September 07, 2008

11:18 p.m.

Birdsedge, Yorkshire
England

Nearly two weeks in. The perpetual and varied hell of touring has had a few bright and pretty spots, a good number of laughs and, occasionally, excellent food. Our very first festival included not one but five appearances plus a late night singaround, and accommodations in a sort of barracks belonging to the Nautical College (which I kept terming the "Naughty-Girl College"). The less said about those the better. The sets were mainly nice, the weather not so bad.

Then we went to Portugal for a few days and a couple of very silly, free gigs at which we sold exactly five of the 30 CDs we had shipped twice to get there. A big waste of money, that. The weather was gorgeous, we saw some fantastic sites and had virtually no privacy in the one room in which all three of us were lodged for three nights.

Back to England; hours more of repacking. See, we brought one set of luggage to England, then took a subset of that to Gloucester, a smaller subset (with borrowed, smaller suitcases) of that to Portugal. Then back to Gloucester to pick up what we left there, then on to some gigs and now back in Birdsedge where the REST of our luggage is, and we'll repack in a couple of days again for another week out.

Two festivals this weekend, both of which were stressful and silly in their various ways. The sky opened up just as we started playing in the tent today and between the noise of that and the generators just outside the tent, folks yakking, dogs barking, and an absolutely hideous sound system, it was a sea of muddy sound with no clarity or distinction. We got no sound check, as we were still driving from the last gig when they held it this morning, so the mix we ended up with was pretty bad. I'd be surprised if anyone even heard lyrics. It didn't seem that most people were paying attention in the way our audiences usually do. Plus it was the very end of the festival, it was pouring, and people just wanted to leave.

We gigged in our Wellies as the fairgrounds were so soggy.

I was really pretty optimistic up until we began to play, and even through the set my soaring sense of humor and resilience saw me through. Still, it was an ASS gig, and I was glad to be finished with it. Dammit.

Then Chris backed into a lamp post and dented the back bumper of the rental. Oops.

Carol's cold is getting better and she was more or less able to sing through it.

What can I say? Romance! Adventure! Exotic places! Don't you want to be a touring artist?

I was able to call Dar tonight on Skype and we talked for nearly half an hour. What a find this was. He's got four plays lined up through the winter and spring, so he'll be very busy again come November.

So we have a blessed three nights in a row here, and no gig now til Friday. Later this week we go to stay with people who have a canal boat. It's 7 feet wide and 50 feet long! I have no idea whether it will be a good experience or simply one of those things you do so you can say you did it, and then you get out. I can say with certainty that it will be a NEW experience for us all.

I'll check back in when I can. I miss keeping up with everyone's diaries -- I added a whole bunch of them before I left home, and now my buddy list looks all daunting. Tomorrow, when I'm more rested, I'll read. I also hope it will stop raining for once so I can go walking.