By Caleb…

Written by neil on 10 April, 2008 in Touring with no comments.

I have just finished reading what Neil has written about our adventures in Europe and thought it about time I finally do as asked and add some of my own thoughts to the blog – Neil,if you are reading this, the inadequacy I feel in even trying to write anything next to you is overwhelming.I sit at work (clearly not working) and think that all I have now are the memories of the people, the travel and most of all the music. I also sit and wait for my couch surfing registration email so that I may keep in touch with all the people with whom I shared a beer and song over the last few days.

Thinking back to when this tour was first mentioned, I remember feeling that it would be a nice idea but was unlikely to actually happen – So many good ideas get lost in the monotony of everyday life.  However, behind the scenes and without my knowledge work was being done to bring it all together and make it happen and one day it was reality.  I still don’t think I believed is was real until the tour bus pulled away and we waved goodbye to our loved ones.

The travelling has been good.  The friends I knew I had in the band have now become even more important to me.  There are not a whole lot of people you can spend 9 days on a small bus with and still be laughing but we did it and with barely a crossed word or a frown between us.  I was going to write that this type of camaraderie is down to tolerance but now that think about it I actually believe it is more likely down to trust. Trust that they will be there when you need them, trust that they will be honest with you – both when you have slipped up and also when they have done something stupid themselves.   It is this that made the trip special in the first place.  New friends made along the way are the icing on the already ample cake.

The gigs were simply spectacular.  One thing about the layers is that we love to play – we don’t always do it to the best of our ability but we don’t quit. Even over the space of our last four gigs we have moved on furlongs as a band.  I truly look forward to our next UK gig where we can put what we have learned to good use and wow a different crowd.  Utrecht lit the fuse of an explosive tour and despite the last minute rush, everything came together for The Layers European debut.  The musicianship we were introduced to in Moira was stunning and at first I thought we might scare the crowds away with our bumbling UK sound.  I could not have been more wrong.  The nerves soon slipped away and The layers were playing Europe !!

Bach in Vienna was a step up again.  The same collection of outstanding musicians in a deeply atmospheric venue all backed by a responsive and eager crowd.  No nerves this time. More space and a chance to rock Vienna to it’s core which, in my opinion, we did.

Rupert hurting his back was a dreadful blow and an unexpected early conclusion to his tour.  Speaking with him on the phone the day after he arrived home broke my heart – I don’t think I have ever been confronted with such sadness in my life.

The Pardubice gig was overshadowed by the fact that we were only three quarters of where we should have been and had Duke not stepped up and learnt the songs I don’t think we would have been so well received.  I don’t think it could have been any better with a stand in drummer – the only way we could have topped it would have been by having Roo with us.  In the end though we managed to do what Rupert has been urging us to do for months now and we put on a show for the crowd.  That one was for you, Roo.

And finally, the long trip home – plenty of time to think and reflect and get our thoughts in order – plenty of time but not really enough.  Thoughts of friends we may not see for a long time to come, memories of crowds dancing and cheering and of stages oozing talent.

I really only have one last thing to write.  These blogs have, up until now, been exclusively written by Neil and he praises us and encourages and often insults us (i will assume in jest) but he seldom receives the praise he himself deserves.  So, Neil, for you energy and commitment, your boundless talent and endless humour, your beautiful writing both here and in our songs; for the music you write and the passion with which you perform it, we thank you.

D’yer want some soup?

On tour III – Pardubice, we love you…

Written by neil on 9 April, 2008 in Touring with no comments.

It is late. I sit with a small glass of Irish whiskey and try to think of a way to sum up all that has happened over the last eight days and I can’t; it’s simply too much. So it’s back to headlines, fleeting impressions and the random reflections that pop into my head for a while until I can produce something more considered.

Let’s start with this: Thank you Pardubice – you guys rock! What a great crowd: you made us feel like rock stars, you made us feel like friends – nobody could ask for a better audience. Our thanks to Viktor, the guys in Funktomass, our sound engineer, our photographers and new fans. And those strange Hungarian brothers, whoever they were…

A mile from home, driving our bus down the final stretch of road, we reflected that twenty four hours ago we were on stage in front of that wonderful crowd in club Ponorka. All of a sudden, it barely seems real. I realise that I’m going to be sat here one evening soon and suddenly feel an aching sense of loss: I’ll want to be lugging my amp down another set of stairs in a foreign bar, to hear Tommy singing in Russian or Duke roaring out a Marillion cover, to be laughing with Henk and Paul over a mystery beer or talking philosophy with a stranger while I get ready to perform again. I may even come to miss the endless tape of road playing its grumbling, atonal fugue beneath the wheels of our temporary home or Caleb’s snoring. No, scratch that last one…

So, Duke filled in for Rupert in Pardubice and we were able to play a gig that, on reflection, I wouldn’t have missed for all the tea in China. We had to trim the set a little, which is a shame and we were without a quarter of the band, which is a far greater shame because Roo, showman that he is, would have been in his element at that gig. But let’s hand it to Duke – I feel – we all feel – that we’ve made a friend for life there and, if you’re reading this Duke, me case es su casa. (I think that’s Spanish for ‘You wandered off with my case, you theiving Mexican…’). He did an amazing job of learning our set (not wholly straightforward, it has to be said) in a short time and didn’t even fuck up Shadowpictures. (Even more amazingly, neither did any of us…)

Last night was an incredible end to a wonderful tour for us. Many miles travelled, many friends made, many adventures and a lot of laughter. We feel awful that we had to race off at the end without getting to know the crowd at Ponorka and without hearing the rest of the music – Tommy, just when we were getting to grips with some of the lyrics! We just about made it to the Channel Tunnel – we’ve travelled through six countries in 24 hours. We are, quite frankly, knackered.

A personal note to end this entry. My own personal thanks to the guys in the band. To Rupert, for being the ever-beating heart of what we do; for his energy and humour; for making the right decision for himself, his family and for the band even though it broke his heart. To Caleb for his extraordinary musicianship; for his ever-present smile, razor wit and self-deprecating humour. To Paul for being our anchor; for his endless capability, world-wisdom, can-do approach, his ability to deal with just about anything. You are my brothers. And thanks to Jen, Sheena and Lorraine for allowing the boys out to play with their disreputable friend after dark. They all played like rock stars but behaved like perfect gentlemen.

At some stage I’m going to write about this tour properly but for now I’m going to collapse into bed.

Layers out.

On tour II – Bratislava, backache and bastards.

Written by neil on 8 April, 2008 in Touring with no comments.

Bratislava, backache and bastards.

No drummer, no drama, that’s our motto in The Layers. Today has been dominated by Roo’s herniated disc. After a consultation with Vienna’s foremost spinal specialist, we decided that drumming would be unwise for him and faced with the prospect of Rupert being unable to vent his energies on the bus, were forced to take the difficult step of packing him off to another country like some elderly, incontinent relative that we didn’t want to look after (SOUP?).

Yes, we jest (we do that a lot in the Layers) but in truth, our hearts are breaking at the thought of Roo having to fly home part way through our tour. It’s been such an amazing experience and we know that Roo’s missing out so much. And it has to be said that Roo really is the heart of the band, we are the less without him.

So let’s examine the fringe benefits. After a frantic session of web searches and phone calls we determined that Roo’s best shot of getting home quickly and semi-affordably was to fly from Bratislava with Eurocheapieflights in a mothballed WWII bomber. A brief confrontation with the bossy lady on the satnav unit revealed that time was of the essence. There was only one thing to do – put the Blues Brothers sound track on and set off at high speed through Vienna. Somehow we always knew that we would end up paying homage to the great band movies so today we’ve paid tribute to both the Blues Brothers and Spinal (no pun intended) Tap as we move towards 1.5 gigs per drummer. Statistically speaking, this also means that the tour is now 7 countries in 7 days – no small feat. We got to see a whole other country, too – albeit briefly.

Also in the plus column is that we have a stand-in drummer all ready to go. Duke has agreed to have a go and even as I write is probably air-drumming on a Viennese couch. Big shout for CouchSurfing here: if we were flying solo; just doing gigs in random European venues – we’d be screwed. What we’ve been involved in is much more than a series of gigs; Roo joined Paul and his friends the other night on stage and I got to sing with Duke. It feels like we’ve joined a family. The gigs in Utrecht and Vienna have been tremendous collective efforts – everybody has thrown themselves into it heart and soul.

Everyone that we’ve met so far has been so friendly and so helpful that it becomes easy to forget that there are still an awful lot of arseholes out there. Tonight we went out for a quick beer with Paul, the guy who’s put on the gigs in Vienna and Marcus, one of the big wheels in the Vienna CS scene. Paul’s a great guy; inventive and passionate about his music, full of energy and enthusiasm. This evening a pair of idiots in a bar started to try and pick a fight with him – as far as we could tell just because he looks a little different from them; anyone who was part of the live music scene in their late teens and early twenties will probably know exactly what I’m writing about. It’s a good job that nothing kicked off: neither of these guys were terribly big – what Caleb hadn’t eaten Paul would have kicked the crap out of. It was a pity to be reminded that not everyone is like the crowd we’ve met through CS.

Ever onwards. Tomorrow we drive on to Pardubice –  a few hours to try and rehearse with a new drummer, one more gig and then the long, long drive home. If the tour so far is anything to go by, Pardubice is going to be just as unforgettable as Utrecht and Vienna. Here’s the best thing: we realise that this isn’t a once in a lifetime experience – it will be different next time, I dare say that we’ll be taking the WAGS (although as none of us has both, strictly they’ll be wives or girlfriends  -work the punchline out for yourself) and kids along too. But we’ve become a part of something bigger.

Our thoughts go out to Roo. If you’re reading this, mate, know that wherever we go you’re with us: still the heart and soul of what we do. This next gig is dedicated to you.

More from the tour later. Sleep beckons.

Layers out.

On tour pt I – Utrecht and Vienna

Written by neil on 5 April, 2008 in Touring with no comments.

Late afternoon sunshine on a campsite in Vienna, day two of the two-night music party in Club Bach and a long-awaited pause for breath: the first day without any driving… bliss.

For a while it felt as if our whole world had narrowed to a series of two, three, four lane roads snaking across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and then Austria: watching the satnav oh-so-slowly marking off the miles and minutes until our next destination, alternating tarmac and  concrete marked off with service stations, parking spaces full of slumbering hauliers and a constant stream of McDonalds and Ikea reminding us that however alien the road signs we hadn’t travelled as far as it may feel. In a way it’s a disappointment: the realisation that all that makes these places exotic to us is that we have been too lazy to learn the language; I had the notion that I would prefer it if the natives would break off in mid-conversation, inflate great gas bladders and drift off into the atmosphere, be totally alien, incomprehensible.

The tour started on a high note: Paul had managed to find himself extra time off and secreted himself onto the bus: the news that we wouldn’t have to play a gentle acoustic set in Utrecht immediately uplifting. Getting used to driving our giant tour bus to Folkestone and then onto the train for the journey under the Channel: like a docking sequence from a sci-fi movie. Ever onwards; north through France and Belgium until fatigue compelled a stop in a truck stop.

Bacon and sausages, coffee and more driving to our first campsite: a strange place in Utrecht on the verge of closure where we were possibly the only campers, it was hard to tell.

Utrecht is beautiful: canals, old buildings and a never ending procession of beautiful girls smile as they ride bicycles past us. Has our fame spread already or are our ever-swivelling tourist necks simply comical? No, it’s just the polite, laid-back Utrecht way; smile, relax, enjoy.

We meet up with Duke at Henk’s house – he’s an elemental force, a wellspring of positivity. Henk arrives and on to the venue: Moira, balconied and shambolic, wonderful in every respect. Henk is constantly doing three things at once, there is trouble with the food, the PA, the bands haven’t all arrived. None of this dents Henk’s good nature. We pitch in and start doing what we can – the boys provide muscle and cheerful aid; I assist the engineer as we strive to turn the disparate collection of electronic detritus into a fully functioning PA system. The long day stretches on but finally, in the nick of time, it somehow all comes together. The Utrecht CS community have produced a fabulous, wholesome vegetarian meal. The acts start to show up: Tommy Beavitt songs in five languages, from beautiful, lilting folk to comical German and the memorable, Thackerayesque, ’Friends who Fuck’. Duke unleashes a roaring, passionate voice that freezes us in our tracks. Rueben dazzles us with a home-made guitar and an amazing retro-blues set and Skiff provide melody and harmony, a warm, relaxed vibe is building. We grow nervous that our somewhat louder, more confrontational music will provide too much of a contrast. We needn’t worry: the crowd are warm appreciative – we play to around 180 people. As ever, it’s over too quickly and almost before we’ve had time to enjoy the experience, it’s over: our hands are shaken, backs slapped, we are embraced.

It’s party time: local ska outfit Stampede bring the whole crowd to their feet and the place erupts: they put on a terrific set and we realise that there is a lesson here for us about showmanship. Finally Logathore close the evening with their techno-rock-opera… an act that defies pigeonholing; mysterious, challenging, eclectic – a perfect bookend.

A weary night in the motorhome and then Paul wins the golden bollard for reverse parking the 8.5 metre behemoth in a narrow, crowded street. Coffee with Henk and Bri and then loading gear and back on the road.

Endless driving follows, an epic journey punctuated by fitful sleep in a lorry park next to ’The Lust House’. It’s a nightclub, aparently…

Finally we descend into Vienna where we locate ’Camping West’ and then go in search of Club Bach. We love the venue immediately – a cousin of our home venue The Vaults, a low, tunnel like room with a well-set up PA. Again, there is much carrying of gear and sound checking. Our performance in Utrecht seems to have promoted us to top of the bill in Vienna or, more likely, we’re the only full band to play this evening.

Some of the acts are late: I get to do a little acoustic set, Paul from Logathore and his friends show their incredible versatility again. Then Tommy and Duke arrive, Henk and Reuben play, Logathore play again. We’re treated to witty, acerbic, allusive poetry from Jess, an American girl with a heartstopping smile.

Then it’s our turn. With space on stage and resolved to how off more we put on the performance of our lives: it’s fantastic. Roo, Paul and Caleb are grinning, moving, jigging, dancing, jumping. The audience start to get the idea. We have people dancing, jumping about. Beautiful girls are smiling at us: we feel like rock stars. Better still; the manager tells us that we’re the best band he’s had down there: we feel unstoppable.

Beer and celebration follows.

Today has been a gentle come-down: we’ve wandered the gorgeous streets of Vienna, goggle-eyed like tourists, eaten together and continued to laugh. Another night at Bach soon; more engineering for me but a night off for the boys. Next stop is a mercifully short hop to Pardubice and our last gig of the tour: can’t wait to play again although it’s a shame that is has to end so soon, just when we’re getting into our stride but there is the feeling that great things could follow. Watch this space…

Too many people to thank so if you’re reading this as someone who’s spoken to us, been part of this experience – thank you; it’s been indescribably good.

Hartelijk dank!

Written by neil on 21 February, 2008 in Touring with no comments.

I’m a little weary this morning – I should have had an early night last night but couldn’t resist the urge to play at open mics on consecutive evenings in two different countries.

Yes, I visited Utrecht to meet Henk and all the other guys that he’s recruited over there to publicise the CouchSurfing Musicians party gigs; where we’ll be going to play in April. May I take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Henk, Peter and all of the other people who went out of their way to make me feel welcome. I had a great time and look forward to seeing you all again in April.

So what have we learned from this mini-adventure?

Firstly, the guys over at Gigswap HQ are working their asses off to produce publicity material and are diong everything that they can to make the gigs a huge success. I’m really excited about the whole thing and feel so much more confident about the venture now that I’ve met everyone.

Secondly that Utrecht is a lovely little city – a real gem. There are some lovely old building, canals, friendly people, welcoming bars… I felt immediately at home. Not only that but then I was privileged to be able to come and play some music at an acoustic stage in a little bar in the suburbs of the city – I met a fantastic group of people and heard a wonderful, eclectic set of music – the only common theme was excellent musicianship. It’s great to see grass-roots level music so vibrant.

Lastly I have to comment on the ‘grass is always greener’ thing that we all get when we travel. I heard a few people over in Utrecht say that they’d rather be somewhere else, preferred other places, weren’t happy (although everyone I met seemed pretty relaxed and happy…). There were a lot of things that I noticed made me feel envious, though. Everything was so clean in Utrecht; the public transport is sparkling, clean, efficient and very cheap. The pace of life seemed different: purposeful but relaxed. There was very little traffic congestion (one thing that we are lucky enough to share in Ciren!). And it has to be said that the Dutch look great – slim, healthy and well turned-out. It really struck home how much we’re turning into the US over here; the contrast was obvious even as soon as I walked through Stanstead – back to the land of obesity, slovenliness and gluttony.

Roll on April and the Layers European tour. Very, very excited.

We’ve got this rash…

Written by neil on 15 February, 2008 in Touring with no comments.

…fear not, though, dauntless Layers fans, it’s not a dermatological crisis. Indeed, it’s not really a crisis at all; the rash of which I speak is merely a rash of gigs. We appear this evening at the Vaults in Cirencester to support JTAR in a sensitive, laid-back, unplugged way, then in a few weeks we’re in Stroud on Sat March 8th in a more insensitive, up-front, plugged in way.

The big news is that after that gig we embark on our European mini-tour: 28th March at the Vaults in Cirencester, 2nd April in Utrecht, Netherlands, all being well, 4th in Berlin, Germany; 5th in Vienna, Ultravox; 8th in Pardubice (where?) Czech Republic and elsewhere if we can cram them in en route.

So we’re hoping that you’ll come and see us off on the 28th and if you’re at a loose end in early April and want to form an informal entourage…

We’d be happy to hear from anyone who wants to design us a tour tee shirt, help us find interstitial gigs in Euroland, publicise us or supply us with drugs and hookers. (That’s ladies of negotiable virtue, not thick-necked men with cauliflower ears and residual concussion. We’ve got enough of them in the band…)

Watch this (my) space and I’ll endeavour to keep our adventures on the road blogged more efficiently than I’ve been updating the blog of late.

Peace out.

Heart in a jar

Written by neil on 16 October, 2007 in Lyrics with no comments.

Jennifer Sutton and her heart

I saw the picture above in the newspaper. The young woman is Jennifer Sutton. After having her life saved by a heart transplant, she donated her heart (the old one, obviously) to the Wellcome Collection to try to help raise awareness about her disease (restrictive cardiomyopathy if you’re morbidly curious)

I found myself wondering how that would feel. So here’s the resulting lyric.

Heart in a jar…

Went right out to the edge

’til I looked down at the stars

but they pulled me back again

and they put my heart in a jar

This phantom in my chest

measures out seconds that aren’t mine

this heart is quiet, still

resting peacefully, perfectly in time

Staring through the bottle

at the tangled knot of flesh

that kept me anchored to this world

that animated every breath.

This second chance – to dance in bliss

as lovers’ lips, the raindrops kiss

a snatch of song; the heart insists –

a second longer, the beat persists


Beaten insensate, like warrior drums

worn on the sleeve, carried to ignominy

ignored, misused, battered, abused,

surviving still, the poet’s muse,

tender beats such soft tattoos

the comforts of the live embrace,

fill up this empty, aching space

my heart, locked in its jar,

feels so much more,

feels so much…

The myriad joys of recording (pt II)

Written by neil on 27 September, 2007 in Recording with no comments.

Keen observers of the Layers site will have noticed (between adminstrations of powerful psychotropic drugs) that we’ve posted a new set of recordings. For those of you just waiting for Neil to royally fuck up another vocal, you’re in for a treat as I still fail to hit the right notes on the first verse of surf trip. Otherwise, though, we’ve been really impressed by the way that the recordings have turned out. A huge thanks is due to Andy at DB studios in Stroud, whose skilled ear managed to find us the big sound that we were after in double quick time.  As a result we were able to nail down no less than five recordings in one Sunday and mix them down the following evening.

Anyway, we invite comments and suggestions on the new recordings and encourage our fans to engage in a mass debating session over the direction that the Layers are taking.

Enjoy.

My baby, she’s a neonate…

Written by neil on 27 August, 2007 in Lyrics with no comments.

In a quest for inspitation, I’ve been having a quick read through some of my old sets of lyrics. It’s kind of like picking over the carcass of a long-finished Christmas turkey looking for enough tasty bits to complete a soup.

Anyhow, as I was singing along to something or other on the DVD player (I’m currently sans stereo – there’s no story) it struck me that I don’t think that I’ve ever added the word ‘baby’ to any of my lyrics. Not as a self conscious statement that I wouldn’t patronise a woman by equating her to a newborn (anyone that knows me is fully aware that I’m never afraid to be patronising…) but because I try to avoid those ‘filler’ words in a song. I try to say what I mean and I’m not sure what I’d mean by baby. I found myself thinking about this far too much.

Things one might be implying with ‘baby’:

You look like Winston Churchill; You are selfish and demanding by nature; You cry a lot; You smell of baby powder and poo; You are utterly incapable of doing anything for yourself; You’re bald, fat and dribble a lot; You’re incontinent; I don’t understand a word you say…

Other suggestions welcome.

I guessed that this wasn’t it. ‘Baby’ is a nice, punchy, two-syllable filler and it ends up in so many songs just because it’s in so many songs. At some point there was a tipping point and it just became universal. But how did it enter the first few songs? And why does it persist so?

Here’s my unresearched, unsubstantiated theory (ah – blogs; home of the unresearched rant…). Babies bring out the protective side in us all – even non-baby people like myself. They get our unconditional love. We forgive them all of their annoying qualities – and not, I think, because we intellectually know that they can’t help it; we’re much less forgiving of adults who let us down even when circumstances make it inevitable – I think that we forgive them because something inside us is hard-wired to protect our progeny. When you call someone baby, I think that the true meaning there is that you’re offering that uncondtional love. ‘Baby’ means ‘I’ll carry on loving you even though you might well shit all over me’. (I’m not good at tender, am I?)

I don’t think that we think it through that far when we sing ‘baby I love you’, we’re just following an acquired behaviour pattern, but it’s interesting to think about what might be at the root of it. Maybe I’ll pop it into a song soon.

Next blog , the philosophy of ‘Doo-wah-diddy’

The myriad joys of recording (pt I)

Written by neil on 30 July, 2007 in Recording with no comments.

Those of you not currently experiencing the aftermath of a prefrontal lobotomy will have been eagerly looking forward to hearing our demos on the site. If you are post-prefrontal, you can’t look forward to anything, it must be weird. Our hearts go out to you.

Anyway, here are some preliminary mixdowns to start with and while you enjoy (we hope) the recordings, we can sit back as a band and take stock of what we’ve learned. Mostly, that recording is difficult. It takes bloody hours to get set up so that you think that things are going to sound ok, even longer to produce a session that you think is going to be fairly error-free and then, when you finally listen to it played back, you hate it.

Well, two sessions of recording drums, the purchase of some lavish digital recording equipment and many loans of equipment (Trevor, Kevin, we thank you) later, we turned one of our lounges (guess who? Which one of the band is currently a bachelor?) into a recording studio/Tardis and embarked upon recording guitar and vocal tracks. And re-recording them. Again. And again.

If you’re not good mates when you start recording, it can be the end of your band. Fortunately, we’ve mostly enjoyed the process, helped in no small part by Roo seeing fit to supply each session with a reasonable percentage of the Rioja region’s output.

We rely a lot on Roo’s energy in the band and recording has been no exception; he’s been brilliant at not letting us settle for second best and cajoling us to re-record tracks when we’ve been tired and have had enough.

Digital recording and mixing has been a learning process for us all, it’s odd trying to do things with a mouse. I’m still not at home without a bank of faders in front of me. We’ve got a way to go with that side of things and I think that there’s room for improvement with the mixes, so keep an eye on the page for new, improved versions. Converting file types has been interesting, too, some of these recordings have undergone more translation than the Dead Sea Scrolls. Anyhow, we’re ready to cautiously release the preliminary mix downs and we’re looking forward to hearing what you think. Enjoy.

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