Day one
Saturday 18 September 2021
We’re out the door by 6am and straight in the car. The route is Clara to Belfast for the 10:30am ferry to Liverpool. Arrive in Liverpool at 6:30pm, then drive through England to arrive in London whenever that happens, but scheduled for four hours.
On the ferry we find a lovely spot by a window near the front and immediately get ourselves sorted out with tea. Yep, we brought all the necessaries with us.
We have a few internet plans including uploading yesterday’s videos and maybe some Diary writing, but the ferry’s internet isn’t too clever so we have to just sit back and enjoy the sea view instead, and then the fantastic scenery as the docks of Liverpool slowly come into view.
We make decent time coming to London until we hit the city then of course the traffic greatly slows us down. Then the memories come quicker and quicker for both of us as we go first through Archway and then Holloway. Then it gets really tricky as we hit the much more central area of Angel and have to find our way to the back of the pub through very unco-operative traffic. Trying to get your own parking space in London is incredibly difficult. For a visit, almost impossible. We’ve been told we’re able to park round the back of the pub for tonight, and will be OK tomorrow as it’s Sunday. But we’ll have to have it out by 8:30am Monday. Great. That’ll do. Especially as we’ve also managed to get a permanent place through a phone call to Per a few days ago. He told us there was free parking in the streets around where he lives in Turnpike Lane, quite far out in north London. We won’t see Peron this trip though as he’s away the entire time we’re here.
After the heavy London traffic we arrive at the bar just after closing time which is perfect actually, as it means Alex has finished and he lets us in. The staff are also just settling down to after work drinks and we already happen to know some of them, including Tom and Molly. Molly we met last time we were here, and Tom used to work at Kristoff’s bar The White Hart, where I also worked a few help-out shifts. Tom also saw my duo The Insiders loads of times and we hung out a lot too. Other staff from The Marquis/White Hart axis have also found themselves here, in the way London bar staff do tend to spread around the place and find each other again and again. Get involved in London bars for long enough and you’ll know staff all over the city, as I do. Know the staff, and you have a short cut into an introduction to the bar’s social scene.
And here we are getting introduced to this one with a few of the trusted regulars staying behind for drinks as well. We’re introduced to them, and to Matteo the manager. We show everyone our beer mats and it’s fair to say they’re very impressed. Alex immediately says we should put a bunch of them up on the bar. So there they go, and with that we have our first presence in London.
A few drinks down here, then the regulars leave and the remaining bar staff and myself and Maja go up to Alex’s apartment. By the time we make it to bed after this little after hours extra it’s gone 4am and we’ve been up for 22 hours.
Day two
Sunday September 19 2021
We’re up late. Of course we are. Out of the window of the front room of the apartment we’re looking down on a cool little sidestreet of Angel and we can’t believe we’re here, on our own in an apartment right in the centre of London. Leaving down the outside stairs, the city buildings of London almost loom over us with St Paul’s Cathedral almost dominating the scene. We really are bang in the middle of things here.
We’re not ready to go anywhere until two in the afternoon. I want to show Maja The Marquis and The White Hart and hopefully catch up with Tommy and Kristof respectively. Neither of them are around unfortunately, but we still manage Sunday roast in The Marquis.
Back to the apartment to rest up a little, then we take the car to Turnpike Lane where we find a free parking spot. Great. That’s that part taken care of. Then it’s time for The Blues Kitchen jam. Wow. It really is special walking back into this place, and with Maja this time for the first time she’s seeing the inside of it after walking past it so many times during lockdown.
It’s an amazingly nostalgic feeling to be walking back into here for the first time since March last year. There’s not a massive turnout of regulars, but I’m able to catch up with Freddy, Dre, Joe, and of course regular host Kez. And Mikey’s here; as with so many people new to The Blues Kitchen, he’s the person Maja’s most keen to meet so after saying a massive hi to Mikey myself, I introduce Maja to him and leave them to it.
Then, as I introduce Maja around to a few other people, and then inevitably to Kez, he happily tells me there aren’t many bass players in tonight. Yes, normally I would have been all over that, but instead, I reply now, ‘Could I please not play too much? I don’t want to leave Maja on her own too much.’ He looks at Maja, here for her first time, and says, ‘Of course. Absolutely.’ The one set I then get is with Rose McGowan, who goes and talks to Kez and requests me specifically. Yep. That works.
Normally after a Blues Kitchen there’d be a whole host of people heading to the next place, which would usually be The Elephant’s Head. But by the time it all finishes, there aren’t many people left around tonight. Maybe London still hasn’t yet hit full swing post Corona. But we’re still out so back into Camden it is and I introduce Maja to the late night club Joes. Swinging, rocking music and a great vibe. Welcome back Camden.
When it’s time for home, my automatic pilot sees me heading for the bus stop for Kentish Town. We’re almost at the stop when Maja says, aren’t we supposed to be on the other side of the road and going the other way into London? Oh yes. Oops.
Day three
Monday September 20, 2021
We’ve been hearing in the media about how bars just can’t get staff anymore. A lot of foreigners work in bars and a lot of them went back home when the Covid lockdowns started; in my house, Camilla, Spanish, went home, and Maria, Portuguese, did the same. Neither returned. Camilla worked in a shop, Maria worked in a bar. So my own anecdotal experience reflects this. The same happened in The Lord Palmerston with a few people being slow to return. And yes, Brexit is a factor. Now, as we meet bar staff and talk to them, we’re really seeing the effects as we’re constantly hearing that people cannot get days off and are working themselves into stress and exhaustion. I think back now to the Costa Blanca when I went into every bar in Javea and shook out nothing. Well now the bars are the ones doing the looking and they are shaking out nothing. The shoe really has gone to the other foot.
Round here, Sunday night means Blues Kitchen. Monday night means Ain’t Nothin But… just off Regent Street in central central London. It’s just so cool to be able to take Maja here, especially as it’s one of the first places we got a picture together not long after we first met at Heathrow Airport and when we were walking through here to get to Kentish Town. I made a very minor detour to bring us down Kingly Street so that she could see this iconic venue that I’d written so much about from so many jams, including my own very first jam in London.
Now she’s finally seeing the inside of it for herself and, with the place as crowded as I always remember, we’re delighted to somehow be able to get a seat at a central table right near the front of the stage. And just like last night it’s great to see a few old friends including house drummer Felipe who I played a gig with once upon a time. It is a pretty cool kudos point when Felipe finishes his set and comes straight over to us to say hello. And again, a set of two songs for me tonight, then we sit back and enjoy the rest of a great show. And Barry the bar manager, after saying hi, says it’s fine to put our beer mats about the place. So now The Diaries get an airing in this most central London of venues. Thankyou very much Barry.
Day four
Tuesday September 21
We’re thinking of getting some recording done while we’re here so it’s a chilled rehearsal day at Alex’s before heading off out to meet my old friend Amy for dinner out by Trafalgar Square.
Rehearsal day today at Alex’s then out tonight for dinner and a London walk with Amy. And, while walking through Trafalgar Square, we bump into Kristoff who we’ll be meeting tomorrow.
Day five
Wednesday September 22
The bar we’re staying above has a full on venue above it, which is below the apartment. This holds about 100 people and has a really cool stage. Alex has told us we could use this to record a video if we want. Brilliant. We make a plan to do this on Sunday.
Back to Traf Square territory tonight for a night out at The Marquis. A whole host of regular faces including Shane who Maja knows from that party a little while ago. It’s just a basic central London hangout as we happily mingle about the place.
Day six
Thursday September 23
It’s Alex’s birthday tomorrow and we’ve found the perfect present for him. An actual bass. Second hand, a brand we know well and perfectly affordable. It’s in East Dulwich, quite a trek away from here on a couple of buses. We had quite a late night last night, but I’ve made a plan to to and pick that bass up early enough this morning. I’m out and back by about 11:30am and the bass gets stored in a discrete place.
With us staying at Alex’s, I’ve made it clear that he has me for free if he wants me for any recording on his album material. I’ve already played on I think five songs of this for which he paid a good session rate. He asks now if I wouldn’t mind having a go at a song or two of his. No problem. Let’s have a look. We go into the studio and run through a few songs. I’ve never heard them before but there’s no need to really learn them properly. Instead we go through section by section. I learn that bunch of 16 bars or whatever, get a good feel, red light, record. Next section. This is how we get through it, and two hours later he has two tracks with bright and shiny new basslines. It’s 1:30pm. We’ve arranged to go and meet Fred Pala today. We have some lunch and leave around 2pm, arriving in Ealing around 4. Yes, it really is another trek. Wow. Out to East Dulwich to buy a bass, back to Angel to record a session for two tracks from scratch as I’d never heard them before, and now we’re in Ealing by 4pm. If we’d had this schedule planned and written out, it would have seemed impossible.
It’s wonderful to see Fred, who I shared so many great moments with just hanging out, rehearsing, and then playing all those shows all around London and a touch beyond at times. We hang out now in a hotel bar on the River Thames near his place and all is good. Evening descends and we continue into the night and all is good. We have a guitar and he’d love to hear a song or two from us. Great. We play Our mid tempo song Smile Is Going Round to a luke warm reception. Fair enough. You don’t have to like it. But then we go for breakthrough and Maja is really concentrating and giving a lovely, heartfelt performance when Fred just stands up and walks away and goes chatting to some random people he’s just seen about 20 metres away. We carry on for a little while but then I slowly stop, Maja opens her eyes and suddenly sees we’re alone. Not good. Not cool at all. We look at each other in disbelief, tinged with some level of disgust and disillusionment. I’m frankly embarrassed that a seemingly great friend of mine could do something so ignorant and disrespectful. We barely even have to say anything to each other. We just pack up and walk away without even looking back. Fred, I’d really like to say it was great to see you again, but…
Day seven
Friday September 24
Me and Alex try and get a recording session done but I’m really not as much on the ball as I was yesterday. Sometimes it flows through your fingers and sometimes it’s treacle and just not there. This is the second kind. No worries. We leave it and think maybe we’ll have another go later on. The main issue here is a part of a song, a kind of finale which Alex isn’t too sure what he wants to do with and I’m being absolutely no help. It could be a big bass part to really lift it, but if that is the case, I’m totally unable to deliver right now. It’s not that I couldn’t play something, I just can’t get a vision of what it could be, and anything I play, however decently sounding and technically well executed just doesn’t have any inspiration and neither of us is feeling it. I just can’t get my head around what would work here. To be fair, he’s been a bit stuck with how this part of the song could sound and was hoping I might be able to break the ice with it, but no. It just isn’t happening.
After all of yesterday’s running around and activity, me and Maja take it easy in the apartment until around 5:30 when we go for a wander out and about, including a perfectly leisurely chill in the nearby park with grapes which just seems right.
There’s a vague plan for the birthday tonight, involving starting sometime around 6/7. We get back there around 6:30 and no-has turned up yet, so it’s back to the apartment. When we arrive Alex is having a tinker in his studio and has been looking at what I recorded today. He’s decided a lot of it is really quite good and works well with the track, but he still has nothing for the end, the bit we were struggling with. Now he says he has an idea that it could be a real just let it go lead bass part finale for the last 16 bars or so. He just mentions this casually, but when he does a light goes off in me. I know exactly what to do. I tell him I can do that now. He says we should just relax and do the party, but I really want to have a go and I insist. He finds this amusing and a bit ridiculous because it’s come round to time to leave and we really should be down there in ten minutes or so. I’m all over this and tell him just to let me have a go. Shaking his head in a little incredulity he says, OK, let’s try. I’ve never tried soloing over this section before and I get myself mentally warmed up, thinking of the modes and chords that are required, as well as the feel. I launch myself into two takes. They’re actually OK, but I do kinda trip up over myself a little in the experimenting. We have to go. We really have to go. Come on Alex. Just one more try. I have this. OK, go for it. I do. And damn I nail it so hard. I finish, look up a little breathlessly and Alex is standing there just stunned. Maja’s been allowed to sit on in this session as well and she just looks like, ‘Oh wow, what just happened?’ Alex launches into hugging me and says some sweary words like, you had no right to play like that you… I just smile back and say, ‘Happy birthday.’ With that he declares the track done. What perfect timing and what a great way to see ourselves off. A jubilant threesome, we all go downstairs to join the party.
By 11:30, everything is still going strong. The bar is closed and we all help a little with the clearing up to allow the barstaff to get everything finished just that little bit earlier so they can all join us upstairs in Alex’s apartment. This will ultimately see 15 to 20 people all crammed into the place. Once upstairs, there’s a little present giving session and Alex is suitably bashful about getting so much attention. Then, just when he thinks it’s all over, we announce that we have something. We reach into the pile of clothes and bags, all strategically placed against the wall and pull up a large black case and place it on the table. A reaction of disbelief sweeps the room as we say, ‘Happy birthday Alex. This is for you.’ He’s like, ‘Oh no. You didn’t. It can’t be.’ Well, open it and find out. There’s suddenly a wonderful silent tension as he slowly unlocks the clasps and gently swings the top open. And then, there it is. A beautiful black perfect condition Cort bass. Yes, it really is quite a moment and I don’t think it’s just Alex who gets emotional.
As soon as present giving has somewhat calmed down, attention turns to us. Among a lot of my old friends tonight, such as Kristoff and Jess, we have met a lot of new people and they have been intrigued about our story and marvelled over our beer mats, with one girl saying, ‘You keep putting these around and the right person will see them and will call you. It’s a great, great marketing idea.’ Well, brilliant. But now they want to see if there is anything behind the great marketing idea as everyone now wants to hear what it is we can actually bring to the table. Me and Maja are standing alone in the kitchen, just off the main room and mentally preparing ourselves for this. We’re about to play our music live for the first time and we’re kind of checking each other to see if we’re ready. This is about to happen. This will be the first time anything we’ve done has made contact with reality to see if it can truly stand up like we believe and hope it can. And friendly or not, we’re doing it in front of a central London audience. We say we have one song for them. Everybody sits back. We stand at one end of the room, wait for them to more or less settle, then we hit it and launch into I Like You (Better When You’re Naked) for the first time.
We finish and there’s no applause. No-one saying, ‘Oh yeah, that’s a really nice song.’ No. None of the polite friend stuff people might do when someone they know, however vaguely, plays a new song. There’s none of that at all. Instead the room just explodes in screams and cheers like their soccer team has just scored the most important goal of the season.
This. Does. Not. Happen.
I’ve been around a lot of songwriting events and someone playing a brand new song to mostly strangers, to get this reaction. Does not happen. Even the politiest, most supportest of friends would not cheer and whoop like this. Does not happen. Or at the very least I’ve never seen anyone play a brand new song in a singer songwriter context and get this type of reaction. But then, if it was possible, things go to even crazier levels. For the next half an hour or so, it seems all anyone can talk about is this song we’ve just played. To me, to Maja. Even to each other. We keep hearing people talking about our song. Right down to thoughts and breakdowns of the lyrics, taking the subject matter to existential areas we’d never even thought of. Way over an hour later, every now and then we hear someone humming it. This is our first contact with a London audience. With any audience. And no matter what we could have imagined, or hoped, even my biggest hopes of how our music could be received, nothing I could have thought or dreamt of could have even come close to this.
Day eight
Saturday September 25
Yes last night was a late big one, but we don’t think it’s just that. The non-stopness really catches up with us today. Hits us like a wall in fact. And we have somewhat ambitious plans for tonight. For a start I’m heading back to the Palmerston. We’re going to meet Chris there for dinner. Then after that we have plans to hang out with some of my old workmates there. Duran, Joe and Eraldo and maybe others if they can make it. This could take us all round Camden and beyond if we really get stuck into it. But halfway through dinner with Chris we realise we’ve just piled on too much. It’s so cool to see him again and we have a good laugh about the disastrous car journey to Ireland which definitely was not funny at the time. Neither for him or us. Iza’s in today and it’s great to see her too but she’s too busy to be too sociable. Moni’s kind of around, but again also busy. Hey, it’s Saturday night.
By the time we’re heading off to meet our guys after saying goodbye to Chris we’re just about hanging on and I’m starting to feel guilty about this. I know they’ve set themselves up for a big night and I know there’s no way we’re able for it. I was hoping to meet up in Aces And Eights, just by Tufnel Park station, then head into Camden. But by the time Maja and I arrive we barely have it in ourselves to speak. We summon up enough energy to hang out with Duran, Joe, Eraldo and a few other guys, but we don’t even make it to a second hour. I’ve not felt this socially tired for a long long time, Maja’s totally feeling it too, and we have to very regretfully bale before the night is even close to getting going. Back to Alex’s and we join him in watching a movie. Ten minutes in and I’m asleep on the sofa. A big fat miss of a night and not at all what my old work friends were thinking off. Really sorry guys.
Day nine
Sunday September 26
After last night’s failure we have success today as we head out early and achieve what we came to London to achieve. The car gets sold. The wonderful seven seater Mazda that we bought in London and moved to Ireland with has now returned to London where it will stay. We’re back at Alex’s by 10:30am and have vague plans to rehearse and record, but oh, that just isn’t happening. As we go through today, things get cancelled and chucked off our list. We were hoping to do The Blues Kitchen tonight and have Maja play. But for that she needed to practice a little during the week and maybe get a few pointers from me and that just hasn’t happened. We also are just so tired and way past trying to do anything really. We’ve been meaning to go the comedy club in the bar we’re staying in, but it’s clear we’re not up for that either. Instead, we settle for having a late Sunday roast in the bar here and stay here and hang out with the off duty and coming off duty bar staff instead.
Day ten
Monday September 27
Last London day today and it’s Monday and we’re still kind of in recovery mode so we really don’t try to do much. A little look and hang out in a bar or two around the wonderful Angel area we’re in the middle of, then back to the bar and a wonderful hang out with Alex and the bar staff. Then up to his apartment for a few more drinks and fun, and where he has one more surprise. He wants us to have one of his really good studio microphones. This will become the microphone we use for our podcasts. The fantastically chilled atmosphere up here with some of the guys we’ve been hanging out with during the week is a great way to end our London trip.
Day 11
Tuesday September 28
Maja’s off to Sweden today and I head off to the airport with her. It’s a very emotional goodbye as she heads into the terminal. Tonight, and then tomorrow, will be our first time apart since the day we met – February 19, just over seven months ago. Now I’ll be heading back to Ireland to be on my own in our house for the first time.
Day 20
Thursday October 7
This week has been me recovering from London, catching up on Diary writing and getting to know the studio a little bit more and practicing with some guitar tracks to be a bit more ready for recording when Maja’s Sweden visit is over. The main thing here is that we have plans to hopefully get a strong demo recording of I Like You (Better When You’re Naked).
And today Maja says her trip will end on Monday. Her flight will leave at 8:15 Sweden time, so 7:15 Mark time. My train from Clara to Dublin leaves at 7:14am. Which means that her plane will be taking off the same time as my train leaves.
So we plan to meet in Dublin, maybe have a few early pints in Templebar, and then a gentle journey home. It’s fair to say we don’t plan to be very productive that day.
