Well, that's maybe not quite so true.
Truthfully, the week I arrived back from my holiday was possibly one of the busiest I've had all year! After I arrived back at home, I had about two hours to chill out and get back to normal before it was back to band business. Having auditioned several drummers for the new band a couple of weeks earlier, we'd arranged a second audition for one of the guys we liked best for 7pm the day I arrived home. Thankfully, everything went beautifully and we now have a full line-up again! I think we made the consensus after three songs, in fact.
Now, for those who don't know what the transport system here in London is like, let me paint a picture. We have cabs (black cabs and mini-cabs), buses (those brilliant red double-deckers you see on telly) and we have trains: in particular, overlanders and the Tube. I'm simplifying a little, but that's generally all of it.
London is, as you'd expect, massive, so you really need to take best advantage of the available transport to get around efficiently. It can also be quite expensive: cabs are the priciest, followed by the trains then the buses.
For now, I'm going to bitch about the Tube.
Basically, the Tube sucks. Forgive me for unleashing my imagination, but when I arrived I'd imagined one of the largest and powerful cities in the world would be able to manage a reliable underground train system - apparently not. Silly me.
It's not bad enough that it's stinking hot (oh, and stinking) in the carriages and platforms. It's not bad enough that they break down incessantly. No, my biggest complaint is that they stop running just after midnight! If you want to do anything in this city, you're effectively curfewed by the fact that it's nigh on impossible to get home once the Tube stops running.
Okay, it is possible, but as I said this is a rant about the Tube - don't get me started on the buses.
Now, why did I start this little diatribe about the public transport system? Well, there's a specific reason: on Sunday nights, most of the Tube lines seem to stop earlier than usual. As it was a Sunday night, I was faced with the very strong possibility that I wasn't going to make it home at a reasonable hour (as we finished rehearsing at 11pm). As it was, I had to rush hurriedly to the station - only to wait around ages for a train, then find my connecting train wasn't running any more.
Two buses later, I eventually made it home around 1am.
Back to work the next day, I was understandably tired. Of course, no rest for the wicked - the next night was a sugarsmoke rehearsal as we had a gig that week, not to mention a recording session on the weekend. I'm pretty lucky with this band that our singer happens to live five minutes walk from me, so each night we catch a cab home and I'm usually in bed by midnight.
Unbelievably, I had Tuesday night off.
Wednesday, however, was another gig - that's right, on a school night. This time we were on at 10.30pm, but, unlike the last gig where we spent most of our time trying not to be bored, we had plenty of time to grab a nice meal and catch a couple of the bands on before us. This was easily our best gig, we had a pretty sizeable crowd and we played really well - was very pleased with how it went.
Thursday was another night off.
Friday night, on the other hand, was party time! The singer in my new band was having a house warming party and I was invited along, so down to Brixton I went. Unusually for a party such as this, we were all being herded out around 9.30pm to head up to a local club in order to see a band - a Belgian group called Das Pop. They were fantastic too, was really glad we went to see them! I also met the guy I replaced in the band which was, err, interesting. By this point, I was completely and utterly knackered so I made my goodbyes and headed home. Again, two buses later and I was in bed at 3.30am.
Before I went to bed, however, I made a point to set my alarm for 8am as I had to be at the recording studio at 11am and I wanted to be there promptly. Somehow, and I'm not pointing any fingers, but somehow my alarm didn't go off. In fact, when I eventually woke up I was surprised that it was so light before 8am... it wasn't until I put my glasses on that I realised, oh shit, it's 10am. I quickly called Abigail to apologise that I was going to be late, then ran off to one of the fastest showers I've ever had in my life. I then grabbed my bass and ran out the door to brave the public transport.
Okay, now remember my little tirade earlier? Take a guess what happened.
Actually, this day was probably the only time I've had any luck with regards to the public transport! I live about 10-15 minutes walk from my closest Tube station, but as luck would have it a bus arrived just as I passed the closest bus stop, getting me to the station in minutes. The second I stepped on the platform a train arrived. I had to make two connecting trains, and both arrived as soon as I arrived - I couldn't believe it, I was going to make it to the studio on time! I eventually made it to my station with one last bus to catch... and just as I was marveling that my usual hour journey was going to take me only 40 minutes, I walked out in to the air to see my bus drive off.
Yes, there were expletives.
Still, it was only a 10-15 minute walk left and I arrived at my destination only 10 minutes late. But that's okay, as our engineer hadn't arrived yet so things worked out okay in the end.
Recording itself was an interesting experience. As we only had a few hours to get everything done, it was decided to record each track live to save us time. It became quite hectic at times, but in the end we walked out with a CD with three new recordings.
Not content with working myself stupid all week, I decided a bit more punishment was in order - so I caught up with Lee and Margaret to see the new edition of Blade Runner at the movies!
Can you guess what I did on Sunday? If you guessed sleep, you are absolutely correct!
With that disgustingly busy week out of the way, there's only been a few other highlights to talk about. More rehearsals, of course. The Young Gods were touring the UK again in early December, so I went to see them again - and now I'm very pleased to say I've now seen them do Moon Revolutions and Summer Eyes live! I was very seriously considering going to see them again the following night in Brighton, having figured out I could make it there and back on the train - but in the end I thought it best to save my money.
The next big event was a sad one: Jon, sugarsmoke's lead guitarist, had decided to head back home to Australia and we were playing one last gig with him at his big farewell party. The venue was tiny and it wasn't anywhere near as well organised as our previous gigs, but it was a fun way to say goodbye. Now it looks like we're on hiatus for a few months until we find a new guitarist.
Which brings me to this week just gone. Yet another one of my favourite bands from the '90s had reformed, this time it was EMF. You know at least one of their songs (Unbelievable), but they've done more (and better, imho) since then. Sadly, their original bassist died several years ago, but his replacement tonight was in the form of Richard March, formerly of Pop Will Eat Itself. Amazingly, when we were at the venue he walked in the door near me and he actually recognised me! (Remember a few months ago I met PWEI in Stourbridge? How cool is that!)
Finally, there was another small gig I went to on Friday night - this time, in Wolverhampton. Yet again, I travel to the Midlands to see a band - this is the third time! Rather than rush myself too much, I took the day off work so I could leisurely make my way there. Well, when I say leisurely I mean I took a coach, which was packed full of people, noisy and hot (thanks to a faulty air conditioner). But that didn't matter, because I was going to see the mighty Ned's Atomic Dustbin once more!
Like the EMF gig, I was meeting up with a bunch of people I've met on various message boards on the web, so after checking into my hotel I headed off to the meeting point and met them all - loads of new people, a few I already knew. After hopping from bar to bar for a while, we finally made it to the venue, at which point I grabbed hold of the railing at the front and refused to leave. I managed to stay there the entire show too, although my poor ribs and knees (and face!) are now facing the consequences. But I don't care, I had such a brilliant time I feel it was well worth it!
The bus ride home the next day, however, was even less pleasant than the ride up. The air conditioning may have been working, but I start to get annoyed when a journey that's supposed to last less than four hours winds up taking more than five. Maybe it's just me?
Any way, that's me pretty much bang up to date now.
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