Well here we are at the famous Railway Club in Vancouver, where a model train rolls above and all around the club all night. A jolly, raucous show, with support act Joey Only and the Outlaw Band uploading a big, bouncy crowd who are all confirmed country rock and roll addicts as of now.
In particular a large chap named Steve, a plumber by profession, who had this tale to tell;
He was at Jericho Beach, near Vancouver last summer, with his girlfriend. They went out for a swim, and returned to the beach, which was deserted. On a rock just by their towels and clothes, was a cd, which proved to be The Re-Mains compilation. There was nobody in sight. Steve duly took the cd and played it at home. It is now on high rotation on his ipod and he knew the words to all the songs on it, though as he got drunker on Red Truck Ale his diction became less articulate.
One of the bargirls was from Perth, which explained why she sounded like a Kiwi. She was last seen leaping hysterically to ‘Folksinger Blues’.
We’re soon to take possession of the Canadian version of our new album ‘Inland Sea’, impeccably recorded out at Christian Pyle’s Lot 64 studios. If last night is anything to go by, they oughta sell by the truckload over here.
Month: September 2009
Roaming B.C. – June 16
We’ve been roaming the wilds of northern British Columbia for over a week now. Epic grandeur abounds – gargantuan mountains rearing on all sides, we’ve been crisscrossing the mighty Fraser River as it loops across the province, makings its way down to Vancouver. Yestarday we came to its source, Moose Lake, a massive body of water folded in between dignified peaks, marbled in snow, topped by their own cloud formations. We’ve seen bear, moose, and plenty of other wild animals, particularly in the Zoo at Fort St James.
This bar well deserves the title, from the outside it looks like a derelict building. Inside, stuffed wolves, cougars and mountain goats glare at the patrons, a rogues gallery whose antics caused the bar to be given the honorific of ‘bar where you’re most likely to have your ear bitten off” in a BC magazine. Joey Only, the punk-rock country redneck we’ve been touring with, knows them all and they treated us kindly, engaging in a blood sport known locally as ‘dancing’ – to us it looked like a rabid pack of werewolves fighting to see who gets to rush the stage first.
We’re on the trail of Aurora Jane out here, she toured recently through these parts and played the Dunster Music festival last year. Yesterday we dropped into the site, a gorgeous setting directly under the mountains, encircled by the looping river.
Curtis the Singin Chevy – July 8
The extraordinary thing about bureaucracy is the different versions you can have of any one supposedly set-in-concrete law. Thus when we were trying to change the registration of Curtis, our indomitable Chevrolet Van, over from the name of the generous Canadian who originally insured him for us, I spoke to a variety of desk-denizens, most of whom told me similar yet different versions of what I’d need to do the job.
Armed with the knowledge that I could probably get it done we drove two hundred kilometres through the Rockies, not in itself an onerous task in this glorious weather with the elk out chewing the grassy verges and the constant threat of bears browsing. Having to cross the border into British Columbia to be validified, we arrived in Golden only to get a different version of the bylaws involved. And were told that we couldn’t swap the rego over with what we had. Oh dear.
So its back to Calgary, where the other night our backyard party was interrupted by the fire brigade, in full lights and sirens blazing-mode, arriving to douse our small campfire owing to its imminent threat to the neighbourhood. We were told that it was against a bylaw.
Less than thrilled, we broke a dozen more bylaws by partying till dawn, to ensure we had horrific hangovers for our fruitless drive to BC. Viva le Revolution.
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Saskatchewan – 14th July
Our last show was 200 kilometres down a dirt road in the middle of Saskatchewan. It had been raining, so the black dirt of the prairies was thick and sticky as hot tar. We were shown to an old barn by our host, an enormously fat man with bifocals who proffered doughnuts – the meal we had been promised.
Our audience consisted mainly of elderly people – most of whom promptly fell asleep. We played a subdued set – we were enormously hungover after our two nights in a row at Lydia’s in Saskatoon. In our break we were shown around the farm – a few heifers had wandered over, curious over the strains of banjo and watched as we pottered around flower beds and green paddocks now sparkling in brilliant sunshine. Uncle Burnin’ Love was sleeping it off in the van and Jones was beside him nursing a sore nose from his face plant outside the pub at 5am.
Back in the shed – my mike stand consisting of a cow prodder gaffa-taped to some farm implements – we played some more to the resting concert goers. Then we motored off – with another plate of doughnuts donated by our host. We’ve got a few days off before playing to five thousand at the Ness Creek Festival. That’s up in bear country, in the north where there’s more lakes than mosquitoes – and those buggers bite you through your jeans.
Home
Back from Canada for three weeks, the Re-Mains are settling into their old habits nicely – we played two shows at our old stomping grounds, Nimbin and Lennox Head pubs, on the weekend. Nimbin was, as ever, a brilliant, bawdy experience. The much-maligned hamlet is, for mine, the most vibrant and important town in the region, a brawling, majestic colony of the furthest reaches of the human condition. Playing there is a unique privilege and its good to see folk I’ve known there for years still responding to the majesty of country rock and roll. At Lennox the Trojan’s had won their final and were carousing steadily – they had no choice but to submit to the sinister powers of the banjo.
Which brings me back to Canada – and another epic tour conducted in Curtis, our doughty V8 Chevy Van, which swallowed 18,000 kilometres as we played 51 shows across that gargantuan nation. Highlights included playing Breakfast TV in Calgary, criss-crossing the Rockies to play such remote venues as the Zoo in Prince George, venue voted most likely to have your ear bitten off in, and supporting the likes of the Joey Only Outlaw Band, the Secretaries, the Bush Pilots and The Beauties, all bands that I consider among the best I’ve ever seen.
Mick Daley - Musician and Author. 