TALISMAN TOUR DIARY BY MARCEL JACOB

Tour diary, 19th May 2007


It's too bad you're missing out on all the fun of touring, because so far it's been nothing but fun...not! My journey started out early thursday morning, traveling to Amsterdam where I was supposed to hook up with Jeff and Brian, working on parts/songs with them before Jamie would arrive Friday for a full rehearsal. But, waking up I staretd getting texts from Jeff about their progress...or lack of. First their flight to NY was cancelled, making the other tickets for flights going to the UK and Holland worthless. Then the next flight they got was delayed, making things even worse. But I was informed they would still get in later in the afternoon.

Now I get to Amsterdam, and checking in at the Radisson they want to steal a 100 Euro as a deposit towards incidentals...annoying. I go to try to sleep a few hours, but as soon as I am falling asleep I get a phone call from Frank, the tour manager, he's telling me we have a huge problem...Jeff got detained in UK Immigrations, interviewed, and deported. This meant we had to immediately cancel the UK shows, Jeff was put on a plane back to Chicago.

Finally Brian Young comes in from the UK, he passed the Immigrations with no problems. We have dinner and go back to my room, sit down with guitars and work on the more difficult parts.

Friday comes, and I get a phone call from Erik Stout who's the drummer for a band we will have as an opening act on a few shows, he's coming by the hotel later to pick us up. We meet and sit down in the lobby bar for a chat, waiting for Jamie to arrive. Brian comes down, and then a guy walks in wearing clogs with Harley Davidson logos on them :-)...Arjo, nice guy, very strong, he almost broke my hand with his handshake...when Jamie arrives, we let him check in, then we drive for an hour out to an old fruit warehouse, where we rehearse throughout the evening on those guys equipment. They graciously supply us with beer, one of their friends even goes out of his way to get Jamie a bottle of wine. Amazing.

Rehearsal goes well, or rather as well as might be expected during the circumstances :-). Brian misses a few transitions, even after me going over them a couple of times, but in the end it was satisfying. We didn't have Jeff, so we didn't work on backing vocals at all, which may make today's show in Helledoorn a bit exciting ;-).

Now I am sitting in the business center in the hotel, it's saturday, Jeff has arrived, we're busy trying to sort things out, the logistics of getting here and there...I suppose we'll rehearse backing vocals in the van going to the gig! I will keep you posted on how the show went tomorrow...

Take care,

MJ

Thanks for posting that, that'll be neat to read for those of us who can't see the shows lol.

Thanks Nath 4 post it.
I was out with my girls 4 a while I don't have an internet conection where we were.

Marcel is too kind to send me this Tour diary tales to me and I really love that now we can read it here - meanwhile I finish the MJ Blog.

Keep in touch my babe
Greetings

Well.... the drama around this tour goes on... doesn't it?

Love,
Stefy

Stefania wrote:

Well.... the drama around this tour goes on... doesn't it?

Love,
Stefy

I hope it'll be the last one! Thanks again Jeff for all that you're doing for us, the fans!

Tour diary, 21th May 2007
Hey Simon,
I left you at the Radisson by Schiphol the 19th. From there we all drove in a van over to Hellendoorn. It was an uneventful journey. We were quickly let in at the gates, and showed our dressing room. Having a few hours 'til the show, we had a little rehearsal going over the background vocals. The weather was nice, so we sat outside afterwards for a few drinks :-).

We got the gear set up, did a very quick check of each instrument to see if we had sound, I walked over to the monitor guy to tell him what I wanted. But by the way I felt in my hands I knew I was going to have a difficult time.

The show was announced, then the intro started; this is a little weird, I wanted the intro to just start and not be so obviously a taped Intro...anyway, we have a tight set and we got through it fine, it was more than a little rough here and there, but it was basically a rehearsal anyway :-)...I played terribly, but my hands were aching from the band rehearsal the night before...that, and it was a little hard getting into it because the audience was a little comatose, hopefully because they were unfamiliar with the songs more than because of how we actually sounded :-). The other guys did fine, especially Jamie who's always on top of things.

As we walked off we met the guys in Y&T, they jumped at us with the question off what song they should start with - of course I instantly said "Open fire" ! They sounded great. The bass player, Phil, we joked a little about him being "Yngwie" on bass, his appearance is a bit flamboyant :-)...and the drummer looked a little like a cross between the Appice brothers, but he was really good...Dave Meniketti, I never heard him play as good.

Vodka, hanging out with Y&T, Arjo & Erik, some other people; then Deep Purple started...I got started on Deep Purple, if you haven't already caught on :-) ... I'm not too keen on the contemporary version, but they have it together, Paice is steady if not as frenetically energetic, Gillan sounded surprisingly fresh, Don Airey was cool...overall I give them two thumbs up...what bummed me out though was that after after refreshing my drink I wanted to go back up behind the stage, but my pass clearance was inadequate...either the festival people should have given us better passes, or the people there more familiaar with who was working there ... I don't like feeling like a newbie who hasn't been in the business 23 years like I have :-) ... oh well, there was still vodka left in the dressing room, so that's where I went!

Thanks to my friends I was led to a car where I proceeded to fall asleep, only to wake up in the garage in the apartment building where Alex and Evey lives. They're our hosts for a few days, and they are too good to us. Today, the 21st, Evey took Brian and I to the movies, we catched "Fracture" with Anthony Hopkins ... I give it a weak 3 out of 5, decent acting but a weak story ... tonight we had dinner with Peter de Wint who's working with WASP but was supposed to do most if not all of our tour ... Jeff had issues with the tuna carpaccio which I suspected he would, but hey, he`s a big boy, he should know what to order ;-).

And to think we should have done 2 shows in the UK by now ... fucking sucks ... we lose money by not doing them not too mention the silly travel changes that ensued... I'm sure a lot of people are disappointed and have lost money on travel and whatnot ... UK immigrations-Talisman 1-0... wish I'd been there to explain that by doing their job too well they shafted fellow Europeans like myself as well as their fellow countrymen promotors and event goers, just because, not that I think it would have made a difference...I sincerely hope noone thinks we didn't want to do them, they wouldn't have been booked otherwise ... if we're allowed back in and anyone wants us, we're coming. Still, the mood is good, we're laughing at every twist and turn.

Another day of Antwerpen, then we're going to Greece. Despite the horrendous travel, Bri and I are leaving Antwerpen just after lunch to go via the UK, arriving 3 30 in the morning the next day :-), I am positive it will be good and fun, and my hands will be in better shape. I' ll keep you posted - if I survive the flights :-)!!!

MJ

So nice to follow each step of the tour....

Stefy

It's a pleasure to read! Thank you Marcel!

Tour Diary - From 22nd to 26th May...


The last night at Alex and Evey’s place was spent watching the Borat Movie –High 5!! I loved it, it’s shocking an funny as hell. Wednesday was travel day, and I knew beforehand it was going to be sucky…and it was. Going to the airport in Antwerpen was nice, Evey drove me and Brian (Jeff took the train to Amsterdam going from there on his own route to Greece), all the while telling me the most touching story of one of their dogs, how she came to them. Taking a fragile broken animal and helping it move towards a true realization of it’s possibilities…it’s still in my mind.
So, we were at the Antwerpen airport, and the passport control ruined my passport, the ID page is now off the actual book, which causes me some anxiety. I still have to go to Japan with LAD soon, and have no way of going home to get it fixed. The flight to the UK was fine, it was a bit of a struggle to get our tickets from London city airport to Victoria, but alles ok. Then when we got to the subway stop of Victoria station we were told that no one were allowed to get off! Given the history of fires or worse in the London subway I told Brian to stay on the train. We got off the next stop instead, and it took an hour from there to get back to Victoria. Once there we got tickets to the train to Gatwick, that was delayed, we put our stuff by the door and took seats but because it was delayed it got packed and we were suddenly not that close to our stuff any more. On the train we were old that there had been a fire on the London Bridge, stopping all trains and traffic using that route, causing overcrowding in the Victoria area. Phew. Still it took us 4 hours to go from airport to airport.
Once at Gatwick we of course had some trouble, of the usual kind, to get our tickets. It got sorted, and we found Magnus Ulfstedt who’s filling in for Jamie a couple of gigs (Jamie needed to go do something) without too much trouble. We found a restaurant that looked nice, the food was terrible, they doused my insalata caprese with pesto sauce, I had to scrape it off to eat it.Yucch. And of course I didn’t think about the time difference until the food was already ordered…
Why is this important ? Champions league! I’ve been looking forward to the final since Milan (a team I really like) gave Man U a lesson in the semis, which they probably did because Liverpool had passed the previous evening, and they wanted the chance of getting revenge.
The game was a little lame, two good teams who pretty much canceled each other out. But I love to watch Gattuso play – somebody who’s more knowledgeable could probably tell you what Gattuso is really doing out there, but to me I just love to see the passion, he’s all about showing everybody that he absolutely wants to win this sucker, and I love it. And Inzaghi, a rattlesnake, give him half a chance and he scores, I knew when I saw the pass coming he’d score the second goal…oh sweet joy :-).
So the day was not a total loss. But the check in, for fuck sake, they’re supposed to work for MY safety traveling, and they treat me with arrogance and suspicion invading my privacy emptying my hand luggage, making me take off my shoes, belt…

Of course our flight was delayed an hour…we got in at our hotel in Thessaloniki at 4 in the morning, dead tired, and the first thing was that my room smelled badly of tobacco smoke…back down to the lobby, asking the guy for another room. His face said it all, no nonsmokingrooms at this hotel :-)! Well, the second room was better. But then the bed proved to be so hard as to be equal to sleeping on the floor…oh, well; I love to travel………………………………NOT!
So, Thursday waking up in Thessaloniki, meeting a Juliette Lewis lookalike in the lobby (nice girl, didn’t really get a grip on her name), going to lunch with the promotor. Evita, a supercool girl, nothing that happened during the day fazed her, she dealt, whether mixedup keyboard specs or whatever. The lunch took place next to the club where the gig was, we had a bunch of different dishes; it was very good, everyone loved it except for JSS ;-) – no surprise. After JSS and I did a whacky local TV-interview: HIGH 5!
Eventually we got hooked up, did soundcheck, got back to the hotel, chilled.
Then we went back to the gig, and found out our dressing room was a small wooden shed next to the entrance to the club :-). We already knew that going before the show we had to do some stuff ourselves on our gear to set up after the opening act, so we didn’t have any pretenses of being/acting like rockstars;-)…
We did the show, the audience loved it, we fucked up a few times, but what the hell…Magnus did good for his first Talisman show…Jeff had some issues with himself, his feet, and his keyboard during his pianobar thing, but it added to the charm…afterwards we were hanging out with everybody that wanted, signing everything, taking pics…a really good time. And I got the finest comment I’ve probably heard from one of the people working in the bar at the club; he said that him and the others working didn’t know where the time had gone, they were just smiling from the good vibe they got from us and the gig, they were supposed to have gone home a long time ago but didn`t feel like going home just yet…and they had no idea who we were :-)!
Back to the hotel at 4 in the morning, just because we were asked to go to a club by “Juliette Lewis” since it was her birthday…but walking in seeing all the Hellraiser chains from the ceiling and hearing Anthrax too loud, I knew it was a mistake…

Friday morning getup early to travel to Athens. Flight no problem. Meeting Alex our promotor at the airport, a mountain of man, the match of Evita when it comes to dealing. We were on the bus into Athens in no time. On the way in the driver tells us Alex called saying we had 10 min at the hotel to get set up before driving over to soundcheck totally contradicting the timetable we just ggot hande to us… just enough time to check in and drop our bags…fuck taking a shit and brushing my teeth! Oh well…so I get down to the lobby in time to leave, only to find a rep for Alex company asking me to sign and take pics with some winners from some radio show…naturally I did it, but first I told the guy how crappy it was to rush us like this and then spring shit like that on us. He looked confused, and even more so when Jeff one minute later arrived in the lobby repeating the routine :-). Of course when we got to the gig nothing was ready for us, we were all starving, and when JSS talked to Alex who was busy at the airport collecting the opening act Pretty Maids, he almost blew a fuse. The driver of our bus had acted on his own agenda and lied to us, not knowing the consequences…the nerve! Stressing me had caused me to forget my pedalboard in the hotel, so I had to go back to get it…and the traffic of Athens is a nightmare, it took more than an hour…fuck.
Anyway, when I got back to Gagarin the club we were doing last night (Friday), I managed to scrounge down a pizza just before soundcheck, which was done very quickly…only to find out we had to wait for Alex who was in the bus still with PM, stuck in traffic…JSS,BY, and Magnus proceeded to fuck around with a bunch of songs they didn’t really know, and I got called out on the street because I had friends out there. They proved to be my dear Stefania and her friends- I only knew about the friends, Stefy was a pleasant surprise.
Eventually I got back to the hotel for a shower and relaxation time. JSS and Magnus went to Gagarin sooner, they wanted to check out Pretty Maids, Brian and I went in later, just in time to do the gig. It was great to meet the Athen audience, they seemed to like the show just as much as the people the night before. We played better I think, and we spiced it up with some jamming on Maiden and Sabbath tunes. They wanted more encores than we knew; we had to give them something, so we pulled a rabbit out of our hats.
After the show there was a meet&greet planned at a club (meet-a-greek?).I didn’t feel like doing it, strange considering it was the same thing I did the previous night, but the difference being I did in Thessaloniki because I wanted to, in Athens it was planned for me…
But it turned out to be ok, I had a good time…especially talking to the guy who was flabbergasted to learn we had no idea what we are doing and that we are pretty much jamming our way through much of the set. 5 in the morning I got back to the hotel…
Today, Saturday, travel day…loving it. We were picked up at the airport in Amsterdam by our Frank ™ , and now we are back with Alex and Evey for the night. Love them. Tomorrow is another day, it`s Elitloppet, I have a feeling Red Chili Pirat will be a nasty surprise to many – not me!

MJ

So,
yesterday was an ok day...to tell the truth, I was more excited about watching Elitloppet than actually doing a show :-). But unfortunately there was a bit of disruption of the transmission, that and the stress of going to Vosselaar diminished my joy a bit. But thanks to Peter de Wint who brought his own laptop to the gig I got to see the final race, sort of, and it was something.
There was a nice gang of people cramming into our van going to dinner after the show, Peter and his girlfriend, Alex & Evey, me, JSS, BY, Magnus, Frank, Helen and her man...we went over to Turnhout, the food was nice, and the sights were amazing; outside the window on the street there was a gang of about 12 men sitting on a contraption, like a car with pedals attached to every seat so every guy was pedaling like on a bike to get it moving, and in the middle there was a bar! One guy was on the top of it almost falling off as they turned around the square. I want one of those for my bachelor party! Mmmm, wait a second...to have a bachelor party one needs a tentative soontobewife :-)...oh well, it was fun to watch it.

There was also a boy around 11 or so who was dancing by himself, a very weird dance, it inspired Magnus to imitate him - soon to be seen footage on youtube??? "Watch Talisman drummer do belgian folkdance" !!!!
Magnus Ulfstedt from Eclipse has been filling in for Jamie a couple of gigs, big thanks from us, wonderful job, it's been really fun. Jamie had to do something else, but he's back online tomorrow :-).

After dinner we went back to the Biebob, by the way of the next door record shop...we just didn't want to hang out in the dressingroom at the Biebob, the air was just too damp and weird smelling...we did the gig, it was a blast, we didn't have the keyboard specified in the rider getting a Casio instead, so we filled it out with some jamming...loved BY doing the keyboard solo to Highway Star, so unusual for a guitar player to know it...and he was singing Lazy too, loved it...the crowd was fine with it, we got a good vibe off of them. Love playing with these guys, as much as I like to perform perfectly I also enjoy jamming and doing totally spontaneous shit, and these guys are all there for it.

After the show there was some Jack (a lot actually :-))!!!), some signings, photos...one guy showed me his COMPLETE collection of Talisman stuff, shocking really...the only thing I could think of to give him was my tourpass, so I suspect I will get a cussout by Frank our TM tomorrow when he learns I don't have it anymore :-)). Luk de Roover showed up, and if you've read previous things from me you know I really like the guy...he was sitting down right next to where I was signing things, I looked up at him briefly and I recognized him as someone I knew but I couldn't get a grasp of exactly who he was so I just got back to signing - it's been 4 years- so what he did was he waited a little bit then he pulls out a business card and throws it down on the table in front of me :-)).

It was a travelday today, lot's of trouble with airlines as usual...and oh, Frank managed to back the car into something, so we had to pull our stuff out from the inside as the back door was not cooperating anymore. Perhaps now I should suggest to start a collection to help him pay for it ? Right now I'm sitting in the lobby of the Holiday Inn in Hamburg typing away, after a few Asbach - it's a sort of brandylike German thing, imagine how much fun we've had ordering them in the bar :-))!"Could you hand me my ass back please ?".

We've had a nice dinner at some mexican joint, I'm now off to bed, first thing in the morning I got to go to the local Swedish Consulate to see if they'll help out with my passport situation. God speed!

Good to hear they made it to Hamburg!

Tour Diary - 30th May 2007

Hi,

not much to report...the gig in Hamburg was fine, the crowd seemed to appreciate it, but they were pretty much what you'd expect a tuesday night when they have to get up to work the next day. The most exciting thing happened in the middle of the set when the power went, and jamie had to fill in with a drum solo (he really doesn't like to do that very much) while it was being fixed. On a personal level the most exciting thing was going on later :-), but I am sworn to secrecy, I pretty much suspect without having asked...now we're in Barcelona, uneventful flight, except Jeff has been having a fight with his luggage all day, his carryon bag doesn't fold anymore unless he simultaneously kicks and pushes at the handle :-)...now we're at the hotel after lunch and sangria at the beach, Jamie and I took a walk back, the city is nice but very jumbled together, and a bit on the smelly side...but we had a meeting with the promotor and tomorrow looks pretty much like it´s under control.

Later,

MJ

Tour Diary - From 31st May to 2nd June

Hi,

it's Saturday in Bilbao. It's 20 25, we're leaving for the show in an hour. Today we were picked up at the airport by a dude that we all started to make jokes about - the result of ten generations of inbreeding, his mother was his sister etc. His driving was unsafe, especially as the band was placed in seats covered with old carpets and no chance of seatbelts.To our shock and dismay we later found out he was doubling as the house soundman for tonights show.
Just now he took us back to the hotel and brought a friend, and Jeff said "if a spanish cinematic version of Beavis & Butthead was to be made and needed actors, look no further". We'll see how this develops...
Anyway, let me back up. Barcelona, thursday. I hooked up with Stefania, Nath Voyen and her man Cherie/Jerry (not sure which one it is still :-)!! ), we went for a walk and some drinks. We then went over to soundcheck, which was ok, good stage, nice venue. That done, I asked the promotor 2 things: when was showtime, and could he recommend a nearby place to go eat. The answers were : 22 00 and just outside the venue to the left, the place with beertaps on the tables. Ok, a couple of us went over there and were met by the rudest waitress I've ever encountered, she really needed a vacation :-). She was angry with us for everything, the table we chose, how we strated to fill beer in our glasses, it was really funny. When I looked at the menu I got a little suspicious, it was a little too cheap...and sure, the food was awful, I only ate it because I was straving and didn't want to got through the ordeal of going somewhere else.
So, after dinner I went to the hotel where my dearest was staying, we hung out ;-) and she got changed, and we walked over to the venue. As we're right outside at 21 40 I pick up my cell and see that Frank TM had sent a text earlier letting me know showtime had been moved up to 21 45...not time to really get ready for the gig...these things make me a tad upset, needless to say the promotor was not my favourite guy that night.
But the show was fine, we did well I think, can't say I remember any highlights from our end but we had a really good time on stage, and I think the audience liked it. Of course it was a week night so they didn't go nuts, but it was a good response.
There was a lot of signing, many people brought their whole collection to be signed...I don't really get that, one or two is enough ? After that was done we had a few people in tow walking back to the hotel, but the party didn't happen, because we weren't allowed to drink anything we'd brought, and the hotel bar was closed...so one by one everybody left, with just Jeff standing in the lobby as the last remaining trooper, moping ever so slightly :-)...well, I had my dear in hand walking to the other place for the night, which was a little silly since my room was way nicer...but apparently some sort of tit for tat is the deal, and she stayed in my room in Hamburg...weird.

Friday we left for Madrid. Flight was only delayed an hour, and Spanair was nice enough to let us go onboard and get seated before they tell us. Bumpy ride too. But Jeff is still very entertaining with his handluggage...is it never going to just break completely ?
We got in to the city fine though, amazingly little traffic, I remember Madrid to be clogged to the max, worse than Athens, so that was nice. We got in at a hotel real close to the venue, walking distance, nice too. And now me and my dear ( I have many names for her now, miss Perfection impersonated is one :-)!) shared a room...yeyh!
Soundcheck was a mess, lost in the translation, poor Jeff had to do what he could...one might think a good idea is to have someone there who speaks english ? Anyway, the person who was doing monitors was a guy I first thought...then I saw it was a she :-)...she had her console in a small room at the side and she had to climb some stairs to get there, everytime she got on the stage she would bend down to check the monitors, and when she climbed back up to her little room she had to pull her pants back up :-)!!!It was a sight... many problems with the gear, making me a little nervous about the show...
A bunch of us went out to grab food and drinks, me and Jerry Voyen shared a pitcher of Sangria...I didn't think it was that strong, but we had to drink kind of fast to try and finish it before going back to do the show, and oh boy did it kick in! I was really worried during thr first 5 songs, I was drunk and making a zillion mistakes and wrong notes :-)...but it was fun anyway. The audience was good to us, they got into it, it was working. The thing I remember most though is the scene in the dressing room as I'm walking in after the last song: Jamie and Brian are discussing dance moves I think (I'm wearing earplugs, I don't really know what is being said, add to that that I am very nearsighted and not wearing glasses on stage !), and so I said on impulse we should walk back on stage like that...said and done, we squirmed and wiggled out in a line...spontaneous shit like that is what makes me love these guys, to do this tour with them...oh, and we also did a little stupid skit, Jeff announced he'd taught me some spanish, so I said "yeah, I asked how to say I love you in spanish to my girlfriend, this is what I learned: yo quiero chingar un pero" . As I am saying this, totally spontaneuosly I might add, I manage to think "uh oh, I hope my dear doesn't think I am calling her a dog" :-)...
After the show a bunch went out to a club, had drinks, waltzed around the streets of Madrid, found a food place called VIPS...at close to 4 me and my D called it quits and went back to the hotel, we were supposed to have a late checkout we had learned from our promotor, otherwise we'd have gone back a little sooner...maybe.
Well, the late checkout disappeared a little after noon, when hotel management threw us all out :-)...no pardon. I was butt naked and busy at the time, so I was less than happy!

Anyway, we made it here, I am now going to my room to get my stuff for the show, wish me luck!

MJ

Who fucking is Cherie/Jerry or whatever?????

Stefy

Stefania wrote:

Who fucking is Cherie/Jerry or whatever?????

Stefy

I have no idea! Marcel, It's Thierry!

We let the guys in their tour van with the weird spanish guy completely drunk; I think it's the one mentionned by Marcel in the diary. He was seating near Marcel! You should have seen Marcel's face! Thanksfully Frank 'TM' decided to drive!

Oh... if that's the way he was.... yep absolutely thanks to Frank!!!!!!

And of course I reminded Marcel of the correct spelling of your name and surname! I'm wondering if he has learnt it!


Stefy

Tour Diary - From 2nd to 4th June

So my friends,

we risked our lives a few more times in Bilbao...our "driver/soundguy" came to take us back to the gig, again taking Beevis with him...imagine a guy with halfclosed eyes, talking with no stop between words sounding a bit like a didgeridoo, and a general demeanour like he belonged in Jackass...driving fast with one knee on the wheel and at the same time fiddling with the stereo, chatting with his buddy, talking to us, looking at chicks, talking on the phone...after the show he came backstage, dead drunk, I just said to him "you're not driving anymore" and he promptly handed me the keys to the van :-)...of course Frank TM wouldn't allow me to drive, so I got in next to him in the front seat, only to discover that Butthead wanted to come along...all the way back to the hotel he was emitting grunts and groans, unhappy with our route, trying to grab the wheel from across me, and I had to wrestle with him...
But I jump ahead, again. Well, we got back to the venue where we proceeded to do our usual warmup routine - voices warmed by various singing of songs and scales, Jack'n'Coke for me, Caipiroskas for Jeff, diverse drinks for the other two. Intro gets started, onstage we go...and confusion ensued! I forgot to put in my earplugs, my mike was set to the height of Dio, and the monitors were all fucked, I had no drums in mine anymore. So I had to tell the band to take a break between the first two songs so I could fix at least the first two problems. Ok, we moved on...then Jeff decides to fuck with the setlist, I had no idea what or how we wanted to do it, all I knew was I have to detune between the first and second medley of the show if we're doing DOAPS, but somehow we ended up doing Just Between Us instead, with me still being detuned and having to think about that the whole song :-)...ok, we get to my solo spot, and the monitor engineer thinks he's doing me a favor by turning up the sound in my monitors and the sidefill where I stand not knowing it makes it harder to play - and then he forgets to bring it back down when the guys come back on making it even harder to hear the drums :-))! By this time I had lost what little sense of seriousness I may have before a show starts, and I guess it was projected on the others, because when we got to Jeff's pianobar thing...Jamie and Brian started posing next to Jeff taking pictures of each other, we went out on stage miming crying during "Sorry" :-)...we got Jeff cracking up to the point he had to stop playing...I just love doing shows with these guys.

So our promotor was a nice guy, but there were some oversights on his end...the "driver/soundguy" being the best/worst depending how you see it...but we made it, and it's a good learning experience. Of course there was an early flight, leaving the hotel at 6 in the morning...only 3 hours of sleep again!

Landed safely here on Gran Canarias. I was looking forward to the beach, but it's been overcast and very windy, so no luck with that...must be the wrong season or something ? Last night we went to a Brazilian restaurant, very nice, but it was so good I ate myself silly, and went to bed at 22 waking up this morning at ten....yey, around the clock. It's a little weird, either no sleep or way too much...
I have no idea what to look forward to when it comes to the show, I've never heard anything about anybody doing gigs here. I will report on that in my next installment, but I have no way of knowing when to write, I just learned we're leaving our hotel tomorrow at 5!!!! in the morning, stopping in Madrid on our way to Holland for Wednesdays show. We'll see...goddamn do I miss my One and Only :-) !

Oh by the way, I've been corrected, it's Thierry Voyen and nothing else, my hearing ain't what it was :-)!
Later,

MJ

Stefania wrote:

Oh by the way, I've been corrected, it's Thierry Voyen and nothing else, my hearing ain't what it was :-)!

Good to read he remembered the correct spelling! Don't you think Thierry?
Stefy

Correct Marcel! The Spanish guy!

Poor Marcel near Butthead!!! This guy was absolutely completely drunk

I can imagine the terror on his face!
Stefy

I love reading the tour diary... it makes you realize the life of a "rock star" isn't all it's cracked up to be!


Giosi

Tour Diary - From 5th to 9th June - Thanks everyone!


My dear friends,

at the time of writing, the tour is over. I want to thank my friends Jeff, Jamie, and Brian for a great time. See you on the way to South America! Thank you Frank, you rock ! And thanks to everybody who's made this a great experience, Peter deWint, Alex and Evey, Stefy, Erik&Arjo and the guys in Dust. Promotors everywhere, and everyone who came to see us, thanks, and hope we're welcome back if the occasion ever arises !

But what happened the last couple of days ? We flew in to Holland (again), and drove over to Zoetermeer. We checked in at a hotel, it was nice...cool bathrooms, wish I had one of those, large, jacuzzi bath tub, and a nice big shower stall...the day passed without much in the way of adventure, I stayed in to have a nice quiet evening, go to bed early, the others went to Amsterdam to party...what happened was I was still awake when they got back, in the same position they left me, in front of the pc, trying to convince my 1&only to come visit me in Stockholm...it looks like it's going to happen unless she changes her mind, but I was twisted in knots there for a while :-). Oh, earlier in the bar having a few beers, there was a wacky american woman we were talking to, she was a bit dizzy, but it took her about 5 minutes to turn to me and say (about Brian): " He likes to talk, doesn't he ?" :-) !!!

Next day was a long slow wait to go the gig, the Boerderij. A nice venue, a little hot...a very nice reception from the people there. We had a nice time hanging out with our friends, Alex and Evey (congratulations!) brought chocolate...they told us they'd wanted to buy some erotic chocolate for Jeff, specifically a chocolate twat, but according to Alex it "just didn't look right" :-)!!!
Again we had Dust as opening act. The gig was fine, it wasn't packed, and it was of course a week night, so the response was ok under the circumstances.

Again a late night, and early flight to Copenhagen :-)...the scourge of this tour...I'm surprised I haven't gotten ill. Add to that the stress of having to get the passport thing under control...but amazingly enough, when we got in to Malmö, the passport was ready to go, and we found the courier quite easily...later I learned that the Japanese embassy had accepted the new passport despite it had a different number than the old one which was listed on the certificate of eligibility one needs to get a visa. Phew!

Ok, we get to Ronneby Brunn, the hotel the Sweden Rock Festival uses. We have lunch, and I discover Vinnie Appice in the lobby, knowing he's a friend of Brian's I called Brian over, and Vinnie wanted to eat too, so we had company...later in the evening I took the shuttle over to the festival, a 50 minute ride, only because I wanted to see Heaven & Hell soooo bad...and all I could watch was 4 songs, because I had to catch the midnight shuttle back. Bummer, because they were good.

It's nice to be at this hotel, you meet a lot of friends, Igor and Francesco from UDO, Mark Nowak (German promotor), Ian and John Leven from Europe, and the guy who got me started as a musician, Andreas Matz, just to name a few...add to that that I had a stroke of genius, I came up with my new favourite drink : Absolut Ruby Red with tonic and slice of lime!

Friday, the last show on this tour. Before the show we signed some autographs, there were more people there than expected, we barely finished before our time was up...the funniest thing, at one point there was two girls before me, and one of them was just shaking and not looking so well. Naturally I asked her if she was ok, to which here friend replied "yeah, she's just nervous". That got me curious, so I said " oh, are you getting married or something?" To which miss Nervous promptly replied: " you can get married anytime, but Talisman you only meet once!"
We got set up, it was all good, the gear (thanks EBS!), the sound on stage and everything. I was expecting a good crowd, and I was not disappointed. The area in front of our stage was packed, and we did a nice show, with an amazing response...I was having a hard time not to cry afterwards, I just love doing this, and it's just sucking elefant ***** to not do this more...
the night was spent watching Aerosmith (didn't like them, only when they did "Sweet child" they had a groove), getting back to the hotel, having a few drinks, saying goodbye to Jeff and Brian who had to leave for the CPH airport at 3 in the morning!!!

So...it is done...now me and Jamie are in GBG, well on our way to Japan for the LAD promotion trip - "Melodic rock night vol. 9" - here we go :-) !!!

See you!

Big Love,

MJ


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Thanks Marcel for keeping us updated! It was great seeing TALISMAN live again! So thanks everyone who made it possible!

I had a great time!!!!

Love,
Stefy

I have enjoyed reading these blogs so much! Thanks for sharing these with everyone and safe travels to Japan with Jamie!

Heather

Waiting for the Brazilian part!