Tour Diary and Sent Letters

January 16th - Lille

    The drive to Lille yesterday was almost four hours, but went smoothly. Lee stayed behind and took the train over earlier today — he went to Roundup’s second show last night to say hello to Peter.
    The concert hall here is a nice little place, and I found a bakery down the street that makes a croque monsieur to kill for. Harry told us that tomorrow’s Belgian show is sold out, which put everyone in a good mood.


January 17th - Bruges

    Wrote a quick hello to Liliane on a postcard and stuffed it into an envelope with Lee’s letter. I’ll write her a proper letter soon and one for Aunt Lily too, and send those out between the two Liège shows.


January 19th - Brussels

    I was chatting with one of the venue’s staff tonight and they mentioned Aces Down are playing in Namur on Sunday night (today’s Wednesday). They’re pretty good psych rock and the singer can falsetto like crazy; I know Colin likes them so I’ll see if Cameron wants to see the show — see if we can arrange something.


[....]


January 23 - Aces Down concert in Namur

    That little auditorium show was great! We got there early and managed to chat with the band, lost Colin to their talkative drummer for a while, too. Pretty prog-y music and their new album seems promising (heard a couple songs tonight). Cameron seems to have made a deal with their photographer Alan, who does freelance work for bands. We’re going to call him up in April once we figure out wedding details — he said he’d be glad to do it.


January 25th - Antwerp

    Shows have been good lately. Not sure if it’s all the travel or overhearing Harry with his details and logistics, but I’d love to sit still for a few days. We never unpack much more than a handful of clothes and toothbrushes. Still — Cameron’s never far and I do love that.

Dear Liliane,

I’m hoping things are going good for you, everything’s good with us. Harry bought a cool little Polaroid camera (the tour manager, remember?) and I got my hands on it for a bit! I took a good stack of pictures and wanted you to have some, but I’ll show you the other when I see you next.

Love you,
Emily

 

January 27th - Eindhoven

    A few days now where Lee’s been antsy, and I think I know why. During breakfast with him this morning, a visitor from Düsseldorf arrived: Lee’s buying a mandolin! Got him to spill the beans — he’s getting lessons from Johann so he can play songs for my sister (why he thinks she isn’t already in love with him, I don’t know). The kicker of it all is that Peter Buchanan gave him Johann’s number, back in Paris.

[....]


February 6th - Groningen

    The Dutch really do love Amoeba! Every show is packed and the energy gets to me, like it’s contagious. Someone came backstage tonight with five bottles of oude jenever as a gift (it’s more or less gin that tastes like juniper berries, I’ve been told) and by the looks of things, we’ll be drinking before we sleep!

February 8th - Bremen

    I think I’m still drunk from Sunday. I hope I’ll be able to say Münster properly by the time we get there.


February 11th - Düsseldorf

    We arrived here early this morning, with a note at the hotel reception desk from Lee — he says he’ll be at the venue for soundcheck at five o’clock. He left right after the show two days ago and drove here to meet with his mandolin man.


February 12th - Frankfurt

    I spoke with Auntie today (thankfully, there’s only one hour of time difference). She was happy to hear from me and even happier about me and Cameron. She got the letter I sent a few weeks ago telling her about it, and Liliane gushed to her too. I still have letters to write and need to decide what kind of day we want, but we’re thinking a date in June would be nice.


February 13th - Mannheim

    I’ve been using this more as a catch-all diary instead of just a tour diary, but it’s been nice to write things down in any case.
    The shows have been going fantastic. The band is working hard and seeing the rewards of it every night they play — plus, they’ve just been awarded a gold record for the German sales of Cabinet of Fools. We’ve got eight more shows in Germany before the end of the month, including a return to Frankfurt and two nights in Hanover.

[....]


March 2nd - Copenhagen

    Same as yesterday for the opening band: a local Danish group. This is the first time Amoeba’s played in Denmark and it went great last night — and by the look of the audience, it’ll be the same tonight.


March 3rd - Driving Day

    We’re driving into Sweden today, and it’s supposed to be four hours from Copenhagen to Gothenburg. A journalist from a Swedish magazine is on the bus with us (På Scen, apparently means “On Stage”) and he’ll be at the show tomorrow too.
    Groaning all around — Harry just let us know that there’s no flight to Stockholm, so it’ll be a six-hour bus ride after tomorrow’s show.

Dear Mark,

How many years has it been since I’ve written you a letter? Too many! Amoeba is doing great, and we’ve been touring since the second week of December. We should be home in another five weeks or so (bar any potential issues) so if you’ve mailed me anything since then, I haven’t seen it yet.
    I’ll give you a call when we’re settled in again, but I do have some news to tell you. Cameron asked me to marry him, and of course I couldn’t say yes fast enough! Hopefully it’ll be sometime in the summer but we haven’t worked on details yet. We’ll be sending out official invitations eventually, but I’d really like you to be there for it. It would mean a lot to me.
    Besides that news, the album is still selling decently and it got us free entry to the “Tiger Cat” in Stockholm. Have you heard of it? One of the people working the Stockholm venue brought us and turns out it’s a club for 'des voyeuristes sexuelles.' I’ll have those scenes burned into my brain forever!
    I really hope you’ve been doing well, Mark. I’m sending you well-wishes and the guys say hello, too! I’ll try to send you another postcard soon, but we’ll be back in Britain in about a week for some shows there.

Take care,
Emily

March 7th - Vienna

    Colin got a phone call from Autumn earlier tonight, which was a nice surprise — since there’s no show tonight we were all in the hotel bar so reception patched it through. He only got a few minutes with her before Willie realized who it was and snatched the phone from him, wanting to say hello to her. She’s firmly settled back in Liverpool and asked if there’d be a VIP ticket for her in two weeks, so we’ll see her then.
    And hearing Colin say it aloud really made it sink in that Amoeba’s played their first shows in five countries during this leg of the tour. I’m proud of the guys and hope the good things keep coming.