The Jolie Holland tour, part 2

And then Anders and I drive from Hamburg to Utrecht to meet Jolie and Mike, who just flew in from Portland the night before and spent the night in Amsterdam.

And so here we all were, meeting on stage for the first time. We all know each other individually, but this is the first time we’ve all been in the same room together. And we had a gig to do in a couple of hours.

So, we got cracking and set up for soundcheck, which also served as a rehearsal of sorts.

We quickly realised within about five seconds that we’d be okay, and everyone knew roughly what they were doing. The gig would be the real rehearsal.

After the show, it felt like we had already been a band for months. Time ceased to exist. It seems longer than only a week ago now.

Next day we rolled to Rotterdam.

And then a surprise day off before we hit Brussels.

Three shows down.

Time to hit the ferry to the UK, and drive to Leek for gig number four. After that, we drove to Tanworth-in-Arden to visit the graveside of Nick Drake.

“And now we rise, and we are everywhere” – the words from his final song on his final album etched into the back of his gravestone. Very apt for Easter Sunday, the day we visited. It was worth the detour en route to London to play Bush Hall, where The Who used to rehearse. We decided to adopt a Nick Drake song for the set that night. I ran into some old friends at the show before packing the cab and driving to Cambridge to spend the night. The next morning, we visited Syd Barrett’s house and decided to adopt a song of his to open the show that night.

On the drive toward Birmingham, we considered a pilgrimage to John Bonham’s grave, but we didn’t know any Led Zeppelin songs to adopt for the show that night.

Midnight in Birmingam marked the birthday of Anders, so we secretly wrote a song for him in the van before the show, and gave him the honour of playing the solo live on stage in front of a packed crowd the first time he heard it. The song turned out pretty darn good, and I presume we’ll adopt it for the rest of the shows. But wait…

Who booked this tour?

The next gig is in Belfast!

We just drove all night to catch the ferry in Scotland, and now we wait in the rain while I type this with a frazzled mind that’s running on two hours sleep.

How many countries have we driven through in the last week?

I think it’s in double figures.

And how many days has been in this week?

Double figures again?

I really can’t tell anymore.

The clock has gone overboard.

What year even is this?

My brain has turned to mush.

Autopilot mode.

Belfast here we come.

And in 20 hours we’ll be back here in Scotland to play Edinburgh. Then Manchester. Then brighton. Then Spain. Then Italy. Then Switzerland. Denmark. Then Somewhere else. Then somewhere else… Home is far away. But it’s also right here.