Frank Turner's Latvian Tour Diary! Day 2...
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Frank Turner
Frank Turner released his second album this morning. It's Monday 31st March 2008, and 'Love Ire And Song' is out, so if you haven't already stopped by your local record emporium, then see that you do!
To celebrate, have a read of day 2 of Frank Turner Does Latvia! If you missed day 1 of his Eastern European adventure, then you can check it out here.
Otherwise, read on...
FRIDAY
Day two of the mayhem began with an evaluation of the night before, an evalutation that could not fail to take into account the bin full of sick next to Ben's bed. I disclaim all responsibility for that one... On the plus side, it did mean we got up and out of our room pretty sharpish, in time to meet Lauris and pals for a painful breakfast, consisting for the most part of esoteric sandwiches, cold coffee, yoghurt and pain. We also realized that the couple we'd been comically running away from at the end of part 1 had actually stayed in the same hotel as us, so we were sheepish in our morning greetings, before we ran off (again).
After a brief sojourn at the bus station, our return journey to Riga was sadly a mormon-free event, and consisted mostly of sleeping and attempts at recovery. We did en route figure out an addition for our Latvian vocabularly (the phrase book having been lost the night before, dammit). An arcane Million Dead injoke about "a right cable cutter" (origin: an arsehole local sound-guy having a go at the wheels on one of our amps, became stuff of legend in that band) was translated into "Riktigs Vadu Griezejs!" Quite a lot of the rest of the trip consisted of us springing this on unsuspecting Latvians at opportune moments, and them generally thinking we were batfuck insane.
We arrived back into the capital in the early afternoon. The show for the evening was the 1st Birthday Party of Veto Magazine, a big show in a club called Sapnu Fabrika. We were expecting everyone to be a lot more panicked than they were, but for the most part people were pretty chilled out when we arrived for soundcheck. For this show, Ben and I played together, which marked our first time on stage together since 23rd September 2005 and the last MD show. Soundcheck was fine, and then we were reunited with an old friend, Atis, who drove us into town in his utterly amazing car to get some food (from I Love Bar, the venue for the last show of the mini-tour and scene of future humiliation).
On our return the evening kicked off properly. There were just over 1000 people at the show. One of the things that amazes me about going out to the Baltic states is how enthusiastic and appreciative audiences can be. A lot of people there had trouble believing my protests that in London I'll play to 300 people. After hiding the bottle of whisky that was our rider, we hit the stage for about 11pm. The show went well, the crowd clapped at the end of the songs, all was well, and it was a real pleasure to play with Ben again - after all, we were in bands together since we were 10 years old. Many a soppy old punk tear was shed.
Afterwards, we were reintroduced to some other old stalwarts, namely Edgars (who first got me to Latvia) and the infamous Karlis Bourvinch. Karlis I met for the first time in 2006, and he has yet to cease amazing me. Pathologically alcoholic but secretly sharp as a knife, his pronouncements on life, the universe and everything (once he gets going) are unmissable. On our first meeting he told me about his favourite English king, shooting gypsies, supporting Rangers and trampolines - all in about 5 minutes. His arrival, co-inciding as it did with Ainars (from Veto Magazine) challenging us to a drinking contest, spelled trouble. Trouble for me at any rate - Ben seemed to be on a sober evening, so he spent most of the rest of the night tirelessly shepherding me through the chaos, the dear. The chaos consisted of the hidden bottle of whisky, followed by weird chipmunk people, trumpet solos, attempts by me to rush the stage during another band's set (apparently), getting lost in the drum and bass room, drinking Black Balsams (national drink, insanely strong herbal liqueur) and so on. The night wrapped up nicely when Ben discovered that the girl I was talking to at that moment was only 17, whereupon he decided it was time for us to go.
Thankfully Ben remembered the way back to Andzs' flat, so our stagger was well-directioned. On arrival back at the ranch, my homing device had kicked in and I was on a one-way mission to horizontal-ville. However, this did involve me resolutely getting undressed for bed in the wrong room of the flat, before going to sleep in the right one. This left tireless Ben to move all my shit around, before he lulled himself to sleep by taking photos of me unconscious. Bastard. Little did he know that soon enough revenge would be mine...
Keep an eye out for day 3, coming soon!
Frank Turner
Frank Turner Official Site
Frank Turner Myspace
Buy Frank Turner CDs | Buy Frank Turner mp3s | Buy Frank Turner Tickets | Buy Frank Turner Merch
Frank Turner released his second album this morning. It's Monday 31st March 2008, and 'Love Ire And Song' is out, so if you haven't already stopped by your local record emporium, then see that you do!
To celebrate, have a read of day 2 of Frank Turner Does Latvia! If you missed day 1 of his Eastern European adventure, then you can check it out here.
Otherwise, read on...
FRIDAY
Day two of the mayhem began with an evaluation of the night before, an evalutation that could not fail to take into account the bin full of sick next to Ben's bed. I disclaim all responsibility for that one... On the plus side, it did mean we got up and out of our room pretty sharpish, in time to meet Lauris and pals for a painful breakfast, consisting for the most part of esoteric sandwiches, cold coffee, yoghurt and pain. We also realized that the couple we'd been comically running away from at the end of part 1 had actually stayed in the same hotel as us, so we were sheepish in our morning greetings, before we ran off (again).
After a brief sojourn at the bus station, our return journey to Riga was sadly a mormon-free event, and consisted mostly of sleeping and attempts at recovery. We did en route figure out an addition for our Latvian vocabularly (the phrase book having been lost the night before, dammit). An arcane Million Dead injoke about "a right cable cutter" (origin: an arsehole local sound-guy having a go at the wheels on one of our amps, became stuff of legend in that band) was translated into "Riktigs Vadu Griezejs!" Quite a lot of the rest of the trip consisted of us springing this on unsuspecting Latvians at opportune moments, and them generally thinking we were batfuck insane.
We arrived back into the capital in the early afternoon. The show for the evening was the 1st Birthday Party of Veto Magazine, a big show in a club called Sapnu Fabrika. We were expecting everyone to be a lot more panicked than they were, but for the most part people were pretty chilled out when we arrived for soundcheck. For this show, Ben and I played together, which marked our first time on stage together since 23rd September 2005 and the last MD show. Soundcheck was fine, and then we were reunited with an old friend, Atis, who drove us into town in his utterly amazing car to get some food (from I Love Bar, the venue for the last show of the mini-tour and scene of future humiliation).
On our return the evening kicked off properly. There were just over 1000 people at the show. One of the things that amazes me about going out to the Baltic states is how enthusiastic and appreciative audiences can be. A lot of people there had trouble believing my protests that in London I'll play to 300 people. After hiding the bottle of whisky that was our rider, we hit the stage for about 11pm. The show went well, the crowd clapped at the end of the songs, all was well, and it was a real pleasure to play with Ben again - after all, we were in bands together since we were 10 years old. Many a soppy old punk tear was shed.
Afterwards, we were reintroduced to some other old stalwarts, namely Edgars (who first got me to Latvia) and the infamous Karlis Bourvinch. Karlis I met for the first time in 2006, and he has yet to cease amazing me. Pathologically alcoholic but secretly sharp as a knife, his pronouncements on life, the universe and everything (once he gets going) are unmissable. On our first meeting he told me about his favourite English king, shooting gypsies, supporting Rangers and trampolines - all in about 5 minutes. His arrival, co-inciding as it did with Ainars (from Veto Magazine) challenging us to a drinking contest, spelled trouble. Trouble for me at any rate - Ben seemed to be on a sober evening, so he spent most of the rest of the night tirelessly shepherding me through the chaos, the dear. The chaos consisted of the hidden bottle of whisky, followed by weird chipmunk people, trumpet solos, attempts by me to rush the stage during another band's set (apparently), getting lost in the drum and bass room, drinking Black Balsams (national drink, insanely strong herbal liqueur) and so on. The night wrapped up nicely when Ben discovered that the girl I was talking to at that moment was only 17, whereupon he decided it was time for us to go.
Thankfully Ben remembered the way back to Andzs' flat, so our stagger was well-directioned. On arrival back at the ranch, my homing device had kicked in and I was on a one-way mission to horizontal-ville. However, this did involve me resolutely getting undressed for bed in the wrong room of the flat, before going to sleep in the right one. This left tireless Ben to move all my shit around, before he lulled himself to sleep by taking photos of me unconscious. Bastard. Little did he know that soon enough revenge would be mine...
Keep an eye out for day 3, coming soon!
Frank Turner
Frank Turner Official Site
Frank Turner Myspace
Buy Frank Turner CDs | Buy Frank Turner mp3s | Buy Frank Turner Tickets | Buy Frank Turner Merch
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