25/01/10 8:30AM
Last week saw us play our first two headline shows in Australia in almost a year. There was a little nervous tension between us leading up to the shows, these where going to be some of the largest headline shows that we had ever done.
The first took place at the Enmore in Sydney, which I guess is the Australian equivalent to the Brixton academy. We had done a few support slots there in the past but It was a completely different experience having the place filled with people just to see you.
We had just come off the back of a great couple of Festival shows where we had played to the biggest crowds in our careers so Spirits where high. We had a little scare with Dougy’s voice prior to the shows, it was looking like he was going to loose his voice entirely, which would have been the first time in our hectic schedule. However he managed a super human effort to pull through for the show.
CHECK OUT THE PICS HERE
So we are back in the Land of Oz after an amazing year of touring and seeing the world. We travelled to around 30 countries and played to some of the biggest and most appreciative crowds that we have ever played to.
But now we are back in our home country and it is good to be back amongst our friends and families. We got back just in time for Christmas after a hairy couple of days in Belgium and the Netherlands. It was snowing like crazy and most of the transport was down.
Since we have been back we have played 3 shows to better than expected crowds. It is true what the say about distance makes the heart grow fonder. The crowds in Australia have been awesome and have totally blown us away.
WE played at the falls festivals in Lorne and Marion Bay, in two very different weather conditions. The first day in Lorne was blisteringly hot at about 36 degrees centigrade. During our show it was so hot that they where hosing down the crowd which made for a great spectacle.
Marion bay on the other hand was a little touch and go with the weather not quite deciding what it wanted to do. By the time we played it was perfect conditions with a little side wind which, made Jonny and myself look like we where in a 80’s video clip. Dougie had been struggling with his voice, I mean after a year with virtually no brake it was of little surprise but he pulled through with a super human effort and one of our best shows in a long time.
We are now in Queensland about to play at sunset sounds, the venue is amazing situated in the Brisbane Botanical gardens, but the catering is a little to be desired.
Hope you have all had a great festive season and we the Temper Trap hope that you have a great 2010.
Peace out.
28/12/09 11:29AM
So we are back on our own European tour again, seems kind of weird after spending the last week on a massive production like Florence, but its great to have a full sound check.
But we have changed, for the first time in our career we have a tour bus. That’s right a big 14 bad tour bus. Apart from being possibly one of the coolest things to happen to us this year it feels a little strange, I still think that we should be struggling for legroom in the back of a splitter. We left the winter wonderland show on Wednesday night and woke up somewhere in Belgium surrounded by masses of snow. It was amazing I haven’t seen snow like that since I was a kid.
WE played a show Last night in the oldest town in the Netherlands called Nijmegan. The Netherland is the home of the bike rider but you would think that being in a small blizzard they might start driving. No they still ride around as if it is the middle of summer. Mad!
Unfortunately due to the heavy amounts of snow the Joy Formidable missed their gig, which would have been a little strange for the crowd. But they are so amazing that they came to the venue anyway and helped us with rider…
The first leg of this tour was probably one of the hardest legs we have done in a long time possibly of the year. It involved three 4am starts and a few rocky plane rides.
We left Fribourg at around 3.30am and had to drive around an hour to get to the airport. This was probably the hardest for Dom our guitar tech, the pour bastard was driving.
We find great pleasure in ribbing Campbell our Scottish TM about being Irish. And the moment we set forth on his homeland this was heightened. This was only made worse buy the Man with incredible chat that was to be driving us around for the next two days.
It was a little strange moving from our own tour to being a support slot. Florence has exploded of the last year and this was the culmination of that. The amount of production that she has now is amazing. She even had her own bodyguard. Weird.
Lets start with catering, you know you are going to be in for a good time when there is catering on a tour, and if you have read any of the past blogs you would know that we are connoisseurs in this department. The catering was so good that we got told after the first day that we could only have Dinner as we cost them too much money on the first day. Fat bastards.
The Irish shows where amazing, they where in really nice venues and the responses to our performances where out of site. It was a total surprise. We had only visited the land of the blarney stone once and to get a reception like that was amazing. However during Science of Fear in Dublin, Dougy was getting the crowd involved and climbing on the monitors, on his way back to stage he unfortunately got in Jonny’s way and copped the Bass head clean in the face. It actually split his septum. He came off stage all bloodied. I had absolutely no idea what had happened. Hospital trip was needed.
WE also played on Irish television, but in complete Irish fashion they had to record it in a tiny town on the most wester point of the country. It was shot in a small church and which held only 60 odd people.
This was the true Ireland, you could smell the whiskey and Potato famine in the air and if you stopped to talk to someone in the street you be standing there for hours freezing whilst they told you some crack. Glasgow was as usual dark the venue was placed right next door to possibly the most dangerous estate in the UK. So we pretty much played and high tailed it out of there.
The Broxton shows where the highlight. It is one of London’s premier venues, and has an amazing vibe. It a Forum on steroids!
Again we played some good shows with great reactions but all the hype has to go to Florence. She went all out for these shows. There was choir and a small string section and exploding cannons of confetti. All of her performances where flawless apart from one song where she had a coughing fit in the middle of the song, but was actually quite charming. Listen to me I sound like a knob.
Anyway if you ever get the chance to see her play do it, you will not be disappointed.
07/12/09 11:20AM
ARIAs
So last week saw us taking a detour from our scheduled European dates to go and join the Glitz and Glamour that is the pinnacle of the Australian Music Industry. ARIA.
It was a bit of a fish out of water moment for myself hitting the red carpet all dolled up and ready for the lime light. It has been a long year of travelling in the back of tour vans, loading in and out of venues and meandering between countries with very little cultural excursion. And to be thrust into a situation like that off the back of some very small Spanish shows was a little strange to say the least. On the other hand it was also a great moment in Temper trap history as we where heading back to our home land, with a bag of recognition from our peers.
The flight was one of the easiest we have had over the past year, made even easier by the upgrade to Premium Economy for the long haul flight. Thanks to Liberation it was well worth it and probably a bad thing as now we are all economy snobs.. We had a day off and then straight into the thick of it with Acoustic sessions and promo. We played an acoustic session on Triple M which for those of you outside of Australia is the biggest rock station in the country and probably one of the stations we thought we would never crack. The two shows where hosted by some of Australia's premier Celebs in the from of Eddie (the face) Mcguire and Stu (I got lost) Magill. It was quite funny during the Sydney acoustic session Stu Magill, Australia's second spin bowler after Shane (Advanced Hair) Warne was coming down to the studio to watch us play but got conveniently lost on the way and managed to gather himself a fresh squeezed juice.. we where a little disappointed he didn't share it with us.
So after some much needed sleep and a catch up with our loved ones who made the effort to come the event we headed to the ceremony. Now not wanting to be to critical of our awards show but the main highlight of the night for many was the appearance of Robbie (Boy wonder) Williams. Anyway, I guess I'm a little jaded because he made our stay on the red carpet much longer than it should have been and it would not have been so bad had it not been 39,000 degrees. This resulted in an intimate date with the bathroom dryer to get rid of some of the worst sweat marks I've ever had.. Not attractive..
So the night went for about 5 hours so in an attempt not to bore you all I'll condense the nights events into highlights.
1. Jessica Mauboy only winning one Aria.
2. Ladyhawk winning best breakthrough single and Album and seeing the disappointment in MG'S eyes followed by an inspirational pow wow
3. Watching The Steel from Empire on the sun taking away all the major awards and giving the world some of the greatest speeches at an awards ceremony. Seriously check them out they are hilarious.
4. Performing Sweet disposition to Australia and getting through it unscathed. 5. After party madness...
The trip to Australia was definitely a good one it has meant that we now have sold out both our Australian shows and gave the Album a boost. Yeee haaa!
Look forward to going back for christmas and and new year...
Even though we’ve travelled to the States on a few occasions to play shows, this time round felt like it was our first real tour. We were in the country for around three weeks and it was the first real test of stamina against the greatest American threat; the Fast Food outlet. We started the tour in La La Land after a week in Japan, which is now cemented as one of our favourite places in the world. It was great coming in form Japan as we had just been through a typhoon, so it was very wet and getting to LA was a dream as it was so hot and sunny.
Our first port of call was a Live to Air session on AOL, which was a full band 4 track session. As fun as these things may seem they can be a little nerve racking. It’s like going into the studio again but with even less time. You really need to be on your game so that it doesn’t take all day, which sometimes can be a little harder than others. The other thing is that you’ve got to look good as well which when you have been living out of a small suitcase for a week can sometimes be hard especially if most of your clothes are dirty.
One of the main reasons we flew into LA first was that we had a date with Jimmy Kimmel, who for those of you that don’t know him is a late night talk show host, in the vein of Dave Letterman. This was our first time performing on live television not only in America but anywhere so it was really exciting. Almost to the point that my excitement meter failed! Anyway we performed two songs Sweet Disposition and Love lost. The crowd reaction was really good considering they where being told when to applaud and cheer. The next night was our first official gig of the tour at the Roxy. This was probably the best show that we had played in LA out of the three times before it. The first time we played we had to wait on the street with our gear outside the Viper room for three hours.
Right before the show we did an interview with an Australian Music Icon named Molly Meldrom. It was a little surreal for us as we all had grown up watching his segments on Hey Hey its Saturday and even our parents to an extent grew up watching his Count Down. Anyway he had just come off a long flight from OZ and was very relaxed so the interview went well even though at times it was difficult to decipher what he was actually asking.
After the show we went and had some beers at the Rainbow, which is one of those Hollywood institutions. It has this amazing roaming statue that comes in and plays pokies most nights of the week named Lemmy. Really weird! So from LA we headed up to San Francisco home of Alcatraz, Golden gate bridge, Gay rights and the hippy movement. Driving into San fran is amazing. It has its own climate, which produces a lot of mist so when you drive in half of the bay and city are covered and it looks a bit eerie. Campbell and I where having an argument over which Alcatraz film was the best he was saying that escape from Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood, but clearly it has to be the Rock with Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery. How can a Scotsman go against his own kind. Really!
Frisco is also what I like to call the Homeless Mecca it’s a place where homeless people have as many and sometimes more possessions as regular humans and also can lay in the sun and feel free in thought that they’re never going to freeze their poor asses off.
From there the road show went to Seattle and then Chicago. Now there is a lot to say about these cities they are both great and we played to great audiences but we didn’t spend that much time in either so I could bore you for days or I could get onto the cool shit in New York. Lets do that shall we.
We arrived into New York From a short Sojourn into Canada. The whole purpose for the flight was to come back for a Spin Magazine party and some Question and answer for our label. The question and answer was interesting, we were doing it with a band, which we love in Mumford and Sons. These guys can be Cheeky little pricks and they where heckling us from the back of this restaurants whilst stuffing their faces with Pizza. Now I thought that given we give each other so much shit that being able to rib them would be quite easy. Nothing worked the bastards had comebacks and other little anecdotes that we couldn’t compete with. We played about Five shows in New York for CMJ and it was a little like SXSW in the fact that you have little time and so much to do. We played a great show at Williamsburg Music Hall with Golden Silvers, Goldhawks, and Mumford. This was great as we had just finished a tour with Goldhawks who are great people and Mumford whom I told you about before. Watching Mumford was really inspiring , and was probably the best set I have seen in a long time. It was actually funny because I spotted Johnny standing on the side of stage watching them so I decided to go and join him. And when I got there he was frantically working as Marcus’s Guitar tech tuning his guitars between songs. Some turnings Johnny didn’t now so Marcus would yell them out as he’d pass the guitars over. It was quite an amusing scence.
The Next Night we played at the Bowery Ballroom, which is another one of those venues that you have heard legendary thing go down in. I think that the Clash played like 15 straight shows there in the 80’s. I could be wrong. Anyway we rock up and there was like 8 bands playing on the night and as always seems to happen. It wouldn’t be a music conference or New York if there wasn’t a little bit of Drama and lots of people telling each other off. That’s the Beauty of New York. You can call some one a Slime ball or a Jerk off to their face and the people are totally unphased about it. In fact they’ll except it and then get on with their days.
The show that night was short and sweet but was a good way to finish a hectic week. The next day was day off which was awesome, managed to get some present shopping in and also take a look around the big Apple. Saw Kip from TV on the radio in a Guitar shop which was special.
So the American trip was a success but also one of the hardest tours I have been on all year. It’s going to be interesting going on a 7-week trip next year. The battle of the bludge and Fast food chain will continue..
CHECK OUT THE PICS HERE
so our first proper American tour. I’ve been here a few times before with and without the band, and every time I think I’ve got my head around the States I get surprised. It’s been a good trip. Lot’s of driving. boring! one of the random highlights was when I got to meet Jack Black at the Jimmy Kimmel show. he was just as funny in real life. also got to meet Molly Meldrum. he came over from Australia to interview us, he’s a character. he confused me a little with his questions. anyways I hope I wasn’t too vague. We’re at sound check now. playing tonight in New York. I can’t remember the name of the venue. It’s becoming a bit like that tho. We’re here coz of CMJ which is a music showcasing deal. So we’re playing in front of lots of industry cats. very similar to South by South West. alright. thanks for the read.
from jonny
p.s thanks you to all the victorians who have voted for us in the e.g awards. Anyone who wonts to vote for us too can click here http://egawards.theage.com.au peace
Japan, America and the rest of the Year
So we have just arrived in Japan for the second time in two months. It is amazing how much you can miss a place with out even knowing it.
We arrived here in Osaka after what I thought would be a hell ride on China airlines, but fortunately it was fine and we got here in one piece. We dropped our bags and headed straight to the Tako Tako bar, which is this amazing Japanese bar that plays the best of Jazz, Blues, Rockabilly, and other American classics. If you ever come to Osaka you can’t miss them they all have these massive fake octopuses attached to the front of the bar. So after downing a few cold beers and tasting the Takoyaki (octopus balls) it was time to hit the hay.
So I’ll just fill you in on what has been happening in the Temper camp over the past month or so.
So we finished our Festival season on the isle of Jersey, which is basically a tax haven for rich UK residence, it is very quaint town and is famous for Jersey Cream and being occupied by the Germans during the war. The festival was nice and relaxed and was cool as we where able to see some bands we had missed over the summer.
As always there has to be a little drama so here it is. We where in the van on our way back to the hotel after leaving the festival when we realised that we had left Campbell’s bass at the site. This was not good as Campbell’s bass is basically priceless and finding a replacement would be almost impossible. So someone had to make the hour-long journey back to the site to go and find it. Being a little intoxicated my drunken courage stepped in and I decided that I would venture back to the site… Not a good idea. I Got back there and had a look around and at this point I head started to realise I was probably a little more effected by the Alcohol than first thought. At this point I could not find the Bass and decided to Call Campbell. Once on the Phone he told me that another crewmember he knew had picked it up and that it was being delivered to the Hotel in the morning. Well this was a little annoying so I just wanted to get off the site and go to bed. This is where the fun started. So I headed back to the car that drove me out there and asked if I could get the Hell out of there, at this point the promoter came up to me and said that I would have to wait till the last transport as they needed to take the Kooks back to their hotel. I was not happy about this and proceeded to tell the promoter so. “there’s nothing I can do!” “Like Hell there isn’t” So I decided to make my own way home which was not a good idea as I was in the middle of the country side and had no idea which way to go. To cut a long story short I managed to get back to the hotel after about 2 hours of hell and Abuse which made for great entertainment for the rest of the band but left me feeling a little stupid in the morning. Not a great way to wrap up 36 festivals.
Since finishing the festival season we have been busy with our own headline tour of the UK, a brief break to recharge the batteries and a session at Abbey Road.
The tour was great and thankyou to all the people that came out to see us, especially those of you, which made it to multiple gigs. We played with two great bands the The Gold Hawks who did the tour with us and the Local Natives who supported us at the Heaven Show in London. The highlights of the tour for me would have to be London, Glasgow and Oxford. The Glasgow gig was amazingly crazy with some parts of the show being drowned out by the crowd. Something, which hasn’t happened too many times. We also went out to a great bar called Chinaski’s which is a Charles Bukowski inspired whiskey bar. Very fitting for Scotland.
During the Middle of the tour we where invited to play on the Live at Abby Road sessions. This was an amazing experience as I would have never dreamed of doing a session in the great studio 2 where almost all the Beatles albums where recorded, along with most of Pink Floyd’s albums. The day started of very early, as we had to catch a train down from Newcastle at 5 in the morning to make it there on time. But the lack of sleep was worth it. I look forward to seeing it when it comes out around Christmas time.
SO now we are here in Japan about to play our first headline shows and then we are off to the States for 4 weeks for our first tour. It is going to be a little crazy and I imagine a little stressful at times as there are some long distances that need to be travelled between shows but exciting none the less. After that it is back to Europe for our tour there and then a support slot with Florence and the Machine. That is going to be awesome and then back home to OZ for Christmas. Yay…
20/08/09 11:18AM
the food is so yum, the culture, the attention to detail, i loved it. Toby got to shake Beyonce’s hand. so funny. I wasn’t there but apparently she was sitting right next to the boys and the only one who braved it was toby. her show was great but the flaming lips show is so amazing. Arguably the best live show going around, and i would agree that it is. Toby and Loz got to dance around in funny outfits on stage with them.
Japan is seriously an amazing place, something to put on the before you die list, go there for sure the people are beautiful inside and out. we got to play in an arena to our biggest number to date 6000 give or take a little bit. some other funny moments were swimming late at night in the hotel pool (it’s probably one of those had to be there things). we also got to go to this restaurant were they filmed Kill Bill. the restaurant were the lady beats up like 100 Japanese dudes. ok lots of fun.
catch ya later
p.s touring is not normally like this. its normally a lot of work work work…. I don’t wanna create the wrong picture but in japan we got looked after big time.
See the pics here...
So we played our single launch last week in a venue named ICA near Buckingham palace.
It was a fun show, and to our surprise people were singing along to a bunch of songs. I’d never heard people sing along to Down River, Love Lost and a few others. At the end of the show I soon found out all the people singing along were Australian, I realised that they have had a chance to listen to the record and that’s how they really new the songs it made me miss Oz and it also brought a sense of eagerness to release the record here in the UK.
We have been busy boys recently, we did a video for Fader and are still hitting the stages all round the place. In a couple days we go to new york to start setting up for the release there. Lots of talking to people radio, tv e.t.c. We all love new york so I think its gonna be a lot of fun. - Jonny