White Pearl

The van, “The White Pearl”, RIP. We had to get our stuff from our beloved van that shall no longer transport us. She got shipped back from Zurich where she had a breakdown a few km out side the city center. Her insides are bust and far to expensive for us to keep paying for. She’ll be sold. Thanks for taking us all around Europe. I think she wanted to really retire in the mountains of Switzerland. Our wuppie was still on board. 4 years it rode on top through countless thousand km’s. I pulled it off and it was a hard ball of foam. The green hostage on the trailer hitch was left. He has been hitching a ride for the past year and a half and I think he wants to continue for a while.

Photo by Sely Friday 2009

Powerless

Early drive to Zurich. Stoked to be playing in Zurich tonight. Everyone was pretty wacked form the night before but still super super eager to be playing in Switzerland this evening. While driving on the Zurich ring highway two exits to go…   the van died. Motor would run but the conversion of power to the wheels made some freaky sounds. No Power. We sat and waited for the local rescue service to show up. The police arrived first seeing as we we kind of in the middle of the highway, sitting still. The rescue service towed us to the Mercedes Benz garage, which by 16.15 was closed until Monday morning. So we waited for our Dutch road service people to arrange and figure out what would happen.  In the meantime we were trying to figure out how to get ourselves and our backline gear to the venue a mere 5km away in the city center. All the van rental places were already closed until Sunday or Monday. By 5pm we found out that the venue had a van but it was being used as a shuttle for other artists so also a no go. Friends of friends of friends had a van but by this time we would not have been able to make the venue on time as it was an early show…. FUCK. We meandered around the corner to a hotel and checked in.  The White Pearl (our van) was going to be flatbed trucked back to the Netherlands. Our road service had arranged for us to fly back to Amsterdam Sunday morning.

Pictures by Sely Friday 2009

Munich

59:1 Club in Munich has a great stage that protrudes out into the venue so as a spectator you can actually watch bands from behind them almost. Anyway, the stage is also pretty damn small if there is already a full band’s backline including a huge harp and various other percussion instruments that have to remain where they are. We got ourselves fitted on to the stage after a long wait in the afternoon. We could only have vocals, piano and a sax go on the PA so it was old school rock and roll – with just the amps and drums blasting full out. Had a great show even though I could not move my feet 5 cm in any direction. Afterwards we packed up in the cold cold hallway outside – thankfully not out in the street because it was snowing. Didn’t stick around to long even though we had a day off the next day.

Pictures by Sely Friday 2009

Getting Lost and Getting To Vienna

Tuesday

We had an address to stay for Tuesday night east of Prague, all arranged and everything. We found out later at 1am that there was another town under the same name about 2 hours drive back away from Vienna. We’d also left a little late so couldn’t really look for a house in the pitch black dark. Weirdest thing was that parts of the directions we had received to get to the house we right!? Left at the church, left bend up a small hill, right turn and past the telephone cell. We lost it there because we couldn’t find (or see anything in the dark). Did find a house that did kind of look like the one we need to get to, and it had the same number but a huge dog came running up towards Martijn and I when we started opening the gate….. Eventually at the local (closed) bar we found out we were in the wrong town. We just said fuck it and drove towards Vienna and eventually found a hotel outside of Jihlava (I think).

Wednesday

It was snowing fiercely when we started driving towards Vienna. About an hour from Vienna we got a call from the venue that we might not be able to play because the stage was too small and Florence and the Machine couldn’t move any of there gear for us (there was no space for that). So spending two days driving to Vienna we finally got to the venue anyway and checked things out for ourselves. Not that much space but we still got things sorted somehow on stage. I stood behind a harp, effects board and computer rig. Joppe was off in a corner. It was a great show though. Great reactions.

Pictures by Sely Friday 2009