Matt photographed the band on the road between 2012-2014.

Directions and opening times here, Matt’s site here.

AP: What did you do before becoming a Tour Manager?
AD: My career in the music industry goes back almost 25 years to 1990, when the dance scene was blowing up in Scotland (where I’m from). I was DJing and running raves, then started to manage bands and set up small record labels. Apart from a short time after I left school when I worked in some clothes shops, this is the only business I know. I’ve been friends with Jehnny – Savages‘ singer – for many years, and when they formed the band, they asked me if I would be their tour manager. I love live music, customer service and travelling, and it came at a time of my life when I didn’t quite know which way to turn, so I agreed immediately

AP: When we think about touring with a band, and being in charge of the tour, it seems like a dream job! But after reading your blog, one could have second thoughts. Would you tell us a little about it, the pro and the cons?
AD: It is a dream job, in that I actually dream about it a lot. Last night I dreamt that an airline had lost our merchandise case. Not very exciting. The pros for me are, as I said, it combines three things I love: live music, customer service and travelling. The band and crew are my friends, and although even friends piss each other off sometimes, they’re great to tour with. I’ve seen the world, twice. I’m pretty lucky. But it can be a very demanding, very tiring job, and it’s not easy to have a life outside of it sometimes. You quickly learn where your limits are; how much sleep you can survive on, how good your memory actually is, his strong your back is, how much patience you have for idiots. It’s a good way to learn about yourself, and others

AP: After some time doing this, what are your hopes and dreams? Did they change as time passed?
AD: My hope is that I always get seven hours sleep each night. I guess that’s a dream sometimes too. I also hope that I fix my mistakes before anyone notices. And I dream that, one day, the level of customer service and production in UK venues will reach the same levels as venues in mainland Europe. But it’s probably never going to happen

AP: Tell us about your blog. What is the purpose of it?
AD: My family have never been able to quite get their heads around what I do for a living. My Dad was an engineer and my Mum worked for mental health charities for a long time, and in sales. They’ve both retired. They’ve never worked in my industry so I take my time to explain to them, and to friends too. I’m also asked about it by people who would like to work in the music business, who don’t know which route to take. Tour management can be such a huge, involving, complicated job sometimes, but always very interesting, I think, so it seemed like a good idea to write a blog. Also, I’ve 25 years of experience in the industry and I think that those of who have experience should do what we can to give it to others. I’m not lecturing at the moment, so the blog is a good way to disseminate some of my knowledge.

AP: Would you say that you do the dirty work? 
Yes, though so does anyone in the crew. We work the longest hours and do the ‘heavy lifting’. My day is the longest. I’m up first, to bed last, and have very little time to myself, except maybe in the shower.

AP: How is it to be in charge of a girls’ band like Savages?
I guess it’s different, but when people ask me they always assume it must be worse working with women for some reason. That seems strange to me. Women tend to be more attentive to their personal hygiene than men on the road, and that’s pretty important when you’re next to someone for 18 hours a day. I once toured with a band where one of them only showered every 8-9 days or so.

AP: What do you do when you are not touring?
AD: I manage three artists: East India Youth (who’s taking all my time and resources right now), Civil Civic (who are writing their second album) and Hanne Hukkelberg (who’s writing her fifth).

AP: Who will you tour with this summer?
AD: East India Youth. I’m thinking, though, that I might take some work with another band in the summer, or a few bands for short tours. I need the money. Management isn’t lucrative in the first two years!

AP: How was your whole South American experience with Savages? 
AD: It was generally very good. We did 5 shows in 14 days, which is not very many. This meant we had a lot of free time. I like free time, but I prefer it when it’s my own time, and when I’m touring, it’s not. Even on a day off I have to be available in case anyone needs me. And festivals aren’t very hard work. You arrive on site quite close to your stage time, do the show, then you can leave if you like. You’re part of a far bigger machine then and so the work isn’t so hard. I like working at festivals, but prefer venues when it’s our own show. It’s harder work and I like the work to be a challenge. It keeps me interested. We got to spend time in Santiago, where they put us in a beautiful five star hotel which I didn’t want to leave! Then we went to Buenos Aries, which felt like a really pumped-up European city. I didn’t like it so much, but I really enjoyed what we did there; some tango clubs, good bars, antique shopping, and great food. In Bogotá the weather was very wet, very humid and the pollution from the cars was crazy. Like nothing I’d experienced anywhere else. I didn’t really want to leave the hotel, but did, of course. Matt (our sound engineer) and I went for a walk downtown and explored. We were pretty much the only gringoes we saw the whole day, and we walked around areas we probably shouldn’t have, but sitting in your hotel room isn’t the way to have good experiences in new counties. São Paulo was another new kind of experience. It’s enormous, and the pollution was worse than Bogotá. More people die each year there from air pollution-related illness than car accidents, breast cancer, and AIDS combined. That’s insane. Again, I didn’t like the city much, but really liked what we did… particularly drinking in Samba bars. I should say that the best thing about all of the visits have been the people we’ve met. I realise we travel in a kind of ‘arts bubble’, and people are pretty much paid to be nice to us, but anyway, that’s the thing I remember the most. After South America we spent two days in Mexico City, which I’ve visited before and already liked. That was the last show of the tour and probably the last show of the year, so I’ll just say that when a band and crew decide it’s time to party, they know what to do. There’s a crazy story about the last night but it’s probably best I keep it to myself!

AP: Would you recommend your job to another person
AD: I would, but it’s not for everyone. If you’re looking for a stable relationship, it’s probably not for you, unless your partner is very, very understanding. Or is also a tour manager

The 7″ vinyl features ‘Jehnny’ and ‘Del Rio’, inspired by two of the most important women of his life: his partner Jehnny Beth and 1970’s pornstar Vanessa Del Rio.

“I’m not gonna hide behind any lies” – says Hostile on his blog – “so yes, my performance on stage is highly influenced by Suicide’s Alan Vega. I’ve got no pretentions about giving you something completely new: I perpetuate an old tradition of Rock & Roll and I’m proud of it. My love for the great live performers  is infinite. Vega, Interior. Verlaine, Reed, Bowie, Elvis, Cash, Piccioto, Byrne, Smith, Brown, Jackson, Kuti, Plant, Cave…”

You can buy the download here, buy the vinyl here and get a taste of it live here then, if you’re in the mood, you can hit him up on Facebook, see if he’ll show you his special tattoo.

[Cover shot by the talented Mr. Colin Lane]

Follow @5000projectmgmt

It’s been a while since I wrote from the road, and I’ve been prompted by my friend, colleague and gentleman Matt Farrar‘s photography. Matt’s the sound engineer for a band called Savages, while I play tour manager, driver, merchandise shop-keeper. Last night we had our first club show in the Netherlands. After performing on the Dutch version of Later With Jools Holland – ‘De Wereld Draait Door‘ – we arrived in the town of Nijmegen, just a few miles from the West German border. The venue was Merelyn, a two-hundred capacity room downtown, and we were welcomed with typical Dutch hospitality and professionalism by stage manager Loes and lighting engineer Lennard. We lounged backstage until soundcheck, after being amply fed and watered, and it was then that Matt took his pictures, originally posted on his own blog.

After playing this summer at Festival de-Affaire in this town, and the incredible Into The Great Wide Open on the island of Vlieland, we were curious about how those performances and our TV appearance might translate to audience numbers. The venue filled up quickly and as Fay, Gemma, Ayse and Jehnny weaved their way through an anticipatory crowd toward a smoke-obscured stage, Loes let me know that the room was effectively sold out, populated by those who hear in Savages the resonance of ’70s and ’80s art-rock and post-punk, and are drawn toward the band’s ‘order to dance’, best typified by their debut single ‘Flying to Berlin‘, with its direct lineage to Simple Minds’ classic ‘I Travel‘ from 1979, a time when many UK artists looked toward the European mainland for their influences.

Back-lit, strobing, intelligent, intensely focussed, Savages did not deliver a vintage performance by their own high standards, but the unquestionable magnetism of their presence is such that their success tonight could be measured by the sound of one-hundred-and-eighty jaws hitting the floor.

Follow @5000mgmt

As part of the Øya music festival in 2011, Jenny performed a silent movie concert in Oslo. . Her own music accompanied the film La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (the Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s portrait of Jeanne d’Arc that dates from 1928). When Henie Onstad Art Centre approached Hval in 2011 to commission a site-specific sound installation, she decided to follow the thread she had started with Øya.

25 minutes long, the light design was created by Kyrre Heldal Karlsen, in cooperation with Jenny. During the vernissage she and Håvard Volden will perform an exclusive live version of the commissioned piece.

[Photos of Jenny by Gunhild Varvin, reproduced with the kind permission of Henie Onstad Kunstsenter]

He was supporting Scott Kelly of Neurosis who’s released a covers album of Townes Van Zandt songs. We hope to bring Oldseed back to the UK later this year but meantime, here’s some pictures from the shows, and two songs; the beautiful ‘Saving Throw vs Illusion’ and ‘Net’. You can listen to others here.

Photographs by Andy Inglis

Clash Music
“Surely the most innovative, mesmerising and disquieting set this venue has seen in a while, full of the discordant arrangements that make Hukkelberg’s sound so distinctive. Unsettling and utterly compelling, as Hukkelberg resigns herself to her demons, and we along with her, after what has been a journey through the underworld of her mind.”
Read the review by Theresa Heath

Dalston Sound
Hukkelberg’s magnificent, unstressed voice carries the weight of songs that are variously confessional, yearning, and rawly emotive. The set takes an increasingly dramatic arc through all these moods, and the intimacy of their delivery forges a real communion with the audience – a gratifyingly full house. Overstatement isn’t Hukkelberg’s style, and it’s the sense of her music unfolding a personal psychological dramaturgy that holds her audience in thrall.”
Read the review by Tim Owen

The Tremolo Beer Gut
They love tremolo, they love beer and they’ve got guts. Man, if only every band’s name was so focussed. TBG are the world’s premier retro-surf-rock band and their records explode with original-yet-classic compositions, recorded boldly in mono, dual stereo and whichever way the band damn-well pleases. Live, they’re always a dangerous encounter.

Lars and The Hands of Light
This Copenhagen quartet released their first album ‘The Looking Glass’ in the spring of 2010, an exceptionally mature and coherent debut. The band has toured as opening act for The Raveonettes and Belle and Sebastian among others (who like them very much indeed).

Snake & Jet’s Amazing Bullit Band
Snake & Jet or Thor and Thomas, if you prefer. The only band that’s both laissez-faire and perfectionist, lo-fi and hi-fi.  Their first single, ‘Black Egg’ was Clash Magazine’s Track of The Day.

730 doors
830 Lars and The Hands of Light
930 Snake and Jet’s Amazing Bullit Band
1030 The Tremolo Beer Gut

Listen:

Facebook invite here.

The lastest Stool Pigeon – a Record Store Day special – features John Lydon, Beggars’ Martin Mills, Geoff Barlow, Jim Jarmusch and the usual borderline-libellous cartoons and gossip.

Rob’s just published his book ‘Wake Me When It’s Over (‘My Life as a New York Rock Club Owner and the Story of The Luna Lounge)’ and we were real excited when the postman dropped it round the other day. We’re only on page 50 so far (sorry; we’re slow readers) but already his honest and humbling account of his childhood in Brooklyn, and his tales of brushes with Ray Davies, Debbie Harry and a 16-year-old Johnny Depp have had us rapt.

You can buy it here.

And you should.