NEW YORK - CMJ

A FESTIVAL, A WEDDING and DANCING on the bar

Phew... having been spending time recording the album we haven't really had time to think b4 we are back playing live..
LAST WEEKEND Jonny, Stu and Paul had barely stepped off the plane from San Francisco b4 they were up @ 8.00am in the morning and on their way to meet us in Switzerland for two fantastic festivals.. and then this weekend it was most of us back in the van (we left @ midnight on Thursday) for a weekend of more festivals and general madness.. but more of that later..

..the music hormones are rushing a bit at the moment, we know we have recorded an amazing album and the word from 'the management' is that first reactions from record companies they are playing it to is good.. we think it's bloody amazing and want to get these songs heard... and so to European festivals...
BUT HEY, there's an issue that needs 2 B shared with you.. at some point ... we have had not ONE invitation to play a UK festival this year ;-(
We would take anything you understand .. we don't mind opening / breakfast slot or providing the soundtrack to the late night slurry.. we just kinda would like to be asked you know.... it's no disrespect to any of the bands that fill the new band stages at UK festivals.. it's not a competition, we know, but many of those bands are bands that have supported us @ gigs.. and it would just be nice to have been asked to play at Glastonbury, V Festival, Reading / Leeds or any of the smaller ones.. but nothing... are they scared of M.A.S.S. rock?

This is not just an isolated gripe.. the reason for this coming up is, that yes, EVERY weekend we go to Europe where we HAVE been invited to play @ festivals and quite often even find our selves headlining these events or certainly playing in the dark with massive lightshows to a few thousand people.. a few thousand people who are usually bang up for it and, even though they cannot possibly know many of our songs, are just so appreciative... and we see the photos afterwards, the massive lightshow and crowd going crazy and we think that it would be nice if the folks and fans back home in the UK could see just a bit of this. ... and then, there are the new album songs.. our European festival set is 18-22 songs and we can preview most of the album and, fingers crossed, the songs seem to be going down so well... so, perhaps next year, eh? can't help sighing just a little though.... there, that's off the chest...

So back to this weekend gone.
FRIDAY:Started off on Thursday when a few of us went to see a few bands at the  new Goldie Rocks night @ The Elbow rooms in London and she certainly does;  The Rocks are really getting thier shit together now... James was on top form and Sarah's new Marilyn look was a million dollars, The Chalets and The Modern also played.
Then it's jump in the van and off to Dover for the 3.00am ferry to France and travel about halfway down the country over to the east, to a festival near a lake called Festival Du Chien a Plumes. Our accomodation was to be a gite / farmhouse called Le Gite Du Val 8 miles from the festival in the middle of the countryside. After successfully (unusually for us) navigating the country lanes we arrived in this miniscule picturesque village and drove through the gates of the mansion that was to be M.A.S.S HQ for the next 24 hours. Mrs French person arrived and we all hit beds with lovely crisp cotton sheets and got some much needed shut-eye..tres bon..

The festival itself was in a village by a lake Villegusian. The local gendarmerie seemed to be giving a pretty thorough search to all of the kids coming into the festival but let us through no bother.. we met up with drummer Stu and our French soundman Doume who had both traveled over from Nantes. This night we were playing the festival, was pretty reggae/dub heavy on the band front and the French kids must certainly be tenacious on the drug smugglin' game because there was the distinct sweet smell of wacky backy over the proceedings... we are told that we are last band on @ 1.30am.. so we'll need to go light on the refreshments. Walkin round the festival site is a buzz though - it's gonna be a goodun.. and it is.. we follow a mad French/Scottish guy called Gordon, a one man bag-pipes and rave show.. that certainly gets peoples attention.

We haven't played France for a few months and the minute we hit the stage we remember why it is we temporarily moved to France last year.. boy, do you guys love M.A.S.S. in France.. we play a 22 song set and Justine is the rock and roll queen for tonight and dont' they want us to know it... the new songs go down particularly well with 'Part Time Punk' causing particular frenzy..
Obviously by the time we come off stage it is VERY late.. the promoters are happy with us.. some friendly Frenchmen come to offer us wine and a radio DJ wants to do an interview but is so stoned/pissed that he can't stand up and despite two interpreters (it's obviously not the language that's the problem) not much sense is made so we return to our castle for a few more hours in the land of French nod.

SATURDAY:
Today we are back on the road by midday because we are playing.. um.. a wedding.
WE know, we know.. one day we are complaining about not playing at UK Festivals where u need to be cool and the next we blow it all by saying we are playing a wedding. But this is special. Part of the M.A.S.S journey over the last three years has been the willingness of Europe to let us come and play and greet us with encouragement and enthusiasm. None more so than promoter Torsten and His girlfriend Annette who promoted our first ever concert in Germany @ Stereo Wonderland in Cologne/Köln. And this summer they asked a special favour, that M.A.S.S would attend their wedding and also, perhaps.. might play. We'll see, at least we have the tour van with our equipment so we .. set out on the 300 journey to Köln in good spirits.. the traffic turns out to be ..merde.. at one point it is at 100% standstill for 45 minutes.. people are getting out of their vehicles and walking around.... it starts again.. but we have left Justine behind.. no matter.. we only move a few metres anyway.. then it's back up to speed.
We arrive at the wedding house at 7.30.. it is in two houses in one there are gazebos in the garden in the other a small tented village for the guests... in one of the gazebos there is a PA and an empty bit of grass.. they are expecting us to play.. Needless to say all of usual wedding family stuff is there, old relatives, little kids running around but the DJ is fantastic.. playing Maximo Park, Adam Green and The Breeders.. not a bit of Tony Christie to be heard.. you see .. he even, Tony Christie.. gets to play a UK festival (he's playing at V Festival) - where's the justice in that?
Anyway.. we agree to play five songs and also let mini-german Hanson.. a couple of nine year olds play a couple of songs before us.. imagine.. um.. a sound like The White Stripes.. crossed with.. um? anyway.. one of their songs in English was called "This is Fire" (fire is dangerous) and was so popular some of the relatives requested us to play it in our set. Sorry, we don't do covers.
The whole thing was worth it, just to see Torsten and Annette's smiling faces at the front. Afterwards they tell us that their best friends got married in Las Vegas and it made them think of getting married and the only way they told each other, that they could top Vegas, was by having M.A.S.S. play their wedding and here we are. We let them request songs from the first album and threw in few tasters of the new stuff of our own including 'Everything' which became entirely suitable as the soundtrack for a newly married couple, as often these things do... it's only a few songs, good really, and once finished we dive from the stage into the refreshments full steam.. boy, do these Germans know how to throw a party.. argghh beware the Jaegermaester.. Justine gets challenged to a shot duel by an aging female relative.. it all gets necessarily messy.. the sleeping arrangements become a blur.. there are 7 of us and only two hotel rooms and two beds.. and the grooms brother's house with rumours of an airbed and couch.. it starts to rain like a monsoon... things go blank..

SUNDAY:
Things get off to a slow start. It is almost two years to the day that we played our first concert in Germany at Stereo Wonderland in Köln and tonight we are going back to play there and commemorate the occassion and perhaps sell few albums to help pay for the trip.
Start the day back at the wedding reception, having wedding breakfast for um.. breakfast. There are a few hours to kill so we decide to take a trip to Holland which happens to be just 15 kilometres away... the nearest Dutch town has a few 'coffee shops' where the countries laws apparently make it possible for them to sell 'additional products' - we pop into a coffee shop called Skunk which pretty much does what it says on the tin.. purchases are made.. Then it's off to Köln.

The PA they are using for Stereo Wonderland is the one that was used for the wedding so we pretty much don't need a soundcheck and pop off for a quick cheapo Italian meal.. we think about ordering coffee but discover that our budget doesn't stretch that far b4 we know how many Euros we might get from the gig.
We have great memories of the previous Stereo Wonderland gig and this one lives up to the memories it is a tiny rockin' club but the atmosphere is tremedous and they pretty much give us what we want from the bar... any wedding cobwebs are blown away and quite a few of the congregation are in the audience... we crack through and hour of tunes and encore with 'I Got You' which we haven't even recorded for the NEW album.. that's how far ahead of ourselves we are.
After the gig it's an immediate pack-up.. lots of goodbyes and then we hit the road back across Germany, through Belgium and Holland heading for France, Calais and back home. Not much sleep is had in the van, our manager is driving and sometimes hits speeds of 90km per hour.. we should be used to this by now, we have done it so many times.. but you hear stories you know... anyway.. it does meant that we arrive on the ferrry in superquick time and are back in London by 7.00am - now that's what we call a LONG WEEKEND... phew.. Monday will be 4 sleep, sleep, sleep ;-)

M.A.S.S. Podcast (San Francisco 01)

Andy, Jonny and Paul send a message from the vocal booth @ Studio 880 in San Francisco.

San Francisco update.. and upcoming London gig

It's been a scorcher in London. Can't get the new CDs by The Magic Numbers or Arcade Fire off the stereo and the new singles by Special Needs and Hard-Fi are making a good soundtrack. It's just a little over 2 weeks before we head out to San Francisco to record the second album. Our efforts to try and persuade airline companies to help us out with some reductions in return for a credit on a potentially world shaking album (more of that later) have all been rebuffed. Sometimes you get a personal touch though, like this one from Delta Airlines (we really tried to big up the fact that producer Jeff had produced The Killers album..

"I am so sorry for the delay in responding but we had to check in with the appropriate people to provide a response.  Unfortunately, our reply is going to be that we are not able to help with your request.  As you may be aware Delta, along with most of the other US carriers, are under extreme financial duress in the current economic environment and are indeed fighting for our very survival.  Although we may have been able to help with these type of request in the past, our current situation does not allow us to help as we are only honoring the commitments we have made to myriad charitable organizations at the start of the year.
 
We certainly wish you luck with the band.  The Killers put out a great album of music and we wish M.A.S.S. the same type of success.  We encourage you to continue to check out delta.com where you can always find our lowest fares and where specials are often run that might help meet your needs" (Delta Airlines 7th June 05)

So no go then, in the end, the cheapest flights we could get without taking days to get there was with Mr. Bransons Virgin Atlantic but even then we had to use three quarters of our total living and accommodation budget because flights go up in July when all the little kiddies are on their hols and mum and pa want to take them off to the US.. what's wrong with Skegness and Brighton?
Anyway, this makes acute the problem of where to stay in SF, close your doors and windows and pretend not to be at home SFians because M.A.S.S. are .. DESPERATE!!!
We've started more communication with producer Jeff now though (he is currently producing a band called The Sounds). On Thursday we were in the rehearsal studios putting together the final list of song demos which we think should be candidates for the album and we'll be getting them over to him next week. Still some work to do though...
On Tuesday (June 21st) it's summer solstice day and we are going to do our last UK gig before the recording in LONDON @ 93 FEET EAST - Some of you, who we might loosely term um.. 'fans' expressed a bit of quizzical interest in the fact that sometimes our set in Europe is 80-90 minutes whereas the most we play in the UK is an hour, well on Tuesday we are going to do a longer set so will be good for many reasons. Two bands we have invited over from France, SYD MATTERS and STEEPLE REMOVE join us. If you are in UK London, see you there. If U R in San Fran.. see you soon...

.. and so we BEGIN....

After the great response we got from the diary/blog on the M.A.S.S. EURO20004 tour at the end of last year. We are going to have a go at keeping you up to date with events, hopes, fears and aspirations, as we gear ourselves up to record the second album (trying not to be distracted by live gigs but sometimes, for the best reasons, you can't avoid it).
If you want to look back at the 2004 TOUR DIARY by all means - CLICK HERE

Just for the record this week we have been writing and rehearsing in LONDON, UK
It has been mental and resulted in another four new songs to add to the original short list, everyone's been working really hard and it's all coming together.

WHO WILL B THE PRODUCER?
Getting a good producer on board to make things sound even better is also a priority. So we have started to meet and speak to people this week. To be honest, we haven't the biggest budget to record this album but BARCLAY, our record company based in France, seem to be behind us at this point, so we shall see.
We won't be able to give too much away about producers here, as it may affect the process but we put together our wish list of people that we would like to work with at the beginning of all this and the top of our list have got back to us, saying that they love the demos of the new songs, so all good stuff.

BUT WE MIGHT HAVE TO GO BACK OUT ON TOUR ;-)
Finally, to sum up the week, we got a fantastic invite from The Dresden Dolls (haven't checked them out yet? .. you should) .. they like our first CD and have asked us to be their opening guests on some upcoming dates in Germany... couldn't turn down an invitation to play with a fantastic band like that but now it's turning into a mini Euro tour at the beginning of March, we do the dates with The Dolls, possibly a gig in Milan as special guests of The Donnas and then a festival and club show in Switzerland... can't wait for you to hear the new songs. oh, and we have ANOTHER live appearance coming up, at a Tsunami benefit night in London on 19th February