Flying out – May 30 ’09

Notwithstanding terrorist onslaughts, an on-board pandemic or simply being turned back at the border for being unbelievably scruffy, by the time you read this we’ll be in Vancouver and about to play our first show of the tour at the Railway Club. Tom Jones will be calm and unruffled after his first class upgrade, waited on hand and foot by vivacious hosties, and spoilt for the rest of the trip, marked as it will inevitably be, by a distinct lack of such courtesy aboard Curtis, out trusty V8 Chevy van.
The rest of us, flying cattle class, will have a few days to iron out the kinks, get the bus registered, buy amps, strings and the usual geegaws, and gawp at the crackheads shuffling about like zombies through the streets of this egalitarian and decidedly urbane city, perched on the skirt of the Rockies and with the Pacific Ocean heaving politely to starboard.
It’s Shaun and Al’s first overseas jaunt, and features two seriously big festivals, and a heap of great venues all over this enormous nation. We’re touring with Dr Joey Only’s Outlaw Band through British Columbia and Alberta, the Secretaries in Alberta and Manitoba, and the Bush Pilots in Ontario. All in all, a massive undertaking. Wish us luck.