Daintees Diaries Pt. 4
A quiet, empty stage, just before doors opened!
Been a bit of radio silence on the blog these past few weeks, I wish I had a good excuse but all I can say is that its been a busy old time! But a jaunt away with Martin and co of course warrants a new ‘Daintees Diaries’ post, so brief as this one is, here’s a few highlights from our trip over the water a few weeks back!
The commute to work on the runway
Having been rescheduled twice due to the pandemic that shall remain nameless, we were finally able to hop over the water to Belfast and play a much awaited gig at the Black Box. The weekend was something of a whirlwind, but a great one!
A 5am alarm is never a welcome one but when theres an adventure of a day ahead, I don’t seem to mind it quite as much! Picking up Gary and Adrian at the crack of dawn and heading up to the airport to fly over to Belfast. By the time we’d negotiated security and check in, there wasn’t even time for breakfast before hopping onboard and getting in the sky. A quick 35min hop and what will go down as the fastest I think i’ve ever been from plane to outside the airport (no passport control or baggage reclaim to worry about for us) in less than 5 minutes.
Met by our driver for the weekend and very able guide Michael, we were whisked from the airport into the city, including a tour around and talk about The Troubles, and to see some of the wall murals that commemorate those lost, and also the Milltown Cemetery. A hearty Ulster fry at Blinkers was a welcome start to the day for Gary, Adrian and I, and was followed by a wander round the bustling city centre (particularly so considering there was the Centennial parade taking place, and some little band called Queen happened to be playing the city’s arena that weekend! We did as all good musicians do though, and found a music store to peruse, very nice Lowden guitars in Gary’s case, and a rather tempting range of drums for me to look at and drool over! Duly followed by a rather good cappuccino outside a pub near to the venue, the weather was warm enough to not be drawn indoors, and to enjoy our coffees al fresco!
From coffee into the venue to meet Martin and Anna, who’d flown in from Scotland later in the day (via a quick nap I must confess - it was an early morning!), I set up the backline kit (more on that below!) and we had a line check and soundcheck, followed of course by pre-gig nourishment in the form of some superb rotisserie chicken that was ordered in for the band in the dressing room. A few phone calls and stories to pass the time until it was time to get our shirts on and go to work! As always with Martin’s shows, its all about the audience, and boy was it an audience! Receptive and listening to every song and anecdote and demanding an encore after the last tune of the night, how could we refuse?! The gig itself for me is always a blur afterwards, you never know what is coming next or which avenue Martin may lead us down, all part of the greatness! But highlights of this particular one for me was a supremely funky version of ‘Wholly Humble Heart’, which for Adrian and I is always a favourite to dig into, the grooving Anti-Thatcher number ‘Left Us To Burn‘ which I always love playing, a great brush shuffle feel, but without sounding like a train beat - an interesting one to try and explain in any detail here! Finishing the evening was ‘Boat to Bolivia’, with its shuffle reggae feel which ticks along nicely with that constant unpredictability of what section may come next (Who needs arrangements when you can follow Martin’s lead?!).
No sooner had we come off stage, we were away in our cabs to a hotel out in Carrickfergus. Time to relax a little in my room and enjoy a cup of tea (now that is rock n roll!) and settle in for the night, knowing another early start would be upon us to get back to the airport for our return flight.
A beautiful backline kit…
Talking Drums…
The backline drum wise was all brought in so none of my usual gear! (All I brought was a stick bag and drum key, compact!) But a lovely Ludwig kit and Black Magic brass snare, and out of the range sent, I selected a strange but wonderful combination of cymbals - 15” Zildjian A Custom hi hats, a first for me gigging 15’s, meaty and a work out for my left foot! On my left is an 18” K Crash Ride which was a lovely crash, and nice in the lighter brush tunes. On the right is an 18” K Hybrid crash, but for me a great ride. Pretty dull and clangy, nice bell and definition and somewhat reminiscent of my 18” K Custom Session so felt quite at home. A great example of a cymbal not exactly doing what it says on the stamp. I hardly touched the tuning of any drums, just the snare, to get it to a nice mid range tone, everything else sounded wonderful right out of the case. Huge thanks to Belfast Backline for providing everything, and making my life a breeze!
The view just outside the hotel in Carrickfergus, what a place!
Another early rise and another plane to catch, no sooner had we arrived in Belfast we were on our way through the airport once again to head back homewards! A brief but wonderful trip over the water, and a city I’ll almost certainly have to come back to in the near future (so much we didn’t get chance to see or do!) and of course it’d be great to visit the Titanic Museum at some point too which i’m sure is quite the experience.
Another quick 40 minute flight and we were back on home soil, and in my case back in time for a Sunday roast and the Monaco Formula 1 race, now isn’t that the life!
Goodbye Belfast…