Tuesday, 03 November 2009

First let me say I'm really looking forward to going out on tour next week... I'm getting myself prepared as we speak...thrashing the punch bag, doing sitting ups and kicking trees with my bare shins: you guys don't even stand a chance!!

I'll also be doing a song as part of a live webcast gig from Belfast this Friday (6th), for which there are 10 tickets to give away.  Simply answer the following -TV like - question and email it to info@foysnoise.com along with the two names for the tickets:  Is the colour orange...
a) orange
b) magenta with a splash a cyan
or
c) burnt sienna with a hint of mint
????? 

Tough innit......


I've been home for 3 weeks today.  Well, I say home but a week of that time was spent in the the autumn hues of Aberfeldy, right in the heart of Scotland.  If Scotland was an archer's target, bulls eye would be Aberfeldy.  Driving over the hills from Crieff before entering the village is one of the most breathtaking sights you're ever likely to see.  There's nowhere quite like Scotland in Autumn, it's sort of magical.  Or maybe mystical would be more accurate.

Team Vance drove up there from London in our camper van (full to the brim with paintings, which was an experience) for Joanne's exhibition in the Temple Gallery.  It was sort of a 'Hope & Homeless' affair again.  There was the work from my album and then the portraits she did of the homeless folk she'd befriended whilst working at Crisis.  I played a few songs related to the paintings that have inspired me and Joanne talked about her process.  It's funny how I've been around her work and heard her thoughts but when she spoke on the night of the exhibition it was like I was hearing it afresh... it was very touching actually.

The week was great.  We met some great people, ate some great food and drank great amounts of OK wine.  The Sunday night before our departure was spent having a full on dance off in the living room of Eric and Naomi, with themselves, Joanne and I and Ryan the gallery owner.  It was great cráic.  I tried to slide across the floor on my belly in an effort to take the dance moves to a new level, but to no avail. I stopped dead the second I hit the floor, so instead up upping the game, the result was simply seeing a grown man belly flop onto a wooden floor.  Not good.

There are a few things to tell you about but rather than write everything here I'll stick it in the newsletter (you can sign up on the home page here if you're not already signed up).

So...to the matter of the Tori Tour.  The last time I spoke with you was on the day of the last gig which was in Warsaw.  It was great to see Poland, not that I got to see too much of it but it was a real experience nonetheless.  En route to Warsaw we pulled in for a toilet break at this sort of wooden shack on the side of the road.  The closer we got to it the more we noticed all the wooden sculptures around it.  I should just clarify that this place was in the middle of nowhere! Nothing for miles around but cold air and fields split in two by a road; then this.  We opened the door to the most glorious smell of barbeque and spices not to mention the welcome waft of heat and the smell of wood burning on an open fire.  It was an oasis.  A strange little oasis, but an oasis all the same.  It was like walking into a scene from Lord of the Rings.  All the waitresses were dressed in ancient Polish garb and the interior was like the inside of an enchanted giant oak tree.  They served beer in goblets, and cut meat from a spit over the fire. It was dimly lit and the foot of every table had it's own wooden sculpture of a goblin.  I reckon they came alive to serve the undead after the place closed to the public, assuming the place closed at all.  I wouldn't be surprised if it never closed; just existed there in the middle of nowhere suspended in time.  A surreal and wonderful place!

The last night of the tour was great, although I think I maybe celebrated a little too much.  They had a post gig ritual where Marcel (one of Tori's sound guys) would disappear for a while then reappear with trays and trays full of sea breezes (cranberry, orange juice and vodka)... it would have been rude not to eh..... I fear that I got a bit over excited on the last night and the breeze blew me right into the sea where I was well and truly drowned (see what I did there).

Right, I'm off for a 6 mile sprint with a weighted ruck-sack.....or maybe I'll just eat biscuits with fervor...yeah, that's it...

Speak soon
f

p.s.  Get on that mailing list will ye! I've got more to tell you.....


Various stages of Tour Mole beard-ness throughout the tour
No beard


Craig David beard


mid life crisis beard


full on back broke mountain beard :)


wee wee instructions in Denmark... in case you thought the grass was the toilet(?)


a wonderful sight at Auswitch 


Polish Time Warp Tavern


Wooden sculptures


View from our hot tub in Aberfeldy (The White Tower)


The Birks of Aberfeldy
Now simmer blinks on flowery braes,
And o'er the crystal streamlets plays;
Come let us spend the lightsome days,
In the birks of Aberfeldy
Rabbie Burns