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ASHTAR DIARY'Boa vinda' (welcome) to my 'Ashtar Diary', where (time permitting!) I'll be posting updates throughout my month (May 2005) of playing keyboards for Brazilian 'celtic nu-metal /progressive band' Ashtar on their current European Tour. The good wishes from friends, fans and fellow musicians has been overwhelming, so I thought it would be nice to try and share a little of my experiences via this page. 7th May 2005 - Rotherham Rocks, UK
I met up with Ashtar, firstly bass player Fabio, and then around an hour later, at Alistair Flynn's house in Rotherham, Luiz (guitarist, whistle player vocalist and band leader), Oswaldo (violinist), Fernanda(lead vocals), Eduardo (guitarist), and Daniel (drummer). We had planned to get our one and only rehearsal in that evening, but due to hotel cock-ups and some very tired and weary travellers, and the unexpected visitors from the 'Arylin' party (Germany), who also had a nightmare with their hotel reservations, we decided to try and rehearse in the daytime on the morning of the gig. Room at Alistair's was a bit tight but the 9 of us who didn't have a hotel room slept heavily, apart from myself who was last to find a space and ended up in a small 2 seater chair with my feet interfering with the top of the curtains! I awoke with a thumping head-ache! (maybe it was the mixture of 'Guinness' and 'Schlhoss'!!). After a few strong coffee's though, we were soon working through the set and within a couple of hours felt confident enough for the evenings performance.
We played a great set with a few technical gremlins cutting the set a little short to about 40 minutes. But we got through Oblivious Scars, Soaring, In Lament Cries The Night and Children of the Mist / Ashes Are Burning and it was well very recieved by the enthusiastic 300+ audience. Next stop Switzerland!!! - bye for now So, it was without Eduardo that the band drove down to Dover late on Tuesday and caught the ferry to Calais, in the hire-van from Rotherham, (nicknamed the "Yellow Submarine" by Fabio!). They arrived later that same day, safe and sound in the beautiful lakeside town of VeVey, overlooking Lake Geneva (known locally as Lake Lemand) and the Swiss Alps. I flew in on (not so) Easyjet on the friday to join up with everyone and met our hosts Dr. Phillipe Schmutz and his family, Who were wonderful to us, letting us stay in their house. And the food? incredible!! An interesting fact about Vevey... chocolate (as we now know it) was invented there... my kinda place :-) We were able to get a few hours practise in on the friday night, and the next morning too. After a good lunch we moved onto the venue in Lausanne, a larger town, only 20 minutes down the road from Vevay. 'La Bomba' (or 'the bomb') is situated in a cosy, mirrored-ceiling basement (capacity 250) of a very nice resteraunt and bar in a region called Bossanens. The staff there were extremely helpful and acommadating to our needs, allowing us to run through the two hour set during soundcheck. The only problem that was that the roof of the stage was a little low, not enough room for Oswaldo's violin bow. so, he had to perform seated. We didn't go on stage until late (around 10.30pm which is quite normal in Switzerland). But the place was buzzing and pretty full by the time we started playing. Set wise, we played a really mixed set of traditional folk music, Ashtar songs and the odd Floyd moment. Set one... Introduction - She moved through the fair - Arriving at Skye - Druid Dream - Oblivious Scars - Murlogh Shore - Comfortably Numb - A Saucerful of Secrets -In Lament Cries the Night - Soaring - Musical Priest - Gravel Walk. Set two was, Children of the Mist - Ashes are Burning - Utrantia - old Ways - When Light Speeds to Infinity - Nemesis - outro - (encore - Arriving at Skye - Druid Dream We went down a storm with the audience and spent the remaining time signing cds and talking with everyone. (Cds, t-shirts and key-chains were selling like hot cakes!!!). We got back around 3 am, exhausted, but very satisfied with the performance and the gig in general. (I hope to be able to get some pictures on line before too long.) On Sunday, we spent the day relaxing by the lakeside and the evening, my last night in Switzerland, we gave a special acoustic performance to Philippe and his family (and friend!...yes, it was a very select and exlusive audience!). I flew back to the UK today, while Luiz, Fernanda, Daniel, Oswaldo and Fabio are staying with the Schmutz family for another couple of days and then driving through France to Holland to meet up again for the next date of our tour in Apeldoorn. So, next stop, the Netherlands! :-)
After a good nights sleep and a quick acoustic rehearsal for Eduardo in the hotel we were greated by the Bluescafe owner,Jan, at the club. Another late start (11pm) with again a few gremlins in the works during soundcheck but we played arguably our best gig yet of the tour. Set one... Introduction - She Moved Through the fair - Arriving at Skye - Druid Dream - Oblivious Scars - Murlogh Shore - Comfortably Numb - A Saucerful of Secrets -Set two.... old Ways - In Lament Cries the Night - Soaring - Musical Priest - Gravel Walk - Children of the Mist - Ashes are Burning - Utrantia - When Light Speeds to Infinity - Nemesis - outro - (encore - Arriving at Skye - Druid Dream The Dutch audience were super enthusiastic and special mention should go to Iago who flew from Hull and David who jetted in from Madrid just to catch the show. We made many new friends in Holland - a very special night again. The journey back to John Lennon Airport was a little hairy though as, in my sleepless state, i somehow managed to get on the wrong train and ended up in the middle of Amsterdam! (well, there are worse places to get stuck i suppose :-)), but i managed to get myself to Schiphol and onto the plane just in the nick of time. The rest of the band are driving through Holland, Belgium, France and the Uk and should arrive late on wednesday in good time (all being well) for Crewe on thursday night. personal thank you to Alistair and Geoff for the UK airport runs.
A healthy sized crowd welcomed us back to the UK stage and another great night. The Limelight in Crewe is a gem of a venue; a converted church with great natural acoustics, although the soundguy struggled a little with the complexities of our sound and equipment, and it was perhaps the worst sounding gig of the tour. However, it did improve during our shortened set and we played well, especially as most of the band had been jammed into the "Yellow Submarine" for 18 hours prior to the gig, and were pretty exhausted! The evening as a whole was very special for me as the headlining band were my friends, the superb Strangefish, who played an awesome set of new and old material, and their eagerly awaited new release, Fortune Telling, promises, from the live versions,to be outstanding, I'd even go as far as to say that it could be the best 'prog' album of this century so far. Nice to see many familiar faces, and to meet new friends. (A big hello to 'Rae' and Tracey). There was also a lot of fun after the show as Eduardo, Daniel, Oswaldo and Fabio showed off their Brazilian soccer talents on the dancefloor! Steve from the 'Fish' ably represented England with some very impressive keepy-upy skills too. Set list....She Moved Through the Fair - Druid Dream - Oblivious Scars - Soaring - Urantia - In Lament Cries the Night - When Light Speeds to Infinity - Nemesis - Madam Thrath
We were able to play a long set, and although the sound on stage was a bit hit and miss, the excellent crew produced a high quality front-of-house sound to help generate a magical atmosphere, aided by thick smoke from the dry-ice machine and other sources! Set List: Introduction - She Moved Through the Fair - Arriving At Sky - Druid Dream - Oblivious Scars - Soaring - Murlogh Shore - Comfortably Numb / A Saucerful of Secrets - Musical Priest / Gravel Train - Old Ways - In Lament Cries the Night - Urantia - Children of the Mist / Ashes Are Burning - Light Speeds th Infinity - Nemesis On stage, during the Floydy bits, we were having our ears blasted by my keyboards and had to ask for them to be turned down in the stage monitors - the soundguy duly oblidged by turning the keyboards ...OFF... in the monitors, so I had to play the last half of the gig by imagination and extreme concentration!!!
After the show we headed back to a friend (infact Alan, the main event organiser) 's house where he had erected a Yurt in the back garden of his idylically-located cottage for us to sleep in, in the heart of 'what the locals called 'the common'. I have to admit that we felt a little 'lost in the woods'and too tight a schedule meant that we sadly and rather tiredly, had to head back up the motorway to crash at my house (about 4 or 5am) to be nearer Newark and ensure at least a little rest.
Certainly, the best gig, sound-wise and possibly performance-wise for the headline gig on Newark Beer Festival's 10th anniversary. The large audience were very responsive, even cheering the few bars played during soundcheck! The band were in full force and played tighter, freer and more expressively than ever. This, I believe, was due to many factors - firstly Eduardo's brand new 'Les Paul Standard guitar' (bought at great expense) was damaged - so a lot of sadness, anger and togetherness which came out in our passionate performance. Secondly, the sound was probably the best (on-stage) of the tour, thirdly, we we're now very tight after nearly a month on the road together and , of course, this would be our last gig, on what has been an amazing life-affirming adventure for all concerned. Set List: Introduction - She Moved Through the Fair - Arriving At Sky - Druid Dream - Oblivious Scars - Soaring - Murlogh Shore - Comfortably Numb / A saucerful of Secrets - Musical Priest / Gravel Train - Old Ways - In Lament Cries the Night - Urantia - Children of the Mist / Ashes Are Burning After the gig we (a very hungry clan!) wandered around Newark looking fo something to eat. Hey Presto! We found the Newark Kebab and Pizza shop still open. All hail the mighty Kebab! We made it back to the Mailcoach pub in the centre of town in the eartly hours, where I bumped into Anna, a member of the Loscoe State Opera who regularly play in my local area. As this whole experience has confirmed - it's a very small world!. So that's about it. Fabio, Daniel and Oswaldo have already flown back to Rio, while Fernanda, Luiz and Eduardo are staying in the country until Friday to sort out Eduardo's guitar. Things are looking positive that it will be replaced for him. (fingers crossed!) Words cannot express what an incredible pleasure this tour has been. many thanks to Sally and to Ash for their support, merchandising, word spreading and images, and to Phillipe, Adie, and all the brilliant people who helped us on our quest, icluding the photographers who gave us hundreds of quality images, and all the wonderful people we met and came to see us. A final special mention to Alistair Flynn for getting me invloved with such great people and great musicians. Love and respect to 'the clan' Next stop, Rio de Janeiro :-) thanks for reading. Rob
Rotherham Rocks, UK photos Adrian the rock. Rotherham Rocks, UK photos Tim Ellis Blues Cafe, Holland photos Peter Vroon. (to view, click on 'quick to photos', then '7 Mei 2005'. There is also a slideshow version accessed by clicking on 'slideshows', scroll to bottom, click on 'Ashtar' to download). Malvern, UK photos Adrian the rock. fabass Fabio Guilherme's fotolog. Robs pics Photos from the tour. more photo's to follow soon....................... |
© Rob Gould. All Rights Reserved.
Due to tight scheduling there was no time for a sound check at the 'Oakwood' venue, so time was spent between the artistes hospitality room and catching some of the other excellent bands. There were a few heart-stopping moments within the hour leading up to our time on stage - The different voltage guitar effects from the Brazilian instruments meant they would blow if plugged into the English mains (indeed this is what happened to Luiz' Theremin!) - so we begged and borrowed 2 guitar effects from Arilyn and Mostly Autumn and the show could go on. 
Switzerland was fantastic! - albeit marred by the fact that guitarist Eduardo has been struck down by a nasty virus that prevented him from travelling. Infact, he has spent most part of the tour in hospital in England! The good news is that he's making a steady recovery and should be able to rejoin Ashtar in Holland later this week.
The good news is that Eduardo is out of hospital and was able to join me for the flight to the Netherlands. We arrived safe and sound in Apeldoorn. We had a small wait at the sation for the 'Yellow Submarine' while Luiz and Oswaldo attempted to navigate the relatively short distance for the b&b to the station as the roads in the city are extremely confusing due to the many 'bicycles only' roads. It wasn't long though before we were tucking in to humungously large kebabs next door to the blues cafe venue.
First stop back in the UK was at Rob Leighton's (Radio Caroline radio presenter) house, where Alistair Flynn interviewed Luiz for the Imagination Show. We were made to feel very welcome, fed and watered and sent on our way to Crewe with expert directions, feeling a little fresher than when the band arrived back in Rotherham from mainland Europe in the early hours of the very same morning.
A blistering hot day in the grounds of the Malvern Theatres, Wintergardens complex. A glorious setting for Malvern's first free festival in years. a large crowd filled the banking infront of the bandstand and enjoyed, firstly, the support band K'Aliens who played a mixture of folk covers and classic tunes, and secondly, an on-form Ashtar! 
And so, to the last gig of the tour.