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from mike baggetta:
"How lucky and fortunate is this band that right after we tour the US for our 3rd album On And On release Haru Tour 2025 that we get to bring all the new music over to Ireland and the UK for the first time ever for mssv?! I can't wait to get the chance to play this music for a whole new part of the world that we have never played before as a band together!
"There is something really exciting to me about getting to play music in a land that I don't live in. The unknown ways in which things can translate, or not, about the music to audiences is what I mean. "They" say music is a universal language, but there are also things in the music I make that I know are inspired by my "American-ness" - whatever that means - and I always am curious how that plays out to an international audience. I am also excited to wonder about the new friends and ears we may make over there in this new place for us to play.
"The other thing I am thankful for in thinking about this IE-UK Tour is that even though it will be a new land for mssv music to be played in, we will still be together to do it (I know, kind of obvious, but still important to me). Its exciting and a little scary to explore a new place alone, but I find it even more meaningful to explore a new place, AND bring the music there, with friends in this band that I look up to and get inspired by every day and have a long time friendship with. I don't feel so alone, in a traveling way, but have some familiarity with my homeland while still venturing forth, even though every show still kind of feels exciting like I don't know exactly what's gonna happen!
"Anyways, all this to say that mssv is psyched to bring this music to our Ireland and UK friends for the very first time this May and June, 2025. Please come out and say hi - can't wait to meet you all!"
(click here for tour flyer)
mssv
"ie-uk tour 2025"
thu, may 29 at the prince albert
48 trafalgar street
brighton, england
fri, may 30 at the ramsgate music hall
13 turner street
ramsgate, england
sat, may 31 at the joiners
141 saint mary street
southampton, england
sun, june 1 at fuel
5 womanby street
cardiff, wales
mon, june 2 at a-r-c
67 greenland street
liverpool, england
tue, june 3 at gullivers
109 oldham street
manchester, england
wed, june 4 at nice n sleazy
421 sauchiehall street
glasgow, scotland
thu, june 5 at voodoo
11a fountain street
belfast, northern ireland
fri, june 6 at luca records and decks
23 michael street
waterford, ireland
sat, june 7 at cleere's bar
28 parliament street
kilkenny, ireland
sun, june 8 at the grand social
35 liffey street
dublin, ireland
mon, june 9 at the blue lamp
121 gallowgate
aberdeen, scotland
tue, june 10 at the cluny
36 lime street
newcastle, england
wed, june 11 at the trades club
holme street
hebden bridge, england
thu, june 12 at exchange
72 old market street
bristol, england
fri, june 13 at the face bar
ambrose place / chatham street
reading, england
sat, june 14 at the lexington
96 pentonville road
london, england
thursday, may 29, 2025 - brighton, england
from mike:
Driving feeling good
Cool weather, feeling jitters
Good first gig, clams too!
from watt:
two days ago on tuesday morning my pedro town I pop at five of three, been doing those early pops since I got back from the first stage of this mssv touring, lots of times earlier - whatev, this is where I am now in my life and I feel it fits me. yeah, I'm the most fit I've been since I was first helping the stooges, in 2003 which was right after that illness 'pert-near killed me. it's been three weeks and three days since the last gig of our "haru tour 2025" and cuz mike lives out in florida (gainesville), we're starting the baby off w/no prac! well, fiftytwo gigs in fiftytwo days might've pounded the set pretty good into us so we'll see. I cook myself up some mollejas (chicken gizzards) in olive oil sauted w/onions, a whole lot of ginger (I don't want anything left in the 'fridge while I'm gone), the rest of the celery I got and some brussels sprouts. my missingmen drummerman raul's gonna take me to the airport, so very fuckin righteous of him, he's gonna alley at one, pally. I get my all my backups done along w/packing - taking just two wack sacks, one for the 'puter and one for my ropas. I've gotten real tiny on shit-bringing for tour, I'm gonna say two here but understand one is on me so the other one's in sack: two pairs of socks, two pairs of levis, two of those turtle neck shirts my sister melinda got me to go w/the jacket she sewed for me from photos off the internet of "the prisoner" (that was my favorite tv show when I moved to cali from virginia) I wore last tour and maybe I wear it for all my tours now cuz I love it so much. got it dry cleaned at the dry cleaners a couple blocks from here, it's made out of thick wool so washing machines for this bambino. mail my last checks for my last bills... just over three weeks away but that's still away, correct? my sister melinda will get my mail when I'm gone, very key. I drive down to warehouse one and by the pilot's station to get one look of these parts of pedro, I go up to my prac pad too so I can look down on 'pert-near my whole home town in one look. crimony, no wonder the built fort mac here... the whole fuckin harbor right there...
raul gets to my pad a little early - he's that way, no prob from me about that. we have a real good rap about stuff like our new "static" album - all his parts are done, I gotta bring the spiel and a little more bass... it was twentyone years ago when I first toured w/raul... he took jer's place in the secondmen for sixtyfive days in sixtysix days ("el mar cura todo") and he tore it up, so much respect for him, of course peetzo too - solid cats for watt to count on, let me tell you: they are still doing that, tearing it up w/me all this time later. really good fuckin cats. we have a real good spiel, seems like we're at lax like that! crimony. he drops off at the bradley terminal and I check in at british airways, they let me bring bof sacks on w/out charging me more. of course it's smart for someone like me to get there three hours before take-off, it's 'pert-near a half hour for my crutch when I go through security, no prob though if you take it easy and that's what I big time do at airport cuz I kind of really having to go them, big crowds are scary cuz for me, a little dangerous. I find the most isolated place I can near my gate and cool the fuck out. I can see the boeing 777 that I'm gonna be on. I had to do so much of this to help the stooges but still it was worth. last time was last year for the fratelli and our third album "terzo" and it was well worth, very happening for me to get to do that. I got an albert ayler seat but damn if the ten (eleven all told being in the back of the metal tube breathing farts) hour flight don't beat the fuck out of me. crimony. I just ain't used to it and my body in that position... well, I don't wanna belly-ache too much about cuz I really wanna do this for mike and hodge - oh, hodge is in the seat behind me. crimony. that was a good thing cuz no knees ever in my back cuz of him but the "hey I'm in the dentist chair" clown all over me was some real hell. what to do but bear it and be glad I made it safe. entry into england was really quick w/this e-gate trip, I had to do a "eta" form via my leash last week so hardly any line and the 'puter face scan was like that, no people involved. mike's there to pick us bof up at terminal five (though we landed at terminal three) just after noon. crimony. he's got a 2021 mercedes-benz vito 114 minivan outfitted for touring, most happening I think for our sitch... fits us four and all the stuff in the back real ok. mike's doing on the wheel-work this tour, not one mile from watt. he even came a day early to prac cuz he's never drive on the wrong side of the road before (at least not on purpose) and one thing in our favor, even though he's never driven starboard-drive before, it's more suited for this sitch then me when I had dutch dude carlos booking my europe gigs where we always rented tour boats on the continent where it's port-side drive cuz of driving on the starboard. he's being careful and he's doing good, I think. big respect to him. heathrow is on the west side of london and not too far from there is ealing where mike got a konk pad over the interent. there was a little drizzle but not much, looks like it's blowing out and I lay real sore body out to recover that fucking hard thing for me, that flight. of course it could've be so much worse, absolute but still, it took it's toll. I can get back to where I was though, just need the rest of the day here being real calm. I do got work to do moving the hoot page cuz of a migration my hosting company's doing so I can just do 'puter stuff all laid out. there's several times when I konk - the other thing is my pedro town eight hours behind england time here but I can do it. fuck, it's tour seventythree for me... I can do this. I take the biggest fuckin soak I can in the tub here, that helps buttloads. I can't remember how or when I konk.
gig day and I pop at seven. I hose off and swallow coff. man, my body feels way way better. whoa. at sixtyseven I can still snap back. crimony. I do as much as I can 'puter-wise 'til mike has us pull anchor at eleven for gig number one. the traff of course is plug city but at least it's fuckin 'm' roads mostly. mike told me yesterday it took him and hodge three hours to go eight miles total to get the fuckin cymbals. crimony. I'm riding up front along side mike, just like the other mssv tours we've done but he's on the conn cuz of the sitch, aitn't that a trip. ok, before the 'm' road, there's our first fuel-up of the tour - diesel - not gas (called petrol here) unless you wanna end the tour w/a dead boat and big time fix-it cost - at an "esso" for £1.42/liter, about $7.25/gallon... based on one pound being about $1.35 u.s. right now. not cheap and no squeegees either... can understand the first part of that statement but not the second. crimony. trippy too cuz you see lots of times big-ass jugs of cleaning fluid for sale out in front of filling stations over here, for me some kind of taunt... gets to me thinking about my drinking thing - maybe the fifth tour w/out and smelling the stuff at the gig pads doesn't bother me... what gets me hankering kind of big time is signs on liquor stores - yeah, that shit is crazy on me! over here their liquor pads let you know by saying "off license" over the hatch or in the window. crimony, I saw one yesterday across the street from the konk pad in ealing and it seemed it was also a physio pad (maybe kind of like a chiropractor?) but maybe it just looked that way cuz it was right next store. whatever, I gotta a hold of myself when I'm either hobbling or driving and see one - ain't that a trip? crimony. 882 days w/out alcohol for me today... big time crimony. it's like deja-vu all over again heading back to heathrow but then we get on the m-25 ring road so we can get to the m-25 south to brighton, southest you can go in these parts. mike drives good and calm. there's pendejos alongside us driving like pendejos like in the u.s. but he thinks fewer... well, I'm w/that for fuckin sure!
great job from mike for his first hellride to a gig for the tour! we drop anchor a quarter after one: 135 minutes to do 73 miles, ok. first gig of the tour, the gig pad's in downtown brighton and called the prince albert - familiar big time to me in a way - I've played this pad once before... twelve years ago w/my italian fratelli on the il sogno del marinaio europe tour 2013 and damn if it don't seem like bof just yesterday and at the same moment a fuckin lifetime ago. crimony. yep, right by the main strain station and yep, that graffiti of them two cops kissing still on the bulkhead where we load in the gear, first one of the tour. an olde-timey england style pub all the way, we play upstairs where's there's a little stage and memories coming flooding back to me of the gig we had here, dug it much and hope to tonight also... even w/no prac! hey, we did just fiftytwo gigs straight of this stuff a little over three weeks ago, correct? we can do it! a helperlady named liva shows miss hiyori how to run the washer, most happening they got this in the dressing room where I plant my culo to do my first dairy chimping of the tour. the pad co-managerman (I think that's his rank) will comes up w/some drum stuff we rap some, he's very cool people. he's a stickman w/a beat in his hand and I go on about drummermen from this land I really dig, there's a buttload of them.
mike comes by w/some "mozambique chicken" which is half a broiled pollo w/some spices plus on the side some steamed broccoli and some salad that's w/out lettuce which is prolly lame description but I like chowing all three together. yesterday I had shawarma miss hiyori said was from an iraqi bakery near the konk pad which was real good. the doorman chris comes to say hi and we talk about pads I've played here in brighton... from "the zap" to here to "sticky mike's frog bar" (where he says he met me) to "the green door store" to "the hope and ruin" to back to here. crimony. he's very kind to me, good cat. it makes you feel good to be alive to help people like mike w/music and then folks like this you work w/one night but they bring the good spirit, you know? most bitchin. speaking of which, alex from barefaced arrives around four - his company's pad is real close though he said he's moving to the suburbs soon...
love his bass stuff and he's letting me borrow a supertwin for the tour along w/his wattplower that reverend gutiars boss ken hass gave him. what a kind kind bassbrother! I was also gonna use his new amp but it's still in development, he gave me an aguillar tone hammer 350 to use instead. we have a real good spiel about all kinds of stuff - like music being made of sounds and not just notes (notes are a subset of sounds, correct?). alex does part of my soundcheck, yes! it's w/soundman matt - he's also happening - everyone's happening in brighton... hey, maybe it's like the last gig of a tour, nothing goes wrong. we do two tunes for a soundcheck, our first time playing w/each other since recording the album twentyfive days ago, I blow some clams but not too bad. matt's got my amp on a rubber bad, seems gentrification is coming for this pad so they gotta help w/scissoring some of the rumble. I meet the three members of barbican estate who came down from london to open the gig, alright. I be the cat who booked this tour, jack, knows them cuz they say they're playing the last gig of the tour w/us also - at the lexington... that reminds the last time I played there, it was w/this band manflu and willy was the drummerman from brooklyn who never lost how he talked from there even though he's been living on a boat here on a canal in london for what, thirtyfive years? then there's cats who got these part's accent after six fuckin months - get me a fuckin shovel! anyway, I can't remember willy's name so thank god I chimp diary, huh? I leave to bof cure myself of the forgetting shit and that gets me into chimping what just happened so I don't fuckin forget that! eight bells comes on though and the gig starts so I go check these cats out... two of them are originally from tokyo... some one real kind comes up to bring me a stool at the front-side of the stage so I can witness the gig from a perch, safer for a cripple like myself. I really dig these cats, maybe only three tunes cuz they're long ones but that's ok, a set is a set no matter how it's divided "tune-wise" and they ain't bogarts about sharing the stage, they're right on time. I ask the drummerman when they're done if he's into jaki and he said yes - fuck yeah! I tell the other two I enjoyed very much also and can't wait to share the stage w/them again for the tour's last gig: we're bookending it!
our turn at nine, here we go: head out like a baby! right away big kindness from the brighton gig-goers though it's hard for me to see cuz of the bright lights but that's show biz, no prob. I try to bring big enthusiasm cuz what better way to get a tour lit, correct? another reason to be grateful for such kind gig-goers. mike and hodge are bringing it - remember that the two tunes at soundcheck were the only playing we've done w/each other since recording the next mssv album back on four may sunday w/chris schlarb in north long beach! trippy how the muscle memory works, especially if you don't let your mind memory get in the way! "knowing by doing," what a fucking thing, huh? I do blow some clams, the band also but they ain't that big and get this: no set list either! hodge was hesitant but mike insisted and I think that it's a good idea - I gave it up the last two weeks of last tour on purpose. look, I use a crutch to get around so I know about this kind of stuff and sure if you really need it but if you kind of don't then it's 'pert-near "like a magnet" to pull you in ways that maybe ain't the healthiest as far as bringing artistic expression to gig-goers in the moment, that's my experience anyway. I read john coltrane said you played stuff better if you had it memorized, just saying... I do fuck up the last part of the last verse of the dick hell interpretation ("another world") we do in the encore, damn me for that, got kind of stumblebummed in me trying to bring it, arrrrggghhh. I owe that man so much, so much... maybe only second to d boon as in early motivation in the movement - he blew me away on so many levels but it was in a way to make me really wanna have a punk band w/d boon, really did. I just found out about this tune him and voidoids did called "time stands still" and wrote him the day before leaving for this tour about the lyrics cuz it was hard for me to cipher but he wrote back and says he has to remember himself! crimony, it's such a mindblow for me to be able to write him like that... I would've never imagined as a nineteen year old that I would some day have that chance, no fuckin way - that shit is fully blown for me, big time. I wanna do my version of this tune, wanna do it w/brother steve reed for _uncommon sense_ proj.
first gig in the sack, I put away my stuff which is really easy w/what I'm using this tour, meanwhile much kindness and good word from the gig-goers... so many kind cats, truly. I also big time thank soundman matt for being our fourth man - I got the word from miss hiyori he was on a every moment of every tune for our set and it sounded so good - man, what a blessing to have someone like that on board w/you, truly. hey, karl's here! we gotta get that album we did five years ago out, crimony! also here is my buds from the go! team: bossman ian, jamie and brother sam (he's also my cuz bandmate), so fucking happening to see them and damn if ian don't tell me that he's glad he got to be here cuz he thought last year (when I was in town w/il sogno del marinaio) would be the last time he'd ever see me play again - what?! fuck, that scared me to hear that, I try to bof relieve him I got a buttload of tours still in me and how I fit in this mssv proj of mike baggetta's... he asks me "you alright w/that?" and I 'pert-near do a gut-split from laughing, "of course!" I answer him. I explain that maybe if I had only this going I might come down w/some kind of "sidemanitis" but I ain't that kind of sitch, far from it w/the buttloads of projs I fuckin forever wrestle, it's good to have different perspectives on the music trip for someone like me. he's from wales so I think he gets what I mean even... I then have the longest spiel w/jamie (he's a fellow bassman and can relate) about my health journey and the fucking grappling I've had w/the bottle, why I had to face up to it cuz that shift had just wound up where it did and I had put the plug in the jug. I feel good explaining it to him, he's most sincere w/me. they're ain't a greater gift a cat can share w/you I think then that, truly. brother sam ain't got a lot of time cuz he's gotta get a train to hastings where he now lives but we talk a little about the two albums worth of stuff I've given him but tell him not to worry cuz he's helping raise his boy obi and that's a bunch to do and is very important. love cuz though and hope one day to do another tour w/him... that's a great dream for me. also realizing the music for the spiels charlie plymell did for us... man, I know I've always asked a buttload from him. oh yeah, I get to share w/all the story of this coat I'm wearing that my sister melinda sewed for me - cuz actually played a festival in the village that the prisoner "took place" in back in 2015. crimony. ok, another old buddy - jose came down from london to see the show, so very good to get to hug him and rap some, so glad he got to see me in this band cuz he's seen me w/so many different things - I konked w/him and kyoko many times when the stooges had stuff in the london area, many times. big abrazos, big ones.
all packed up, no case for the little bass amp so I got it w/me in my hand! hodge says he can fit it in his throne (that's what they call a drum seat) sack if we rap in a towel, most happening. mike gets us to a konk pad he got off the internet not too far away and I hose off quick after we get in. then it's in the nightwear and konk time, so happy the tour's off to a fuckin happening begin, yatta!
friday, may 30, 2025 - ramsgate, england
from mike:
Another nice town
Really good folks here, good sound
stage confusion, broken string
from watt:
pop just before eight, crimony... must be getting used to "england time" real quick, alright! good weather out the window, alright again! still got more stuff to do w/my hoot page migration (it's bday come november will be twentynine!) so more stuff on the macpurse craptop 'til we pull anchor at eleven. exchange spiel w/peetzo back in pedro regarding the next mike watt + the missingmen album "static" cuz he's got tom watson coming over to _casa hanzo_ (his studio at his pad) to put final or 'pert-near final guitar stuff from him for it, I mentioned I think raul having completed all needs to do on drums and percush. I can a lot my stuff at studio tHUNDERpPANTS (what I got in my apartment) so peetzo can rest easy 'til I get him everything this summer, a big focus for watt - this album is important to all involved and don't wanna let anyone down including myself. I'm really kind of excited for it. next year I plan to make a secondmen one for peetzo and jer, excited about that too but like werner herzog says: "do the doable" which for me makes good sense.
bye bye brighton, we head whence we came yesterday 'til we get to that m-25 ring road and then go east instead of west. ramsgate is in a part of england called kent and is seaside town like brighton but in lots of ways different. again mike is happening w/the rudder, much respect to him. at twelve we do first piss stop of the tour, one of those "service areas" where they sling garbage chow kind of like food court thing on a u.s. turnpike (turdpipe) back home. I just get out to move my legs and this other person my age near the rented boat detects an accent I guess and do what they call "chat" or what we call "shoot the shit" and of course like the old days I say I'm from california (worked back in 1983, it works now!) and we have a good chat... she tells me she was in a four hour plug yesterday and decided "fuck it" and went home, I don't blame her. some stuff is universal, correct? mike gets to the gig pad, the ramsgate music hall" (way happening parking lot right there by their hatches!) just after two... maybe it was 110 miles? double nickels on the dime for the speed average, correct? look, it is what it is and like I ain't used to fuck staus in so cal? crimony.
mike then goes to forge for chow for us... he's a back an hour later w/the same chicken (though it didn't have the same name) as yesterday (it's also good eating) but w/a more happening salad on the side, much more arugula which I am glad for. I then hobble through the olde-timey streets down to the little "royal harbour" (the way they write it) and damn if the weather ain't like it usually is in pedro after the "may gray" (I'm spelling this way) burns off. there's buttloads of olde-timey for someone like watt to trip on so it's a slow-go as I mosey and survey...
I get back at four which is when mike says load-in is but damn if it ain't done... usually my role is guardiano cuz of my lame knee. oh well. soundman al remembers me from ten years ago when I was here w/brother sam, first and only time I played this town and dug it much. good to see al again and we have a good spiel while stuff gets set up. he tells me doug wimbish has played a bunch of times, an event called "wimbash" and man, do I wish I get to witness one of those... I just dig him so much. I tell about this one time in west hollywood I got to play all the tunes off of "maggot brain" w/him and three of p-funkers: george clinton, blackbird mcnight and kid funkadelic (michael hampton) - eric mcffaden made that happen and it was a total surprise to me... I thought it was gonna be some "blues jam in e-minor" but nope, it was the "maggot brain" album and the whole enchilada. crimony.
they got a great back stage downstairs and that's where I got to chimp diary. there's openers from a close-by town called moron butler and get myself topside soon as I hear they get the show going at eight bells. the chair I'm using for the gig is actually off the stage and by the front on the bassman's side, way happening for me to park my crippled ass and witness their gig. I really dig them... beautiful we got the first two gigs bof w/happening bands to share the stage w/, fuck yeah. they get me good and lit... I'm ready to go.
ten after nine is our turn to man the stage and we bring it. we blow more clams than last night! still I enjoy the gig - great feel from the ramsgate gig-goers, a cat named chester (mike tells me later cuz he helped w/the drum schlep) stomps up a dance storm right before us, respect. like last night, we can do the tiniest stuff and there's yammering competing w/it, zero. that's major respect in my book and I bow deep their way in recognization of such consideration cuz they big time deserve such from me, I really mean that. you cannot take for granted anyone giving you full-on focus and you know I think that's something you gotta work hard to earn, just do. I really couldn't see much cuz of the lights again but I ain't complaining, just describing the stich - I really enjoyed this gig - like last night... you know I'm thinking of last night and how I wasn't so freaked out, not just first gig but the whole thing... I think I'm getting a handle on mssv where I can bring an edge to it in a way that's still kind of developing for me, something newer these days though it's been a while coming. I mean, this was me think about stuff for just a little bit cuz mainly I'm giving mike and hodge plus the gig-goers a big part of the attention enchilada. I think I even hear the gigs in different places now during a show I'm doing - not just in the "control boof" of my head. trippy.
we get done (hey, I got that verse together in richard's tune, yatta!) and I pack my stuff - ollie's here (he's cuz brother sam's brother) and damn if he did just move to this town today, ain't that a trip?! fuck. so good to see him, I gave him and his lady a tour of my pedro town when they were in cali a couple years ago, so glad to get to do that. I just did one for stephen blume, maybe a two weeks ago? takes about four hours and I still miss out on some of stuff but love doing it. I have a good rap w/ollie but also w/a bunch of other gig-goers, lots of interesting cats... one talks w/me about david thomas, someone we just lost. david was almost kind to me... me and my missingmen did a gig w/him in highland 'pert-near two years ago and it was the last time I saw him. over the years I got the chance to do stuff w/him, one big collab was two unkown instructors albums that was an incredible experience and in fact he "conducted" the session that gave birth to those, I'll never forget it... he was stripped down to his chonies cuz we were waiting and waiting for georgie (he was real REAL late) and it was sweaty as fuck at total access - I think joe carducci was a producer or co-producer maybe? anyway, david ran down the bits we improved and I loved it fuckin big time. I reminded him of that dealio that night in highland park - it was a pad called _the lodge_ and now that I think of it, I remember the last words he ever said to me, he said "mike, I wish you lived in england" - I'll never forget that, I'll never forget the look in his eyes when he said that... I drove back to my pedro town and after and thought about that much... thinking about it now. this cat here's wearing a pere ubu shirt, maybe that's why? yesterday we were in brighton, that's where david last lived...
I'm the last out the pad, so sorry. mike's got connect probs w/this rental boat and his leash so he just goes w/the leash, good man. "do the doabable" mr herzog learned us, correct? he get us to another konk pad he got on the internet - I'm way into this over the fucked up 'tel scene, big time. buttloads better - even w/me having to do some steep many stairs and that has many waiting for morning to hose off I'll take a sitch like this over a 'tel any fuckin day of the year, I'll tell you what. oh, I forgot about the debrief... well, what I learned: mike had broken a string and that's why he had hodge do that drum solo that seemed to me like to have come out of nowheare... well, actually I thought he was have "walk off" a rough ride in "another" cuz damn if it didn't sound like those two had it backwards but when I brought that up, they bof said they had no idea it was backwards - ain't that a trip! I did confess to blowing a bunch of sharp/flat clams in "no words" like a baka and promised to get that more together. mike discussed the importance of dynamics, of forms - at the end I ask him if we can please have that snare on the three in richard's tune more calm cuz it's killing me some times. I'm way into these debriefings, I'm into hearing mike supplement his direction w/after-the-fact spiel, to get us more happening for the next time - yeah, like we do gigs to prepare us for the next debriefing - I'm way into that. I konk happy!
saturday, may 31, 2025 - southampton, england
from mike:
Short drive, but long time
Nice folks here, good feel with band
Forgotten rack tom
from watt:
pop at six - no curtain so taiyo ('sun' in jap) is this morning's alarm clock, big time. it's the last day of may. now I go hose off and while I'm chimping diary, hear dr collier do one of her shows about these cats I listened to in the 80s who had a radio show called 'car talk' (hosted by the tappet brothers)... these guys were a trip but my pop having me learn to work on volkswagens... ended up having five of them (one at a time though! I recently did a radio show called a spiel on my cars for a site called 'hagerty') so fixing them yourselves big time interested me and as a boy I was way into drag racing, used to get all the magazines, love that shit... my big drag race dream was to have a willys coup gasser, I really fuckin dug those, really did. also, talk about jamming econo - a) have a vw and b) working on them yourself? chik-ching. one more youtube.com thing for the morning, I hear horace tapscott's the giant has awakened" and I remember raymond taking me to one of the watts towers festivals w/him playing w/three standup bassists, one of them roberto miranda who I always dug big time.
we pull anchor at ten cuz we need to be in southampton at two and a half, a bunch of the route is the south part of the london ring-road so an accounting of that has to be considered (trying sometimes to write like they talk here) if we don't wanna get sandbagged by the reality on the dealio (writing like the way they don't talk here), correct? fuckin bitchin so cal weather for us though, yatta. it's plug city heading west and then southwest, buttloads of vehicles to make for a slow go. I've always tripped on the interesting how they word their signs:
just before noon we drop anchor at a 'service area' and I do guardiano while everyone goes to piss, dump and bulk up on health chow. back on the road for more plug. crimony, it's a slow go... get to the gig pad ten after two (twenty minutes early) and what's more important: arrived alive. four hours to do 150 miles, there's some cure for homesickness, huh?
fourth time I think I've played here at the joiners and yes, I brought the so cal weather this time. load-in's from a tinty alley (ha, the sign for it says street!), mike backs into a car before backing into it and a driverlady (who's coming down the street) points that out him using her finger and miming [?] words w/her mouf)... mike ain't no dick and as soon he docks us, he goes across the street to tell the cat (he guesses right when he goes into the shop it's parked in front of) who tells him it's ok cuz there was no mark or damage and also he though his car w/already a piece-o anyway (no compared to what I've seen in my land though!). anyway, the bossman ricky's sure is a good brother and helped us out tonight like he's done two other times before, shit that came down in a matter of days, can you believe? most grateful to him. it's acutally a shonen knife gig so we'll play shorter and before them. before us is a band from not to far away portsmouth (hey, I'm born in portsmouth - portsmouth, virginia!) called cowboyy and I get to meet their guitarman stan who has a real good rap w/me, he is very cool people and interesting. him his peeps after a while go and chow so I start chiimping diary and man, I dig this old building w/it's old feel even thought there's been new stuff brought in... there's plenty of old still and I can feel it, 'pert-near fucking coming up through my converses and up in my feet, then my knees... all the way to my fingers chimping this right here. some cats are working setting up stuff but it's still mostly quiet... then gig boss ricky comes to rap w/soundman harvey in their way of talking and I trip on that. after a while it's shonen knife soundcheck time and I rap w/their road boss david (real good cat) about "thunderbirds," "stingray" and "fireball xl-5" (my favorite of that stuff) - all "supermaionation" trips, correct? ...and I believe itc and damn if there ain't a connect involving "the prisoner" - sir lew grade, huh? crimony! we check w/soundman harvey and tell him we want our stuff where shonen knife doesn't have to move any of there's. understand, this was their gig and we got added on - bof our tours are being run by the same cat, jack at ran touring so there's the connect. I think it's most kind of bof jack and shonen knife, much respect to them and their kindness. I rap more w/stan and kai of cowboyy - kai was gonna direct but I tell him to use the stuff I'm using, no prob. the doorman john's wife made up so fuckin happening lasagna and salad, I really dig it and get this: last time I had shawarma right across the street, an afghan bakery so that comes in chunks of meat separate from the flat soft bread (the size of a medium pizza) so I use that to wrap inside lasagna w/the meat chunks and plus the salad from bof chows and damn if that ain't a most bitchin symphony in my mouf, yes! oishii.
cowboyy hits at six and they bring it... whoa, they tear it up. the tunes have all kinds of stuff going on but the three of them keep real connected. half the tunes are instrumental? the other half I can't understand what's up but that doesn't matter. it's a real good time I have experiencing them. stan is really relaxed in contrast to what's coming from him, whoa. kai's real strong on the bass and dan, damn - I can't believe wehen they're done stan telling me it's his second gig w/them ever. I congratulate each one. this cat comes up to in a little bit and says he's stan's pop, whoa, that's a trip. I tell him his boy did real good, I dig this band.
we're next and 'pert-near everything's already set up so we're ready at our seven and a half go-time, no prob. tonight's a rough start for me. I clam the opener "on and on" much, I can't hear mike over hodge, the drums are really really loud. some I get to get together and other places I fucking am oblivious to what's up, where we're at and where I'm supposed to be at. it's frustrating but I laugh instead of getting weirded out or angry cuz what the fuck's that gonna do? I've been here before and of course getting it together is the best strategy but damn if humor ain't our savior, correct? much better for the next tune but there places that stumble too, really w/me but hodge seems lost... where he's at w/drums has moved since soundcheck, he's a few more forward and I think this adds to him being kind out of connect w/me and mike. next two improve much and I can feel the southampton gig-goers getting a better feel for us and digging what we're bringing... even though "all things come" has it's form all tore up from we intended, what we do bring gets over good and I think that's what making a gig happen is about, not just regurgitating pre-ordained instructions but being there in the moment w/your band members and the gig-goers, the cats working the pad big time including the cat on the knobs. the whole bambino is such fuckin collab of stuff I get to realizing more and more w/every gig. it's ok and in fact I'm into it cuz that "other way" (whatever the fuck you wanna call that) is too not-w/it for me, too unatural/fucked-up.
we finish up and load-out is too difficult w/the gig still underway so we'll do that after shonen knife's turn. I pack my stuff and get out on the street to get some air, it's a nice hobble real slow and easy down saint mary street... I hobble past the college and there's all kind of interesting cats, very friendly w/everyone smiles. someone asks me if I need help maybe cuz I'm moving slow? I'm moving slow on purpose, correct? back towards the pad, ok, I'm a bass player and not just a crazy man. like I said, very kind people. the cowboyy folks find me again and we do more spiel, the bassman kai has welsh relatives, we're going there tomorrow. the gig boss ricky comes out and tells about his most recent trip to a small town in east texas, he had a good time. I wish more u.s. people could see over and the same those here getting to see my land. I think it be healthier if everyone got buttloads of first experiences w/each other that were trippy and interesting, that's I wish and that's why I'm so glad for this kind of work I've had for over fortytwo years now - that's when my first big tour was, black flag and minutemen in bof the u.s. and over here... our first england gig was a the 100 club on february 10, 1983. that was a total mindblow for me - d boon and georgie too, I know it.
I watch shonen knife some and then two cats come up and rap w/me about the time twelve years ago they saw me here w/the fratelli ("il sogno del marinaio europe tour 2013") opening for maps and atlases by chance - it was another last minute saved-by-the-seat-of-the-pants gig provided by the gig boss ricky, his first one for me and damn if bof these cats and ricky himself still here, no matter who I'm playing w/and it's 'pert-near enough to make me cry, so I grateful I am for such kindness, truly.
gig over, we load-out and say our bye byes, I get a photo of gig boss ricky, yes!
the konk pad is same dealio as the others this tour (mike got it off the internet) though the head is on the same floor making it easy for me to hose off so I do and then konk tonight naked, don't know why but maybe cuz of the cali weather I brought to share w/my southampton friends?
sunday, june 1, 2025 - cardiff, wales
from mike:
Yemeni chow day
Nice walking around this town
Good gig, getting there...
from watt:
pop just before seven. sun came blasting through the window again but that's ok. I wanna get these photos for the diary up on the hoot page... it always seems to take me forever to get this happening, it's the html coding that's the bottleneck so I think of a way to get that stuff more happening. I code in ascii html so stuff loads as quick as possible, something you had to do in the old days, capito? I'm gonna really try to be day-by-day w/the photos in synch w/the chimped spiel so as to try and temper the 'word diarrhea' effect my expression might flaunt w/out me realizing it, wouldn't wanna do that. remember this chimping is first a kind of therapy for me and THEN it's a document, in that order. miss hiyori brought a french press coff maker so we never have bullshit swill to force down in order to wake up, so very kind of her. no morning shovels but that's ok. tour is different life than life at my own pad, you learn to "swerve to avoid," correct? we pull anchor at eleven and head west. trippy, the boat was docked on this astroturf kind-of stuff but mother nature's got her real grass bursting through!
mike gives us a addendum to last night's debriefing: he had to go back to the gig pad to get the rack tom cuz it was 'pert-near donated so attention to 'baka checks' is big time essential. this is a big reason I carry as little as possible on tour but damn if we don't not to bring a rack tom, correct? I feel mike makes a great point and at the same time feel bad he had to get that call interrupting his konk from gig boss ricky but we're bof grateful for gig boss ricky being on it like that, much respect. anyway, I see an "off license" sign... trigger! I laugh out loud at it, have to. they got "essentials" written next to a photo of eggs, bread and butter in the front window but eighty percent of the rest is fucking discount prices currently for different alcohols! I guess for some that is "essential" though, huh? for keeping the withdrawals at bay? I can relate... not far is shoppe for "objects d'art" - a wheel and a chair sit out front, I'm into that! some southampton art saying bye bye to us as we take a bridge out of town...
pull over at a 'service area' quarter of one, I remain in the rented boat... we do this in the u.s. also as much as possible, not leaving the boat unmanned on short-stays. miss hiyori brings me plain nuts. then mike wants to diesel up the boat, I enlighten him to these disposable gloves they got for administering that stuff, kind of necessary. he's into it. what he ain't into is £1.80/liter (about $9.19/gallon u.s.) here at "bp" station... says we're changing the rented boat fueling policy: only in the towns when we have to, after leaving the konk pad - no more 'service area' buttrape sitchs w/the fuel, we relegate ourselves to deposit only mode w/their pisshouses/dumpers facilities.
onward wesward to brisol and then over the 'prince of wales bridge' at one and a half, we're into wales. it's not long and just before cardiff we get a light rain, not much. took 160 minutes to do 134 miles... numbers, correct? miike and hodge's first time to wales...
my first welsh gig was that festival in portmeirion ten years ago I already mentioned, hope to play as many as I can - I love playing everywhere and of course that includes the ones I ain't been to you yet. please world, bring it! now that cuz gig was in north wales and cardiff is opposite and the time I played here before was "the moon" w/the fratelli in 2017. tonight's gig pad is fuel and the rain's quit before we get into town but we ain't finished... the gig pad's in the middle of the old town w/zero parking so we wander...
we find the konk pad and nothing available there so I suggest we just venture down a main road 'til stuff does open up and we find that on paget street just near the end of the city center and drop anchor about twenty of three. whoa. good to stop cuz these olde-timey tiny roads stress on mike, I can tell - they'd fuckin stress on me. he also says this rented boat has this trippy "idler control" too close to the turn signal. anyway, we drop anchor in a residential part w/easy parking but close to some shops, he goes and gets us some chow at a yemeni pad that's nearby, he brings me some lamb w/rice and along side that is a little salad and some potatoes in a kind of curry sauce. it's all real good, first time for me w/this cuisine I think.
four and a half when we return to the gig pad and do a quick load-in so mike can put the boat somewhere where it can stay.
the gig pad soundman james is a very interesting cat, says he likes all music genres except "musicals" - we are a particular species, correct. says one day he wants to visit the u.s. and I sure hope he can. he's telling me into he's into deathmetal and I'm trying to think of an olde-timey band that kind of started that scene... damn me, I cannot think of their fuckin name... we spiel about other stuff like robert in metallica or darryl in bad brains and also old welsh stuff, about these land having the most castles built in it by one of the neighbors and stuff like that, he's a happening to hear him talk, his rap is interesting and so is the infos w/it - about this pad, two hundred years ago he says it was an econo 'tel for miners to pay one shilling to konk under a washline" (something you use to dry clothes?), fuck... well, he's gotta get back to setting us up though so he leaves the backstage and that's when it comes back to me and I holler craddle of filth - yes... see you don't try and it comes back, if you just let go of being conscious of it. we check and I think definitely hodge's snare has got this this high-mid rang that's bogarting stuff in the range where mike sings and it's also there in the hihat area, maybe tame it some w/some tape? maybe softer hits? anyway, we have a good spiel about this, later I'll that actually he's got a different snare and had to cuz fuck if a few weeks ago that camco drum kit we've used the last couple of tours got stolen from his storage space. crimony. that's terrible, really is and I feel bad for hodge... that was a righteous kit... guess mike have to write a "drum song" now. on another note: some trippy graffiti on the bulkheads of the backstage here:
brand new band (they got asked to do this gig four days ago!) _cottage vipers_ hit at seven and a half to get this show on and I watch from the back which kind of strange but no way to get out front except through them and that would be lame, my hobbling right over their trip. I dig what they're bringing though, they're a duet made of guitarist martin and lloyd working electronics, I dig their sound and when they finish, invite them to be a guest on my show when I get off this tour and am back home.
our turn next and prolly our best gig yet of the tour in my opinion. the cardiff gig-goers are very kind - all the crowds this tour have been, even those yammering last night cuz I could hear in their yammering that they were digging what we were bringing starting about the third tune, made me laugh harder! respect. here tonight in wales, mssv is really playing together I think... only tiny clams and even better, buttloads of real good connect, I love it. very very happening gig. good sound from soundman james too, respect to him.
brother kliph is here, last time I saw him was six years ago when I was helping flipper w/a europe tour but he actually saw me w/the fratelli the first time I played cardiff... right when he moved here - so good to see him again! I ask him to please send me tracks (he's a drummerman) so I can bring him bass to go w/them... he says he's gonna visit relatives in kansas and I tell him about last tour finally getting to play wichita. crimony! I get to rap w/a lot of other cardiff gig-goers too, really good and kind cats. whoa, one of the soldier dolls is here - I first them in 1983 at "brixton ace" when we opened for black flag there, we used their recording of us doing "fanatics" (their cassette got x-rayed so you could barely hear anything recognizable and we thought that was hilraious!) for the "the politics of time" comp! crimony, I ask him if I can have him on my show... maybe he's david - arrrgghhh, my fucking memory. terrible. I hope he emails me...
so much kindness, a real good time here but time now to go. mike gets out of the little alley and to the konk pad, giving us a good debriefing while doing so... using the memories of the gig just done to help build better the next one, correct? I'm into it. the konk pad has the head right next to where I konk so another easy hose-off but I get into bof chonies ('skivvies' in espanol) and numaki ('nightwear' in jap) for tonight and am out pretty quick, whoa am I beat - but it's a good kind of beat!
monday, june 2, 2025 - liverpool, england
from mike:
Yemeni chow day
Nice walking around this town
Good gig, getting there...
from watt:
pop at seven and a half - this pad has thick curtains that close all the way making for a great konk chamber. I get much caught up all things 'puter including way to keep up to date w/baka photos for the diary, html kind-of template to expedite. the internet sometimes brings happening news (always some) and this time it's a statue of john coltrane in the town he was born in - back in 2014 I had an experience w/this town regarding this, scroll down to the 'tuesday, october 21, 2014' entry here for the actual spiel I chimped, also the fratelli's... it was quite an experience. we pull anchor at eleven...
more happening so cal weather out the hatch as I get in the boat, really grateful for this on us. bye bye cardiff, very kind time in the little bit we had. I get photos together that I took yesterday, I must scissor ten for everyone three I keep, the great thing about digital stuff where you ain't burning up zeni (real old word for 'money' in jap) developing film - one reason that really kept from picture-taking though I tried... I got some "photo albums" that got lots of lame-ass that stays on the shelf. crimony. still a mindblow to someone like me has a book of photos I've taken of my pedro town, along w/some tour spiel I've chimped. laurie steelink really helped w/that, I'm most grateful to her for that... like when greg asked us minutemen to be sst-002, crimony! people should realize it's all about people working w/people even though you might be the one being the ball-roller starter or somewhere along the connect chain that goes into a work... very interesting the way that stuff "works" to me, so many angles you can trip on it from. back to the now: mike really digs the way the m roads here are set up, the chevrons painted to help w/avoiding tailgating (you're supposed to keep "two chevrons" between you and the vehincle in front of you) and stuff like that, things he thinks helps w/making travel safer. of course I'm way into that shit big time. I will say a lot of drivers don't use their turn signals and will just bogart on you out of nowhere, just putting it out there but that's an "operator result" in my mind and not from how stuff is set up... every fucking vehicle has such controls to let others know they're "coming over" and it's their choice to be a dick and just spring it on you. we've seen some wrecks not in the moment but some soon after, some later... there's been real fucked up pieces of vehicle on truck flatbeds being transported... I wonder what the stats are compared w/back home and here? not everyone uses that "two chevron rule" either. ok, I'm done w/this spiel, please don't bum on me too hard. this stuff's in my head either in rudder mode or having my ass toted, sorry! we're east on the m4 whence we came yesterday, back over that big bridge and back into england...
at bristol we get north on the m5. we've had no music in this rented boat all tour - one way things are different than our last sally-forth. mike has us drop anchor at the 'frankley service area' (sometimes I ain't too stupid to notice a name and damn if this ain't a great one!)... me on guardiano duty staying w/the boat while the rest piss, dump and do minor (?) chow forage... miss hiyori brings me back two hard boiled eggs that's got some spinach leaves w/them, I use the "lowensenf" (german mustard) and "cholula" (chili salsa) to gussie them up. you can go wrong w/cold hardboiled eggs w/watt, nope. back on the road, we gotta skirt birmingham and do that while rapping about the idea of subjects of songs being like ways of using handwriting over printing... conventions you learn to make for some common ground that let you communicate some personal kind expression but at the same time not too smothered up by cliche and jive. same ol' struggle I think all of us who have had to that think about such things but in my head, that doesn't make it any less an important, it's actually important shit and especially in the way it ends up manifested or whatever.
we dock at the gig pad just before three and a half ('pert-near four and a half hours to do about 200 miles), it's called a-r-c and brother phil's there to welcome us, righteous! he's got a new band, it's called _yield_ and tonight's the cherry gig for them, most bitchin. weather here is showing on brother phil, he's totally red like a lobster. crimony. just so good to see him, so very fuckin good. I meet the pad boss lee, great cat but I gotta foul his facilities, fuck I 'pert-near cuz the dump I bring has so much girth it takes like ten fuckin flushes, I shit thee not (know what I'm saying). I am a patient man though, especially like such stuff. I finally emerge and everything's fine... I can hear hodge in the music room finally realize the dude he's been yammering at is thee very brother phil who fuckin greeted us a the curb. crimony. "no wine before its time" was what mr welles learned us, correct? this pad is really new, part of a old big (not tall but a whole block around) building near the waterfront. "acoustic room coffee" is what's on the sign so I guess we've solved that acronym riddle but what? trippy sequence of those words, huh? there's a back room here near the head that appears to be a head itself but now converted to backstage so that's where I chimp diary.
I hobble around the neighborhood and kind of guess it was very industrial at one time. repurposed now, that's prolly why brother phil and lee are down here. I get back and brother phil's also the soundman, we do soundcheck w/him. michelle brings us middle east chow that's really good, the meat's chicken and there's salad w/a happening taste, hummus too - all very happening, so kind of them.
eight bells is showtime and brother phil's new band brings it. he's rockin an older fender 'music master' bass and I dig the way he works it, much respect to him. people say short scale basses have their own sound and me listening to him agree w/that - understand I'm too close to notices so much but he's illustrating here w/some real life and especially in a context of not man-alone but w/guitar and drums: an ensemble. so much bizarre yammer I hear from what jim bergantino calls "pajama players" - cats who do bass in their pads w/out other people or instruments w/them which for me is a distorted perspective unless that's what it's about: man-alone (or woman-alone) mode. I first heard brother phil w/super fast girly show (by the way, brother pasha's here - yatta!) and he known how to aid and abet the way I love, much respect to him. he's in space also - one day I gotta witness that live, just got to.
our turn is nine bells and I'm really impressed w/how hodge has gotten this snare he brought over happening w/the mssv sound... these first gigs I was finding it maybe "too sensitive" and/or "too live" for our mssv sitch w/the kind of extreme dynamics we try to bring. I'm also into the liverpool gig-goers, they're most kind. trippy about people yammering - in southampton w/that happening right in front of me I can only laugh but near tonight's last part I gotta call some borrachos way in the back motherfuckers for their obviously ovlivious shit (god, how many times have I done that myself in my more-younger days?!) but maybe cuz that was in our version of richard hell's tune and he just means so much to me. 'pert-near all the gig had none of that and most kind people gave us big time focus. the band plays good I think though "see through you" had a strange end-up going for it, very strange - mike will address in the debriefing later but it still kind of trips me out now even as I chimp about it. I'm really grateful for the pad boss lee and brother phil for bringing this gig sitch - mike thanks brother phil for also getting the drums hodge is using together for us, respect!
packing up - I do it immediately when we finish, w/out getting up from my chair cuz what the fuck, correct? it's at this point when gig-goers will talk w/me and have me sign stuff... I use to want people to wait but w/the sitting thing and everything close enough so I can do it that way, there's no prob and I'm glad to show my gratitude and listen to what most-kind folks have to say. this one young man said he came from boston just to see the show. crimony.
mike gets us downtown where the konk pad is, brother phill comes w/us cuz he's gonna park the rented boat at brother pasha's pad after dropping us off. again the head is next to the konk chamber so hosing off is real easy so I do. a real good time in liverpool tonight, yatta!
tuedsay, june 3, 2025 - manchester, england
from mike:
Good gig for ‘The Beeb’
First coffee of tour, yep.
Good gig here! Good feel...
from watt:
pop at six, "curtains" useless agains taiyo and very urusai ('noisy' in jap) but that's ok, I think it's enough even though we're supposed to play twice today. especially w/out the alcohol (today I'm working on day 887), konking ain't such a hard thing for me at this point, another good thing resulting for quitting... wasn't easy getting to this point at all but I am at that point and way grateful for it. gonna see mr riley in a little bit so gonna shave for sure. guess it rained like a sieve last night but I have personally no account of it cuz of konking so hard. there's big clouds out the window but no signs of wet, I know mike had like a twenty minute schlep to get the rented boat at brother pasha's...
mike arrives to get us at nine and a half and we're off to make the thirtyfour miles (weather a little gray but no rain) to the salford part of manchester, where marc riley does his bbc radio6 show in "media city" - we arrive about ten and a half... in fact see marc's most righteous and essential assistant michelle walking on the sidewalk near we need to be (total coincidence!) and she guides to the back part where we load in... not much though cuz we're mainly using their stuff, it's my fourth time here and I've found everything here very ok to do this. brother phil arrives via train from his liverpool town, yes! soundman chris sets us up and we run through a couple of tunes and then record "on and on" for keepers - that's when I see brother marc through the control room and I get a little nervous! I got this material though, another good thing about my confidence w/parts, 'pert-near like when I was a young minuteman, I had it back then but... yeah, life got in the way and some unhealthy ways took root. anyway we get the next three ("careful what you wish for," "boat song" and "human reaction") and I'm way on board, so glad I can be here for the band this way. marc then does a spiel w/us and he's really good about that for making you relaxed by asking good stuff. he quotes some of my diary and asks what the fuck am I trying to say regarding the slang and then suggests my getting this stuff published so I suggest maybe that stuff is "published" when I put it on the hoot page maybe? I mean not a traditional book but it's out there for folks to read... I tell him about when john doe asked me to do a chapter for his book, that publisher then sent a young man to talk to me about them putting out a bio but said they didn't want me to write it and instead have it as a "as told to" kind of trip cuz (this were the gist of his words) "you don't write correct, what you do something that's more like poetry" so that's when I tell him what I just told marc: it's already published when I put it up at the hoot page... go to mikewatt.com if you wanna read what I chimp on tour. my only regret is waiting 'til 1998 to really get into doing them, I'm a fucking slow learner. anyway, marc talks a bunch w/mike about mssv and to hodge about working w/tom waits which I think is happening. he also likes the the coat my sister melinda sewed me in tribute to "the prisoner" cuz he said he dug that show also. the spiel is a real good time, much respect to him and all the most kind people helping out. we're done by one, say our byes - oh, michelle asked me to "draw' captain beefheart on this white tshirt and try w/the aid of a photo of him from around the "doc at the radar station" period so I write a couple lines from "dirty blue gene" to go along w/the scrawl. she's so nice, she's been here for all my appearances and just the best. I guess they give this away for some kind of thing. soundman chris asks if we wanna review anything recorded and we tell him we trust him, he knows his room and seems most happening, anyone w/marc and his aesthetic is fuckin right on w/me, so happy mike's into letting all these first takes be the very documents they are, great spirit. everyone so kind, the two young assistant men also, sam and max, great cats.
we find the gig pad - a new pad for me, called gullivers
- in downtown manchester, in the older part but there is nada parking anywhere near so we wander 'til we do find a lot near newbeck street and drop anchor there. he then goes to forge for chow for us and brings back from a pad he said was called "bab" w/a flatbread for me w/lamb and salad along w/giant couscous. I really dig it. very good. it started raining pretty hard w/the wind kind of blowing soon after he left but somehow he got all this chow safe for us. besides the driving, he's always getting this part of tour happening for us, even the other tour we I was driving instead, he always rustles up the chow when get into town. brother phil arrives from salford, don't how but this cat's definitely got the skills, much respect! he gets in the boat w/us as we shove off for the gig pad. we finally find a way to it (difficult w/the road layout) two minutes before the five pm load-in time, brother phil being here's most essential w/his schlepping skills, hear hear! it's a older shotgun kind of pad which means a long room, the bar downstairs and where you play the floor above that, I meet the gig boss adelaide who's most kind and soundman martin who is as well. nice people, I'm way into that.
set up time so I go to hobble around the neighborhood. the rain has quit (lots of on and off w/the rain in these parts) so not dangerous that way. it's real important for me to get exercise even if it's a slow go (so I'm careful) cuz last tour I was starting to get "fat ankles" and that ain't an expression, I mean literally which big time can mean poor circulation. a couple of weeks on my elliptical trainer and that all went away, pretty amazing... I'm trying to be w/this though while actually on tour - maybe not as good as elliptical trainer but damn if my ankles are in pretty good shape now. I hobble a big loop in an orbit around the gig pad, snapping photos along the way.
I return just when it's time for check and we work on "see through you" to make sure we don't lose the "mungo jerry" mantra we hang that tunes backbone on, real important - that tune's fuckin backbone, I shit thee not. I go to the back room after to chimp diary and damn if marc riley and his buddy steve hanley don't arrive, much respect to bof of them. whoa, I'm a little nervous and start yammering about all kinds of whatever - they bof played together in the fall and did a u.s. tour when they were younger so I get to hear some about that and then also cats we all know in common, love these guys. you know, d boon got me into history and I start doing a dance regarding that stuff I think mostly cuz I'm so nervous to play in front of them - I did play in front of marc before w/a cuz gig at the 2015 festival no 6 and man, was that scary but he showed up there right before showtime... this is different but I'm so glad they're here, real good cats and they actually make me happy even w/all my nervousness. fuck, forgot to take a photo of them, damn me.
we're on at quarter after eight and there was no opening act, first time this tour - maybe the only time? last time I played a live gig in manchester was ten years ago so I'm really into this for so many reason, marc and steve being here a big one but also all the manchester gig-goers here tonight. james from sheffield even came I find out later, whoa! crimony. I can just hobble up and get to it, my stuff is so simple and I dig it that way. funny mike has to ask if I'm ready... how many tours have we done together? took tav falco only a few gigs wised up and ceased. no big deal. I only use some feedback for the first improv but damn if I don't hear where "on and on" starts... sounds like hodge came in early (later I'll find out I guessed wrong here) but we got on board... I'm nervous still cuz of marc and steve but I'm up here now and not in the back room, no matter - I clam the spiel to "careful what you wish" for cuz I'm thinking of changing up the lyrics since we did this one for marc earlier today but why the fuck am I thinking of that now when it's showtime? crimony. I did some of the second verse first and then repeat some of that for the second. crimony. most of the rest of the gig though I do rally and I did feel from the manchester gig-goers and feel of support, that was most kind of them. hodge kind of (kind of?!) stomps all over my 'money shot' part of the richard hell tune in the encore but it ain't on purpose... we'll discuss it in the debriefing.
our set done: much much good word from the manchester gig-goers, most kind! I get to also thank marc and steve for being here as well. more than a few bassbrothers, yes! as I mentioned before, james from sheffield, so good to see him again... he's got work in phily and I tell him if he can to see the pad john coltrane bought his ma w/his g.i bill. soundman martin has a good rap w/me after the gig-goers go, he tells me he was working on the last album by the fall - he said h 'pert-near threw mark e smith through a window cuz he called him a nutter (england slang for kook) but then became good friends w/him. you know earlier during the taping for marc's show we were talking about that cymbal (yeah, "cymbal" and not cymbals) on the fall album "dragnet" - I'm wondering what soundman martin would've resulted in their collab if we wouldn't have lost mr smith... I thank soundman martin for being our fourth man tonight, respect.
brother phil's here to help w/the schlep back down the stairs as mike goes to get the rented boat from a lot that was only £3 for the night. he's taking the train back to liverpool. mike gets us to some konk pad called "the hacienda" (yeah, funny) and he leaves in us in alley to organize what takes way-long labyrinth but that's the way stuff goes and we're on earlier tonight cuz of no opener. what's scary is some big fuckin rats I see running in the back of this alley, big as the ones I saw behind the old "930 club" in d.c. back in the 80s. crimony. it sure a long schlep to get to this chamber but we do and like I was saying earlier, I do need the exercise. what I don't need is the slip I fuckin take in the head when I go to hose down in it. there's nothing to grab onto when my foot hits the slick part of the tub and luckily the part of the tub my head hits as I'm on my way down is the think back part where it's hollow under and the edge where my bof left shoulder and knee hit and I lay there for a while... no head hurt at all but bof left knee and shoulder do but not broken hurt, just slammed hurt. crimony, I was lucky. I hose off anyway - fuck this tub but I am much much more care and slow slow slow. shit, that was scary. the head is the fuckin scariest part of a pad, even more than the galley, huh? I might konk hurt but more I konk feeling really lucky it wasn't worse.
wednesday, june 4, 2025 - glasgow, scotland
from mike:
Bye England, for now
Farmhouse stop GF Scotch egg
Tough stage sound for me
from watt:
pop at six and a half cuz of like yesterday, absolutely no scissors on taiyo making its presence on me... trippy concept of what curtains are for and maybe cuz not a lot of taiyo a lot of the time? those blows I took last night are hurting but not too bad, just limiting the way I use them more so. I feel real lucky and I'm also focused on being more careful, way more and not just in the head but everywhere I am the rest of this tour. on another note: getting the photos together takes some time but I think it's worth it. trippy angle on tour from watt w/so much graphic, kind of different especially being bof more consistent and more up to date, at least a day or two away. richard hell wrote me an email telling about an event he's soon gonna go to, saying he wishes he could "bump into me there" and damn I wish I could but that's the last gig of this tour, oh well. new york city's a little far from my pedro town also but I have gotten the chance to spend time w/there before... in fact one time he let me play his first bass at his apartment and then took me to see art at the guggenheim, afterwards rapping to me about free will and pre-destiny on a park bench in central park... damn if that didn't totally blow my fuckin mind! you understand why us doing that "another world" tune this tour is so important to me?! crimony. mike gives me his first photos for the tour, hodge has yet to give me anything... bof know where the "surfboard" (the usb drive on a keyring in the top pouch of my 'puter sack) so it's up to them whether they wanna populate it w/daily expressions of what they might as "eyegifts" to share w/the rest of us. or the can choose not to. I ain't cut out to be a "diary whipping boy" for anyone but myself on such matters.
we pull anchor at eleven (we get downstairs by finding next to our room hatch a 'vator that ends up about ten feet from the boat!) but it takes us a while to get out of the parking garage cuz the hatch won't open. mike gets out to see what's up upstairs but it takes a good while to learn that the desk person says to use the way where it's painted not to use it... ok. mike said he asked where this guy was when he finally arrived who told him, "am I not entitled to some coffee?" and like how do you reply to someone who lays that kind of foulant on you? crimony. mostly nice people though we've run into on this tour, please don't get the wrong idea. I guess it just takes a lot of colors to make a rainbow. it's north along the west of the country, I chimp diary and get photos together along the way... at one mike pulls us over at this 'service area' that ain't like the typical stuff on the motorway, it's at tebay and called "farmshop" and I've been here before. prolly very localized, it don't have that corporate "chain" feel and full of crapdonalds, boogerfling, and the assorted swill that's usually being slung at the usual roadside foulery. we did have some rain come on quick right before the anchor drop but after pissing, I find it gone and the sun out. wet deck though so I go real slow. miss hiyori gets me ham, cheese and chutney sandwich that i doll up w/some lowensenf, don't taste like typical convenience store fodder. I ain't much of a sandwich man anymore either. we get back on the road and head north, now the rains off and on but the sun never stops showing, even w/big clouds everywhere.
at two we cross into scotland... no more england for the next six gigs, we'll come back for the last third of the tour on tuesday in newcastle, on the other coast from here. twenty minutes later, mike notices we're close to a quarter tank and damn himself for not fueling between konk pad and motorway this morning like we planned last 'service area' buttrape but so this learning process goes, £1.65/liter ($8.42/gallon u.s.) as it goes at this "bp" burn ward. I chimp diary and get photos together from yesterday's hobble... very pretty countryside for me in these parts, well, actually all over I try to find the good and what's happening here is lots of green green hills w/these trippy "rock fences" w/sheep and cattle being raised all over, 'pert-near no urban stuff, very round and rural, I can dig it. me and mike laugh at the pendejos who let you know they are by driving like pendejos, it don't matter on the land you're in, huh? there's plenty of happening people behind the wheel who just ain't about themselves, they care, you know? that's the ones we're into! our longest drive of the tour so far, about two-twenty miles. mike does good doing it. huge plug for us w/just a couple miles to go to get into glasgow... we get there when we get there, correct? just after four we pull in to a alley behind the nice n sleazy which is tonight's gig pad here... first we gotta wait for a truck in front to make a delivery to the china chow pad that's next door and then bing-bada-boom, we got our stuff out of the rented boat and down the stairs where the do the gigs.
meet the gig boss chris, cool people and happening spirit, soundlady melissa is also most kind. someone else here enlightens me to where the head is and I blow it out there and then hobble back down the alley and get on the main street out front to get some shots, this is the 'charing cross' part of glasgow maybe? it's good for me to hobble and get some movement in, that was five hours of sitting on my ass in the rented boat to get here. it's a little wind but no rain. I get back and mike brings me some shawarma w/couscous and a side salad plus gig boss chris brought some blackberries and little plumb tomatoes, good stuff. we check w/sound lady melissa and then I meet the cats in the opening band _slug_ who are pretty brand new, I watch them soundcheck and the rap w/them... I liked what I heard and look forward to their gig. I chimp diary out here in the gig room cuz kind of a hassle w/the stairs for me w/accessing the backstage but I was there and got a cucumber and some small plum tomatoes cuz I'd dig chowing them tomorrow... "waste not want not" it's been said, correct?
I watch _slug_ bring their thing from where I was just chimping diary right up close and am glad I'm there, putting the 'puter in my back wack sack and then getting into it... I dig what they're doing, yeah. great singing and emotional tension in their playing - more proof showing how much a trio is possible of... I've been told the mind can focus on only three things at a time anyway so maybe it's fundamental? I think so. also more room in the boat.
we're next at nine but go on a little early and it's happening - I still believe the gig in cardiff was the best yet this tour but I still enjoy. great bringing it to the glasgow gig-goers cuz they're so kind to us, bring much focus and really open to mssv's first scottish gig ever. we blow some clams... later mike will tell us he had hard time hearing the whole enchilada, thought he was too much in his own sound I think cuz of the acoustic sitch from where he was. it's a trip cuz a gig-goer might thing everyone on stage is "on the same page" but you'd be surprised maybe - even on a smaller "platform" it can seem like your bandmates are in the next universe over. crimony. before we do the dick hell tune I give a shout-out to the gummy stumps cuz the other time I played here, we shared this stage w/them, a fucking righteous band I dug very much. my take on "another world" tonight is big time inspired by remember witnessing their stuff and being blown away, much respect.
I pack up from my seat - oh yeah, this seat... it had "arms" and damn if that didn't kind of "bind me up" at the set's beginning but then I figured out a way of overcoming that by moving the seat back and sitting my culo on its edge, capito? "work the room" is one of the best credos I've ever learned about showbiz, I shit thee not. many most kind cats bring me the good word and I try to return likewise, so glad they're here. bassbrother howie reeve's here along w/other bassbrother puppet midnight, can't wait to have them bof on my show again, soon as possible! matty and fergus from merchant city who've moved a bunch of wattplowers - so glad to meet them, most kind cats. my final spiel is w/the singer of the opening band, sure hope he writes me...
we get brother dep in the rented boat after loading it up and head over to his pad, love it much and have konk there prolly more times than any overseas konk pad ever. I rap w/him some about wrestling w/the plug in the jug and why I just had to after a fifty year shift w/that stuff. he says he's glad and has notice good things w/me cuz of that decision. I always listen careful to him, he's always learning me about stuff, much respect. I hose off and konk pretty quick, the spirit in his pad is most calm and embracing on me.
thursday, june 5, 2025 - belfast, northern ireland
from mike:
Thanks Dep and Jan-Bart
Cool mist on the Irish Sea
Two songs: density
from watt:
pop again at six and a half like yesterday, do I detect a pattern? dep cooks up some scrambled eggs and a piece of salmon w/a piece of flatbread for me, so very kind. I rap w/him and jan-bart about a common friend we got, ajay. he's quite a music cat that's got lots going on, bahjan bhoy being his latest proj. he is very cool people and lives in the netherlands now (where jan-bert's from and lives) but lived as a boy here in glasgow. people connected, it was about the old days and I think the same w/now days. trippy. me and brother dep get talking about what my sister has found out about the watt part of my history, she says it seems they were what's called "ulster scots" which were people from scotland england put over in ireland... damn if dep says he thinks part of his family's ulster scot also so damn if somehow some part of us might be kind of cousins. crimony. trippy about that kind of stuff. actually cuz of my ma's people, I'm half italian. hell, I was born in virginia but have lived fiftysix years in california. "it's not where you're from, it's where you're at" I heard sly stone said that... makes sense to me. this chow brother dep made me sure is good. love this man.
nine and half, we gotta shove off cuz bof land and sea travel awaiting us... we should be back in scotland monday for one more gig here. it's kind on and off gray and sunny, dry and rainy as we make our way to south, getting to the coast and doing only one blowby w/its accompanying loop which is happening since it takes us past a boneyard I have no idea what it's named but glad I got a shot of it! we're right on the coast for the last part of the ride... it takes an hour to get to cairnryan where a p&o ferry called the "european highlander" will take us from scotland to northern ireland where we do our next gig.
we roll on aboard to deck three at a quarter of noon and a deck above where we park I plant my culo near an ac plug and chimp diary in the meantime and chow a cucumber from last night's backstage (the one I carried on stage w/the container of plum tomatoes cuz I didn't want them kyped), never had one this long and skinny. I chow cucumbers all the time back home and in fact have started using them in some sautes like they were squash, all sliced and/or diced up. I also chimp diary. the ferry gets in at larne, we arrive around two. it's about twentythree miles north of belfast, easy drive w/no plug into this land's biggest town...
not too easy getting to the gig pad voodoo though cuz it's in a "pedestrian precinct" but that's why the promoter sent us directs that mike's decides to breakout after the lady-voice from his leash doesn't know we can't get to where she says... these devices can help but only help, you still gotta stay in control and use your intuitive stuff, correct? we back ourselves out of the stuckness we got put in and then reason out a route that will lend itself to the directs we know now we first should've been enlightened w/and get to the gig pad just after three. it's a good thing when you find the gig pad and drop anchor, you know? a good thing and a good feel. robyn comes out and helps us load w/me and him having a good spiel about music stuff and such... rory gallagher who was from cork, had a rhythm section from belfast, gerry mcavoy and wilgar campbell plus black flag up to and including hank... he's gonna open up the show in man-alone mode also.
after this happening spiel w/robyn, I go hobble around and search for eye gifts seeing I've never been in this part of belfast, 'pert-near the dead center of town?
I get back to the gig pad after my hobble and robyn hips to the fact a lot of boats got built here, the titanic being one of them. the soundman's andy who met me when he was touring w/and so I watch you from afar some years ago... hell, it's been some years since I've played this town... damn, I hate when that happens! good to see him again and so glad to meet robyn. I go chimp diary and mike finally arrives from what he tells me was quite an ordeal bof finding parking for the rented boat and procuring our chow - he had to scour for bof and round I of the chow attempt and the shit hitting the deck and being redone and then round II had shit that miss hiyori's allergic to (anything dairy, mushrooms and carrots) so yeah, an ordeal he had to wade through, much respect to him for believing in his band as he does, truly. he sincerely goes the distance, laying nothing on anyone but himself. ian from organs comes by to rap w/me some, he's a music buddy of bushie's (we'll share a stage w/bushie in dublin sunday) and I've been part of some organ tunes as a guest, bring bass from my pedro town to ian here in belfast via the internet. we have a good spiel and then he's gotta bail cuz it's his ma's bday and he's gonna give her a chow to celebrate. alright. oh yeah, mike brought me india chow which for watt 'pert-near always means saag paneer (pureed spinach w/chunks of cheese in it) and garlic nan bread... love the tastes coming together from that stuff in my mouf, love it.
robyn kicks things off at seven and a half, very heartfelt. much respect to him. we get to go on next quick cuz he was just rocking an acoustic guitar and singing in man-alone, just after eight. I enjoy the gig, it's been eleven years since I've played for belfast gig-goers and these cats are most kind to us. I have a good time. we play pretty good too - not clamless but it's pretty good. my fourth belfast gig ever, so glad I got to do this, so glad. so glad for the kindness of the belfast gig-goers and am I really happy mike baggetta got this happening for the tour. he did the last tour we did last month in the u.s., making it possible for me to play towns I hadn't played in a buttload of years and then also ones for the first time - like in wichita... hell, I'm gonna get to play in aberdeen this tour for the first time, I can't wait - and tomorrow in waterford it'll be my cherry gig there also... even after all the years of touring there's lots of stuff to keep it exciting, correct? you fuckin bet.
beautiful kindness from the belfast gig-goers during and after my gear-pack, very nice of them, very nice! ian gives me a present, I'll unwrap it at the konk pad. I meet another one of his organs bandmates, fuck yeah! the whole tour this is a great part of the gig - I agree w/mike about being amazed every time we do this but then this part too, me getting to let cats know I really appreciate them letting me bring it, really am.
I get to the rented boat and fill an empty water bottle w/piss which is also a good feel, in a different kind of way of course. mike gives a good debrief and we got stuff to think about to make the gigs better... we're 'pert-near halfway through the tour now. crimony. he gets us to a konk pad I think miss hiyori got through the internet. good to get in there just after ten and I hose off most careful, moving slow and holding on to as much stuff as possible. damn if I don't konk quick, dr collier had a new video and I think the sound kept running from the 'puter! crimony, episode after episode I guess... scotty-san (rock action) would do that on purpose to learn new tunes, said they would "travel" subliminially into his mind that way. man, I miss him dearly... love you scotty-san.
friday, june 6, 2025 - waterford, ireland
from mike:
Driving south, rainy
Great vibe from Harry, Ryan
We work the gig good
from watt:
pop at six and a half finish watching dr collier's video on free will cuz I lasted not much last night though that and a buttload of other ones kept on going... maybe I absorbed some of them "scotty-san style" somehow someway? if not in the mind then maybe in some kind of fiber? I ain't sure so try it old fashioned watt way which is watching/listening while fully awake. it's good one and I think of that talk richard hell had w/me all those years ago in new york city's central park on the same subject... didn't I just chimp bout that kind of in this tour diary maybe? anyway, after I haul ass coding up the photos from glasgow and get my diary to absorb those, maybe not so abstract but in literal html? I'm gettin a handle on this, I swear I am.
we got a little over two hundred mile to cover so eleven's gotta be the go-time. I still had some text to chimp regarding yesterday's whateve... you wouldn't believe how quick fucking shit can get spaced w/me and actually the photos really help. like w/the fuel for the rented boat - £1.24/liter (about $6.33/gallon u.s.) at the "ormeau road service station" not too far away (I saw it on the way to the konk pad last night and mike said he wanted to jump on it on our way out of dodge) - cheapest so far for the tour. the weather's pretty nice too but crimony if it don't chang every ten minutes: from sunny to showers and back, constantly. pretty funny.
about an hour (meaning around noon) south on the m1 (northern ireland m1, people) and then the a1, I notice the signs now say "n1" plus there's irish language along w/the english and the mileage is in klicks instead of miles - we're in the republic of ireland and have left the uk... that's the way it is and I think it's pretty happening, especially w/the history involved, correct? another hour and mike pulls us over for a piss stop (didn't get the fuckin name like a baka) where I do guardiano w/the boat... miss hiyori brings me a salad w/lots of pickles and tomato wedges in it w/lettuce and onions, also has one hardboiled egg and very important: a small sack of mustard and two on vinegar - don't forget the chemistry people, don't forget. we skirt dublin and get caught in the stau that surrounds it like big towns everywhere now these days but eventually wade through (mike most happening on the rudder) and passing the signs for kilkenny which is where we'll be tomorrow but today we're headed for waterford and get into their city center just after two and a half, the gig/pad boss harry directing us where to dock and how to get the gear in. his pad is luca records & decks and is named after his son, it's in the "apple market" par of downtown. him and his assistantman ryan are most bitchin cats and damn if they don't enlighten me to the fact that in the old days this pad was a music shop and rory gallagher bought that tore-up fender strat guitar you see him working in all the photos fuckin here. crimony! that is a total trip for me. by the way, ian last night gave me a present I opened this morning and what was it besides a cassette of his own organs, a cd of taste "on the boards" which was an album from a band he had before he went under his own name. crimony. you know I'm gonna be thinking of him tonight when it's our turn to play. no soundcheck, we're just gonna go for it so instead spending time on doing that stuff, I have huge rap w/assistantman ryan about the old days of the movement, he knows a lot... but wants to know more! ok, I bring. I'm always asking people about their favorite bands in their town and he brings up chimers though not from here but his buddy andy is (his band a lethal black ooze) and invite him on my show a week from monday. I then go hobbling around to try and capture any "eye gifts" I might find in the area nearby w/my digicamera.
opening tonight's gig is creepy future and damn if their drummerman derek was in band moutpiece and not only that (besides being portland, or ex-pat), drove me and the second-string secondmen around ireland for the end of the "el mar cura todo in europe too" tour 2005 (scroll down to 'ireland' entries) twenty years ago, crimony! harry brings me dinner from a chow pad harry has close by called "momo" ('peach' in jap) and I think it's my favorite meal of the tour, I shit thee not. something about it, even w/it just being some pieces of pork w/this risotto (maybe) and some kind of fried cheese thing - the sauce is fucking righteous, kind of lemon and spice whatever, I'm way into it. crimony, just cuz I'm weak w/the words trying to describe shouldn't get in the way of me trying to let you know I really dug this stuff. crimony.
assisstantman ryan has me sit behind the counter and I chimp diary... creepy future hit at eight and have a good time getting stuff lit, you can feel it. I wish I had more time to rap w/drummerman derek... twenty years... it's a mindblow to thing about time passing - when I think about that time - it was second opera time for me while at the same time a new experience at helping the stooges and domestically in my pedro town I had to move quick from the apartment on walker in pedro two blocks east to where I've been since on leland... believe it or not some stuff from that move in still in fucking boxes! that gets me to thinking about "stuff in boxes" or just "stuff" in general, the shit-hoarding of objects... what a fuckin endeavor, correct? we have a certain kind of description for that role you can play as a person, a "collector" which I don't think means the same thing as someone into something unless you consider "collecting information" kind of the same thing. I guess there's a "spectrum" to it like lots of other stuff and maybe not such a big "either/or" trip... I just wish in my life... well, maybe the word "cluttering" is a better noun for what's I'm trying to say that bugs me? what the fuck, I'm cluttering my head right now w/these thoughts instead of talking about the set our friends just played! crimony.
I'm most grateful for creepy future for getting things lit and ready for our turn. a problem w/my mic - actually that's my fault cuz I always bring my own mic on tour and space on that this time, left it in pedro like a fucking baka, damn me. of course harry's trying his best to get things happening, even using the mic he's got on hodge's kick drum! crimony. the waterford gig-goers are happening, what a great first gig ever in this time w/them here for us. touring has really opened my mind up to fellow humans, all the towns we all populate and how we share our human stuff, it's kind of a mindblow for me to contemplate even w/the fortytwo years now I've been doing it, still is... music, something I got into: keeping the fucking head and everything else sensory opened and ready to absorb the new stuff life can bring you, older stuff too but from the up-to-now moment, remember what heraclitus learned us:
"no man ever steps in the same river twice"
damn straight, thank you. big thank yous also for the most kind words from the waterford gig-goers after our gig and I'm packing my stuff, much! I bring as much as the thank you/you're welcomes I can back. all these gigs this have had such genuine parts at the endtime, I really feel deep down and this being the first time here, it's got the on top of it for sincere impression on me. I'm fucking so much into being grateful for d boon trying his hardest every time, never half-way cuz that's what I've really tried to do cuz damn if the gig-goers don't deserve it... damn if the cats I'm serving w/on stage don't also - this world does not need a half-ass watt to help lame it out, correct?
everyone helps us w/the schlep and we get the rented boat packed and not far to a konk pad the venue set up for us. the lady running it is waiting for us, most kind. all ground floor and the head in the room so very safe for watt, I hose off and konk pretty much like that. great first time in this town, most happening.
saturday, june 7, 2025 - kilkenny, ireland
from mike:
Shortest drive today
Irish stew (lamb), castle hike
Minor clams, good gig!
from watt:
pop at six and a half... this omaha bassman dereck higgins is a cat who's youtube station I watch 'pert-near every morning I can, usually when I'm doing my elliptical trainer stuff... man, am I missing that machine, got it like thirteen or fourteen years ago and love the fuck out of it. I never have to be afraid of falling down. anyway, my ankles are doing much better than last tour, back in march/april/may though I did notice the puff-up coming on me and began hobbling even at fuel stops around the gas station... a couple of weeks of elliptical trainer once I got home really got me back and I'm to say you can see tendons and and veins, no palm tree trunk looking connects w/my feet and calves/shins... I got plans for when we get to kilkenny regarding this stuff, by the way.
we pull anchor at a little before eleven cuz the pad lady says the cleaning man is ready to do his dance, no prob. it's another new town for me today and also our shortest drive of the tour. it's about fortyfive minutes from waterford to kilkenny (about thirty miles) so we get in before noon and use that strategy we did in cardiff except we can get pretty close to the konk pad though that available 'til three but the parking's free. my plan is to hobble down the main street (john street) we came in cuz that look interesting... I'll take it slow and be real careful but I'm jonesing for elliptical trainer so I I think this can help, just gotta be safe. looks like the rain is gonna let up and it ain't that hot so that's good. I bid everyone farewell and begin my hobble.
there's lot of neat stuff to look at and absorb, people are friendly and not pushy on the sidewalk so that's very happening. there's some grade but not heavy and though lots of old stuff, not too hazardous. I hobble and hobble, really slow but steady... I see much stuff, there's lots of fellow visitors to the is part of town I'm suspecting. it's ok, everyone very nice. I cross the river nore and then get lost, even up on the high street and then take a "slip" which is what we call an alley and end up in the old market area and someone helps w/directs to john street and I get my bearings... the rented boat is up on michael street and just before getting on that I see a sign saying "breakfast all day" and at this pad called "the world's end bar" and chow what they call "full irish breakfast" real slow relaxed the two ladies working here most kind, which is trippy w/a name like this, correct? it must be ironic. I don't eat this kind of chow hardly ever but they cook it up good and I like it. you know that shoulder that took the blow in manchester when I slipped in the tub has healed up good but damn if it ain't getting a workout w/the crutch on this hobble, huh? I just thought about that while I was chowing. now that knee that got hurt also is being helped w/the crutch so no prob there but it ain't like I've re-injured anything, just can feel it a little. I think by doing the hobble slow made good sense... it's more about how long I'm doing this today and not how much or how fast. two hours is a good hobble for watt, a good one!
I get back to the rented boat w/mike and hodge, they said miss hiyori went to get something but soon she's back and we make our way to the gig pad which is on parliament street, it's called cleere's bar and the gig boss johnny is out there to greet us, I already a good feeling about him by the spirit he brings, alright. my first gig in kilkenny. the gig part is in the back of the pad and we meet soundman davey who's also happening. damn if it ain't into the chimers like those cats last night in waterford... damn, I gotta check them out! we have a good check w/him and then johnny get us chow, I have a salad and I like this soda water, "ballygowan" - it's good. he was gonna schlep me to the konk pad but I think it's better not to move so much so I find a comfortable place up front and chimp diary.
have a big fuckin "chat" w/- that's what he called it, says "in ireland there's two big things, chat and craic (pronounced "crack" but means "fun" and not fuckin the shit), those two things" and I think that's pretty happening. I might say "spiel" and "fully blown" but I think we're bof on board w/the same thing. he's very interesting and learns me a lot... says normans had a lot to do w/the old days of this town and also has a brother who does music in new york. the tv's goin real strong w/what owen tells me is a game big in ireland called hurling and everyone in the bar is emotionally invested in this contest between what I understand is limerick and cork. first time I've seen this played and it looks fierce... gotta admit though, I like hearing owen spiel, very interesting cat. he's brought his son and his daughter so he's gotta get back to them but then this cat named jack later comes up asks me about the fender jazzmaster I sold to nels cline for the same amount I paid for it, $600 and I can't fucking remember when that happened, damn me. I know j mascis told me to buy it from rick king at guitar maniacs in tacoma. man, memory is trippy, huh? I'm most grateful for jack here having me think about that guitar again, most grateful.
eight minutes before our scheduled quarter of nine go-time, mike comes and gives me the word. no opener tonight, johnny says he wants to keep it simple. I him very much and wanna do good for bof him and the other cats here in kilkenny. we do have a good gig, I feel, I enjoy it much and enjoy them much, what nice to cats to play for. I've really gotten comfortable w/playing for mike also I think me getting my health better has helped that also. I've always never wanted to give him anything short and prolly now I'm in better shape even w/being less younger but if you think about it, still kind of a new band band and we got other stuff to explore. I got the feeling he wants to try another way at making the new batch so believe or not, during this gig I'm thinking about it and maybe tomorrow after soundcheck I can bring it up to him. this is dangerous cuz a gig needs all you got but I'm thinking this is mssv stuff I'm thinking of and maybe it's a way of me having this stuff down in some ways where I can think that way about suggests to him while giving it all for the gig-goers and johnny here in kilkenny at the same time. I got this one suggest in particular... between tunes I'm kind of laughing about this but also I'm having a good time playing for the people here at this pad - yeah, I like the sound here at this gig pad also. maybe the hobbling added something also? trippy what goes into a gig w/me, trippy.
I'm just so happy to give thanks back when these folks come up - I got some stickers in my pocket I flow also. much good spirit, I feel so about this first gig in kilkenny for me. I really dig I can excited for gigs and not just do stuff cuz I have to but cuz I really wanna, wanna do it for us on the stage and those giving us respect w/listening...crimony, what a deal. truly, it's something - was back then and is now for me... I think of d boon.
johnny helps me to the boat through the alley way, first I have a good rap w/his cookerman, the cat who made my salad and I thank him for that. he thought d boon on the sticker I gave him looked like a map of the island of ireland, ain't that a trip? I think d boon would've dug that. that's a beautiful think he shared w/me. mike gets us to the konk pad and it's a few flights of stairs but I take it slow cuz it's a got a feel, it's worth and my hose down is very ok, I'm now kirei ('clean' in jap) and ready to konk. yes, I'm tuckered but it's a good tuckered not a burden one but something that brought me uh, what's the word? opportunities, yeah, that describes it. I konk really happy, thank you kilkenny.
sunday, june 8, 2025 - dublin, ireland
from mike:
Watt history lesson
Dublin streets = confounding maze
Gig? Needs a rally
from watt:
one of the youtube.com stations I watch to help me keep from getting liquored up is this cat from england who uses 'bat country' in it's name and he just releaed a video about him nearly dying in kyrgyzstan that I watch soon after pissing following me popping at six and a half. he's a good spieler and when his spiel is done, I follow the smell of chow cooking that started happening about in the middle of it... this konk pad has breakfast chow and I shovel one similar to the one I had about three-fourths through my hobble yesterday. the couple that run this pad are most kind and their version I like much also. the have all kinds of buddha art stuff I find out the man they've gotten from thailand, china, indonesia, brazil and more places he can't remember now. very nice.
we pull anchor at eleven... eighty miles from kilkenny to dublin... we got on and off rain, stopping around noon... twelve and a half as mike gets us into the metro area, he stops at a "circle k" (same as we got in the u.s.) for diesel at €1.64/liter (about $7.38/gallon u.s.) for the rented boat. you fuel this rented boat at an access point right at my hatch (port side so that means I open up for him but all tour he's been shutting it on me and w/me belted in, I keep get bashed by the hatch so maybe w/just a week to go now I plead w/him to please let me close the hatch myself and that way if I get bashed, it's my fault and not his - he's into this scheme. I figure it's kind of like doing my own pants when I'm pissing - by the way, that's a big reason I like 501 levis cuz they got buttons instead of a zipper, easier on the cazzo in event of pilot error, correct? tour drama.
the gig pad tonight is the grand national and I played here once before, it was last year w/the fratelli. it's right on the liffey which mr joyce really used for his "ulysses" and "finnegan wake" books - hell, we're only a week away from bloomsday - twentyone years ago I was in this town w/out a gig to spend three days exploring the town on the 100th anniversary of that june 16th which also happens to be bof mike and raymond's bday! crimony. well, we're here way early and there's no parking so we go where there is that, up on dorset street and drop anchor there, mike goes w/miss hiyori to do laundry. I'm gonna hobble again, not as far as yesterday but leopold bloom did it, correct? I hobble around up to frederick street and down that before circling back to the rented boat w/hodge doing guardiano... I get back a little over an hour laster and give him one of the three hardboiled eggs I got for a €1.50 total and chimp diary. the rain laid off the whole time. mike arrives w/pho, dinner time. don't know where he got it but man is it good. you know how it comes it parts? seems the broth part container ain't ever big enough for everything involved and I'm thinking that's cuz maybe they're (the ones slinging it) thinking you're gonna bring it home where you got a big fuckin bowl that will hold everything. anyway, I'm glad mike brought me a buttload of paper towels cuz I gotta use them for fuckin spillage cuz I'm baka klutz, damn me. it is real good though, love it.
a quarter of four we try and make our way to the gig but the lady-voice giving mike directions ain't got it together and I figure the best way to get there is how we arrived first in town, right alongside the liffey and retrace those moves. it works and we find the back alley load-in (remember I was here last year) and we get the gear in up some stairs. we check w/soundman luke (good cat) and then look who's here? drummerman bushie who I known for twentyfive years now, when he was estel - a solid cat, the best and damn if he ain't still here for me - we'll be konking at his pad tonight w/the latest band he's in hubert selby jr infants opening up tonight's gig. of course he already helped w/the schlep up these stairs, bushie's the man.
I go to the back stage and get the jacket and shirt off, I think first time this tour (one tour w/the fratelli every drive we did I was that way) and steve, the cat running things tonight cuz gig boss keiron is away w/his family, bring a fan, some bottled bubble water and some ice for me, very kind. I choose photos and chimp diary...
mike comes down and we discuss some mssv stuff - trippy, he apologizes for some clams at soundcheck, says his mind was somewhere else, prolly stressed about tomorrow's hellride... anyway, I got an idea he might be into and he hears me out. it's for the next batch, not his one we're working here but the next one. it seems to wanna give it a try. mssv is his baby and I respect that, don't try to bumrush so it's only an out-loud thought but I feel I should lay it on him, just putting it out there w/no weight or burden attached to it. very kind for him to hear me out, I try to use few words as possible. bushie's band goes on a quarter after eight and tear it up. last time they were missing their man jamie and performed as a trio but it's all four tonight.
out turn at quarter after nine and I don't know why but for the tunes I got the job of tempo-setting, I feel like bringing it a slower... not cuz of the dublin gig-goers cuz this is their first time seeing/hearing me w/mike and hodge so they make it big time apparent they wanna give us a shot to let them know what it's about and not handle it like some kind of watt side-trip dealio, much respect to them. dublin's the first ireland town and always consistent one I've played so I always bring it cuz they also do. missing timmo, been thinking of him so I'm playing like he was here too - well, he is, in spirit. yeah, I'm trying to be intense but not by using increased tempo but more a kind of intent, of putting it right there for these cats cuz I know it for the first time for them and first impressions can be truly a mindblow cuz it can only happen once, I fucking big time know that - like the first time raymond played john coltrane for me - it was "ascension" and I had no idea where that was coming from or going, crimony was my head fully blown, I shit thee not. now I ain't try to say I got any of that going for me, just trying relate first-time experiences and that's kind of like that tonight... actually though, it's been like that this whole fuckin tour, crimony am I baka or what? well, it's bushie's first time seeing us too so I holler his name before we start and that's something I don't do at mssv gigs for sure. just had to do that. here's the thing though, by the gig's end I'm gonna think there was something strange about but couldn't tell you what... is that fucked up?
for sure though I'm digging rapping w/the dublin gig-goers when we finish, there's a line of them and they each have their own way, I love it. lots of stickers from my pocket, lots of good word and kindness, so glad the last sunday gig of this tour ended up like this. fuck yeah, willy from "stone age" is here, so glad to see him, rose too. love willy much! there's a cat here who tells me he drove two and a half hours one way for this gig, crimony. huge respect. there's a cat from strong beach, the east side of the harbor I share w/him and my pedro town, he asks about the jumpstarted plowhards (released so far: round I + round II) which I'm ready to get going, really am... I gotta re-learn the stuff I wrote for toddski but along w/jimmy on the drums, I am way into it. good to think about that again as this winds down but not done yet - we still got a week!
lots of hands to help us/the schlep down the stairs... mike arrives w/the rented boat and we pack up, pack bushie in w/us cuz he's gonna direct us to his pad out of dublin to the west suburbs, in saggert. we gotta be in the boat a quarter after four so I hose off, get into numaki, put up the internet-blast for tomorrow's gig and then konk quick.
monday, june 9, 2025 - aberdeen, scotland
from mike:
Relaxed at ferry
Great scene here; Jamie, Colin
Good gig, BIG thanks band!
from watt:
pop at quarter of four. crimony. bushie's up also and enlightens me to the fact that "shell" here took so many blows for being douches they rebranded their stations as "green apple" - the real fuckin "shell game," huh? fuckin humans... some of us, anyway... mike has big stress about getting to the ferry, saying he'll be a lot calmer w/that part successfully done, I capito. big hugs for bushie 'til next time, big hugs. love this man. we shove off at four-twenty... bye bye 'til next time, bushie.
we go towards dublin on the n7 to then head north on the m1. very dark outside and very quiet here in the rented boat... I think we all want mike to have as much focus as he's got to wheel this hellride and keep us safe. we cross into norhtern ireland seventy minutes later, right after sunrise... ten minutes after that is a piss stop at a "go 24 express - a1 eatery" (yep, the road from dublin went from m1 to n1 and now a1) fuel place/chow pad that's also got a washer/dryer vending machine in the parking lot, whoa. twenty after six we pass belfast and get to the p&o ferry terminal in larne at seven, we got this important "chokepoint" of today's journey done cuz it would be a total cascade fuck if this part failed, I know mike's relieved. actually there was no spiel at all 'til that piss stop and I wasn't gonna go into "involuntary yenta mode" to prevent piling that kind of stuff on him. the ferry's called the "european causeway" and we board at seven and a half, bye bye ireland... ok, first 140 miles of today's traveling now in the sack, good job from mike on the wheel... he can use these two hours on the ferry to rest up for round II which'll be a 234 mile hellride. whoa. well, I really wanted to play aberdeen - thank you much, mike!
some real klown drama happening back home is in the news. crimony. distraction attempt cuz of toddler fight? bigger crimony. also: klown creates chaos w/his masked kidnapping cosplay and then says he wears big boy pants now and needs to use marshall law man-dance to "fix" that... you know, wanna be butch shit. get me a fucking shovel. ten bells and we're docked in scotland, we roll off the ferry and head north. no rain (not for long!) but gray skies.
quarter after noon we pass though glasgow and over the clyde - I think of brother dep (it's his town), I think he said he's taking a train to see us tonight! crimony. fifteen minutes later we pull off in a small town called condorrat for a piss stop at a "bp" where there's also a "subway" that furnishes a salad w/lots of pickles, lettuce, bell peppers and cumbers w/some corn in 'em. I chow that as we continue on and then fuckin konk 'til I'm woke (we park next to a sign advertising "the wakey" no less) by mike pulling us over at another "bp" - not for fuel (that diesel from dublin's still holding) but a sandwich - it's just after two and we still got sixtynine miles to do w/the rain starting and stopping - well of course, it's summer, correct? well, it ain't cold and definitely not like this town's name (dryburgh), it's just wet. here's what's even funnier, the fucking stupid names they give to garbage crap they're slinging: "the wakey," "wakey one," "the seriously" and of course "mmmillions of combinations" - who's thinks up this shit? "freshly ground coffee in every cup" - I'm already spitting that swill out from my mouf. not long after mike gets three different long horn blasts, a big stare amd and the finger from some helpful fellow drivers alerting him to the fact you don't cruise in the fuckin overtake lane... ok, noted. quarter of four we turn the motor off in front the blue lamp which is tonight's gig pad. mike did great job w/the the eleven hours of travel - at least eight of it behind the wheel. crimony. he doesn't quit though - he finds an indian chow pad then himself goes to forage for us while we do guardiano in the rented boat... many college students passing by on the sidewalk. really "whew" though, biggest hellride of the tou... I'm most grateful to mike cuz I really wanted to play this town in scotland, always have. we've been watching these guys load in music stuff into a hatch that's a gift store sign above it... what we don't know is the hatch mike found sealed is for a little bar connected to the gig pad and these cats are actually loading into to it - I find out when one comes and introduces himself as jamie... he's tonight's gig boss, crimony! says he's from wick, which is a tiny town north of inverness and came here as a student, there's two universities in aberdeen. he says there's two local bands opening which is happening, I wanna see/hear what's going here, fuckin curious watt. we check w/soundman badger who's cool people, honor to have him in the "fourth man" slot for tonight. we go over that stuff mike was talking about earlier in the boat. he then goes forage for chow for us when finished. I go in the back room and find some sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil along w/cherry peppers stuff w/mozzarella co-promoter colin got us, fuck yeah. live this stuff. mike brings saag paneer and garlic nan, fuck do I love this stuff too. crimony. everyone's really nice here at venue, kind of an olde-timey place repurposed and there's nothing like kind people.
I get the last two days of diary of up but w/out photos, gotta catch up on them. gonna wait though cuz damn if it ain't already doors and vibrator hits and gets the gig lit. most happening, they're a power trio and are young cats bringing it. though I witness their set in the back, I thank them all one at a time up on the stage along w/an invite to be on my show up next are fellow aberdeans (is that what you call cats who live here?) dear john and they're a duo that uses backup stuff that's running itself and triggered by bof the guitar and drummer men, interesting. I do likewise and get on stage to thank them for what they brought, yatta!
ok, our turn at nine, everything running most smoov so no stalls or bogarts to deal w/and don't think this is an issue - not so much these days but in olden times... crimony, the fucking petty shit back home motherfuckers would pull to perpetuate that kind of jive... sometimes it happen overseas but a lot was domestic and fucking I hated it, especially on work/school nights. mike from the earliest mssv tours has always been good about that and damn it's a shame you have to but if you don't, bof you and the kind cats who support you get it every orraffice they can force open... sorry to get yammering on this.. I was worried about tonight w/all the tiredness but damn, it turns out to be one of my favorite gigs of the tour. I sure appreciate the aberdeen gig-goers for being beautiful to us but also the power of music when you got it going for you and find yourself really getting lifted into a place where you give lots of what you intend to, it's a trip. the gig runs like one big song and the band's firing all plugs, none much fouling. it's got some real feel to the whole enchilada, much. I remember the days of breaking bass strings like crazy and one thing playing a little while has done is give me the ability to get big attack but "feeling" where too much would be too much and so I don't break strings, 'pert-near ever. I can really yank on these babies too, like they were ropes on a tall ship. crimony. I'm also "floating" the starboard thumb (the one on the plucking hand) and having it "anchor" on one of the pblade pickups as little as possible. it's healthier for me. I don't have the pain I was getting on last fall's tour and a little bit last tour but I believe doing this is a reason why, also keeping where the thumb connects w/the wrist real loose and flexible. anyway, what I think really helped tonight on stage was the big debrief/spiel mike had w/us after we got off the ferry and rolling towards here. big thanks to mike, this is what I think a good band jefe does, he rallies and provides focus.
I pack up prolly the fastest this tour, I thank soundman badger helping us so and he helps me w/the barefaced speakerbox condom-cover by getting it on w/one move, smoov. I get the good word from many kind aberdeen gig-goers, one of them named gavin has a goo long spiel w/me regarding the cap'n and man, does he know a lot about him but he ain't read the mike barnes bio on him and so I'm there as bof as hole-filler and having a good time rapping about about a cat we bof really love. another trippy thing he's got no accent - not that but it's when I ask where he's from and he says here and then I ask "what?" and he explains it was growing up watching nothing but "nikolodian" (u.s. tv channel for kids) and that do what I'm hearing now, "you are what you eat," I guess... same thing w/vice cooler back home who's from mobile in alabama and has zero accent from there. crimony.
we're packed and I gotta scissor the spiel but I ask gavin to email me, good cat. I say my thanks and byes to jamie and brother dep - he's actually the cat who made this gig happen and I feel like a real cabron for not acknowledging that during my encore spiel (mike asked me to go longer w/it tonight cuz he brok a 'd' string in "ok to change"), instead I gave some bizarre "lesson" on one watt equaling 745 horsepower cuz of james watt coming up w/the governor and condenser. crimony. love brother dep much, big abrazzos for him from me. co-promoters (punchface) jamie and colin get my gratitude also, what a great job they did. last spiel I do is right by the rented boat w/an aberdeen dude regrading steve marriott and boy, could that little sing, incredible. interesting cats in aberdeen, yes.
co-promoter colin guides us to an "ibis" 'tel right near the harbor he got for us and I hose off pretty quick after getting in the chamber. new outfit tomorrow so all this goes into the "bolsa sucio" sack except of course the jacket my sister melinda made me. into the numaki and then I hear a little of mr shades but am so beat I don't even make it through his short spiel though it was a good one: how to deal w/grief, he wanted to know how. I do it w/bass.
tuesday, june 10, 2025 - newcastle, england
from mike:
Drive along North Sea
Finally meeting Owain - THANKS!
2nd half, good gig
from watt:
pop at six and a half... find out that we lost sly stone which is trippy w/me cuz it always blew my mind how he somehow stayed alive w/being fucked up like he was. however, the music he made when I was younger was really influential to me, his bassman larry graham had an incredible effect on how I work bass, kind of a teacher I never met, in the same "school" for me as james jamerson, jack bruce, john entwistle and geezer butler for example. there's also the way he organized his music, his compositions... I really dug his forms. he was not afraid to combine all kinds of stuff and I loved that. "there's a riot goin' on" is so big time on me as a whole work. crimony. more a "concept album" to me than prog stuff like "thick as a brick" or "the lamb lies down" - kind of more like that "a quick one (while he's away)" by the who or their "sell out" and I know that seems a little bizarre but that's how it seems to me when I look back on my younger watt self. this 'tel has a free shovel in their galley so I go and do that, being surprised by it being kind of ok. now yesterday it was raining when we got here and I was tuckered from the journey from dublin and wanted to save what I had for the gig so I decide this morning to hobble around this part of the harbor here in aberdeen before we have to bail. I find it most interesting and damn if parts of it don't go back to the eleven-hundreds, crimony! wish I had time to visit the maritime museum they got here but at least I got to see some stuff.
pull anchor at ten and a half w/clouds above but bright sun and no rain just we're leaving aberdeen, the rented boat needs diesel so we stop at a "shell" (only thing available) twenty minutesand fill up at £1.36/liter (about $6.94/gallon u.s.)... no squeegees of course but there is a bucket of dirt w/a scooper in it - maybe in case of a fire? it's trppy that right in front of the hatches of the pads, starting you right in the face is these gallon jugs of "screen cleaning fluid" for sale. maybe they just windshield wiper for the work we use squeegees for? prolly more important things to think about, huh? I tell you what's really trippy... it's these signs on the road that say "pedestrians crossing!" - on a fucking highway w/cars and trucks hauling ass? no crosswalk, just a sign saying that and another one w/an exclamation mark and then a gap in the center rail w/a tiny sign (I guess for the pedestrians) that says "look left" - crimony! small mercies we don't actually witness any of these "crossing events" on our way. at perth we make for edinburgh and this is where the route differs from yesterdays, kind of the "y point" to/from aberdeen for us. as I was chimping earlier regarding important things to think about, mike gives a big spiel w/us about stuff regarding mssv music the last bunch of gigs left, he makes good sense and I'm glad he's discussing it w/us. ten of one w/pull over in kinross at a 'service area' for piss stop, I do guardiano and fill a bottle at the same time. back on the road we do what they say over here "carry on" and then just north of edinburgh are these three bridges over the firth of forth and they read the way were going (north to south) like they were built: oldest, older, newest. crimony. it's my first time over this water. trippy. we take the coast road a1 for our way south, twenty of three we cross over into england, bye bye scotland! fifteen minutes later mike needs to piss so we're off at an "esso" in fenham - he drank a can of "iron brew" (legendary scottish soda) and needs to donate it here to england after filtering it w/his kidneys. still nice so cal-like weather, yes! I know it's summer but you've seen all the rain we've had, it's how it is here and why what we call mild back home is what they call "hot" here.
four pm we stop at the konk pad which is a 'tel in the north part of newcastle, called the "great north hotel" (misss hiyori calls it the "greg norton hotel) to check in and at four-forty we're down by a little river off the tyne called the ouseburn at tonight's gig pad which is one I've done many times and have always dug it, the cluny. it took us about six hours to make the 250 miles from aberdeen, good job to mike at the rudder! weather is like back in so cal for me, am digging it. we're informed the gig's been moved from "the cluny 2" (a newer part) to the original space here at the clunywhich is where I've always played here - except last year. glad to be back. from the kitchen here I'm give what they call a "pulled-pork" sandwich, they're very kind here, always have been. I listen to my youtube.com stations that talk about not using alcohol, everyone of them from people who have and some who still are having struggles w/it and I find they help me w/me staying healthy w/out it. the cat who contacted mike and got this tour going, owain, comes and says hi to me, asks me what I need so I ask him for water w/bubbles, my got to since I don't know when. he comes back and says there's some in the fridge here - I'm an idiot! sorry owain, wish I could spiel w/you more. we check w/soundman thomas who said we're a very unusual band, he's never worked w/someone who sounds like us and is very nice about it. I like him a lot. said he didn't see me here last year w/il sogno del marinaio cuz he was still at college. happening to have him aboard.
the gig starts at eight w/a cat named from durham which I learn is about fifteen miles south called spider noises, a one-man-band and him on acoustic might sound not all that unusual but what he brings is distinctive.
so glad to share the stage w/him. we'er on soon after since he played right w/out stuff behind so no need for getting stuff together, it's just like it was for soundcheck. I enjoy the gig... had a rough first part - kind of getting "acclimated" (the room really likes the 'd' note) or some other reason but I think this second two-thirds of tonight shows that we are on our sixtyfifth gig of this material if you count the u.s. tour we just did before coming here from overseas which I call in itself a kind of victory. I think mike wold like even more for us to start bringing it from the gig's first note maybe though... hopefully we can do that before saturday in london? best chorus section of "no words" though I think, am really digging that. before that we got for the first time ever some direction (think of sylvester stone doing his very own private directing) from a newcastle gig-goer for "boat-song" that was too much to have scissored so let him be the fifth member (soundman thomas the fourth.
gig done, I have some good talks w/gig-goers including two cats who saw me in this town in the old days at "the riverside" and man, that's such a great thing when things seems so temporary. each cat I rap w/has something to tell me and I'm glad to hear them out. I used to get a little tripped out, like getting smothered by nostalgia or something but I don't feel that way anymore, just don't. prolly was m prob about that all along, huh? people got different reason why they tell you stuff... I got my reasons for wanting to listen - ain't that a trip? just glad to see them before they bring this stuff to me witnessing what I'm doing now so yeah, let them bring what they got after, no prob. another fast pack for me so I get out there to meet them and then to the boat and to that 'tel... then hose off and into the numaki, then out - before midnight, yes! last tuesday gig of this tour, in the sack...
wednesday, june 11, 2025 - hebden bridge, england
from mike:
Small town, canal hike
My wife? Wow, what a surprise!
Great dynamics...
from watt:
pop at six and a half, they got a free shovel downstairs at this 'tel that begins at seven, I'm like one of the first peckers into their galley. it's a buffet w/the "full" stuff breakfasts over here traditionally have and that's what I get but I supplement w/another plate w/plain yogurt covering a bunch of smashed-up cranberries. I use toast as tortillas to make for little burritos of this "full" stuff (tomatoes here are like boiled kind w/the skins removed), trippy collabs when chowed like this instead of the one item at a time intake way, I dig - kind of like a band in your mouf vs man-alone-singer-songwriter trip, kind of. back upstairs, weather observe via the windows show sunny stuff like back in my pedro town when not in "may gray/june gloom" mode, yatta but remember back home that stuff burns off usually around noon, so it ain't an all day damper in the pamper trip. I put out the tour blowouts and chimp the diary, damn me for getting behind on coding in the photos but I do have them ready for that when I get the chance. fuck if I ain't a slow learner.
we pull anchor at eleven and head for the yorkshire part of england, straight for leeds. I'm chimping this the next fuckin day and I can't remember if we stopped on the way - can you fucking believe that? one fuckin day and shit like this is gone... I think we did but don't know where - I know there was no fueling if we did and also I didn't leave the rented boat and prolly pissed in a bottle but fuck if I would be able to testify to any of that in court. damn me. for sure I know we arrived at the gig pad in hebden bridge at seven after two cuz I got a photo of the hatch just as we dropped anchor across from the trades club which I played at once before w/il sogno del marinaio. three hours to do the 130 miles need to get here, mike did real good. there was some fucking pedejos sweating him at one point, acting like that seems to be an "equal opportunity employer" not just back home but in these parts too. he manages it good though w/out them shaking him up too much and he keeps he focus at keeping us safe, I really dig that.
the pad boss sarah is very cool people and takes care of us real good. she says she moved here like twenty years ago from hull. you play up on the top floor of this pad, it was built 101 years ago for working men to hang out in. the backstage is actually a building a few doors down and she shows me but instead of planting my culo here, I let her know I wanna hobble around here and get some photos... three rivers meet in this town but the one close to where I am is the calder and there's a canal near it w/narrowboats, I've watched youtube.com videos regarding cats making a life aboard these as their pads, traveling pads and maybe different than the dutch ones which seem more tied up... I don't know much about this stuff but anything w/boats interests me, remember my pop was a machinist mate in the navy for twenty years - I am the son of a sailor! a nice park is here I enjoy... I also hobble around to the town's center, there's ducks and a pedestrian part near where the last mill was built - these towns are from the days when river power was put to use to make stuff happen, I think hebden bridge is like five hundred years old!
the soundman jason I've worked w/before - the diary I chimp ain't just a daily therapy for watt on tour but a document too! I find out I was here for the "euro tour 2013", twelve years three months ago w/the fratelli, he couldn't remember either, crimony! we're bof real happy we got this reveal. he's a great cat and we soundcheck w/him, finding the resonant bogarting note some pads got and ringing it out, he knows his stuff. respect. after our check, right out the hatch upstairs here is a kitchen serving up indonesian chow and I have some red curry w/rice, I dig it and it reminds me of the red curry I had at that thai pad near "the turf club" in saint paul, mn. trippy, tour connects. sarah's son jake comes to visit and spiel w/me, he's interesting and we rap about all kinds of stuff - he's a guitar and drummerman so there's music but also we talk some anthropology in the new world after discussing gambling and the ponies which leads me to hipping him to some paleontology w/the la brea tar pits cuz we actually have a kind of horse before spain brought the ones we know now. it's a good rap. I meet his pop simon a little later but only get to say hi and tell him how I found his son most happening. sarah brings me to the office so I can chimp diary solamente. I never do got the that backstage pad again (I actually don't like moving around much at gig pads if I don't have to) but it sure seemed happening. mike and hodge did though.
we're the only act tonight cuz the openers had to cancel cuz of sickness. the go-time is eight and a half and jason put up chairs so it's kind of recital-like trip but that makes for bringing a focus for us in the band that I think aids and abets to a real good gig - mike later will say it really dug it in the debriefing. I enjoyed it and we did get dynamics happening way early in the set which I think is some real progress w/this material - yeah, it took a little time (remember what mr welle's learned us?) but I think we're making headway getting there, last wendesday gig of this tour. I gotta say the hebden gig-goers are most righteous w/their focus and respect, truly.
we get done and I have many many spiels w/many of these cats, lots have lots to discuss and I'm into it, love hearing them out and then responding. some were here twelve years ago, one shows me a photo of him wearing the altamont mike watt flannel (here's my spiel for it), crimony if I don't vivdly remember that, like it was yesterday... ain't memory a fuckin trip?! some stuff gets "branded on the brain" and then shit from yesterday is lost to the vortex! a bassbrother gives me a "number 6" pin he got at "the village" in portmeirion in wales, so very kind of him. he says in return for "stories" I've laid on him, he has some too... fuckin right on. there's a brother who saw me in 1987 w/fIREHOSE opening for sonic youth at the "new adri ballroom" in manchester - somehow I help him remember the year kind of but not the pad, he filled that in for me when he said something about "an irish club" - it's a trip about this rememberin stuff - I wrote a song about me and thurst doing this same thing, "me & you, remembering"... yeah, this stuff has always tripped me out.
I gotta bail, the rented boat's packed and everyone's waiting on the yammering bassplayer... look who's inside, between hodge and miss hiyori? it's des, what a surprise! I was enlightened to the fact mike was gonna be w/her for six days in england after the tour's done but I guess she did surprise move and just showed up here, yes! so great to see her again. mike gets us to a pad miss hiyori got off the internet not too far away and I hose off 'pert-near soon as we arrive cuz I got some konk deficit... I konk immediately after, before eleven, yes! watt needs watt needs... very happening time for me today though, very much!
thursday, june 12, 2025 - bristol, england
from mike:
Des leaves from coffee
Big rains, front end falls off... fixed!
Form clams, but good gig
from watt:
pop at seven and right away get into chimping diary regarding yesterday cuz I had zero stuff on it. most times I putting in entries w/stuff I don't wanna space on... I tell you if I have to go back to when I popped and try to take it from there, it takes like what seems ten fuckin times longer, just does. I'm really glad I make myself go through this, 'pert-near like a elliptical trainer for the mind. the other trip about doing the "recall dance" is that it might get me thinking to shit that might have the most insane connect but it's enough to get me going on that. it's not like this stuff back except maybe like yesterday when I was trying to remember if soundman jason was at "the trades club" twelve years ago when I last played there - the diary in document mode. most the time I'm engaged in the therapeutic mode of giving birth to the spiel I'm chimping and it's a big reason why you'll find words missing cuz my fuckin head is getting ahead of my hands as far as getting something comprehensible chimped. crimony.
there's no breakfast chow at this konk pad so it's like we're circling back to this tour's first gigs. I kind of like that cuz these shovels I've been having the last few days are kind of heavy. the morning shovels I have in my pedro town I make myself and that takes like a half and hour, forty minutes even and there's something therapeutic about that, along w/the ability to make sure I know what I'm chowing and including only what I want - whole chow I've gotten at the mercado and then cooking... bof thinks are really important. shoveling from a trough at a konk pad reminds me of touring w/the stooges even though I loved playing w/those guys, love stooges music and love the stooges people themselves very much, it wasn't that healthy except for maybe the fact I would hobble all over in the towns we were in since there'd be like three days in between and no crutch then so lots of hoofing so some good workouts but near the 126 months I served w/them, you can see a watt not as healthy... prolly the drinking up on me too. actually the drinking gets worse in the nine years since that work (helping the stooges) and me putting the plug in the jug. ok, look, I gotta say tour is a different life and you make trade-offs to do it - fortytwo years of it and I big time think it's worth it. also, these last four or five tours are the healthiest I've ever had - I am slow learner! hey, I hear the opening band going on... I'm gonna pause here chimping diary and check them out! now it's the next morning (friday the thirteenth!) when I resume chimping in the diary here - kind of confusing? don't mean to be. what led up to this point? well fuck, we had to leave hebden bridge and get to bristol, correct? by the way, I'll get to that band that opens for us tonight, very good but let me try and keep shit together so a reader can make some sense out of it!
we got two hundred miles to cover today and the first part is on tiny road to get out of this valley hebden bridge is in. actually not too pad as staus go (not much, only some construction slow-downs) but one lane each way w/curvy stuff is gonna be what it is, correct? we pull anchor at ten and a half, just as we're getting out of dodge we stop at a "shell" to fuel, hodge does also: health food intake round I. the diesel for the rented boat is £1.38/liter (about $7.04/gallon). onward westward we go. besides absorbing the kind of "eye gifts" passing the widows on the rented boat, I focus my attention on editing photos I took in kilkenny cuz there is a buttload. this was my biggest hobble of the tour so I wanna celebrate it. quarter after noon we do a piss stop at the "stafford" service area, I do mine in the boat w/an soon not-empty bottle and double as guardiano for the rented boat w/hodge involved w/round II. I hold out. back on the road it's still nice and sunny but... ninety minutes later really dark and pissing rain - in these parts, even for this time of year, it's just the way it is: the rented boat gets wet. we've been on the m62 passing manchester and then m6 and m5, passing birmingham w/one more piss stop at a "service area" ten of three (sorry for spacing on the name like a baka but I did observe a magpie - trippy bird I don't see in my pedro town) where some hell erupts as we try to pull anchor... the front bumper of the rented boat which was already in a hurt state when we got it at the tour's beginning is 'pert-near removed when it catches on some clump of whatever on a parking lot curb. crimony. hodge comes to the rescue by getting it up on some still capable mounting points and lifting enough for mike to slowly back up and disengage/clear the hazard... it's a fortyfive fuckin minutes of very nervous delicate driving by mike the rest of the way to bristol and thank god the rain has quit and in fact it's 'pert-near as nice as it was in hebden bridge when we left it, I shit thee not. of course pendejos were hollering at mike for being too careful (at one point he ain't just a prick but a "fuckin prick") but fuck them sideways w/the 'tude they rode in. assholes.
we make it safe to the gig pad which is in the "old market" part of bristol, it's also got a record store and is called exchange - fuck if I didn't play here six years ago w/flipper when I helped them w/a tour, crimony! I ain't sure at first, why? cuz I'm a fucking baka. we load-in from the curb side just before four and mike parks the rented boat about four blocks away and calls the rental company about the bumpber sitch, they say their sending somebody to help us. we get our stuff set up while I hobble on the street we came in on and get digiphotos.
while I'm doing this, I can't stop thinking about mark steweart of the pop group and the buttload of influence that band had on us minutemen, just can't... even more intense is the fact we lost brother mark last year to a hematoma at his ma's pad in a little town not far fro bristol. crimony. me and mark we're getting to be good friends, him being on my show in 2016 and again in 2022 which really blows my mind - I'm friends w/gareth too and bof these guys in my life is something as a more-younger watt could've never imagined... I remember meeting mark at festival we me and my missingmen were sharing the stage w/him and his mafia back in 2006 in huesca, spain - I couldn't stop asking him stuff, it was like when I was the stooges guys, just question after question about buttloads of stuff I was wondering about cuz w/these bands I was 'pert-near always wondering about them. it was like that meeting tony 19 also and of course richard hell but the trippy thing w/richard was the first bunch of times I was w/him, I couldn't utter anything, I was totally oomffed that way, capito? all I could to was stare w/mouf agape, that kind of stuff 'til I somehow got up the nerve. trippy about my way that way but it's the way it was/is w/me, being inspired in the way of being giving the go and at the same time digging what they're bringing and being afraid of sidemousing in a jive way any of that. crimony.
I get back to the gig pad and rap w/charley who's running the other room, helps me find things around we rap w/miss hiyori about japan cuz she's been to kyoto, the old capitol. soundman sam does check w/us and I ask for some line so mike can bind up that broken bumper on the rented boat if we have to... charley comes to the rescue w/a ball of it. turns out the rental company's person does come and fix stuff up real good, better than when we left on this tour, respect! I go to the upstairs backstage to chimp diary... mike arrives w/chow which is shawarma I dig much. the cats here provided some pieces of pineapple and strawberries also, a good shovel for watt. I listen to my james from glasgow and stephen from newcastle former drunks do their spiels from their youtube.com stations 'til I hear music from downstairs... the gig must be starting, huh?
omega institute is getting things lit for me, I go up to the front of the stage in front of the electronics man so I can see what the bassman is doing... they have an improvised feel anchored w/drums/bass ostinatos - drummie 'pert-near always goes first and lots of his stuff is w/the snare wires off. bassie sometime uses a drumstick or dowel in his plucking hand, trippy. he's using a barefaced 2x12 cab, same as mine - love this speakerbox and I think it's the first time I've experienced one at a gig where I wasn't the one operating it! crimony. sounds really good. synth is bubbling up trippy "connecting tissue" that never bogarts, interesting. no fake horn lines or string sections from him. when they finish I invite him on the watt from pedro show and give me my email address, sure hope he writes me. I also get to rap w/the bassie for a good while, his name is jeff and he's very cool people - he knows about barefaced and it's in brighton but says he only borrowed this box for the gig, same w/the amp - don't really know what that was but like I've said before, a barefaced speakerbox can make any amp sound good, I shit thee not - it's just my experience... I mean like at me going through what I am this tour? on paper I'd think maybe "what the fuck?!" but w/the barefaced (it's called the "super twin"), it's fuckin way ok, way ok.
our turn is at quarter of nine and I'm ready to go for a couple of reasons - mike don't have to come get me, up and primed before he gets on stage. this gig is for brother mark is big time in my mind and damn if the local openers help w/that go... same w/the bristol gig-goers, especially the one cat w/the cane (crippled like me) who's dancing the whole time, beautiful - love it, love him. man, the focus and respect the cats here gave us... the whole tour's been like this, I tell you, it's something I've never seen so much of, truly thank good people on these islands! well, it's really a good gig for me, I really dig it - trippy that my other favorite gig of the tour was not far across the river in cardiff, wales, huh?! shows to go you. anyway, there's some clams but not gig-killers or even near... the last thurday gig of the tour's most happening for me, really is. I tell people at the end that the richard hell tune we do is for brother mark and the explain the connect between the pop group and minutemen, the debt we felt we owed them and I start mentioning the band members... I get them all, even remember the first bassman simon underwood - I explain about seeing his band after he left when black flag took minutemen for our first time and while in london we saw pibag at "the marquee" - while we were hoofing there, d boon laid out the biggest kelper on the sidewalk, maybe a yard long - just dropped drawers and that dropped that w/out us losing more than a couple strides (I didn't tell the bristol gig-goers that part but did tell them pibag were dressed like pachukos... some stuff I can remember but damn me, I space on the second bassman for some reason - what a fuckin baka... near the end of richard's tune though something comes to me and I yell out "dave catsis" and a little later "also played in glaxo babies" but this is fucking way bigger clam then what hodge blew in the second verse of "help" cuz his name is dan catsis a great fuckin bassman, really really fuckin happening. I feel like such a fuckin idiot, I'm so sorry dan, really I am.
I pack up my stuff real quick (got that together now) and "scooch" (word from one of the gig-goers) my culo off the stage (no stairs here) and rap w/a big gaggle of most kind cats, signing there things and stuff and rapping about all kinds 'til a staff man has to move us cuz of another event coming but we just move it to another room closer to the hatch. I get two more "the priosner" buttons from a bassbrother who's also got a bunch of minutemen printed stuff including the pormo mini-poster d boon drew for "double nickels on the dime" - whoa! he also says he's got good gig info stuff for playing glouscter, am way into that. that crippled dancer man gives me a cd of the seattle liver version of john coltrane's "a love supreme" - he couldn't of known I got it the first day it came out and listened to if fifteen times straight but he's beautiful for that, says he saw me in exeter w/his partner who was heavy w/their child and me put my hand of on her - I remember that, after a gig at "the carvern club" there. crimony. I also rap w/a good cat from worcester who seen me at "the mars bar" and says the boss there is ill which I feel for cuz he was always real kind to me, big time. I'm sending love. he's got gig info about birmingham, I've played that town once, the second biggest town in england I've played just once. crimony. I wanna play as many pads as I can in the time I have, I am driven to do it - it's my life, honest wage for honest work.
I've been yammering so much I don't realize the rented boat is loaded - I see a younger cat just before getting to it that I met earlier outside, said he was playing downstairs from us in a band called _chimp_ which blew my mind cuz the only time I played birmingham was sharing the stage w/a band called part chimp that I dug very much. man, is bristol full of connects for watt tonight or what? sure fuckin is, most surely. big love.
mike gets us over to a pad miss hiyori got on the internet, shoe's off it says on a sign, japan style. I hose off and find two huge scratches on the inside of my starboard thigh and two on my port arm - bof were totally covered w/levis and this coat my sister melinda sewed me so something must rubbed on me very hard... I know less-younger skin is more weak but crimony, not bleed like a cut big time long scratches and I have no fucking idea how they happened. I wash them good and then konk wondering...
friday, june 13, 2025 - reading, england
from mike:
Loud noise driving! What?
Coffee, stroll, abbey, wilde
Small clams... improving!
from watt:
pop at six... you know, besides wondering about where those scratches on me came from I was also thinking about bassbrother dan catsis... now later on the drive to reading I chimped in the diary I remembered his first name ain't fuckin dave but dan but that's actually now... something was gnawing at me and fuck if it didn't hit me right in the face when I was pissing... what a fuckin idiota, cazzo. simon's on the "y" album but dan does all the other pop group bass and I love his way... the end part of "justice" and the whole enchilada in "forces of oppression" - crimony. he had great drums, guitar and singing to aid and abet also but man, could he bring it. gareth told me once he wrote a lot of bass for the band... I wonder which ones? this band in those days didn't record much but I heard their tunes so many times they are way ingrained in me - it's like all seventeen "the prisoner" episodes. crimony. same thing: last tour we would have an episode come up in the boat audio only and even w/no dialogue in the scene, I could tell everyone what was fucking happening, I shit thee not.
we have to pull early or face a ten pound surcharge - that's showbiz. good weather for us, yatta. we arrive at the gig pad in reading at quarter of noon -eighty minutes mainly on the m4 east to do about seventyseven miles, best rate of travel for the tour, more yatta! requires no piss stop either. the gig pad is called the face bar and mike has to circle around cuz the address is like in hebden bridge: no street number. we get it on the second try though and drop anchor right out front w/free parking, yatta. how many sitchs like that this tour? not fuckin many, I know mike is relieved - he checks for damage to the recently repaired bumper cuz fuck if near this town on the motorway did we had a loud metallic-like sound as if we ran a fucking oil can or something over but nope, nothing visibly wrong, yokatta. he then goes out to find coff, hodge soon follows to forage - no chow in last night's konk pad which by the way had a twenty pound "fine" for staying past ten am so that's why we shoved off when we did. very nice so cal-like sunny weather for us as we leave bristol, east on the m-4. thank you, england. mike's digging these chevrons on the road (me too), we ain't been seeing them lately on the motorways...
the only other time I played this town was w/the stooges at something called the reading festival in 2005 (my diary entry for it here - scroll down to august twentyeight )that coincided w/that nightmare hirricane in new orleans called "katrina" hurt that town real bad. I'm thinking about names... like "punk" - that name is specific to for being a musical movement and by that I don't mean a certain "style" or "beats per minute" or even "subject matter" but stuff part of this movement I became part of after high school (I graduated from san pedro high in 1976). I never say there's a "punk way" to vote or play bass or drive the boat or even make music, I use it to mean a movement that had an huge impact on me and still does. it can mean fucking anything but it's a noun in reference to a movement. I do use the term "econo" to serve as an adjective for a lot of stuff, got it from the ford line of vans called "econolines" (made from 1960 - 2014 though the first ones were called "falcon" cuz that's the frames they were built on. anyway, for me "econo" means "most bang for your buck" or something like that, not just "lowest cost" - it's more of a "big picture" thing w/me. I can call a bass part "econo" cuz maybe it's using very few notes but really doing a great job serving the tune. I never say a part is "more punk" whether it's in music or slinging used condoms (or new ones), I just thing that's too narrow for me to fit that term w/a collar and chain. I will always remember "punk gigs" being such a surprise for me and not knowing what I was gonna witness or be part of - remember, I was coming from only "arena rock" which in a way for were kind of like "nuremberg rallies" - I look back now on how I understand punk in my case as me being able to react against that arena rock-only way of experiencing music, that's what I understand what the movement to be, I mean to someone like me. remember also I got to help the stooges for 126 months so I learned from them the 60s were full of small clubs, little labels and garage bands - it was just some of us people in the earlier 70s that had no idea about that stuff so punk for us was learning about that stuff... learning about john coltrane and walt whiman also, all kinds of stuff. it's a scene where I met raymond... very profound on me.
miss hiyori wanders... I'm in guardiano mode at the boat listening to the construction cats next door cuss in their way, kind of musical in a lyrical way. mike returns w/some coff ("tastes like it don't costa lot but it does")... miss hiyori found a trippy version saag paneer for me, the cheese in purred spinach is like little pizza slices instead of the usual cubes and the garlic nan is trippy, like a pizza w/holes in it. tastes really good, I dig it much... giant great thanks to her. soundman gareth and he's done some touring so we rap about that 'til he's gotta go in and set up. I then wander in same parts miss hiyori did, for exercise and also to see what I can see, always important when you sally-forth, correct? a little sweaty but I don't take the coat off my sister melinda made me. when I was in this town twenty years ago, it was 100º f at the festival w/a 100,000 england cats not used to weather - france has nickname for english in the sun: "roast beef" and damn if that don't apply! ig hollered out during our "tv eye" tune, "block out the sun!" but still it was a real good time... I remember getting down on my knees in front of ronnie doing his solo in "tv eye" - when I could do something like that! not any more but I will never forget then. love ronnie... love scotty, love brother steve and love ig... tour boss henry, road boss eric, helperman jos, helperman chris, soundman rik - all those beautiful men, so essential and kind to me. man, it takes my breath away to think of those days... I got to fuckin help the fuckin stooges... crimony!
I meet the pad helperman trauma - that's a name and he explains to me how he got it... he says he's also part scot and italian which is like me except the scot side is half danish! humans mixing it up, am into it! I meet co-promoter for tonight's gig nigel who's very cool people, him co-promoter steve whill have a very long spiel backstage about all kinds of stuff, really great cats and it's most bichin to bof work and hong w/them. reminds me of the old days in lots of ways w/out being "phony 'happy days' fonzie/potsie sentimental/nauseastalgic" load of horseshit ripe for shoveling by the fucking ton, capito? we can relate to all kinds using a trippy kind of shorthand that ain't fake, I'm way into that and so glad to be here w/them. a photographerman name andy comes and takes our photos... maybe mike can use them down the road? it's happening how he puts us in alphabetical order when we're "posed" so people know who's who and not fucked up by the "name game" type of hype crap. I chimp diary after, also trying to get caught up on the photo stuff - I get the ones from dublin done.
no opening act so we're in band-alone mode and hit at quarter of nine. reading gig-goers are more like lots of u.s. crowds in that there's a factor of yammering we ain't really had this tour, so much respect and focus from all these gig-goers, let me tell you! however, no coming on like a cop or dad and just getting stuff across w/us focusing much on bringing helps turn the tide on the yammering stuff, prolly the best way to get that happening, no one's paid for a lecture on how to behave and if the "self-police" trip can get happening, so be it. mike uses dynamics in bof his delivery and the way he "edits" the moves of the pieces parts to react instead of a spiel or curse. there's some challenges too w/the kick drum feeding back but soundman gareth is on that. dynamics of the room, physics... you get dealt a hand and have to play it the best you can, correct? one reading gig-goers hollers out "play one more" and we're 'pert-near there, don't worry. it's a real good response when we do finish, they're most kind to us, truly. sometimes gig challenges make for interesting gigs, how they get navigated and the such - life is not on some kind of "cruise-control connect the dots sleepwalk bullshit" so why should a gig be likewise? crimony. it's worth the effort, correct? damn straight.
quick pack and then I'm spieling w/many "co-conspirators" w/this last friday gig of the tour, really good spirit and a good time w/all kinds of topics but music's a big one! I get enlightened to the fact there was a night in this town that was entitled "we jam eocno" where bands would get together for econo gigs w/lots of letting the freak flag fly and stuff like that, fuck yeah. there's cats here that were at that reading festival gig w/the stooges twenty years ago also. new people too, I'm afraid me spieling w/so many has made my crew waiting for my tardy ass at the rented boat once again, damn me! I just feel I owe it to these most kind folks to thank them.
mike gets us to a "premiere inn" not too far away, oh well - you know I ain't much into 'tels but I think the face bar people provided. I hose off and konk right near eleven, those scratches healing good - I'm happy for that and the gig... this was in now way a bad friday the thriteenth for watt!
saturday, june 14, 2025 - london, england
from mike:
One last blow by - spaced!
My wife is back! ...and Thurston!
Good last gig from band!
Can not thank enough
All the people that helped us...
Too many to name!
from watt:
pop at six... there were a few pops since three and I remember konking at eleven. I'm drinking more water since I started noticing the cramps in the starboard foot going away. there's sun instead of rain out the windows again, another good morning. the shovel is gratis here so one more of the "full" dealios... can't wait to cook up my own asagohan ('breakfast' in jap) back in my pedro town, just miss it. also missing the tacos I usually have on tour but I gotta say, a lot of good chow on this tour and not once was I made sick and I got no sickness from being weak like a cold or a virus. a lot of this we have mike to thank for cuz he always provides. he knows about scissoring that backstage stuff that was mainly not happening, no blame on anyone just good to stop that from happening. I brought no pounds so the only chow I bought was that irish breakfast near the end of my hobble in kilkenny. after the shovel I get the diary entry up for last night up on the hoot page and then do my last blowout telling folks about the last gig for the tour.
we pull anchor at eleven and head east on m4, we ain't far from london at all but make the wrong turn on the ring road (m25) and coming in through the north instead of the south... it adds miles and time but not too much and the main point is mike keeping everyone safe which he very much has. we have at trippy rap about communication, how to get that happening on stage w/the improvising, getting the dialogues and conversations going and I bring up this stuff about a trippy caterpillar that uses tapping on it's head to communicate w/ants to get them gather round to protect it from wasps. the ants like this sweet stuff a gland on the caterpillar has and bring it back to their home so it can be fermented - it's incredible interaction so... why can't fucking musical band members get do a version of that?. you know like a happening plaid being made of bitchen patterns of of threads, bof same and different? cirmony. mike drives us south into the big town london on the m1 and then the a1, into the islington part. damn if this way ain't got the advantage of keeping us out of the "congestion zone" (avoiding the fee for being there) plus even more how fuckin lucky we are to find parking a block of tonight's gig pad the lexington which I've played before and dug it, glad to be back... my third time here, once before w/my missingmen eleven years ago and the first time the year before that w/il sogno del marinaio, bof times sharing the stage w/brooklyn buddy drummerman willy's manflu though I think that band is now no more.
drop anchor at quarter after one, we're way early. I first go hobble by the venue and then over to a part near the rented boat called "chapel market" and have a good time w/the digicamera there. it's also the only time I chow fish and chips on this tour also, a pad called "crown" and it's just one piece of some breaded cod that's cooked really well w/pert-near zero grease... yeah, like that's fuckin possible but it is minimal and the young cook did really I thought, very fresh and I used much vinegar and chowed only a french fries (chips). can't wait to eat fish my own way back home - no batter and only in olive oil! back at the rented boat is hodge and he says des arrived and him and mike are foraging... the load-in is at four, it is most bitchin to not have the weight of arrival drama on you in a tour sitch, let me tell you... way into it. there's enough time for even a cripple to hobble on a wander and not have to sweat a clock, really into that. also time to chimp shit in the rented boat, good anchor point. mike and des return at three and a half w/some chow, garlic nan - yes! the other I don't wanna try and fit, maybe rice and chicken? I've learned to scissor chow now way easier in this part of life. it's about not having to feel stuffed, fucked that.
four bells and who's but the load-in hatch but south londoner leevil, I just recently did bass for all his next album and he's that'll be ready by the end of the year... in the meantime he's says he wants take photos for it, help us w/the block of half last schlep of the tour and then tote hodge's cymbals back to where he borrowed them from, most fuckin happening of him to be so kind, truly. the wind was blowing which made me fear an instant scene-change w/the weather here but the clear holds. I meet the pad boss, not ownerlady stephanie who I'm told ain't much these days but a nice man who introduces us to soundman andre, his first night working here - happy to be part of that. we check w/him and who shows up? my old pal thurst, yes! he used to live right near here (he's been in london twelve years now) but now is a way more west part, like too far to ever much here or "cafe oto" which was another place he was always at and where lately I've been playing this town. also he told me he had some heart timing stuff that's better now w/medicine but he wa getting weak and even having to walk w/a cane - he ain't doing that now but says he ain't that social or even doing a lot of gigs. we have a big rap after witnessing our soundcheck, he's seen me w/so many projs and mike likes to check a few tunes so thurst gets to see some of what he has to miss tonight. I big time understand. we catch up, it's been a while. he says he ain't been drinking for a year now. he never was hit w/that stuff much, I fill him in on my trek on that stuff and he's into it, means a lot to me and get this: he invites me to do a collab on a poetry book, trading lines. crimony. once me and d boon did that w/lyrics for five or six tunes - most of the are at the front of "the politics of time" minutemen comp... it was trippy, only one brief experiment w/it one night at georgie's pad in pedro, the one he grew up in but he wasn't there that night we did it (same pad we got robbed by gunpoint that I was telling to those two co-gig bosses, nigel and steve, last night in reading)... I remember us taking turns "going first" and the other cat responing, me writing down the responses and later we put music the way we did w/all our minutemen stuff: he'd show me what he had on guitar for a tune and I'd immediately come up w/the bass for it and likewise I'd show him the music for another one of these co-penned spiels w/the only different being "split-red" cuz that was always improvised in a certain framework whenever we preformed it (just listen bof to the "bean-spill" and "what makes a man start fires?" versions), tunes like "base king" (his guitar first, about our friend mario lopez and not the instrument I worked), - oh, "the big lounge scene" I actually wrote on guitar first - sometimes I would do that. "case closed" was another bass-first and I know we were inspired by georgie's brother gregory (jefe of bof band _kindled imagination" and _slivers_). "shit you hear at parties" was my bass first but you know what? it was part of this batch but I think I wrote the words myself when I came up w/the bass first stuff for the bof-us-written lyrics music (by the way, there was a dude at a recent gig this tour that was way into that tune, he told me after the set)... thing were never simple w/the minutemen, lots of overlap and tangle-up involved, I shit thee not. I know mike patton (the middle class and not mister bungle one) produced the recordings at "casbah" in orange county, same way he did all three of the "joy" ep tunes. I see mike when I play atlanta, he lives in athens these days, great cat. you know what? I wrote "if reagan played disco" the same time as "shit you hear at parties" - same m.o. too, informed by but not actually trading lines w/d boon... it's a trip but alternating lines like that rally fired me up... however, we never ever did it again. after that he would instead just give me the lyrics whole he said would be good for tune BUT here's the deal w/that: if the lines rhyed, no way would I get those. I'd get only the one that were blank verse w/no rhyming lines and more stream of consciousness, sort of like the ones I'd get from georgie. fuck, after "double nickels on the dime" georgie never wrote words for us again. you know, now that I think of it, the minutemen really were an evolving thing, I really realize that now. also things changed real quick for us cats in our twenties then, crimony if the movement itself didn't fuckin change like that, year by year... 'pert-near month by month! crimony. anyway, this is a mindblow for me from thurst, this invite. whoa. right before, I was telling him about reading "moby-dick" before last tour and he said he should do that... said one reason was to just check out the mechanics of the writing, says he wants to be a writer. whoa. he said the autobio was he just did was about that, an opening of that form of expression's hatch - I suggested "like mr hithcock's idea of the mcguffen?" and he said yeah. that's when I actually got the invite. big hug, thurst bails.
I take photos w/brother leevil in the stairwell. tonight's openers are the same ones that opened the first gig of this tour, barbican estate and it's great to see them again, I find out the drummie is from kilkenny - ain't that a trip? his name's sparrow and he's gonna use the kit hodge's been using all tour, the us one brother phil came up for us... dig it w/cats helping each other, our first minutemen gig in this land was cuz the black flag guys brought us... they hit at eight and watch from a padded seat, the one I was planted on when just rapping to thurst, trippy. the guitarman uses another guitar besides the one he used w/us the first time, it's only four strings and has like a sitar sound. sparrow again really moves me his light touch on the drum, light but happening, totally aiding and abetting the big picture. bassie also does flute besides sing and keyboards. this is gonna sound strange maybe but I'm reminded a little of thurst's band but maybe that's me? sometimes I don't why I think what I think. I go right up them and rap some, guitarman knows the lite brothers, yes!
we hit at nine and it's last set of the tour time. for the intro improv I decide to use vibro-slap only but like a baka I forget to turn the bass amp on and so am late w/the first tune, mike's got probs w/that one (beside the bass played being an idiot), there's no monitors (switch must be engaged we later learn) but that's just a rough start to a pretty good gig. now I haven't been using a set list all tour - none of us have but I'll lay it out right here:
improv
"on and on"
"hypocrite"
improv
"another"
"all things come"
improv
"help"
"boat song"
"I see through you"
"no words"
"ok to change"
-----
"another world" (richard hell cover)
"human reaction"
like all tour, it's about seventyfive minutes. all mike baggetta compositions except "another world" which is richard hell. counting the u.s. tour just before this, sixnine sets in total. I know we recorded the next album after gig fiftytwo but I wish we could've recorded instead tomorrow - this band is constantly learning by doing!
alex barefaced jefe is here from brighton to pickup the speakerbox I so big time dug using this entire tour, I am so grateful to him, what generous bassbrother w/a great invention. there's much much good word from the lodon gig-goers... I spaced on making sure everyone knows that they were most beautiful to play for, they give us fucking buttloads of regard and attention - not a millimeter of chin-stroke or arm-fold in the pad, I shit thee not. one lady gives me edition three of her fanzine "gracious great pear tree" (edition three, april 25 'only for those willing to open ears and/or musical a-hole') and asks me how tonight's london gig was different from my in this town 'pert-near one later and I tell her it was the cats I was playing w/cuz they were from italy, they brought their own difference and I think it's important to play w/those I'm on stage w/and not try to make every gig a watt gig and the even goes for times when I write all the stuff and am the shot-caller, like w/my missingmen... for me that's the idea of a band, I mean for me and my sitch - remember I got into music to be w/me friend, to be w/d boon... this makes stuff I for gigs lots about being along sides cats and not "in front' of or whatever w/them and therefore, that really has a huge bearing what I think people are experiencing at a gig I'm part. I ain't saying I'm trying to hide, ok? I am saying I try to aid and abet the whole encilada however. senor al and ben from crushed by pimps kind of relieves brian (his band here) of our "on and on" spiel (he's my age and bof know j so yeah, we got a lot we can rap about) for their "allotment" cuz there's cats behind them and I want nobody left out, I'm grateful to all, truly. good to hear ben's got some kind of "electric shock" therapy device to help him w/his back pain, yes. old buddy jose's here, I remember konking at his and kyoko's pad not far away all those years ago when I was helping the stooges, the hellride to highgate on his bike I borrowed, the borracho konk I did on their top floor, crimony...
the rented boat's all loaded when he helps me down the stairs, big abrazzos his way from me. I got them brother leevil also... ok, time to roll to the konk pad one more time and this is a slow roll... we arrive at konk pad (another one mike got via the internet in london "suburb" ashford (not too far from heathrow airport) twelve after twelve, took 'pert-near hour and a half to do about twentyone miles but hey, mike got us here alive which is good enough for me... lots of pendenos driving like pendejos made that tough - remember I've been riding it what we'd call the drivers seat in our parts all tour, I know totally what he's going through... we've reversed role 'pert-near exact from how mssv tours in the back home and canada, ain't that a trip? "mirror man, mirror me!"
next morning (sunday) last pull-anchor: at quarter of eleven we leave so mike can bring us to london heathrow airport terminal five... there's a british airways a380 that lifts off at three bells to get me and hodge back to so cal. mike and des are gonna stay another six days before going back to where they live gainesville, fl. miss hiyori has the short hop to hamburg, most gigantic huge sonkie for her from me ever.
so lucky, I also get not just an "alber ayler" (meaning aisle seat) but the two seats next me are empty which is way happening, one reason's cuz the oblivious cabron in front of me keeps kicking back and laying his set all over my shit but I can at least turn kind of sideways to alleviate some of that bogart fucking rude... I ain't gonna let it get to me, let it ruin the good feelings I really had about this tour. I got hodge in the seat behind me and I keep me seat in the upright position the whole ten and a half hour flight, love hodge. I read that "gracious great pree tree" fanzine I got in london - man, is it fucking happening, love it! makes me remember zines helping me w/being so excited about the movement in the old days, people sharing the fires they got burning for music and culture in what I call "the walt whitman tradition" - doing it yourself and letting the freak flag fly, no mersh shit. man, reading this makes this fucking hikoki ('plane' in jap) hellride worth it - man, I wish I knew who to thank w/an email... there's a handwritten "copy for mike watt... thank you for everything" spiel on the cover and better than that, a fuckin piece on the minutemen - yes! (here's scans of bof page of it: one and two) but I can't find any contact info, crimony! I gotta get on the case w/this mystery, huh? yep.
me and hodge touch down at five and a half pm so cal time at lax and I say bye to him as I let everyone leave before I attempt my hobble... don't wanna be a burden w/my slow-go which is the way I deal fucking kuko ('airport' in jap) hell... but get this: a helperlady w/a wheelchair tells me to get and then wheels all the way to the immigration desk that deals w/cripples, damn if I ain't the next in line and then cuz I got no check-on baggage and instead just the two sacks I got my 'puter and ropas in, right past customs and after I enlighten her w/the way I got my sister melinda getting me - not from "arrivals" but from "departures" (she tells me she detects this is NOT my first rodeo), she bring's up the 'vator the those parts - he tells a colleague of hers we pass "aqui bein" and it makes me feel good, such kindness from good people, it's priceless, I tell you. I get wheeled right to where the big turn is for the bradley terminal, that's where I usually go and I thank this helperlady much, very very kind! in minutes my sister melinda's here to get me and bring us bof to our pedro town (we bof live here), I'm back in my pad at seven, crimony.
I realize I've been in this pad twenty years now. more crimony. love coming back to my pedro town, been here fiftyeight years... love that first soak in my own tub when I return. also so happy mssv got to do their first overseas tour, yatta! life is about taking turns, I believe.
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