Category: Scribblings
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Mandy’s Lost Years – US Tour 2010
The drive to Pittsburgh isn’t too long, so we’re okay with it, but we’re sad to be leaving Fort Wayne, where we’ve been treated like High Kings. The good news is that Pittsburgh shares three rivers with Fort Wayne. At least we’re not leaving it all behind. There are two places that Mandy our sat-nav/GPS…
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Dun Uaine (Wayne’s Fort) – US Tour 2010
The following day, we make for Fort Wayne where we’re playing Come2Go, a very well-equipped, flashy space in downtown Fort Wayne. Brad looks after us here and when I say that he looks after us, I mean, he’s the most generous fella you could ever meet. The venue is huge, and they have a guy…
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‘Ark the ‘Erald – US Tour 2010
We arrived in Ann Arbor and narrowly escaped the clutches of an awful hotel downtown, on a cold and snowy night. Bizarrely, he recommends that we stay at the Best Western, which we do, except someone has rebranded it as a Clarion. It’s a nice hotel, and deathly quiet – maybe five other rooms occupied…
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Gremlins of Mind & Sound – US Tour 2010
Tonight we play in SPACE, which is a phrase I’ll never tire of hearing. The final frontier. The beautiful and large venue, restaurant and recording studio in Evanston IL, is just north of Chicago. The area needed a centre like this for a long time, and the locals have really taken to it. We have…
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More Ways to Skate in (a) Town and Country
The Grotto are playing at the Soiled Dove in Denver tonight. The drive from Carbondale to Denver is on a good highway, well gritted, but it’s hairy at times. The roads are thick with snow, slush and ice, and the windscreen washers freeze over, forcing us to stop every so often to wash the caked…
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People in Motion – US Tour 2010
So yes, I’m quoting the song that most San Franciscans must be thoroughly sick of. Hardly a way to endear myself to them, but I needed a title to tie in somehow with this trip north towards Sacramento and San Fran. We’ve officially left SoCal and our friends there, and we’ve been driving through strange…
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SongRise 3
The US Tour starts in early February in California, so I’m leaving on Monday 1st with Kevin from the Guggenheim Grotto. We’re all running around doing our last minute When the tour starts in earnest, we’ll start our tour blog too. Until then I just wanted to draw your attention to this compilation : Wave…
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US Tour Summer 2009 – The Trials of Betsy MPV
The Grotto’s van, Betsy, was a real war horse. A loaner from Miguel, one of Kevin’s cousins, the Mazda saw us through some incredible mileage and awful storms. From day one, she was packed to the gills. We determined early on that there was only one or two ways to fit all of our equipment…
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US Tour Summer 2009 – Sarkozy’s Wham-like Debut Album
NB. I’ve had some previously unpublished blogs from the US tour this summer that I’ve decided to release into the wild. They’ll be appearing here over the next couple of days. Hope you enjoy! I watched Dylan’s “No Direction Home” with Chris & Liz in Brooklyn the other night. It was extremely entertaining, even just…
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US Tour Summer 2009 – Driving Miss Mobile
NB. I’ve had some previously unpublished blogs from the US tour this summer that I’ve decided to release into the wild. They’ll be appearing here over the next couple of days. Hope you enjoy! Driving in the US has been quite easy for us Irish drivers. Huge wide roads. Satellite Navigation systems that work because…