Lucky Soul » Ivor

Tokyo, here we are!

admin — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 07:40:00 +0000

Ok, so we’re finally in Japan, Tokyo to be specific. I apologise in advance for the slightly crazy nature of this blog, but I’m currently trying to stay up to beat the Jet-Lag. Ok, where to begin.

Right, so we packed our bags and had a relatively uneventful if quite long (about 17 hours door to door) journey, but it was on landing in Tokyo that things got interesting;

Malcolm: I suppose we should fill these immigration forms in.

Andrew: I suppose so, oh, I need my passport to fill it in.

*cue bag searching*

*pause*

*more intent bag searching*

Andrew: Oh. Shit.

Cue us and the lovely Virgin Atlantic Crew ripping up seats in a desperate bid to find Andrew’s passport. The one with the visa in. The one which if he doesn’t have means he goes straight back home. The one which if he doesn’t have messes up a pretty expensive trip. As Ali’s brain is working overtime thinking how Rusty and Paul can play multiple instruments and sing backing vocals, thank god it was found.

A very relieved, if slightly sheepish, Andrew went through passport control without a hitch.

By this stage most of us were beginning to flip out a little, but it was to get better. On our arrival at the hotel was a small, but perfectly formed, group of LS autograph hunters. Bizarre, but somehow they’d found out which hotel we were staying at, what day we were getting in and what time. So, for the effort above and beyond the call of duty, we signed all the stuff they had including some rather odd promo art with all the LS boys as bowling pins and Ali with a huge bowling ball!

Having managed to finally get to a room, I was feeling a little strange, so I decided to take a walk and have a peek in Tower Records, grab some noodles and generally have a wonder. I even had a go at the crazy Shibuya crossroads. This is a pedestrian crossing which has about 6 walkways and loads of people all waiting patiently for the green man. As soon as he appears the madness begins as everybody piles into the middle of the road and, it seems, hopes that they get to the side which they intended. Definitely a lot of fun!

Anyway, its now 5:45pm, but it may well be 7:45am tomorrow, or yesterday, I’m not really sure anymore, so I shall sign off by pointing you to the picture at the top of the blog which is the view from the hotel including the crazy crossroads. (click on it for a bigger image)

Stay tuned for more LS in Japan updates

Ivor

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So What’s Hamburg Like…?

admin — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:22:00 +0000

It’s a cliché in Rock ‘n’ Roll Tour terms to say that it’s the people you meet on the road that make touring special, but I’m slowly coming round to that way of thinking. Last week we were on the road again to Hamburg and the Reeperbahn Festival. For those of you who are unaware, and I admit I was until I got there, the Reeperbahn is one of the most notorious Red Light districts not only in Germany, but in Europe. I was unaware for approximately 3 seconds after having got to the main street of the Reeperbahn whereupon I was met with pictures of a scantily clad ladies and a sign reading “SEXCES” (see what they’ve done there).

We managed to get to the hotel without seeing too many naked people and got to the gig on time due to the highly efficient German crew. The gig was great, playing in a small venue again with the crowd about 6 inches away from you reminded me of the time that we played the Windmill in Brixton and got Phoenix Phil and Tamla Tim up to wave their “Shake” and “Shimmy” signs. In Hamburg there were no signs, but there was a crowd who were very much up for having a good time. So good in fact that when I started the now traditional clapping in the middle of “Lips Are Unhappy” the crowd thought, ‘bollocks to your tempo’ and sped up to such a degree that we played it like the Chipmunks on heat. Perhaps not the greatest rendition of lips, but at least the people liked it.

Which brings me neatly back to touring, meeting people and why they make it special. After the show we were obviously on the look out for some beer, but with 9/10ths of the band happily in relationships, we were after beer but no boobs. So we came across a bar. It was run by a guy called Peter. The bar was called Peter’s Place. It had bottles of Becks for 2 Euro. It was great, and what’s more the people in it were great, telling us about all the best places in town to go (Luciano’s for Bock Wurst, the fish market on the Harbour) and introducing us to a new drink. The Mexicana. Or as we dubbed it The Maxi-Caner. The Mexicana is essentially a Bloody Mary, but it is only the size of a shot. From what we could gather it was a shot of vodka, tomato juice, Tabasco, and other mystery ingredients in a shot glass which you downed. 3 of those and you were reconsidering the other options that the Reeperbahn had to offer.

I’ll end this blog with 2 further points.

1. Peter’s Place is so famous that Peter has his own fan club, and not only that fan club membership cards. Of course, Lucky Soul are now fully paid up members:

2. After a large amount of Mexicanas some of LS did go onto sample the delights of the Reeperbahn. The question is who…? Answers to the usual address

We’re back on the road for the European Tour today, so I’m sure you can expect more Blogs from the rest of the band including the ever elusive Mr. Atkins

Over and out

Ivor

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On The Road Again

admin — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 10:44:00 +0000

So we’re FINALLY on tour! It seems like forever since we started the band and we thought, we should really get out on tour and play to people who might not have heard of us before. And lo and behold, some 2 years later here we are!

We’re in our nice red tour bus having left our Rusty Steed ‘Alan’ (our slightly shit van) in Greenwich, but shock horror none of the TVs work. Suffice to say the management will be getting a strongly worded letter of complaint, something about ‘catastrophes’ and ‘disasters’.

We must also welcome the newest member of the LS crew which is our delightful tour manager “Robbie Gee”. Robbie seems like a nice bloke but and the moment he’s being strong and silent whilst we speed up the M1 towards our first gig in Glasgow.

Due to the wonders of Laptops and bluetooth enabled mobiles this is coming to you from the back of the van as we sit around and listen to Radio 3, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I’ll sure they’ll be updates galore after the gig and from around the country.

stay safe, and if you think being in a band is glamorous check out this shot from the back of the van…

Ivor….

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Busy Numbering

admin — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:09:00 +0000

As I’m sure the eagle-eyed of you notice on the myspace there’s a new single coming out. It’s called “One Kiss Don’t Make A Summer” and it comes in a rather fetching blue cover which is nicely in keeping with all our other 7 inch single covers. Hopefully you’ve all be collecting them because they look rather good together, especially in a frame as Andrew’s mum can vouch for.

To make these little pieces of sonic plastic even better we at Lucky Soul HQ always number them by hand and even initial them so you can swap them like football cards trying to get the whole band!

However, this does mean that we have to put in the hours and actually sit there and number the damn things, by hand. So hopefully you appreciate all our effort and grab yourself a copy. If you’re lucky enough to pick up copies 303, 666 or 777 look for an extra special note from myself which will obviously make it EVEN MORE EBAY-ABLE in the future.

Now all you have to do is try and find the needle in a haystack, and to add a little sweetener; if you find the message on the 7inch, bring it to a gig and show it to me i shall by you a pint/spirit+mixer of your choice (no champagne i’m a poor rock star!)

so…. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Ivor

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