Me, Ichi, Rozi Plain, This is the Kit have been swirling about playing in the south of England on the Bite the Mountain Tour to mark the release of my new album, and to have fun hanging out and playing together again. I've been having such a lovely time with tooting brass, percussion and steelpan on my songs by all the pals above plus Kano on saxaphone and Andy Skellam on guitar. All has been super dooper but if I had to say what sticks out then the highlights sofar have been The album launch part 1 - King's Head in Crouch End, where the whole of Tristram added parts without even needing much of a rehearsal, and Ichi's set at Cafe Oto was tip top, he pulled out suprises even for me (and I've seen him 100's of times) - it was the perfect antidote to my nerves.
Now just over the halfway mark, off to Oxford in a few hours with Wig Smith to play at Modern Art Oxford and Truck festival.
Here's our tour so far in a few pictures
Before we set of to play shows Ichi was busy building new instruments in the attic, including new and improved stilts that double up as double bass
Meanwhile I was nervously unwrapping and listening to my album that plopped onto the doormat
Me, Ichi, This is the Kit, Rozi Plain and Whalebone Polly all had sets at the cosy Watts Festival in beautiful Devon
bed of bails
haybail fun
The arrival of Andy Skellam, preparing to drive into deeper Devon
After Watts festival we met up and camped for a night with the bicycle tour gang led by Jesse Morningstar. Most of the gang were from France in a band who's name I can't remember at the moment, but who I loved. A shame we couldn't manage it this year but determined to join them on bikes next year, toot toot, pip pip
We camped on Sean's (ex Moonflowers) farm in Seaton, and were treated to his salad leaves and hedgerow delights, thank you Sean
Ichi at Miss Peapods, Falmouth
Me and Kate of This is the Kit, Miss Peapods
Kano's drawing at the Cube, Bristol
side of the stage, The Cube, drawing to raise donations for the Tsunami appeal
The Cube
Ichi's set at cafe Oto, one of my highlights
dad's cake decorated by me, sister Betsy and Ichi
In April we planted Japanese gobo seeds in my mum's veg patch and low and behold they grew big and strong
and delicious
