Day one
Thursday December 22
Mark:
Our original plan was to go away for Christmas today, but we need this day here more than we had begun to anticipate. There’s loads of general apartment organising and bits of admin stuff, and then we’ew off out to buy a few little bits and pieces for the apartment. For this we leave our area and take a drive to Stratford, a town out in east London which has a shopping centre. Then late afternoon we manage a little walk around our new area, one of the very coolest in London. The bars and potential venues seem almost endless, especially given our track record for playing in places not generally considered live or original music venues. Go to the end of our very short street and turn right and there’s a bar 20 metres that way and another one across the road from that. Turn left and we’ve got one within about 70 metres and a whole bunch not far from that one. And this is the backstreets. The whole place is filled with tiny roads, off of which branch more tiny roads with more hidden bars. And this being Shoreditch, there’s bound to be so many places not even visible from the street. This is going to be very interesting area to get to know.
We also discover that there are loads of temporary food stalls set up right across the road from us. Falafel stand, kebab stand, and three or four others. These, we learn, are set up and taken down every lunchtime to cater for the huge amount of office staff around here. We will also later learn that there are a few more streets round Shoreditch where this happens, including two streets, both very close, that are totally taken up both sides by such stands. It’s like living in the food section of a theme park.
Having looked round our local area a little, we take a walk to Covent Garden to visit Krisoff, manager of the White Hart. He’s stunned when we walk in. The whole double take thing. A lovely drink or two with him where we recount a few recent adventures and fill him in on where we’re living now. This place, in the heart of the West End, is a walk of a little over half an hour from our new apartment.
As for where we are, it’s kind of surreal to think we live here now, especially straight after living in a tiny town in Ireland. When I was living in Kentish Town, a friend who lives in rural Wales once asked me if I could see the tall buildings from where I was. When I said yes, he said, ‘You’re central.’ Well, from where we are now, we can’t see the skyline at all. We’re right inside it. For a start, we’re right in the centre of UK’s equivalent of Silicon Valley. And again, if you’re not familiar with London geography, you probably at least know the Gherkin among a few other things. We’re about 10 minutes’ walk away from that.
Day eight
Thursday December 29
Mark:
Lottery winners are probably more common than holders of central London parking permits. And you don’t have a permit, you would probably have to be a lottery winner to be able to afford to one. So we’re not going to do that. Instead, just like we did during our visit here last year, we drive out to zone four and find a free parking spot there. That’s about eight miles away. For those not familiar with London geography, it has eight zones, essentially arranged in rings, so zone two surrounds zone one and so on. Of course, we’re in zone one. And for parking we’ve pretty much followed the tube line from our local station and parked near one of the stations in zone four. This means that anytime we want the car, we hop on one tube, go pick the car up and use it, take it back to the same, or a similar place, then a single tube ride back home. Simple. So as long as we have the car here, we have the possibility to maybe gig in other areas of the country, or maybe areas of London or outside that aren’t so convenient for public transport.
Back home and we have another acclimatising walk round neighbourhood, also venturing a onto the edge of the financial district. Here we find a hotel that has a few lovely bars open to the public, including a roof bar. Cool, although that’s not open right now, and neither are the others, but a good discovery. Out of there and we almost immediately find a very classy place called Flight Club, a small chain company of bars. And it’s here that we have our very first pint in our new area.
Then we’re off for something slightly less classy. Having rented an unfurnished apartment, we still only have what we could fit in the car, including the air mattress so we at least have bed. But that’s it. So dinner is a takeout, which is all great, but which we eat sitting on our cold tiled kitchen floor. But even that is still kinda wonderful in its own way. We’re here.
Day nine
Friday December 30
Mark:
I thought I knew Shoreditch, having come here quite often when I was last living in London. But I really didn’t. We’re having little walks and discovering more and more and it really is a city in itself. And so many backstreets, including our own part of Shoreditch which feels like it’s more for the locals. Well, this is a busy nightlife area and I don’t think people are coming here from all over London to go and have a quiet drink in a backstreet bar. So I’m taking it that they’re mainly for us. And our neighbours. We’ll let them use them too. And the office workers. Oh, so many office workers. Come here during a weekday lunchtime and you’ll see that it truly is techtown.
Highest on the agenda today is picking up a table from the nearby catalogue shop. This is to be a narrow thing that will go along the wall in our kitchen and it comes with two matching stools. With that, we will now have our first furniture in the apartment – air mattress notwithstanding.
We’ve picked it up and I’m struggling back through the side streets carrying it home. Why oh why did I not think to bring our trolley? I have almost no vision of what’s in front of me and am just following Maja’s feet and trusting her to tell me if there’s anything bump-intoable. Then I hear, ‘Mark.’ I ignore it. Then again. Oh, maybe they are calling me? I should check. I tentatively turn round. I don’t believe it. Marco. A chef I worked with way way way back at The Oxford. He’s one of my favourite former colleagues although we haven’t kept in touch that much but I’ve seen that he has been following The Diaries. And even now, bizarrely, he sees and recognises Maja before he sees me, because he’s seen our Youtube videos. Wow. OK. So we have a hello with Marco now and of course I introduce the two of them. So he works here in this very expensive restaurant called Ozone, and we live practically at the end of the road down there. He suggests we come in for breakfast soon, and promises us a half price discount. Well yes. We will. Thankyou very much. Brilliant. We’ll see you soon.
Now to continue and get this thing home and set up. And yes. We now have now transformed our kitchen and whole living experience. Just having a little place to hang out on and eat and have a drink and listen to music. Seriously, having this little thing has suddenly transformed the whole feel of the apartment.
We have a chat to Rick later and see if he can guess where we are. Ridiculously coincidentally, our street name does have a link to us so I tell him it is possible to guess. He comes back with, well the only street in London I know, and it’s only because we had our headquarters there, is Mark Street. I. Do. Not. Believe. It. This street is tiny with only two apartment blocks on it, one on each side. And it’s very very out of the way. And yes, Rick’s office was across the road. We can see where it was from our window. Just crazy. So that means that across one road is Maja’s office. On other side is Rick’s. And in the middle – in the apartment itself – there’s ours. Which, for now, kinda means mine.
Day 10
Saturday December 31
Mark:
We can’t believe we live here. It just keeps hitting us. Everytime we walk out there’s more and more to discover, not least just a huge variety of restaurants from so many different countries and cultures. There’s the other mad little thing that if we venture out a little way on a walk, on our way home, we’re heading right towards the London skyline, knowing we’re continuing to walk right into and among it to get home. And on our way out into the West End for New Years tonight, we discover the famous Leadenhall Market which is bang on our route 15 minutes walk from the apartment. This was used as the location for filming Diagon Alley in Harry Potter. Less than ten minutes later and we’re walking past St Paul’s Cathedral. A little further on from there and we’re in The West End. This is our New Years tonight as we plan to split our time between Kristoff’s White Hart and Tommy’s Marquis, a little further down the road just off the corner of Trafalgar Square.
We arrive at The White Hart around 8pm. After meeting him and everybody, he gives us wristbands that let us back in later on. Oh. Had no idea they were needed. The place is kind of booked out, but he’s making room for friends. Brilliant. While chatting, he says we really should play here. Gig number three offered. Brillianter. A few drinks in here and we’re off The Marquis just off Trafalgar Square. The plan is a drink or two in there, then back to Kristoff’s before midnight to take in the actual New Year. When we get to The Marquis it’s locked. But we knock on the window and Tommy comes out and is delighted to see us. He also had no idea we were in London. He tells us they have a private event tonight for locals but he’s putting our name on the list. They’ll be open in half an hour or so. Thankyou very much. So we just have a general wander around the area, also taking the opportunity to pop into a cafe for tea and cake. Then back to Tommy’s. Once there we get introduced to a lot of the bar staff I’ve not met before and basically hang out with the locals.
It’s New Year’s Eve in central London and we have a total local bar vibe going. We enjoy this for a while then leave for Kristoff’s and the final party of the year. Just as we’re leaving, Tommy says we have to come back sometime and have a talk about playing here. Absolutely. Yes. And with that, we have London gig number four on the cards.
Back to The White Hart now and the pace has fully picked up and stays that way till countdown and some time beyond. In between, a few familiar faces come and hang out, including one or two people Maja met last time we were in London. Bouncing between these two bars, tea and cake interlude in Soho and then party with a bang in here really has been quite a fantastic way to bring in 2023. We head off about 2am, starting to think about how to get home. Well, all the roads in town are closed and there’s no public transport to be had anywhere. Despite that, so many bus stops are crammed with expectant people who will have to accept the situation at some point. We’ve already accepted it, but fortunately for us, we can just keep walking.
Day 11
Sunday January 1
Like everyone else, really not much.
Day 12
Monday January 2
Mark:
A cool interlude today as Paul calls out of the blue. ‘Guess where I am.’ Oh alright. How long have we got? Well, he wouldn’t say that if I didn’t have a chance, so, ‘Somewhere in London.’ ‘Angel,’ he says. That’s pretty handy. That’s the next town from us, just out of the edge of Shoreditch and then a straight road to Angel. Do we want to meet up? Yeah, that works. So yeah. Me, Paul and Maja have a wonderful late morning/ early afternoon catchup starting at the hotel he’s staying at before venturing out for lunch nearby.
As for what Paul’s doing here, he works with some of the top darts players in the world, arranging and writing PR and making sure other things go smoothly for many of the players. He’s here today for the world championship taking place in the nearby Alexandra Palace, as the guest of Dmitri Van den Bergh who will go all the way to the semi final.
Day 13
Tuesday January 3
The last day before Maja begins work. A gentle day and a nothing night. This is all about preparation and getting the apartment together.
Day 14
Wednesday January 4
Mark:
The first day for Maja as the job begins.
Apart from that, the next few days and weeks will be a flurry of unpacking and apartment admin, including taking deliveries of and putting together various bits of flatpack furniture. A large wardrobe and bed in the studio, where I also have to reassemble the desk we brought with us. Then there’s the main bed, sofa and the rest. You can be spared the details. Beyond that, outside of Maja’s new office, it’s all quite pedestrian right now and will be for a little while. I also pretty much observe her hours. Going to bed and getting up at the same time, and overall just being pretty sedate and totally not rock’n’roll. But really, all this is total lifestyle commitment and dedication to create the ends for what we have to do to be able to rock’n’roll. And that, really, is total rock’n’roll.
So yeah. Maja goes to work, comes home and we relax until the next day. During those days I take delivery after delivery, including a bunch of flatpacks which I put together, and I go round town running errands. The kind of golden material Diary is made of.
But yeah, really, there isn’t going to be a great amount of The Diaries over the next few months, and not a massive amount of out on the town either with Maja in bed at a decent hour each night to start early in a demanding office, with me mostly keeping the same hours. For myself, I’ll be looking at some continuing studio time as we get that together and hopefully I can keep a few songs coming while developing some of the ideas we already have. And as I already said, there’s a lot to do to get our place into shape, at least in the first few weeks or so with all the flatpacking. But this first three months in London is about Maja settling in which means yes, getting used to the new job, but mostly completing her probation period before really thinking too much about performing. That means three months before we’ll really start to see much action for The Diaries beyond what I might get up to catching up in here, in the studio, and working on songs. I’ll fit what I can of that in between all the daily apartment admin bits and pieces and generally trying to make life as easy for Maja as possible allowing her to concentrate on getting up to speed in the office without having to worry too much about what state the apartment or dinner is in. So yeah. To put it crudely, I’m taking care of house and Maja’s taking care of the money. My job here is The Diaries. To lay the groundwork, keep the studio going, do that song thing I mentioned a moment ago, and keep myself up to speed for when we are ready to hit the stage again. And when we do reach that time, it will be me doing most of the daytime hustle to really start getting things off the ground. Maybe a few quiet nights out to connect with the area and simply get out from time to time. Some of that may or may not be written about. But really, for the next little period, we’re pretty much just playing house.
Day 15
Thursday January 5
All the stuff we left behind in storage in Ireland arrives today, courtesy of Ger O’Dwyer – get the actual name of the company. He delivers a great service and has even found some carpet type material with which he’s wrapped our keyboard. That’s above and beyond territory. Thanks Ger.
But now what will be our living room is filled with ten large boxes and assorted odds and ends. Our apartment currently resembles a small warehouse.
Day 17
Saturday January 7
We have a bed now so we’re off the air mattress. That is a big deal.
And our first night out with friends as Matt, his girlfriend Elisa, and their friend Johannes come round to meet us in Shoreditch. This will be the first time we’ve seen Matt since arriving back in London and we begin at our local neighbourhood bar The Fox. Maja describes this as being nearer to us than The Mill was in Clara, and that bar was next to the mill it was named after – that thing in our back garden by the way.
The Fox is a nice and cosy place to meet. Perfect for a catchup and away from so much of the frantic Saturday night-ness that is going on everywhere else around here. While ordering at the bar I get chatting to a barman who introduces himself as Chris, who now becomes the first person around here who we’ve got to know the name of. I tell him we’ve just moved in down the street and he says, ‘Welcome to the neighbourhood. There are a lot of interesting people round here to meet.’ I bet there are.
From here, we venture to the edge of our backstreet area to The Griffin, another old style pub, but far far busier with a Saturday night crowd. There isn’t a table to be had as we walk in, but just as we reach the bar a table of four people get up and leave and, without breaking stride, we slip right into their vacated space. Result. Right. We’ve done the neighbourhood thing. Now to at least get into a little bit of the action. Across the road and we’re on the main street and into The Old Blue Last which is now at full volume and really warming up. We accelerate into Saturday night here, then when we’re done, we wander down the road to find a burger and beer bar to finish off. Out of here and it’s time to say goodnight. And after what’s felt like a full night out on the town, it feels quite ridiculous to negotiate our way through the still partying crowds and then simply step across the road to find quiet backstreets and then home.
Day 18
Sunday January 8
Sundays really are amazing round here. We live just off the financial Square Mile so, like that area, we have a massive weekday office population but for actual residents, the whole place is really lightly populated. So Sundays, we can walk all around our area and the whole place can feel deserted, like we have this part of London all to ourselves. Within all this, a simple walk to the shop this morning is a revelation. On my way back, I pass a guy walking down the otherwise empty street with his son. They’re singing together. But no other kind of casual street singing I’ve heard before. No. This guy is singing lines of opera in a quite astonishing voice, and the boy is repeating them back to him. Just another one of those reminders that this place really is a bit different. An inspiring outing to buy milk.
Day 19
Monday January 9
An inspiration of a totally different kind today as walk Maja to the next street to her office, then continue the walk. Within no time I’m deep in financial London early in the morning. Whatever the ills of the banking world, this place is just filled with electric and I can’t help but pick up on it all. Everyone is striding with a purpose, with an energy, with an ambition. With urgency. I’m totally disconnected from it all, yet find myself moving along in the same rhythms. A light rain adds to the immediacy of my constant motion surroundings, especially as not a single person seems to pay any attention to it, so determined are they on thoughts of the day or the next destination. This all feeds into my own vibrations and I take it in with growing exhilaration which feeds my own thoughts of the day and destinations. I round the huge, imposing, windowless building of the museum of the bank of England and head back home, to the new London nerve centre of The Diaries, my own nerve centre still wired and jangling. This feels alive.
Day 22
Thursday January 12
I finally get a good chunk of music time today and I really can’t quite believe how comfortable it feels to play bass. Not how good, as in, yay, I’m getting to play music again. I mean, how actually good. My movement is fine, dexterity, maybe fretboard knowledge and speed of improvisational thought aren’t quite so highly attuned, but I feel like I’ve hardly been away from this thing. Not sure how, but I’ll take it. I’ve barely played guitar at all in the past few months, apart from the Canal Turn, charity shop and Trap gigs and the minimal rehearsal we managed to squeeze out for them. And I’ve not touched the bass or anything at all in the studio for around three months. This getting back to it and feeling this good about playing really is a big deal because my next job on the album is checking out bass parts I’ve put on so far, tightening them up, and tightening them up with the drum parts we’ve made, and also possibly rerecording some parts that we think maybe could be better. In short, I’ve got to become a studio bass player again, and on first sight today, I’m already a good way there. My plan now is to take a few days to really properly level up my bass playing and to get back to a good understanding of what we’ve recorded and what I need to do with it.
Day 24
Saturday January 14
As we saw just after New Years, the wonderful neighbourhood of Angel is just a 20 minute walk away, straight at the end of the road once you’ve reached the edge of Shoreditch. This is where we’re headed tonight, just because we love Angel and have a few friends who work in The Camden Head bar there. But oh well. When we get to the Camden Head, no-one we recognise is on the bar or in the place, and it’s also uncomfortably full. To be fair, it is Saturday night. We try a few more bars, all with the same result until I say I know where to go in this situation. The Old Red Lion, a famous theatre pub. Maja’s never been. Well, yes, it is perfect. Just off the beaten track and with a cool atmosphere without being too ram packed, meaning we can get a table.
Maja gets her first view of how special a place this is when a large group of girls comes in and all stand in a huddle almost in front of our table. Then one by one they begin to sing. Not chart topping hits in warbling voices. No. This is a full on theatrical musical number full of harmonies and all kinds of different types of interactive performance between them. Basically, we’re getting a section of a show right in front of us. Maja looks on wide eyed while the rest of the bar barely reacts as they continue their, er, theatrics. I take that as a sign that this is just normal goings on in here. Then they’re done, applause, but for them it was just a bit of fun as they dropped in. A few of them turn to us, especially Maja, a nod and a wink, then they’re off and disappear out to the back garden. We do not at all discover who they are, but it really wouldn’t surprise me if they’d just come straight from the stage somewhere in the West End and then performed right in front of us.
On the way down the main road out here we came across a keyboard stand someone had put out to be picked up. We checked it out and it was all in perfect order. So we decided if it was still there on our way home we’d take it. Well, here it is and we do indeed take it. So that’s how you get a keyboard stand around here. On we go and we drop off somewhere for a takeout. While in the queue, the guy behind us says, ‘Where’s your keyboard then?’ A pretty funny opening line. We tell him what we’ve just told you, then add that we’re hoping to use the keyboard we do have, on top of this, for midi drums for recording; we’re currently placing them one by one ourselves. There can often be a lot of copying involved for main rhythms, but there are also a lot of details, and the rhythms also have a lot going on, meaning we have to drop details into them as well. It can all be a painstaking process. I’m really hoping that if we can get the keyboard going and learn how to do it, this could be a much quicker and more fun way of getting our midi drums into our tracks. We don’t say all that to the guy of course, that was me taking the opportunity to explain some of our drumming system to you. We have a chat to this guy about music for a little while and he says he’s a keyboard player himself. Cool. We give him a card and we’re on our way. That could be a future connection or not, but the fact remains that we just had an involved conversation with a stranger, essentially on the street, about music and about The Diaries, and all just because we were carrying a keyboard stand we found on the street.
And all that is as interesting as things get for our first full month back in London. The odd mildly interesting encounter, a few more bars and restaurants hit and the occasional gentle night out. And in between we drop in on our two favourite West End bars The Marquis and The White Hart once or twice.
Day 47
Monday February 6
Mark:
It’s my birthday. Did I mention Shoreditch has a Blues Kitchen? No? OK. Shoreditch has a Blues Kitchen. We’ve not been to it yet and tonight would be the perfect time to break that duck. I’ve only been here once before, that was ages ago and the place was rammed so I didn’t get to have much of a look round it. We do tonight and it really is bigger and more sprawling than the legendary Camden location we all know so well from Mark’s Diaries – if you’ve ever been there. It’s even got a vintage camper van placed inside it. An actual camper van that you can go and hang out in. Well, it’s not kitted out like a camper inside, but it’s still a pretty cool concept and a really cool semi private area out of the way of all the hustle, if you’re looking for that.
We do hang out in there for a little while, just because, then we go back out to the floor proper and find a table there. After a little while a waiter comes out bearing a birthday cake with a candle. I wonder if Maja had anything to do with that.
Day 49
Wednesday February 8
Mark:
We’re back in the Blues Kitchen again. We think it’s time we saw some live music and yep, they do that in here. We did also discover on Monday that Wednesday night was half price cocktail night, so of course we had to check that out. And the live band? Regular Blues Kitchen residents, The BKs. Featuring my old BK mate Kez on bass. As you would expect, the place is packed, so if we leave our table, we wouldn’t have one to come back to. So Kez comes over and says hello before the show. Wow. Really great to have made that connection again. Then he’s off. He has business on stage to attend to.
Day 50
Friday February 10
Another night out in the neighbourhood with Matt. No idea what bars we end up in.
Day 52
Sunday February 12
Mark:
It’s just an early Sunday evening walk out. Just a wander round the place to shake off a lazy day spent inside. Then we spot a rooftop bar. Oh, we have to go have a look. So we do. It’s in the hotel we came across in one of our first walks around here, but this time the bars are all open. So up to the roof we go for a drink in one of the most spectacular bar settings I’ve ever sat in as the illuminated skyline of London spreads itself out before us.
Day 54
Tuesday February 14
Mark:
We have a full listen to our show at The Canal Turn from November. We’re really dropping in to see our my memory of fits reality. We remember it as being a great performance with a great reaction. Yep. We can confirm that it really is. So much so that we agree that yes, this could and should go out as a live album. It contains nine songs, but the audience and their reaction throughout really is a tenth track. And it’s just so representative of the best of the kind of shows we played during our time in Ireland. And it’s our last show, apart from our farewell show at The Trap the following month, but we didn’t manage to get a good recording of that. So, The Canal Turn it is. I think this show is even more representative than the show at The Trap anyway because it’s another time playing to people who have never heard anything from us before, but still they clap and cheer and sing along all night.
Day 56
Thursday February 16
Mark:
Late afternoon and my phone pings. Hi Mark. You playing anywhere these days? I’m in London. What? What now? This is from Bia, a great friend who I used to hang around a lot with in Cork way way way back, and then we lived together in what became the most amazing house of parties and music, right in the city centre. I stayed in that house for nearly seven years. She was and is also great friends with Amy. Bia left Cork a couple of years after we moved into that house and went to live in Brazil, where she still lives today. I haven’t seen her for almost 20 years although we have sporadically kept in touch throughout that time. But not enough to know she had plans to be in London. And now she’s turned up. Just like that. It takes me a little while to get my head around that, but then I’m like, no way. Just no way. Amazing!! I give her my number and have to say that, no there are no gigs just yet but that is deliberate. We arrange to meet tomorrow. In Shoreditch.
Day 57
Friday 17 February
Mark:
Well, here they are. Bia and her friend Cris, who speaks no English at all. The two girls have visited Portugal and are now in London for a week. It’s a huge moment when me and Maja round a corner near Old Street tube and there she is. I’m sure you can imagine the hello. Then introductions are made and we welcome them to our Shoreditch. Immediately they’re taken in by their surroundings as we venture further into the area. We head straight for a bar called The Angel where we set ourselves up at a table and just let the outpourings begin. But as for Bia, I thought there would be some mad story as to why they were here, but no. They just fancied a visit to London and Cris had never been to England, so here they are.
Once they’ve settled and landed here, we go for a little walk around the area, which includes showing them our place and then Maja suggests we go to The Bridge Bar, the spectacular coffee shop type place which Matt introduced us to a few weeks ago. Once in there and we discover the back garden is full but we have the inside of the place to ourselves and me and Bia settle at the front by the street window while Maja and Cris get to know each other. Although they have no common language, those two have somehow really connected and they also spend a lot of their time dancing down the narrow strip of barfloor as me and Bia just hang out at our end of bar window seat. The mad thing is, there isn’t a lot of catching up or reminiscing. Of course a little, but essentially we’re just hanging out. After 20 years. Oh man it’s good to see her. And for her to see us, where we are, and to meet Maja. As we’re inside, we’re able to speak to the bar staff a little more than we would have done if we’d been out in the garden, and Rico, the owner, remembers me from a few weeks ago. We have a little bit of a chat and without me hustling, he says we should come and play here. Oh wow. Yes. I’ll return to talk to him about that when we’re ready, I tell him. I should stop doing this, but that’s prospective gig number five since we arrived and we haven’t even started looking yet. Now me and Bia get back to where we were and Maja and Cris just continue to dance it all away.
The two of them have a full London sightseeing day planned for tomorrow and will then meet other friends Bia has here, so we arrange to meet earlyish Sunday.
Day 58
Saturday 18 February
Mark:
We are not meeting earlyish Sunday. Per calls today. He lives in Alicante, Spain now but has just arrived back in London for a while. What is going on? Right. I guess we’re out tonight as well. He and his wife Weng are in Ain’t Nothin But… so we arrange to meet at a burger bar round the corner from there. We get the last table in the packed out place and Per and Weng soon come and join us and it’s the second epic hello in two days as they settle in here. Per’s in London for a while so we may manage another hang out or two, although he’ll apparently also be in Norway for a time before returning here, then making his way back to Alicante.
After we’re done here, we head off to The Marquis which is slam packed, but we find a great spot in the alcove out back. As the night goes on, people leave this alcove and aren’t replaced. So before long it looks like the place is totally full, but we have our own private party room back here. Over there, you can barely move across the floor. Back here we’ve got all the space we want. And oh yes, we use it. And as it gets later and later, HB, one of the barmen here, finishes and comes and joins us, bringing fellow staff member Jess. They slot right into our vibe as we kick it up just another notch. Anyone walking past on the street would think we have our own little private members club here, and that’s exactly what it feels like.
But yeah, during all this, any thoughts we had of being up and out anytime early tomorrow vanish. During the evening we pre-empt it and let Bia know we most likely won’t be joining them for their sightseeing walk. Instead, we’ll make new plans during the day tomorrow.
Day 59
Sunday February 19
Mark:
Maja has the thought that when friends meet after a long time, or meet each other in different countries, once the sightseeing has been done, there’s nothing better than just hanging out in the host person’s house and just letting the evening wind along on your own terms. So that’s what we suggest. Hey guys, you want to come round ours. They do and they’re round a little after 7pm bearing wine and snacks.
This is just epic, and is all perfect company and the perfect setting for me and Maja to mark two years to the day since we met.
In the calm surroundings of our own apartment, we recount some of what we’ve done to Bia who relays it to Cris. We’ve played almost a hundred shows, done two European tours, and moved house four times, in the process changing country twice. We’ve also written an album and a whole lot more songs.
As for that album, yes it’s dragging on, but today we completed the backing tracks for the first nine songs. Now we have to begin the recording of the final three. One of which we’d already recorded, but then scrapped everything after deciding on a new arrangement. One has timing issues so has presented a few recording challenges and we only now really feel up to tackling that one. And there’s a new song which we decided to put on relatively recently.
Oh, and as you’ve seen, only this week we decided to release a live album from one of our last shows in Ireland.
And of course, we’ve written about all of these adventures in The Diaries which, in the past few days, has passed the 300,000 word mark; for reference as to how much that is, take the Harry Potter books The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Goblet Of Fire – 953 pages combined – and we’re a few thousand words beyond that.
The evening winds on wonderfully and when the time’s right, the guitar comes out and we play a few songs for them. Bia is a true music lover and revels in this private show, as does Cris. A truly magical night.
Day 63
Thursday February 23
Mark:
Our friends’ London visit is over on Friday and they have a few other things on their itinerary before then. Bia is of course very keen to see Amy while she’s here and we’ve already been on it with arranging that. We’ve planned to meet tonight in Covent Garden. At Kristoff’s The White Hart, and we’ll take it from there.
We do indeed do that and I’m anticipating a quiet enough bar for a table and a catchup, but when we arrive the place is already so full you can barely walk through it. So alternative plans have to be quickly made. Bia is here with Cris and two other people. Telma, Bia’s cousin who lives in London now and who I met many years ago in Cork when she was over from Brazil and the three of us hung out almost every day for a week. And Bia’s nephew Otavio is here, who arrived from Brazil today and this is his first ever time in England. It’s all so packed that Maja and Amy wait outside while I go in and find the others. They’ve still got drinks, so it’s agreed that Maja and Amy will go and find another place for us and I’ll bring the five of us to meet them there. Cool. We have a plan. Kinda. As we’re leaving, I’m very happy to be able to briefly introduce Bia to Kristoff. While this is a little meeting of two of my friends, I think it’s just really cool for Bia to meet the manager of such a busy central London pub while it’s right in the midst of full busyness.
Now onto the place the others have found and they have done so well, finding us a corner table in a seafood restaurant called Lowlander Grand Cafe that is happy to accommodate us for just drinks, although we assure them that some of us will be ordering food, which does indeed happen. But very piecemeal, which works out really well in a casual kind of way as the place bustles all around us. The restaurant staff also get to hear that this is a 20 year reunion and they really do their best to look after us. And yes, here we are. Myself, Bia and Amy. Together again for the first time in all that time. I lived with two of them at different times, although there was a period when Bia spent a lot of time at the house while Amy lived there, and of course we were all on the same Cork scene at the same time. Telma’s also part of the reunion as well, and then there’s Otavio who really can’t take it in. He’s just 19. He wasn’t even born the last time we all saw each other. The concept of him, from now, having a long friendship with someone, then saying goodbye, and then meeting them again 20 years later, just about explodes his head. It’s just about exploding all of ours to be fair and the fizz of that effervesces and emanates all around our jubilant table and beyond.
When it’s time to leave, we wind through the streets to Tottenham Court Lane station. Hardly a long distance departure point, but it might as well be for us. This is where we say goodbye to Bia and Cris and, accompanied by Amy, they’ve soon disappeared down the escalators. It’s a sad yet joyful farewell. Such an amazing week and so incredible to have been reunited again. It’s at this point you often say to friends something like, let’s not leave it so long next time. But not tonight. It’s possible we won’t leave it 20 years, but with around 6000 miles and two oceans separating us, it’s fair to say we won’t be meeting for coffee any time soon.
Day 64
Friday February 24
Oh dear. Today we both start to feel a bit sick, which develops into being laid up for the next week and a bit beyond. I guess you could say we timed that pretty well. It really wouldn’t have been fun if this had happened last week.
Day 73
Sunday March 5
Mark:
For the first time in a while we both feel good and kind of up for stuff, so we go out for a walk right into the city. First stop is the old original London now encompassing much of the financial district as we revisit the London Wall for the first time since we had one of our profile pictures taken here shortly before we left for Ireland and after a particularly memorable and eventful few days. That would the first part of The London Diary: The Last Two Weeks, and encompassing the last part of the previous Diary. This is the old Roman wall and parts of its original construction can still be seen, which go right back to 200AD. Even some of the more recent parts date back to Medieval times when some of the original Roman Wall was incorporated into what was built as the city defences of the time.
After this monument, we stay on the history trail with a visit to The Cheshire Cheese Pub on the famous old media home of Fleet Street. I’ve been wanting to show Maja this for some time, and it’s long been on my list of destinations for visiting friends. Not only does this pub date back to before the Great Fire of London of 1666, but it’s one of the few public buildings to have parts of it that survived and can still be used. This is because those parts are underground, and down there we go, traversing original narrow stone steps into what look like ancient stone cellar rooms, probably because they are ancient cellar rooms. This place winds down and down through those narrow staircases and is made up of so many little slightly darkened warrens. A truly dramatic and privileged location for a pint and, being on Fleet Street and still in much of its original carnation, an old favourite of so many of those legendary old newspaper warriors of print. Well, hopefully we keep up it’s tradition of freedom of spirit and creativity as we set ourselves up at a table in the middle of one of the larger warrens and have a discreet rehearsal, going acapella through some of our newer songs, and revising a few older ones we’ve not done for a while. What better usage of a pint or two?
Then it’s off to China Town where we wander to the fringes on Shaftesbury Avenue to find an authentic Korean barbecue restaurant – Olle Korean Barbecue.
After such a great comeback day from both being sick for a while, what better timing to book the first actual concrete date of an offer for a London show. As you know, we’re really not looking to start playing until April 4 when Maja finishes the probation with her new job. However, my friend Alex who runs the Dial Up Club, with whom I used to play in the house band, gets in touch to invite us to play his next event at the Deli Theatre. Practically next to The Gherkin. And it’s this coming Thursday. Brilliant. Just like that, we’re on.
