COOL BRITANNIA: FROM INDIA TO ADELAIDE — THE LONG WAY ROUND
- 3 hours ago
- 6 min read
But let's recap! : There are some people who, after a run of gigs in Melbourne and Sydney, think:
“Lovely. Home now. Bit of a rest. Maybe a cup of tea.”
Then there's Mick.
After Melbourne and Sydney, Mick decided the sensible thing to do was disappear to India for three weeks.
Why?
Dunno.
He's funny like that.
Apparently he went "exploring", which is a posh way of saying he deliberately wandered around Bangalore, Jaipur, Agra, the backstreets of Delhi and Varanasi looking for culture, adventure and presumably a decent curry.
And when I say roughing it, I mean properly roughing it.
Three weeks travelling around India, taking in the sights, sounds, smells and the occasional street cremation.
Because nothing says "I need a relaxing break after a busy touring schedule" quite like standing beside the Ganges watching a funeral cremation while trying not to step in anything mysterious.
He did the Taj Mahal, obviously.
Which is a bit awkward because once you've seen the Taj Mahal, it's difficult to get genuinely excited about most other landmarks.
This would become important later.
Because after three weeks of India, Mick eventually made it back to Brisbane.
For one day.
One.
Then it was straight back on a plane with COOL BRITANNIA to Emerald.
Because apparently the best way to recover from three weeks of Indian travel is immediately getting on another aeroplane with a load of musicians, guitars and a brass section.
EMERALD — FROM THE TAJ MAHAL TO THE BIG EASEL
We headed out to the Maraboon Pub, where we had an absolute ball.
Emerald, you were bloody brilliant.
Lovely people, great atmosphere and the sort of hospitality that makes you think, "We could probably live here."
We even got out to see some of the local sights.
Including...
THE BIG EASEL.
Now, the Big Easel is an impressive thing.
It is large.
Very large.
It's an easel.
And it's big.
But Mick had been standing in front of the Taj Mahal approximately seven days earlier.
So when someone proudly announced:
"Here it is! The BIG EASEL!"
Mick just stared at it.
Then looked at us.
Then looked back at the easel.
You could almost hear his brain going:
“India's going to be a tough act to follow.”
It's a bit like taking someone who's just been to see Lionel Messi in the World Cup to watch a 17 stone 53yr old skinhead called 'Thumper' play centre back for the 'Crown & Anchor' on Sunday morning.
Still, we admired it.
We're professionals.
And to be fair, you don't see many easels that size.
BRISBANE — SOLD OUT. BOSH!
Then it was back to Brisbane for our SOLD OUT show at The Royal Hotel Nundah.
And this is where things get a bit emotional.
Because every time we play Brisbane, we think we've got the best audience in the world.
Then we come back and you somehow prove us right again.
From the first song to the last, the place was absolutely bouncing.
People singing every word.
Not just the obvious bits either.
The obscure bits.
The bits where even we occasionally think:
"Hang on... what comes next?"
You lot know every bloody word.
We packed up and were out of there by midnight.
Which sounds very rock 'n' roll until you realise we were all meeting at the airport coffee shop at 7am for our annual pilgrimage to Adelaide.
Rock 'n' roll, obviously.
Just with flat whites.
ADELAIDE — KEYS, CABLES & PANIC
Then came Adelaide.
And, as is traditional with COOL BRITANNIA tours, absolutely everything went according to plan.
Apart from our Dave losing his keys to his pedal board case.
And the the other Dave's bass guitar dying during soundcheck.
Squeaky Bum time.
So there we were on stage surrounded by screwdrivers, wire strippers and electrical tape, looking less like a Britpop band and more like a particularly nervous mobile repair shop.
There were panicked looks.
There was pointing.
There was probably someone saying:
"Has anyone got a fucking idea what they're doing?"
But somehow, by the time the brass section rolled in for soundcheck...
WE WERE BACK IN BUSINESS.
Huge thanks to Angus, our sound tech (and Hannah & Cooper from UniBar) for jumping in and helping us get everything sorted.
Absolute legends. Thank you! x
ADELAIDE — YOU LOT TURN IT ON EVERY TIME
The place was pretty much full. The Horn Section were PHENOMENAL (Sian, BJ, Laura, Craig - Thank you!)
And here's a really lovely bit:
Around half the audience were seeing COOL BRITANNIA for the first time.
But dotted amongst them were the familiar faces.
The people who've been coming to all four of our annual Adelaide shows.
The Villa lads.
The St Albans crew.
The Stone Roses faithful.
The Scots.
The Irish.
The Welsh.
The Mancs.
The Londoners. The Channel Islands gang
The Barmy Army cricket crew.
(And, of course, the poor Aussie souls who've been dragged along by someone with a suspiciously strong northern accent. To all of you: Sorry, maaaaaate. )
But judging by the singing, you seemed to be enjoying yourselves.
And what an audience.
Adelaide, you absolutely turned it on.
There is something about playing here that is difficult to put into words.
Maybe it's because there are so many people in that room who actually lived this music.
The Britpop years.
The gigs.
The clubs.
The dodgy haircuts.
The parkas.
The bucket hats.
The arguments over whether Blur were better than Oasis.
The arguments over whether The Stone Roses were better than everyone.
The arguments over absolutely fucking everything.
And yet, when those songs start playing, nobody cares anymore.
They're just our songs.
Not ours, obviously.
We didn't write them.
We're just a bunch of lads who grew up in the 90s and absolutely bloody LOVE these tunes.
And that's really what COOL BRITANNIA is about.
It's not about us.
It's about the atmosphere in the room.
It's about the bloke next to you screaming the words to Don't Look Back in Anger with his eyes shut.
It's about someone hearing Parklife and instantly being transported back 30 years.
It's about strangers becoming mates because they've all got the same musical DNA.
It's about the band loving what they're doing, the audience loving what they're hearing, and for a couple of hours everyone's about 25 again.
Even if the knees aren't.
And that's the magic.
We're incredibly lucky to be able to do this.
We love playing together.
We love travelling together.
We love the ridiculousness of it all.
And we bloody love standing on a stage and seeing a room full of people singing songs that have meant something to them for decades.
That's the bit that matters.
We don't own these songs.
We're just lucky enough to play them.
You lot bring the memories.
We bring the noise.
And somewhere in between, something rather special happens.
THE SUNDAY MORNING AFTER...
And then, because we're nothing if not committed to the touring lifestyle, Sunday was spent doing what every responsible touring musician should do.
We took the tour bus out to McLaren Vale.
For research purposes.
We treated ourselves to some absolutely ridiculous food and wine before heading back to the airport.
There was pâté.
There was posh wine.
There was a fancy whisky for our Glaswegian drummer John.
There were detailed discussions about concerts we'd seen over the years.
Obscure musical knowledge was exchanged. Neil knows some crazy trivia..... we try to catch him out sometimes... hasn't worked yet.
There were borderline risky jokes.
And, occasionally, someone said something that would probably have got us cancelled on Twitter in 2012.
But we're Gen X.
Feck 'em.
We survived the 80s.
We survived Britpop.
We survived the Spice Girls.
We survived dial-up internet.
We'll probably survive the comments section.
So, Adelaide...
Thank you.
For the welcome.
For the singing.
For the familiar faces.
For the new faces.
For making four annual shows feel like a bloody family reunion.
And for reminding us why we do this in the first place.
We don't own these songs.
We're just lucky enough to play them.
You lot bring the memories.
We bring the noise.
And somewhere between the first chord and the last chorus, the years disappear.
For a couple of hours, we're all back there. 1994 , 1995 ,1996 ....
Whatever year it was that your song came out.
And that's the beauty of music.
It doesn't care how old you are.
It doesn't care where you're from.
It doesn't care whether you're a Manc, a Londoner, a Scot, a Welshman, an Irishman or even an Aussie!
You hear that first chord...
And you're home.
That's COOL BRITANNIA.
Now then...
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG?
👇 Tell us in the comments.
And if you say Wonderwall...
We're not judging.
Much......
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