longwave tour diary - 22 feburary to 2 march 2003

The bleak mid-winter
The brief UK tour in October 2002 seemed a long time ago. However, tracking down an Advance Promo copy of The Strangest Things just before Christmas 2002 did break the monotony and provided great entertainment over the subsequent weeks.

Then, just as Christmas started to fade into the distant past, news started to emerge that Longwave were going to hit the UK shores again late in February 2003. I had been hoping that the release of the album on 24 February would prompt a welcome return to live action in the UK, but you just never can be sure about how these things will work out. In this case it worked out just fine and a 9 date tour from Glasgow to Dublin was finally confirmed.

Leeds Rocket on 22 February was to be my starting point. However it was not going to be simply a case of turning up and watching the band play a great set. On a personal level more surprises were on the way!

The start of something strange
It all started when I swapped notes with a friend of mine in Leeds regarding attending the gig. I was somewhat taken aback when he asked me if there was any chance I could set up a radio interview with Longwave on the day of the Leeds gig. It was certainly a great idea to give the guys some welcome exposure on the radio but this was also something I had never done before. It turned out that my friend John had connections with Bradford Community Radio and had already tackled one or two interviews, although admittedly this was a process he was only just getting to grips with. Anyway John had access to a mini-disc player and a microphone and I had the contact with the band and Jim Merlis, so lets see what we can sort out���.

A quick exchange of e-mails with Jim Merlis confirmed that it was really down to East West to sort out such promotional matters in the UK, so I waited for someone to get back to me. As the date of the Leeds gig drew nearer, neither John or myself had heard anything and by the morning of 21 February, I guessed that the interview would not happen. Then, having swopped e-mails with Amanda Thompson who runs the Rock Street Team at Warner Brothers, I got a surprise call on my mobile just before lunch from Neil Smith from the Press Department. I remembered meeting Neil, albeit briefly, on the October tour last year. Neil then confirmed that the interview was set up and we should arrive at the Leeds Cockpit at around 4.45pm on the Saturday to catch the soundcheck and then run the interview. A mild degree of panic then set in as I thought that I had better get planning some questions��.and quick!!

Driving up the motorway towards Leeds on a sunny Saturday afternoon, I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I was just embarking on something I had never contemplated doing before��and may never do again���but then again you can never be sure about anything! Anyway I met John at around 4.30pm at Leeds Station and quickly found the Cockpit where we were taken into the bar area. Longwave were in deep conversation with another guy at the time so we just hung back. After a few minutes we thought we should at least make ourselves known so I wandered up behind where Steve was sat and I was pleased when he recognised me without the need for any introductions�even though it was 4 months since I had last seen him. We then agreed that we would run the interview after they had set up their equipment and done the soundcheck.

The Cockpit soundcheck - 22 February 2003
As soundchecks go this was fairly typical with a lot of fiddling around with equipment, monitors and sound quality with James, the sound engineer, twiddling numerous knobs and switches. Eventually we got to some full song run throughs. First one up was Exit which sounded just great. After a quick blast of the opening few bars of Iggy Pop's The Passenger, Tidal Wave followed, and this is one song that never fails to please��..surely a candidate for a future single? The keyboard was then set up and after a few bars of Strawberry Fields Forever, a fine version of State of Mind was performed. I had never consciously made the connection between these two songs but after hearing the two together, it all started to make sense. A subsequent conversation with Mike James confirmed the strong link between the songs in terms of influence. Soundcheck over, it was now time for the interview���

The interview
Making our way through the bar area of the Cockpit, where music filled the air, we realised we would need somewhere quiet to do the interview. We were then led through a door at the back of the bar, up some stairs and then found ourselves in the band's dressing room. Here we found various members of The Realistics, who had soundchecked earlier, and Colin, the tour manager, who was hard at work on his laptop. Fortunately there was a separate room which would provide a quiet location for the interview. John then set up his recording equipment, the guys gathered round in close proximity and we pressed record and off we went.

It was quite strange at first as I was very conscious of the microphone I was holding in front of me. However it was so easy talking to everyone that within a few minutes I had forgotten all about it.

We covered a whole range of subjects but, baring in mind the fact that many of the people who would eventually hear the interview on the radio would know little or nothing about Longwave, I focussed initially on their background, covering things like:

� Where they met;
� How the band formed;
� What they grew up listening to;
� Who were some of the key influences; and
� What made them turn to music as a career.

One thing that listeners to the interview will not be able to avoid is the sound of the gadget that Shannon uses for effect on Meet Me At The Bottom. It turns out that this was bought from a children's toy store and he could not resist playing with it throughout a good part of the interview!

We then covered the making of Endsongs, the current music scene, particularly in New York and the UK and obviously The Strangest Things and the influence Dave Fridmann had on the album.

In all we must have been talking about half an hour at least when we realised it was approaching 7pm and Longwave were getting hungry�.and so were we! So we wrapped things up and headed off in different directions to satisfy our hunger. Before we left the dressing room we checked the showtimes with Colin who confirmed that The Realistics were due on stage at 7.45pm, so we had to be fairly quick to catch their set. In the end, this turned out to be somewhat optimistic.

The start of things to come
We got back just in time for The Realistics set to start. However, things were clearly not going as planned. Much fiddling about with plugs, sockets and particularly the keyboards followed which finished up with Shannon's keyboard replacing The Realistics keyboard to get things started. It turned out that The Realistics had blown 2 out of the 3 transformers that were used to fit US sourced equipment to a UK power base. The Realistics set started at 8.20pm, some 35 minutes late. With a planned curfew of 10.15pm due to the fact that the Cockpit had a club night later on, time was already getting tight, so there was little scope for talking between songs. I had never heard The Realistics before but I enjoyed their set which was very tight in spite of the problems. One song, Angie, near the end of the set stood out, with Dennis doing what I can only describe as a "Rod Stewart" on it in terms of the performance��.great stuff!! I was certainly looking forward to hearing them playing again on the tour.

The finale
Longwave finally hit the stage at 9.20pm and, with a supposed curfew of 10.15pm, there was no time for delay to get their set in.

Wake Me When It's Over kicked things off very nicely. This song seems a perfect opener and is complemented very well by Everywhere You Turn which followed it. They then kicked straight into Pretty Face from Endsongs. However, halfway through the song, something blew which disabled Shannon's guitar, which is fairly significant in a song like Pretty Face. Steve carried the rest of the band through to the end of the song whilst Shannon and the sound guys tried to find out what the problem was. It turned out to be serious, as the last transformer had now blown. A 20 minute delay saw much frantic activity, resulting in various equipment being replaced by the stuff The Realistics had used earlier. Unfortunately this meant a change in set list as The Realistics used far fewer pedals and effects than Longwave. So Longwave went into a huddle in an adjacent room and emerged with a hastily re-written set list on the back of the old one. Songs like State of Mind, Day Sleeper, Exit and Make Me Whole (the usual set closer of recent times) had to be dropped.

Pool Song finally got things going again closely followed by a lovely version of I Know It's Coming Someday. Meet Me At The Bottom followed with Shannon using his "gadget" to good effect. One bonus from the changed set list was to follow - a great version of Crushed Down and Faded which I had not heard them play for a while.

One of my favourite songs of all, Tidal Wave, followed. This was due to run into The Ghosts Around You, as per the revised set list but this was dropped at the last minute due to time pressures to finish by curfew time. As a result we got All Sewn Up. The set closer was another bonus - a cover of 2000 Man by the Rolling Stones (from their Satanic Majesties Request album, for the uninitiated). Strangely this was a song that Steve had mentioned earlier in our interview when we had asked them what cover versions they had played in the past. Little did we know that we would hear it later in the evening�..in fact little did they know either! Anyway, it was a stomping version and a great set closer.

Overall the band seemed to get a good reception from a modest sized crowd. My next port of call was to be much closer to home in Manchester the day after next.

Manchester HMV acoustic set
A late bonus to the tour was finding out that on 24 February 2003, the day The Strangest Things was released, Longwave had organised an in store acoustic performance at the HMV music shop in the centre of Manchester. Fortunately this was not far from where I worked. Show time was planned for 1pm.

I arrived at HMV at around 12.50pm to be confronted by large displays of the Longwave album and James checking all the gear was in working order. A few other people had also started to gather. I asked James if they had got their technical problems sorted in Nottingham. As it turned out, James picked up some new gear in Derby where he lives so all was well in Nottingham. James reckoned the band put on a strong show in Nottingham but the crowd, as Nottingham crowds can be, were very quiet. That is something Manchester crowds are not, at least as a general rule�..time will tell.

Just after 1.10pm, the band emerged from a door on the basement floor of the shop where the gear had been set up. Steve led the way to where the stools were positioned for Shannon and himself. Dave and Mike positioned themselves next to a microphone stood to the right of the stage area as we looked on, where a modest crowd had now gathered. First up was Everywhere You Turn, an obvious choice being the current single. It was interesting hearing an acoustic version of this great song, and it worked too. It was obvious from what Steve said that they were not use to doing these kind of shows. Tidal Wave followed, although this was aborted just before the first chorus and re-started due to Steve finding an annoying hair in his mouth! By this point Mike had made his way to the side of the stage area. By song 3, it was just left to Shannon and Steve who produced a fine version of Pool Song. Exit proved to be the final song, with Steve running with it on his own.

Showtime over, the assembled throng gathered to get various discs autographed and I made my way back to work for the afternoon. I was aware that a few people did make their way down to the Piccadilly Box Office in town to pick up some Longwave tickets, so it obviously converted a few more people to the cause. This positive aspect is something I was able to relay to Colin and Steve later on.

Night and Day
This was my first visit to Night and Day in Manchester in spite of walking past it many times. Its fairly long and thin with a relatively small stage right at the far end, past the bar area. I arrived part way through a set by Adom and there was a reasonable crowd assembled already. I managed a quick chat with Steve after Adom had left the stage. I took the opportunity to put in a request for the set list�.either Escape or Best Kept Secret. Steve pushed me to choose one of them so I went for the latter, which did indeed make the set list.

After a quick chat with James to find out the inside story of what The Strokes were up to this year (don't expect them back in the UK until 2004 folks), The Realistics hit the stage again. This time it was an uninterrupted set which was well received by the growing crowd. I was really getting into the songs and afterwards I picked up a copy of their 7 track EP. I've played this a lot since then and I can highly recommend it.

Longwave finally hit the small and very badly lit stage - it was a nightmare trying to take photos with spot lights pointing straight at you. Anyway, it turned out to be a very tight performance which was well received by a reasonable crowd. The set list ran as follows:

� Wake Me When It's Over
� Everywhere You Turn
� Pool Song
� Pretty Face
� The Ghosts Around You
� All Sewn Up
� Best Kept Secret
� I Know It's Coming Someday
� Meet Me At The Bottom
� Tidal Wave
� Exit
� Day Sleeper
� Make Me Whole

In fact this was pretty much the set list they planned to run with in Leeds, albeit in a different order, before the technical problems put paid to that. With the small stage, they took the opportunity to leave the keyboards off stage and only lift them on for "Bottom".

It was certainly hot inside the Night and Day. Anyway, show over, I managed a quick chat with Dennis from The Realistics and Steve, and after picking up a souvenir drumstick, I was off home again. Just Liverpool to look forward to on the following Sunday.

Liverpool
The Barfly in Liverpool was another new venue for me. Holding 350 people, it's only a small place but there was quite a disappointing crowd really. This was the penultimate night of the UK tour before they headed off back to the US. There were still a couple of nice surprises in store for me though before the night was through.

With the band's dressing room behind the stage, I didn't get to see any of them before they hit the stage. I got there too late to catch Without Walls but I did get to speak to James on the sound. James confirmed that the London show had gone well and had sold out in advance, which is a small but encouraging sign. He also showed me the set list which had all the familiar songs on it but in quite a different order. It turns out that it was his turn to fashion the set list for the night!

The Realistics turned out another great set. As I had played the 7 track EP to death in the previous few days, most of it was very familiar to me now, which made it all the more enjoyable.

Longwave finally came on and kicked off with Exit, which was normally near the end of the set. I have to say that I still think "Wake" is the best opener for the set but that's just my opinion. A very moody version of Day Sleeper followed (affectionately labelled as Day Tripper on the printed set list). The next few songs comprised:

� Ghosts
� Bottom
� Everywhere
� Wake Me
� Pool Song
� All Sewn Up
� Someday.

It turned out to be a night of dedications with many of the above being dedicated to support bands, managers etc etc. State of Mind followed - something they played at the Leeds soundcheck but which got dropped from the actual set list due to the technical difficulties. I love this song and clearly The Realistics do too as it was dedicated to them due to the fact that they are always requesting Longwave to play it. The first big surprise was when Steve preceded Tidal Wave by saying that "this song is dedicated to our friend Ian"���.humbled yet again! This was followed by a rocking version of 2000 Man. Steve confirmed after the show that the arrangement of this song had been taken directly from a version of the song done by Kiss. I didn't really care who arranged it, the song just rocked. Final song was Make Me Whole, the usual show closer.

Talking to Steve after the show it was one he clearly enjoyed in spite of the very modest crowd that had turned out. In fact he said these kind of shows were far mor enjoyable than the likes of London, principally as they are far more relaxed. Shortly after I heard Steve mention their manager Jim, with whom I had exchanged numerous e-mails over the past few months. It was then that I realised that Jim Merlis was in the building! It's always great to meet people you have only known through e-mails, and when they manage a great rock'n'roll band its even better. Jim did confirm in our conversation that Longwave were planning some more UK shows in June 2003, preceding a visit to Glastonbury. This was just the kind of news I wanted to hear on my last night of this particular tour. Longwave may also return to the UK later in the year for a further visit.

Ending
After much conversation and a few photos I started to head down the stairs�..well everyone else had gone by this time! However as I got to the entrance I got talking to Mike James. We talked about many bands for whom we had a great respect including Dylan, the Beatles, Primal Scream, The Jesus and Mary Chain and even Oasis, although with respect to the latter there was a general consensus that they had gone off the boil somewhat���..not something you can level at Longwave who, for me, are on fire at the moment.

Well, my tour was now over, but I still had the new album to get me through to their next visit in June. I finally left Liverpool wondering when people are going to wake up to realise what a great band Longwave are���.."I know it's coming someday"!

Ian Corbridge March 2003