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THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 01:23:00 -0800

It's Christmas !!

Charlotte DJing in London this week!

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 17:59:00 -0700

Gonna be a lorra laughs

On tour with The Subways - US Diary

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:12:00 -0700

PART 1 WELCOME TO AMERICA

21st June 06

Ok, so we met Adam Sandler today, who was a pretty funny guy (it is his job though) AND one of his mates (bloke who always appears in the films hes inbig guyfriendly face damn it, we still cant remember his name)! We also met Conan OBrien, well it was his show The Subways were appearing on, it was pretty likely wed cross paths. Pretty mad return to action all in all! Im sitting in the Millennium Broadway hotel, one block off Time Square, and it feels like its 3am. It is in fact 8pm and I still cant hear anything due to yesterdays flight. I want to watch the World Cup but its finished for the day, its weird watching footy out here anyway, all the commentary is wrong! Players do not Serve the ball into area, they Cross it for gods sake! I also love the way the commentators here explain the rules as the game goes on over and over again. Guess u guys are still learning. Must be weird being part of a world cup where other countries actually compete. (Ohhh.. Low blow!)

Anyway back to the subs theyve been busy today. First watching the offline (first edit) of the new video for Oh Yeah which looks amazing!! We kept watching it until everyone had had enough of Billy saying Dont I look sexy in that bit! and sent suggested changes into the label (less Billy andchange the music its rubbish!). Everyone is going nuts over it there anyway so I dont think much will change. Roller girls, Tramps, Clowns and a kick arse performance, what else could you need? Then it was over to Conan OBrian to record a performance of Oh Yeah for his show. Charlotte and me went walk about and found the props department complete with fake roadkill, a tin of spam with a perm and a cactus chef that sang and danced. Conan was a very tall man indeed! Great performance. Billys guitar went out of tune a little bit which was really annoying but band really rocked the show. So much so that Adam (as we now know Mr Sandler) came back with his mate to get details of the next show in LA

Tomorrow is a big day, in fact next week is a big week for The Subways. We start the Taking Back Sunday tour and hope that people actually turn up early enough to see them play!! Cant wait really

22nd June

Ok. Today went pretty sh*t for me, 9 hours of looking for 5 boxes of T shirts around 6 flags, New Jersey in boiling hot sunshine because some idiot has put it in the completely wrong place and buggered off home and no one can phone him cause hes a Union worker and its illegal too!! (WHAT !!!!!). Mr McNight if I ever get a chance to thank u for my day of hell youd better run for cover It did give me a very good chance to meet everybody on the tour though. I think most crew now know me as the guy with the lost boxes. First day and it rocked seriously! So hot though that the band came off stage half their normal size. This tour is certainly going to be a major workout! And the fans turned up early in their thousands!! My God there were people queuing when we arrived in the morning. The Subways rocked as usual, kids went made for it! Sorry but not much I can report on The Subways antics today as I was looking for boxes. I saw then at Breaky, on stage and then at bedtime. They seemed well.

23rd June

Still no T shirts this morning as we hit stage at Nassau Coliseum! This place is huge. Its an ice hockey rink for the local team (Dragons maybe.. thats probably so wrong).
The Subways didnt get a line check so the start of the set is pretty scary for the band cause theres no guarantee that all the mics are going to work. They do we all breath again. The new US video cut came in again. More Josh in it, looks good! Talking of the boy, Josh and me kicked a football around the parking lot with confused Americans watching, scratching their heads. The band have lots of new friends. Tom and David from Angels and Airwaves are top blokes and the Taking Back Sunday boys are all really really nice man. Im still learning everyones names.

PART TWO SETTLING IN

Its been an hour since the band walked off stage in Columbia and goddamn it that was their best show on this tour so far. The crowd was fantastic, I mean amazing! Sure its not difficult for The Subways to whip up a sweaty fuss in the UK but its the first time theyve supported, well in fact, been 1st of 4. well ever! Playing at 6pm aint easy as most people have brought their tickets to see Taking back Sunday and Angels and Airwaves. They want their favourite bands on stage and have to sit through some skinny brit kids before they get this. I admit to being a bit worried about doing this tour but wow has it rocked so far! Its been amazing to see the audiences rockin out so early on as its been pretty much 90 degrees plus every day since I last reported in. OoH and Billy got given a free guitar today! Lucky F%^ker ! Not just any guitar. A custom hollow bodied Gibson specially made for Tom De Long from Angels and Airwaves. Tom is a massive fan it seems and has very generously given Billy one of the bands guitars he cant seem to put it down.

Ok some moments

Camden, technical nightmareinstruments dieing left right and centre...ahhh HELP!!

Buffalo Radio showweird one..great crowd againloads of bands playing all day.

Pittsburgh Ohh dear I really cant remember now.. its so long ago. Im at that period in the tour when everything is blending into one. Tis why I decided to do a new blog to try to get the memories on paper but my brain aint givin up the info.

Rochester Hills Day off too in rainy Detroit! Probably the smallest crowd down front weve had. Feels like a laid back cityeveryone was chillin at the back on the grass.

Chicago..what a venue!! Beautiful day all round.. great after party involving Adam (TBS) busting some Hip Hop moves and a lot of Marshmallows on drumsticks

Milwaukee Crazy venue, people kept telling me Hitler was based there but Im pretty sure were in the US and Im not losing my mind (hes German right?). The room was incredible. First time inside for a while but SO SO Hot ! Sweaty kids everywhere. There was a Mexican wedding going on in the Basement, great hats!

Cleveland Venue on the riverside. We gate crashed the VIP box to watch the other bands. First time Id watched the whole show from start to finish with a great view. The lights for TBS are crazily good. Done by some 25 year old.. hes a bright young man ! and we went on a boat .. YEy. Apparently u could set fire to the water cause it was so polluted! Seemed a bit like Birmingham..

Columbus Had BBQ with the radio station. A reversible venue! backstage could also be front stage.. all very confusing.

Toronto We love this city.. went to Steves on Queens to buy a new cheapo acoustic guitar as Josh had smashed up the last one after a heated discussion with his Bro. Char and me met up with the Pink Mafia to plan some future parties.

PART 3 WHEN IT RAINS IT TOURS

(WED 12TH JULY)

Weve brought the weather with us (again)!!! We woke up this morning and the rain came. it kept coming and didnt let up. At 6.20pm we stood on stage at Pompano Beach, Florida with water pouring off the front of the stage and the kids pissing themselves laughing as stage crew struggled to keep control of a water gathering on the floor around equipment. At 6.25pm the nasty rumour that had been circling the camp since we arrived was confirmed. THE SUBWAYS SET IS TO BE PULLED FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY REASONS. The crowd boos as the subways kit is dismantled! We all get nasty flash backs to Glastonbury 05 when the band were rained off the Main Stage. We travel thousands of miles to have rain stop play unbelievable!! To rub salt in our wounds at 7.30pm the rain stops, 5mins later Head Automatica hit stage and the place goes mental. The crowd are amazing!! We retreat to the bus to sulk!! Some things are just not meant to be! Well be back though, we have unfinished business in Florida!

The band are gutted! We set up for the usual signing after the performance and kids come over to say they came 8 hours to see the band play man that sucks !! We manage to get a small group on the guestlist for the show today but that means them travelling another 270miles to see the band.

Its 2.55pm on July 13th now. 3 hours till the band play and its just started to rain!!!

F%^%&%^&^K as they say!!

(THURS 13th JULY)

All the TBS crew have just had matching umbrella Tattoos done. It pretty much sums up what we are all feeling at the moment. At 3pm the heavens opened (at the exact point I was writing my last exert, so I hope Im not tempting fate again, if it rains today then I think were just going to throw a huge f&^k off! party!).

So at 3pm it started and it rained and rained and rained and rained and you get the picture!! All the kids screamed f*ck this sh*t! at the heavens but the weather didnt let up. Only one sensible thing the bands could do really. A game of Frisbee in their underpants! The kids outside racked their brains for something to pass the time and some bright spark came up with Mud wrestling and a ring of kids formed mid-site and girls proceeded to wrestle each other to point of exhaustion with the screaming masses ooohhh and arrrrring as wet, flesh and t shirt mixed in semi violent fashion until the fuzz broke it up (damn cops). Shouts of abuse and disbelief meet the poor soul chosen to tell the kids, with a megaphone, that the show is to be called off. At 10pm the rain stopped, pretty much at the time the show would have finished.

Florida just not meant to be I guess.

But we soon get back into it!! Some more moments

Houston and Mesa Man its hot!!! Where is the aircon?

Long Beach The LA crowd all turn up fashionably late but those who see the subs play get a real treat We all then make a mad dash over to The Greek Theatre to catch Charlottes favourite band Muse play a kick arse set... amazing stuff from a truly great band!

Bakersfield man the kids were crazy. They are all moshing before the bands come on! We are definitely coming back !

San Diego.. Angels and Airwaves home town and there are thousands of people back stage. A beautiful venue and the bands all get a fabulous crowd response. Its the last day of the tour and we are all a bit sad. We see Taking Back Sunday again in Seattle for one last rock n roll show but this is where Angels and Head Automatica leave us. Take care boys !! Its been a blast my new friends !!

PART 4 A FOND FAIRWELL !!

Ok, so were sick of the bus! Its been fun for 2 months but now the novelty has warn off and wed really like some REAL beds in REAL bedrooms. Im a bit worried I wont be able to sleep though. I may have to put some kind of mechanical contraption under my bed to simulate the movement of the bus, either that or Ill be sleeping on the No.73 night bus to London Oxford st and back for the first week. We just arrived in Seattle, which I think is pretty much where I left off last time. Weve come full circle since leaving the Taking Back Sunday, Angels and Airwaves and Head Automatica lads around 2 weeks back. Seems ages now since we shared a teary goodbye, lots of hugs and plenty of back patting! We headed north first off, into Canada. Vancouver Commodore was OUTSTANDING as a venue! Calgery wasnt so good as a gig but the kids were rockin. Then Edmonton.. well almost Billy woke with a saw throat! We have already taken 2 months of this year when Billy developed vocal nodes and panic set in that this was signs of a relapse. The show was pulled, much to everyones disappointment and we rolled onto Winnipeg holding our breaths. A day off seemed to help and Winnipeg went off with a bang. Great support band too, The Young little Darlings.

Then onto LOLLAPALOOZA ! We caught an afternoon flight into Chicago and at 10am the following morning we find ourselves preparing for one of Americas finest summer festivals, Lollapalooza! We hook up with Spin mag for an ice-cream photo shoot and spend the day buggying around. We got a to ride around Chicago in an ambulance with the siren on at one point one ambition ticked off the list!!

The next few days are a blur. Weve travelled around 4000 miles in 3 days. Street scene is wonderful. The band hook up with their old friends The Shys and Billy gets to meet some of his idles again (MEW), check em out ! We then role into Las Vegas and do the strangest gig of the tour so far. In a converted Beauty Salon where we have to assemble the stage ourselves (with clamps) ah well its Joshs birthday and we have a rockin time

LA is a complete success. Always an important show as the media turns up on mass as well as radio DJs and the record label bosses are all popping their heads in on the new signing. The band are introducing new songs into the set and the response is enormous.. especially for Kalifornia, a song written after their last trip to LA. The bosses seem very happy and the DJs start playing the track Come on!! Spin The Subways you know you love it!

San Fran is always fun and Popscene doesnt disappoint, hot and sweaty and with a crazy little Brit pop disco after Flash back I feel like Im back at university again weird but fun!

Seattle/ Portland.. The last two shows strangely enough turn out to be the best. The band are tiring now and you usually find that bands have had enough after 2 months on the road but not The Subways. Im not sure what made my heart twitch more.. the reaction as the band powered through their set or watching Billy climbing up and around the top on the stage.. hes a crazy young man !! Seattle was amazing !! Anyone at that show will know what I mean I have to thank The End Radio station and Sonic Boom records for all the support!

Portland was completely different... A family food fest with stages. Chiefs doing cooking demos and a ball juggling contest form the supports and we are all a little scared were going to get booed off. BUT Ive never seen the CDs at a festival sell out so fast. I guess they did something right !!

Tis the end of the trip and its been a hell of a journey around North America. The band have made many new friends and have a lot of great memories to treasure. Weve only just begun here though and well be back next year for some more madness.

Many thanks to Taking Back Sunday, Angels and Airwaves, Head Automatica and all the crews who made this happen but most of all.. Thanks to all the kids who shock their beautiful butts to the sound of The Subways! See you all soon !!

GOONITE LISTINGS MAY/JUNE !!

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 02:25:00 -0700

GOONITE CLUB / BUFFALO BAR
259 UPPER STREET, HIGHBURY & ISLINGTON STATION
TICKETS £5 / £4 / telephone 0207 3596191
doors open 8.30 info www.goomusic.net

may 24th wednesday

CRASH CONVENTION (The band are a personal favourite of Carl Londons answer to Jesus Barat and you can almost see why in these songs. Theyre more than just another indie rock band, theyve got that special factor that just makes them so much better than the majority of the shit currently coming out of the city. Its bands like Crash Convention who are ensuring that London is still most definitely burning brightly)

MY SAD CAPTAINS (my sad captains formed at the start of 2004. the band has been playing regularly in London since. The name my sad captains, is taken from a poem by Thom Gunn. The band has been making various home recordings and in the summer of 2005 recorded six songs at Kore studios in London with Chris Sheldon. Influenced by Pavement, grandaddy, flaming lips, four tet, wilco, yo la tengo, sparklehorse)

HOLIDAY ROMANCE ("We are a fresh new band guaranteed rock your pop socks off and then pop your rock socks off. We are candy for an audience. The band is four cute guys and a striking female vocalist, together we will whisk you away on a musical delight, singing songs about love, rainbows and roller coasters")
GOO GOO GANG DJS TIL LATE

may 31st wednesday

THE DIRTY FEEL (The Dirty Feel, apart from possessing one of the greatest names we have ever heard, pull off the near-impossible task of being 70s in all the right places. As the name implies, they deliver raw, sleazy rock music with a distinctive funk element. And what really stands out about The Dirty Feel is their unbelievable musical acumen. They swan onstage in beautifully tailored tan and cream suits and launch into a set that blows our balls off. Rockfeedback.com)

ASSEMBLY NOW! (The sound of a band sweating together in a cramped room... shot through with something most groups these days sadly lack: passion - NME - March 2006)

THE HOMEWRECKERS CLUB (Artrocker: Fortunately up next we have The Home Wreckers Club, who grab from the get go and certainly look the part- twitching limbs, skinny ties and a girl bassist with a PJ Harvey fringe covering her face. Lead singer Paul is very much the man in control and dragoons his troops through a set of sharp, catchy pop tunes. Very impressive and I will look out for them again, there is star potential here)
GOO GOO GANG DJS TIL LATE

june 7th wednesday

AERIALS (Aerials are four, like minded young musicians, dedicated to producing blistering, bright, honest, British tunes)

THE COUNTERFEITS (Gutsy they are, like a band let loose in a studio in the psych 60s, lets rip the hell out of sound. Very cool, lets hear more. If Sub Pop Records know about them, wont be long before a major release. Cream of the Crop)

THE 'SATELLITE' INSPECTORS (The Satellite Inspectors are laser patterned in three dimensions, placed in a furnace for ceramization, and chemically etched with a hydrofluoric acid solution. The end result is a patterned and concentrated mix of flammable compounds but with precision cuts with a resolution of five microns. Additional design benefits of the Satellite Inspectors are that certain system functions can be integrated into the structure, like the rock factor regulator "There is no need for an independent rock tank. This removes excess cheese and allows for additional rock compatibility" said Hansen - expert Satellite Inspector NASA)
GOO GOO GANG DJS TIL LATE

june 14th wednesday

BIG SUR (Romanced by the seductive sounds of the capricious British music scene of the mid 1990s, 3 young lads found solace in the words of Cocker, Cave, and Morrissey. In a sea of English complacency they found themselves being drawn in and directed by the music they adored. Whilst all of Big Sur hail from wind beaten coastal towns of England, they met in a run down slaughter house, carefully disguised as student halls) >> http://www.myspace.com/bigsurband

THE KOKO'S (London based and sounding like The Ramones meets The Kings Of Leon, The Kokos have very quickly knocked themselves into shape and come up with three raw edged pieces of rabid dirty rock toxicpete) http://www.myspace.com/thekokos
THE 721'S (Post Punk Pop Rock. The energy of early eighties post punk, with the sound of nineties rock and the hook of mid-eighties pop) http://www.myspace.com/the721s

MODEL MORNING (Model Morning are a dynamic cacophony of soundscape guitars and soaring vocals, with a stomping, inventive rhythm section as their anchor. The guitar influence makes many references to 80s shoegaze bands, but they achieve a more accessible sound and display more ability to craft epic songs than the majority of their predecessors in that genre. They are unpretentious stadium rock if such a thing can be said to exist. The songs are in places hooky, dark, bitter and pained and they use long crescendos to great effect, building songs from almost nothing to blistering walls of noise and harmony) http://www.myspace.com/modelmorning
GOO GOO GANG DJS TIL LATE

APRIL AND MAY LISTINGS !!! Check em out....

Thu, 13 Apr 2006 21:17:00 -0700

april 19th wednesday

KILL THE YOUNG (The world is just waking up for the Manchester trio of Gorman brothers... think bigg choruses and even bigger riffs leavened by a hefty dose of self-loathing - The Independent)

THE TAMBORINES (They look great, they sound divine and theyre called Lulu, Veronique and Henrz. Im hooked. My first thought is that they remind me of The Primitives when the Prims was good and when Cool Paul Court sang, like on Laughing Up My Sleeve - simple, fizzing tunes that make you go, Oh yeah! When they play single What Took You So Long they manage to out-Love The Loves, with a fuzzpop blast of fringe-shaking sonic gorgeousness. kittenpainting.com)

THE BATTLES OF WINTER (Track one is by The Battles Of Winter, and sounds not unlike Morrissey singing over a Neil Young electric guitar frenzy - Playlouder)

GOO GOO GANG DJS TIL LATE

april 26th wednesday

DAVE CLOUD & THE GOSPEL OF POWER (he sounds more like a cross between acid-addled Roky Erickson and boozed Beat writer, the late Charles Bukowski, than Steve Earle or Willie Nelson - The Wire)

PEOPLE'S REVOLUTIONARY CHOIR (...mixes the soapbox evangelising of Spiritualised with the rocknroll legend building of the Jesus and Mary Chain. With guitars set to space-loopy, this stays just on the right side of bombastic)

NOSFERATU D2 (post-rockers Mogwai reinterpreting choice moments from The Fall's illustrious back catalogue. Their songs make for a snotty, sneering listen and are as giddily hypnotic as they are unsettling - NME)

GOO GOO GANG DJS TIL LATE

may 3rd wednesday

THE LONG WEEKEND (stone roses meets the coral in an amusement park on fire)
DIRTBLONDE (the jesus and mary chain versus sonic youth and the stooges but dirtier)
GOO GOO GANG DJS TIL LATE

may 10th wednesday

DIE! DIE! DIE! ("one of the highlights of this year's SXSW" - With an emphasis on rhythm and volume, Die! Die! Die! create a driving sound that is immediate and visceral, while retaining enough melody to keep their songs in your head long after their short set has come to a close)

DEAD SPIES (tight trouser of spiky noise with not a little melody. With influences from both sides of 1977, both sides of the Atlantic (and, in fact, both sides of the Channel), the sound is timeless and captivating and these deceased spooks are ready to attack the world of 2006)

V/FORMATION (currently making a splash on both sides of the irish sea, V//Formation's knack for indie-rock melodies is surpassed only by their ability to deliver hooks peter pan would be scared of - NME)

GOO GOO GANG DJS TIL LATE

may 17th wednesday

MALAJUBE (french punk pop)

THE TAMBORINES (They look great, they sound divine and theyre called Lulu, Veronique and Henrz. Im hooked. My first thought is that they remind me of The Primitives when the Prims was good and when Cool Paul Court sang, like on Laughing Up My Sleeve - simple, fizzing tunes that make you go, Oh yeah! When they play single What Took You So Long they manage to out-Love The Loves, with a fuzzpop blast of fringe-shaking sonic gorgeousness. kittenpainting.com)

THE MEASURES (This unsigned multi-national five-piece are destined for great things - Xfm)

WHIPS OF MERCY (playing white noise, feedback, three chords or less kinda thing the band are zero and one backed up by the amazingly talented whip boys and girls)

GOO GOO GANG DJS TIL LATE

GOONITE MARCH LISTINGS

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 17:52:00 -0800

GOONITE CLUB / BUFFALO BAR 259 UPPER STREET, HIGHBURY & ISLINGTON STATION TICKETS £5 / £4 (otherwise advised*) telephone 0207 3596191 doors open 8.30 - late bar (info: www.goomusic.net) march 8th wednesday* ENVELOPES THE SOMATICS THE POISE RITE tickets £6/£5 march 15th wednesday ROSEMARY CHILDREN SOULSMITH march 22nd wednesday THE METRO RIOTS LR ROCKETS GIN PANIC march 29th wednesday LUX LUTHER WAXPLANET THE JAKPOT april 5th wednesday HEADLAND THE SOFA CLUB april 12th wednesday THE MADELEINES BLACK RAMPS DRAGONFLIES DRAW FLAMES april 19th wednesday KILL THE YOUNG THE TAMBORINES THE BATTLES OF WINTER

Tour photos, Aus and Japan with The Subways

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 01:32:00 -0800

The Subways Big Day Out - Part 3

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 00:01:00 -0800

Part 3

Charlotte's diary…

"We arrive in Tokyo, Japan at 6pm at night, after leaving Perth at 11pm at night, so it feels like we have missed a nights sleep. Then comes the awesome drive in to Shibuya, central Tokyo. It is the most beautiful urban space I've ever seen, and even though we have been here before it is still a shocking sight. We all feel rather weird and spaced out! What is even weirder is that the first people we see at the hotel are The Magic Numbers and M.I.A, who were the last people we saw in Perth. Are we still in Australia?!"

We all adore Japan. It's the bands second time here and there's a huge expectancy that these shows are going to be a success. This is mainly due to last summer's Summersonic festival when 12000 kids turned up to watch the band at 11am. The Subways were recently voted the brightest hope for the future by Crossbeat readers, one of Japan's largest music mags. Fingers crossed.

After checking into the Tokyo Excel hotel in Shiboja Charlotte, Billy, Rie (label rep) and me head out in search of Sushi. It doesn't take long, surprisingly! The restaurant has a special offer on and we each order 13 pieces which, any Sushi lover will tell u, is just plain greedy.

The morning brings more Promo for the band. Promo in Japan is a little different. Partially as most interviews are conducted in Japanese with an interpreter but it's more than that. When it comes to music, fashion goes hand in hand, more so then elsewhere. We do a photo shoot with Eyescream magazine in the morning and then proceed to Tokyo FM for an acoustic set and on air interview. Crossbeat, Showcase and FM802 follow.

The first Tokyo show is amazing. MTV was down to film it and I can't wait to get hold of the footage. Electric Eel Shock open with their special batch of heavy duty rock and roll. Crazy boys! The show starts at 7.30pm which is really bizarre to us. The audience goes wild for two hours and then leaves quietly post show. The whole place is spotless by 9.30pm and I mean spotless. No cigarette buts, no glasses, no rubbish, no cans, no PA system (all packed away), no instruments, no merch desk, no anything… just shinny surfaces. The band came off at 9pm, only 30mins ago, and the place looks like it's just been built and opened. It's just another facet of this amazing culture. It's so organised. We all know, to the minute, when we are soundchecking, light checking, eating, playing, all a little different from the UK and a hell of a lot easier.

On we go, by train, to Nagoya. The band LOVES train journeys, especially Josh, who's not a great flyer and actually adores boat trips, unlike Charlotte who hates ferries and prefers to fly (booking transport is so much fun). The Carriage is really warm and we all doze off.

They do an IN ROCK Mag interview and shoot before soundcheck and again the show kicks arse but we've all been secretly waiting for the evening, our first party night in Japan. The band have been asked to DJ at a club in town and we've all packed our ipods to play some tunes. The club runs a crazy competition before the music starts and then all hell breaks loose as Billy, Charlotte and Ed (Our troublesome lighting engineer) tear up the dancefloor. I'm not sure u could actually call their random drunken playing of pop, punk and indie tunes DJing but they sure did rock the place. Josh and me propped up the bar and put the world to rights or just talked sh*t, one of the two, really can't remember.

Back we go to Tokyo for a gig at The Astro Hall. The T shirts are flying out which is always a good indicator that the kids are enjoying the shows. They seem to have reached a constant level of excellence at the moment which is a joy to be witness to.

Charlotte recalls her evening in Tokyo (just about that is, believe me, she got very wobbly towards the end of it)…

"We were not fully prepared for the reaction that we received as we went onstage and began to play "With You" on the first night here, it's was the same again tonight, everyone was going nuts and singing all the words, we can't help but grin at each other throughout the gigs here. It's quite unbelievable that we can come to Japan and still have people singing along to all the lyrics…

After the amazing show we were all invited to a party at a club called 'Vanity' just down from the hotel. When we arrived the queue was huge.... The place was really cool, loads of different rooms and packed full of colourful characters. I met up with my friends Michelle and Angela from The Magic Numbers and then Franz Ferdinand turned up to lend their hands to the decks. Both bands are in the city playing shows together. There was lots of sake. I remember having a nice chat with my new friend Alex Kapranos. Then more sake and vodka appeared. The DJ somehow persuaded me to sing along on the mic to "OH yeah" when he played it. Hmm….

The next thing i know I'm on the train to Osaka and my head hurts....."

Osaka has come all too quickly. It's the last show in Japan, for a while at least. It's heaving again, another venue on the 8^th floor as well. Really strange, you go up in the elevator, passing floors of shops, restaurants and cafés, up to the top level where the venue is located. I'm not completely sure how they got all the PA system and equipment up here but u get the impression the Japanese could sort out anything. There's another group of fans downstairs who've been waiting all day to say hi to the band. It's been amazing really, at every stop we've had, train stations, hotels, venues, radio stations and even at the airport there has been some Japanese kids with presents for the band, all asking for The Subways to sign photos, CDs, T Shirts. The band have received incredible support out here. We were warned that Japanese audiences were cold and unresponsive but it's so untrue, there are many differences here but the fans rock out just as hard, if not harder, then I've seen elsewhere.

Rock on Japan ! we'll be back for more Sake and plum wine quicker then you can say "Who ate my Sushi?"

The End (for now). Tune in for reports from The Subways road trip around the US coming very soon…

The Subways Big Day Out - Part 2

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 00:01:00 -0800

Part 2

The next morning we packed up the guitars and headed for MTV TRL. The band had been invited on the show to perform 2 tracks, Rock and Roll Queen and Oh Yeah. They shipped in thirty 14-year-old girls, all looking very pleased with themselves, who all politely clapped and cheered in all the right places. We then did an interview in a huge fake plane sponsored by Lynx (only on TV). I still have no idea what half the people on TV sets actually do. Everyone's got a head set with radio and look super important. Also, at every MTV studio I've ever been to everyone's impossibly good looking, especially the London Camden office where u always feel really scruffy when u take a walk around. I think they all change clothes at Lunchtime to keep up with the latest trends.

That night we packed up all our stuff, once more, and the next morning we flew into Melbourne…

Nobody had been looking forward to Melbourne. There had been a rumour going around for a while that it was 45 degrees C, 45 f&*king degrees, that's insane! I didn't know hot went that high. At best we were to expect a few very uncomfortable days and at worst we'd be struggling to move or breath. Turned out that the placed had chilled out and it was, in fact, possible to walk on arrival. We walked straight to the pub, a traditional English pub. It was one of the crew's birthdays and we decided to celebrate in style, pie and mash all round and some Double Diamond. The Food took 2 hours to arrive (typically English).

Melbourne show day and it's a hot one again. First and only show in a tent on the tour and the crowd is really impressively sweaty. Another amazing performance! Rock and Roll Queen leaves the crowd gasping for more (and air). We have a couple of days in Melbourne, which means no press today. This is a very rare occurrence, one we need to make the most of, it means we actually have some time to watch some music and enjoy the festival. Charlotte and me sketch out a brief timetable and head over to see Franz play, the side of stage is locked so we head out front and join the crowd in a massive sing along to Take Me Out. The boys shake the place up but it's Iggy who rocks it. He invites a mass of crazed fans, who can't believe their luck, on stage during the set. One fan manages to take a photo of himself hugging Iggy on his Camera phone whilst on stage (genius). The Stooges guitarist hides behind his Amp stack, he's obviously all to familiar with Iggy's antics. Most entertaining. We raid the dressing room for the last of the beer and settle in to watch The White Stripes, who are breathtaking, and then finish the night back in The Essential tent clapping along to Shihad. Knackered we head back to the hotel, stop briefly at the aftershow and then hit the sack.

Up and about for another lazy arse day in Aus. We hook up with Tony Mott, a resident English photographer. We'd all been given a book of his work in the Gold Coast that indicated that he'd pretty much photographed every big band for the last 20 years. He had now invited The Subways to do a shoot out and about in Melbourne. The band requested he used his fish eye lens for some shots, which makes Charlotte's legs look 6 feet long. It was pretty much the quickest and most productive shoot we've ever done. Beats US shoots that last 4 hours and you get one photo. Josh always shys away having his photo taken and doesn't enjoy being filmed but Tony makes all three of them feel really relaxed which to me plays a huge part in taking great band shots, especially of The Subways.

The 31^st brings another day of promo, MCM Entertainment, MX, Undercover, Impress and SynTV all get a piece of The Subways and the 1^st brings a support to the King's of Leon at Melbourne Palace. All goes to plan…

Next stop Adelaide…

I wake Friday morning and head for breakfast, on the way out I pick up a copy of local paper 'The Adelaide Advertiser' and almost fall over as on the front cover The Subways smile back at me. It keeps getting better and better this tour! A massive thanks at this point to Lauren from the advertiser who made this happen. As you can imagine this helps make Adelaide off the scale as pretty much everybody turns out to watch the band including a who's who of rock bands side of stage. We all take the afternoon off, as we can't stop smiling, and check out some of the other stages. Taking in M.I.A (best beats), The End of Fashion (best looking), Wolfmother (best hair/ eyebrows), The Magic Numbers (best Smiles and Melodies), Soulwax (just the best really), The Living End (Best use of a beer bottle to play guitar). The Grates (craziest singer - we love u Patience). A grand day really.

The final stop on the big day out tour takes us to Perth. On arrival we hook up with Stacey, a good friend of the band and mine. She's originally from Australia but now runs The Buffalo Bar in London where The Subways played their first London show (at 15). She's been on holiday out here for a couple of weeks and is keen to show the band around her hometown. We have 2 hours free so we go for a ride about and end up on the beach. I haven't been in the ocean for years and it feels amazing. Another reminder, as if we needed one, of how beautiful this country is.

We're in a rush though. We've got to get to Sound check. About a week ago I received an email from Candy at the Amplifier Bar who invited the band to play a last minute sideshow in Perth. We've had about 4 days to promote and we're all a bit nervous about it. We're not actually sure anyone is going to turn up. But they do, in there hundreds! This place is very like the Buffalo Bar back home, OK so the Amplifier boosts an outside courtyard with pool table and cocktail bar which wouldn't really work in the London smog but it's red, it's dark and it's very punk rock. The back room is packed when the band hit the stage and they storm into a fast, rockin 30 min set. They were planning to play for longer but Billy's voice is pretty horse. It reacts badly to the air conditioning in hotels and aeroplanes but I can't help thinking that the partying till 6am two nights prior maybe partly to blame.

The last show at Big Day Out goes to plan, again Billy is struggling to hit the notes in 'Mary' and 'A Plain Above' but the performance is relentless.

So it's time, the time we've all been dreading. bye bye sun, bye bye sand, bye bye Aus. We pack the band kicking and screaming onto the plane and wave a teary goodbye. We'll be back that I'm sure of. Many thanks to all those involved in making The Subways Big Day Out festival something they will never forget !!