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U.K. Tour Diary - 1998-1999
Dan, John, and I left for our first world tour in
the Summer of 1996. We returned thirty-six hours later as planned,
having spent the entire time in Dublin. We had a great time, we
wanted more, but it was not to be. Not yet.
Our 1996 release "Great Divide" was the
kind of record you bought for a friend because he or she had never
heard of it. That was nice, except we would have preferred it to
be a record that you wouldn't buy for your friends because all of
them owned it. An executive at our Dublin show whom I'll call The
Executioner said our "U.S. record sales did not warrant overseas
touring, let alone an overseas release" of our record. . .
(Dramatic music fades up. Scenes of an unknown boxer
in training.)
Two years later, much had changed. Our follow up
album, "Feeling Strangely Fine," became a big hit in the
States. The Executioner went to work for a different record company.
In September of 1998 we found ourselves on an overnight flight to
England to pick up where we left off two years earlier. It was the
first of three trips over the next thirteen months.
September 1998 -- Manchester and London
This was the first leg of a seven country trip through Europe.
Our one day for sightseeing was the day we stepped off the plane
in Manchester, and I spent it fighting off sleep to adjust to the
new time zone. I loaded up on caffeine, walked bleary-eyed through
the streets, sat through a matinee, and had a quiet dinner of bangers
and mash. I was later informed by Londoners that walking the streets
of Manchester had exposed me to grave risk of attack from roving
Mancunian gangs. Hmmmm. As far as I could tell, the greatest threat
came from the fish and chips I had for lunch.
We played in a basement club in downtown Manchester
the next night. Seventeen people came, but who's counting. Me apparently.
Anyway, it was a start. The next morning we drove to London where
we spent a day doing interviews from our hotel. Among other things,
the interviewers asked us about the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, which
was at its frothy peak. We explained that as this was the first
case of adultery known to have occurred in our nation's history,
of course people were upset. Next question please.
We ended our week in London with a show at the 100
Club. Several hundred people packed the room and provided excellent
hip swinging action. Even Marilyn Manson showed up. Not sure he
enjoyed the show. Later that night, while drinking with Dan at a
nearby bar, he dryly observed "If we stay here long enough,
maybe they'll play your song." We in America have a proud tradition
of irony.
(Music fades up. Shots of calendar pages flipping
under a superimposed montage of Christmas trees, a swaying New Year's
crowd, Valentines sweethearts receiving bouquets, and tornadoes
in the upper midwest.)
July 1999 -- London
We returned for a week in London as "Secret Smile" was
becoming a hit in the U.K., something it hadn't done in the States.
(Executioner, take note.) On the drive from the airport we heard
the song on the radio, always a boost. Our driver was a fellow named
Graham, who not only knew when to turn up the radio but owns a smashing
suit for every day of the year. English couture at its finest. Once
I realized we would never see the same suit twice, I made sure we
got our picture taken with him every day.
We had several close calls with double decker busses
as we looked the wrong direction while crossing the busy streets.
I devised a great method for keeping track of the British traffic
flow: imagine you're in the U.S. but that everyone is driving their
car in reverse. It works, but people keep asking you "What's
so funny?"
During the week we performed on a variety of radio
and television shows. We played on Top of the Pops and saw Blur
perform "Coffee and TV." We bumped into bass player Alex
in the make-up room and told him we were huge fans and got a "CHEERS
mate!" in response. That was exciting until we learned that
"Cheers mate" might mean anything from "Thank you"
to "That's my foot you're stepping on." On various shows
that week we also shared the bill with The Manic Street Preachers,
Lenny Kravitz, and Kermit the Frog, who radiated more stardom than
the rest of us guests combined.
The high point of the week was a show at Dingwalls.
We had heard that the show had sold out weeks in advance and were
somehow convinced that 600 residents of Minneapolis vacationing
in London had bought all of the tickets. I was relieved to walk
on-stage and realize that we had an all English audience, who sang
along to the songs with convincingly authentic English accents.
Cheers mates.
October 1999 -- London, Wolverhampton, Bristol,
Manchester, Glasgow
(Music fades up: Camera angle on bellhop knocking
on a hotel room door. "Telegram for Semisonic." Dan answers
the door, takes the telegram, and reads it aloud to John and Jake.
"Like your new song. Making arrangements for your immediate
return. Hugs and kisses, Her Majesty the Queen.")
This was the beautiful finale to all of our touring
for "Feeling Strangely Fine." A female fan at our London
show screamed at Dan to "Take ya' kit off!" which was
later translated for us. Each day, it seemed, we met another current
or former Spice Girl. None of us was hit by a bus. Best of all,
at each of our shows fans who had somehow gotten ahold of "Great
Divide" (no thanks to The Executioner) shouted out names of
songs we hadn't played in two years.
More than anything, we found immense pleasure playing
shows in the homeland of so many of our heroes. We came within footsteps
of one such guitar demigod while exiting the Oxford Circus tube
stop. Jeff Beck. We spotted him while walking up the stairs, but
what was there to say? Overcome by awe, we watched him disappear
into the crowd on the street. Maybe next time.
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