I wandered down Oxford, through Soho, stopped for a beer, watched the news, and took a nap in Hyde Park. When I woke up it was a bit like some zombie movie: everone was gone. I walked around for another hour or so, trying a phone here or there, and then it started to rain. By this time my back was cramping up from my huge pack, my Wallabee feet were freezing and damp, and I was losing it. I finally got in touch w/ Oliver, the generous ex of Alexis that I was going to stay w/, and he was vacating the city, as he was very near one of the bombs at detonation. I have to stop now, more later