I'm in a writing mood

I'm in a writing mood...

...I've been a bit rubbish at keeping up with this blog and looking at what other bloggers are up to. It's seriously because I don't get to be in front of a computer much anymore. I'm thinking of getting a laptop or something to help me organise my life but I haven't got the money. In fact I got a letter from the bank the other day telling me just that. I hate looking at bank statements because I don't like knowing how bad the situation is. I always wait until I get a letter or when the cash machine tells me I have insufficient funds. This hadn't happened for a long time but I think Canada is catching up with me.

Since we've been back from Canada we've done a few gigs. Each one has been great. We did one in east London at a venue called 93 feet east and we had to do it as a 4 piece. Laurie (keyboards) left his pedals, plugs and leads at a venue in Ottawa and bought replacements in Toronto. These plugs don't work in England. We tried everything and for a split second it worked but I think we blew the fuse in the plug because Europe runs on 240v and US and Canada runs on 120v. Something like that anyway...

Things filter back to London from Canada and we're getting people coming to gigs who come up to us and say "Hey, my friend told me to check you out, he saw you in Toronto".

We're planning to go back to Canada in March and stay there to live. Use Toronto as our base and travel to NYC and other places in the states. The thing is with going to play in America is that working permits are too bloody expensive! It will cost each one of us £800-1000 or something. So..When we go and play in the states, we'll probably go separately on different days, take few instruments, just so we don't look like a band. This way we can waiver the permit. Bands do this and a lot get away with it apparently. If you get caught, you can't go back to the US. That would kind of put an end to our career.

We may be going back to Canada even sooner that march. We're probably playing at a festival called Pop Montreal in October. I hope we do get to play it! I love traveling with the band. When we were out in Canada last month, it was like we were a proper band. We lived together, did everything together, turned up to gigs together. And it was reflected in our performances. In London, we turn up to gigs separately after crawling through rush hour traffic after having a horrible day at work. It's not good! Unfortunately we can't jack in our jobs because we have bills to pay. It would be nice to get a publishing advance or something. It's something our manager is looking in to. So we're trying to write as much as possible to build up a body of work. I'm finding it difficult to write at the moment. On my own anyway. I find it a lot easier to collaborate. Laurie is on fire at the moment. He comes up with a song on piano and I just give it a riff and turn it in to a guitar song. It's working. It's nice not having all the weight on my shoulders of being the only one who comes up with songs.

Anyway, I've run out of things to talk about.

Got a gig in Kings Cross on Tuesday (11th July) so if any Londoners are about, come along. Don't read to much in to what I said a couple of paragraphs ago. Ok, we have to work, turn up at different times etc, but we still forget about it all when we're on stage and perform. You get your money's worth!