NEIL LEYTON - Alluvium Tour 2003

My first UK tour took place this February / March 2003. What follows is a work-in-progress page with certain recollections, memories and anecdotes...

Many thanks to all photo contributors (you know who you are!): Ian Tunstall, Jessica de Wal, Waynster, Alexis, Al & Ian, Heike S.M., Marianne & friends,
Lisa Higney (& Karl for the scans), er... I'm sure the list goes on... send me an e-mail if I've forgotten someone and you happen to recognize a picture you snapped :)

Feb.21st

Those of you who know me know I don't fly well. It was quite the miracle that I could walk a straight line on 3 valiums and as much booze as Air Canada allowed me on the flight from Toronto to Heathrow. The first thing I did was procure me some seriously strong coffee... several cups of it. Then it was off to the Europcar counter to pick up my rental vehicle.

I called my good friend Natasha Moledina (Little Hell bassist) knowing she'd be hanging with Rich Jones (Amen, ex-Black Halos). Natasha and Rich had previously played in my backing band at Vancouver's NMW 2000 Festival (I'd just met Rich at the time and he put the backing band together for me to be able to fly out to Vancouver and play some electric shows). She said to call once I got into London and Rich would hook up with me then, asking if I knew the way from Heathrow to my hotel. "Huh, sure I do" I replied as I stumbled off the Europcar shuttle bus onto their parking lot / pickup office, with a large cup of coffee (my third if I recall correctly, my red suitcase and acoustic guitar in hand.

After having a few words with the ultra-polite yet slightly under-informed Europcar desk clerk, I secured a 6-gear Fiat Stilo 16V for only slightly more than I'd planned to spend. I managed to fit the red suitcase and the guitar in the trunk (er, the boot, that is) prior to walking around to the left side of the car and getting in the front seat, immediately realizing that the steering wheel, alas, was not in front of me. Now this may have been my first time driving in the UK but if it wasn't for the yet-to-be-completely-cleared Valium head space I would not have looked like such a fool in front of the Europcar people - who were, at this point, intensely staring at me through their glass counter wall. Nonchalantly, as though I'd planned it that way, I opened up the glove box and proceeded to read the Fiat Stilo car manual, called Natasha again, stood outside the vehicle for a bit, breathed some Heathrow air, then finally walked around to the proper driver side..

Next up came the getting used to the clutch and the gears being backwards (which I did not expect - I thought that 1st gear would still have been towards the leg and not away from it - I near stalled the car driving out of the Europcar parking lot. Once on the road, I found that the safest way to drive was to follow the car in front of you - even if it wasn't always going where you wanted to go; you can always turn around later and follow another car.

By some rock n roll miracle - thanks Elvis - I found myself in London, coming up to Notting Hill gate just as I needed to to get to my Paddington Hotel. Except once I got to Paddington (with the constant paranoia of not making a wrong turn into the new London Congestion Charge Central area) I could not find the Hotel I'd loo9ked up on the net... so I walked into Hotel Edward and asked what their rates were and signed me up for a room, then took my stuff upstairs, washed up and called Rich. He said to leave the car at the Hotel, jump on the underground and meet him at Angel station. 30 mins. later I was in the underground thinking to myself that this was all pretty auspicious, and I was feeling great. Hadn't seen Rich since he'd left Toronto a while back, met him at Angel and he remarked that it was pretty weird how I'd flown across the world and met him at a tube station in another city a day after leaving Toronto, or something like that - I think he was being philosophically friendly - a pretty cool thing, he said; to which I replied "bah humbug" or some other assorted mumble. The Valiums and the travel were catching up to me, so by the time Ky arrived in London (was that the 21st or the 22nd? I forget...) and we hooked up with Natasha and her friend I was pretty beat...

Feb. 22nd: The drive from London to Newcastle / Whitley Bay

Fiat Stilo Soundtrack: Jesse Malin, Nick Cave

Ian's directions were pretty clear... drive up on the highway until we see the signs for the Tyne tunnel, then call him. We did. As soon as we noticed that the ramp off the highway which we were supposed to take was closed for construction. He was very surprised and said there had to be another way to get to the tunnel, a few phone calls later and about 5 u-turns later Rich, Ky and myself were in our trusty Fiat coming out of the tunnel, following Ian's instructions to the MacDonalds near the 3rd round-about, or something or the sort. We drove past about 12 round-abouts and no MacDonalds... until finally (another 5 phone callls or so) we realized we'd gone too far, doubled back and sure enough found Ian near the MacDonalds.

By the time we got to the house we were pretty wired from the end-of-trip maze-like errors in navigation. We proceeded to ever-so-slightly disturb the peace at C1 HQ by pulling the guitars out of their cases and began putting a set together - that's when Ian realized that Ky and Rich had not played most of the songs before, and for about two hours we jammed on a bunch of stuff (Neil Leyton stuff, Ky Anto stuff, Black Halos stuff and some covers) to pull together a set. We finally went to bed around 2 or so feeling completely at home - thanks Ian!

Rich and Neil at C1 HQ                        Ky live at South Shields 

23rd Feb : South Shields : The County

After an awesome visit to the Tyne mouth and strolls by the water (Photos to come!), it was back to C1 HQ for a final run-through the set prior to the first gig of the tour, C1's return to South Shields (w/ the Cheesemakers). Right away it was clear there was a great family-affair vibe to the proceedings, Andy Ferguson made us feel at home and sound-check went very smoothly. We'd been pretty much drinking all day by this point and between the sound-check and our actual stage time energies were at a comfortable low point... and then we played what I felt to be a great first set of the tour.

  south shields 2

I must pause here to let everyone know how amazing it was to finally have introduced Ky and Rich - two of the Canadian musicians that I most respect and knew would get along famously. It was awesome to share a stage with them as always, but doubly awesome to have them both onstage with me at the same time... when Ky took the center mic to sing Johnny Thunders' "go back to go" and I played bass, I had one of those "perfect moments" just watching him and Rich play...

south shields 1

After the set followed many many kind words from all the C1 family members that were present, plus the surprise kind words from Emma, Steff and Sarah (ha ha, Sarah - those of you on the Neil Leyton yahoo group know the Sarah / Amen story). That was the perfect icing on the cake of a great evening. Too bad about my Nokia getting stolen from Ian's car - other than that, a perfect evening was had. Ian's Ziggy Stardust-tinged stage speech about never coming back to South Shields was also an heartfelt moment about how tough it is for an indie label to make it in its own backyard, even if it is getting recognized elsewhere (I feel the same here in Canada with my own Fading Ways label!)

24th Feb : Edinburgh : Bannermans

Stilo Soundtrack: Wildhearts, Supershit 666, Tyla (we raided the C1 warehouse!)

A very pleasant drive up the coast from Newcastle to Edinburgh. Easy directions to the club courtesy of Johnny a Go-Go's web search that he'd sent to me. Good navigation by Ky and Rich, who throughout the trip proved to be very patient with the crowded conditions of our Fiat. Before sound-check we drank at the Brass Monkey and ate next door from it, at Edinburgh's oldest Punjab restaurant and I swear to god - best indian food I've ever had, simple, yet very tasteful. Rich, who is quite the expert on indian food, agreed. A funny thing is that since the restaurant wasn't licensed they allowed us to bring in a pitcher from the Brass Monkey next door!

25th Feb : Aberdeen : Cafe Drummonds

Stilo Soundtrack: Mich Harvey (singing Serge Gainsbourg in English)

Can't write enough good things about Aberdeen and Psycho a Go-Go!... this one is going to be a huge paragraph, soon as I get around to it... Chris, you rule.

26th Feb : Aberdeen : The Alluvium Tour EP recording & second show at Drummonds... more details to follow of course... thanks to Psycho a Go-Go!!!

27th Feb : Motherwell : The Starka Bar

rich and neil live

Got some pictures... texts to follow... hard drive back to Heathrow after the show, with Rich & Ky passed out... soundtrack? Trucks. Trucks. Fiery truck accident on the highway. Then more trucks... 'til dawn.

ky live neil live

Incidentally, this is also the show that gave good bootleg... those faithful to the ChangesOne record label will perhaps earn the opportunity of receiving a free-of-charge recording of the last show of the first leg of the tour! Great recording by the way... thanks Al & Ian!

1st March: London : Betsy Trotwood

First show as a duo (just Rich and me)... a very tiny club with a few very nice people in it... and some atrocious bands that played after us. Thanks to Rafaela who helped line up the show, and came out to check out the set with her friend Heike (more on her later!)

2ndMarch: London : W14 - C1 Label Event

Definitely want to write more on this later... see what I can remember :)

Suffice it to say it was one "messy" gig. Meanwhile here are some fave photos!

W 14 W 14 2 Leyton Jones W14 Leyton W14 Neil and Natasha W14

W 14 by Heike W 14 by Heike 2



5thMarch : Dorchester : The Kings Arms

What can I say? Huge thanks to Paul Brewer & crew... the best Hotel I stayed at all tour! Definitely want to come back with my girlfriend next time... thanks to Paul & the crew of friends that came out, both the 5th & 6th... great drive along the south!

6thMarch : Bridport : The Hope and Anchor

And then the drive straight back to London (at night). Oh, and just what is a "kosher hotel" anyways??? (Long story, will write later... Rich where the hell were we?)

Holland!

Mar. 10th - Maloe Melo

Maloe Melo 1 Maloe melo 2 Maloe Melo 3 Maloe melo 4

Mar. 14th - Club Winston

winston 1 winston 2

Thanks to everyone in Amsterdam (Alan MacNiven & Allie, Jessica, Marianne, etc.) who made us all feel so welcome during our stay... we can't wait to return!!

Back in London... what better way to end a tour than with a stellar photoshoot with one of the best photographers I've met? Rafaela Ribas had introduced me to Heike at the Betsy T. gig... we ended up doing a shoot together, and one of the shots is going to make the cover of the soon-to-come "Alluvium Tour EP" recorded in Aberdeen. Here are some other shots... courtesy of Heike Schneider-Matzigkeit visit Heike at www.thyshell.com

photo credit: Heike photo credit: Heike photo credit: Heike

photo: Heike







Rich's blurry photographs and memories
Well to be honest, when Neil asked me to write this stuff I was a little apprehensive at best. You see, part of the joy of doing a Neil Leyton tour for me is that the live shows are usually fuelled by alcohol and improvisation. So if I'm screwing up a song I can either make something up or blame it on the booze!
So as a result my memories of this tour are a little hazy. I do know that I was there, and I do know that I had a great time and met a ton of cool people. So instead of rambling on about hotel rooms and hangovers, I'm gonna let the pictures do the talking. What follows are some of my better snapshots accompanied by a witty remark or 2. Hopefully it'll give you an idea of what the hell we were doing...

Roadside Distractions



This is a snapshot outside Legoland, somewhere southwest of London. On our drive to the Dorchester show, we saw a freeway sign for Legoland. Naturally, being the adventurous types, we decided to go check it out. So on our way to a show we take what turned out to be an hour-and-a-half detour to find Legoland... closed. So this photo outside was the best we could do. And if you were wondering, we made it to the show on time.

Prince Valium



Neil earned this honourary title after gulping down god knows how many "mother's little helpers" on the flight from London to Amsterdam. Keep in mind that this flight is less than an hour long! But by the time we got to the airport, Leyton was practically melting from the pills and booze! So we propped him up against this statue of these two guys who look like we imagined Neil was feeling. And we're off to a great start in Amsterdam!

That means YOU, Leyton!



We found this great "no fouling" sign (complete with a picture of a dog, crapping) in the lovely english seaside town of Weymouth. No Fouling. We shoulda kept that in mind before drinking all that wine before the next show...

Le Maison De Ky



Here's our resident bass hero, "Killer" Ky Anto, checking out the lovely sights of Edinborough. Don't be fooled by the weird perspective in that photo, Ky is actually way taller than that building!

Comedy & Tragedy on the banks of the Thames



On our days off we spent a lot of time with our illustrious friend/celebrity-in-waiting/tour manager extraordinare Johnny Fistful. Most of these days were filled up by getting drunk in the student bar and putting songs on the video jukebox in an attempt to alienate the other patrons. But this lovely snapshot captures a rare moment outside, taking in the lovely South London air. You can see how thrilled we both are.

No Golf Practice



Not much to say about this one. It's basically a picture of a menacing looking blackbird sitting on a sign overlooking some football fields that reads "No Golf Practice". I imagine that there's a long and hilarious story behind this...I just don't know what it is.

View From The Top



Yeah, this is basically how the ENTIRE tour looked from my view in the back of the bus. And when I say "back of the bus" it's definitely a figure of speech! Me, Neil and Ky did the whole first leg of the tour crammed into one of those funny little bubble cars with our guitars, and this is what it looked like to me the whole time. Feel the rock'n'roll luxury, baby!

You talkin' to me?



Back to the "No Fouling" boardwalk...as you can see this stuff is nowhere near chronological. So basically after a week or 2 of playing sensitive quiet music I felt that I needed to get a shot of myself to remind everyone that I'm actually the guitar player in an angry, tough rock'n'roll band. Although the look on my face suggests that there's maybe been some fouling going on nearby.

Michael Jackson?



So here's a nice shot of the band (minus Eric) that did the 3rd and final leg of the tour. L to R is me, Natasha Moledina, and our hero. As you can see by the photo, I'm clearly getting frustrated trying to explain to them that I didn't steal the white socks look from Michael Jackson, I stole it from the Clash. And as you can also see, they just think I'm a jackass!

Busted!



So basically here's a shor of Neil and Ky that I chose simply for the fact that Neil looks surprisingly happy and Ky looks surprisingly guilty. And that's all there is to it...

Dedicated follower of fascism



We'll finish up with a picture that I found while flipping through a Sears & Roebuck catalogue from 1976. "Here, Neil is seen modelling cheap draft, £1.50 in the crap neighbourhood student bar..."

So there you have it. I had a lot of fun taking those pics and almost as much fun writing about it. I'll imagine that you had a little less fun reading about it, but them's the breaks. Until next time...

Rich Jones
Los Angeles, CA
July 4th 2003