When you’re luggage goes missing at an airport on tour, it’s an anxious time with that little voice in your head asking “Will I ever see my equipment again?”. Somehow, for all the touring we’ve done, we still haven’t permanently lost a bag yet. And, yet again, the latest lost bag (mentioned yesterday) showed up at Frankfurt airport last night after mysteriously missing the flight from Beijing the day before. Don’t know how they manage to do it, but airlines need to stop terrifying their passengers with that stuff. Thankful for small mercies, today I’ve got clothes and equipment again to do the tour through Germany & beyond. Ahhhh the relief.

Gear shows up.

Here’s a shot from our German tour booker’s balcony, looking across the Rhine this morning. Off to Cologne today in readiness for the first tour date on Friday.

Fires out.

Everything went smoothly at Beijing airport. Too smoothly. After a 10 hour flight to Frankfurt, we were still happy about how easy it was all going. Then, the baggage carousel. And, yet again one of our bags is missing. It’s cool though, I don’t have any clothes or enough equipment to play the tour here – but who cares? Hopefully the bag turns up today – apparently it’s not even in ‘the system’ so nobody knows if it exists at all.

Tarmac at Beijing where they’re trashing & losing my stuff right now.

Seriously, how hard can it be to put a bag on a plane (especially the one you’re on, and all your other bags are on)? Let’s look at this for a moment; man on the moon, cars driving themselves, DNA technology, deep-sea welding, bag on a plane – TOO HARD!!! While we’re at it, China Air also smashed part of my guitar case (one of the cases they did manage to put on the plane). It’s a freekin’ road case. They only way you can do that is either drive over it or drop it from the tail-fin. F*CK ME. Guitar is still intact…

It’s nice here in Frankfurt. A little chilly – but that’s cool.

Off to find missing stuff…
Fires out.

Rehearsal today, breakfast first at Zarah then lugging gear to the studio. The streets are bumpy & cluttered. Getting the gear through people & scooters an art not yet mastered. A long playing session, maybe the last before the German tour starts. Labeling of gear & leads, so we know where everything goes. Back through the streets to the hotel. Out for dinner with Elizabeth & Jason who we met last tour. They’re just married. Had a great night, again at Badr’s bar. Great food. ‘Home’ at last. Flying out tomorrow. Frankfurt.

Rehearsal Beijing 31 March 2013.

Fires out.

Biggish night with our promoter last night. Rice wine. Bad news for non-hangover fans. Battled through the morning before rehearsal, then battled through rehearsal – which was awesome. I figure this is training for Germany. Had to go hunting for a bag to replace another bag which is dead already. Too much weight in our luggage. About 100 kilos between us. Merch, equipment, clothes, instruments. Walked around for ages searching. Big department stores – no bags, just fashion stuff. Dammit. Cabs wouldn’t pick us up to take us back to the hotel. Rickshaw ride, eventually (motorised). Fantastic. Kamikaze journey through traffic. Slept for an hour, then out to meet. Great food and beer at Badr’s new bar (we met last time – he saved me by directing me home through Beijing after a bender & a shocking sense of direction). Jo (friend and publicist) is a beautiful legend – she snuck in payment for the entire tab. Holy crap (it was hefty). ‘Home’ at last. Sleep now. Rehearsal tomorrow. Germany the day after.

Behind the wheel, rickshaw through Beijing this afternoon.

Fires out.

We’re hear in Beijing. Took about 22 hours door to door by the time we made it to the hotel at 2am local time. Went out for food and beer. Sleep by 3 (6am Melbourne time). Sitting in Cafe Zarah, cool little place with WiFi around the corner from the hotel. Hooking up all the communications, phones & stuff. Rehearsal in an hour.

Cafe Zarah, somewhere in Beijing.

Fires out.

We’re on. Got through baggage & customs & it weren’t easy. Ambitiously taking way too much weight. But talked our way through it til customs. They got a new guy there now, randomly weighing carry-on. Got me at 15 kilos over. Had to go back to check in & start over.

Lucky they didn’t weigh my laptop bag. Or the shopping bag full of gear slung over my shoulder. Anyway, we’re finally on the tarmac waiting to go.

Fires out.

We fly out from Melbourne tomorrow morning. Rehearsals in Beijing this weekend. Looking forward to hitting the studio & running through the show. It’ll also be good to break the travel for a few days on our way to Germany. We’ll be in Frankfurt late Monday night – should be about a 12 hour flight from Beijing. On past tours of Europe we’ve done the 40 hour trip to get there in one go. Body-clock massacre.

Zebra Festival, Chengdu China 2011.

So help me, I’m gonna film a tour diary for this tour (Germany, then China). And post them at weekly intervals here & on Facebook. I wanna focus more on gritty behind-the-scenes stuff, as well as catching the shows.

Fires out.
PS – check out Chapter Ray’s website – just went live, they’ve got their songs up there (we opened for em at the Barleycorn on Sat).

Less than 48 hours to go. Last minute stuff happening here. Picked up some back-up equipment at Jaycar Electronics in Melbourne this morning. There’s a test pack going on right now. Checking luggage weight. Max is also sorting out costumes (me – tech & sound equipment). One more consideration came to mind last night. It’s unseasonably cold in Europe right now. Snow falls are heavy with more on the way – they’re predicting very cold weather for the next week or so. We’re a little unprepared. Might have to whip out & grab some thermals. We’ll be leaving here with temps around 35 degrees (C) & landing there in zero…

Max’s snow angel, Boston (US tour 2011).

Fires out.

Mat Ward, our long-time band photographer, took this shot at the Barleycorn on Saturday night.

Thanks to all who got down there for the show. As mentioned, Chapter Ray launched their debut EP later on in the night. They put on a great show – and had a great crowd come to see em. Haven’t seen the Barleycorn that full since the Gig Party days 10 years ago. Interestingly, a few of the band members in the line-up on Saturday were actually playing at the last Gig Party there – including photographer Mat Ward (guitarist for the infamous Tone Defs).

Fires out.

Technical hassles dogged our show last night. We got there eventually & everything worked out. We’re doing something that’s new to us in our performance. Electronic stuff, still keeping an organic feel. Had a great time in the end. Tequila shots followed.

Morning after breaky in Collingwood.

Chapter Ray launched their debut EP to a great crowd later in the night. They put on an excellent show. Fantastic to see some of my old band mates killing it on stage, Brendan Young on guitar & Mick Brown on drums. Great stuff guys.

Fires out.