2002
31/10/02 FNAC Records, Madrid
Jonny Collins solo acoustic.
Hey, that was a damn long wait wasn't it? A year and a month, we are truly the least hard-working band in show business. Short set in Madrid's largest record store with purpose-built room. Curious mixture of those fanatically excited and those just sitting down for a rest after a hard day's record shopping. Had already been in Madrid for a couple of days doing interviews and radio stuff.
31/10/02 Sala El Sol, Madrid
Jonny Collins, David W.Brown, Gregory Jones, Matthew Peterson
First night of the short Spanish tour was in a great club in central Madrid. Really really loud sound and first use of both the new 'Blaise hard disc recorder and the new line-up. In fact, this was only the 6th time Matthew had played with us, 5 rehearsals then straight in. Met old friends and new ones, hello to everyone, it was nice to be back. Played spectacularly early with a Spanish band called Carrots who are labelmates, apologies to all those who arrived after we finished, it really wasn't our fault. Nuevos Ministerios to Rafa.
01/11/02 Sala El Loco, Zaragoza
Jonny Collins, David W.Brown, Gregory Jones, Matthew Peterson
Nice club in the hometown of our Spanish record label, Grabaciones En El Mar, supported by a group called Big City who were rather good, we thought. You may notice that David W. wore his Maradona t-shirt to ingratiate himself to the Argentinian soundman and get a good sound. It worked, in fact good sound on the whole tour but loud. Best and worst heckle of the tour here, the former being "We don't understand you" which is par for the course in whatever country we play (including Britain), the latter being "Somerset" from a displaced man from Torquay. Had to point out that Bristol is it's own city and county in a rather pedantic way. No time for hanging out as we got straight into our luxury transport for a mad dash 150 kms south to a festival in......
02/11/02 Easy Pop Weekend, Andorra (Teruel)
Jonny Collins, David W.Brown, Gregory Jones, Matthew Peterson
I guess this counts as 2/11/02 as we played at about 3am. Amazed to discover an absolutely packed place in a small town in the middle of nowhere. It's not the country Andorra, it's a town, going to the country would have been really silly rather than just mildly silly. Arrived in time to see La Rocas Negras, who were big in the 60's playing Spanish language versions of rock & roll songs and the hits of the day. They were brilliant, Hasta Luego Crocodillo. How come there are so many 'Blaise fans here? Came as a major shock to discover that we were headlining this entire weekend but we rose to the occasion. No soundcheck but we were pretty damn confident by now and just did it while we were playing. Gregory dealt with all the technical stuff and still managed to rock. Volume at Motorhead levels and more, my ears are still ringing but at least I know where I sustained such permanent damage. All the photos here are from the start of the set with the acoustic guitar, I did use the electric but by that point we were so loud the pictures didn't come out, we were distorting light! Best hotel of the tour, a grand place with top facilities and a suite of rooms, sadly we were there for less than 6 hours, just time to have a picture with our favourite band, see it here.
02/11/02 Sala Apolo, Barcelona
Jonny Collins, David W.Brown, Gregory Jones, Matthew Peterson
Back in Barcelona again, scene of one of our best shows but this time at a huge venue with a balcony and seats, Weller played the next week. Again with Carrots for whom this was a hometown show and we had the same playing-early problems we had in Madrid but even more. We went on at 9:15pm, people in Barcelona don't get up until 8pm! Sorry again to all those who arrived after we played and to those that assumed we'd be headlining too. Fantastic sound though, big proper venue and it sounded magnificent, Mr Peterson surpassed himself with splendid drumming and this may have been where we were best. It's nice to see the shocked look on faces when the strings start coming out of the speakers. Met loads of friends here and it was a pleasure to see you all, however, later this night I was savaged by Catalan mosquitos in the totally not-surreal Hotel Dali. It's tough being on tour.
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