heres a copy of the tour report i posted on www.anathema.ws
but dont use it as an excuse not to visit the site!
anathema tour report 2004 by danny.
best tour ever? possibly. who can say? without doubt it was an experience that all of us, band, crew and the people in the audience, have really enjoyed.
the reasons?
good crowds, good set list, good light show, good crew, the list goes on...however, i feel the true reason this tour has been so successful is because anathema seems to have found real consensus and direction.
it started with the rehearsals that never were. les has a little studio near his home in yorkshire and we convened there to rehearse before the tour. the extent of our practises (we have never been a band that really enjoys rehearsing) involved running through a few numbers before getting a bit bored and just jamming out a few crazy improvised tunes and stuff. then going off to the pub. that was about the extent of it. it actually beats the 'fine day' tour rehearsals, when we set up for half a day and just played beatles songs..
the first gig was in belgium and was a bit of a disaster in terms of technical problems, but in terms of atmosphere and general crowd/band interaction, was a really good night. as belgium always is.
first song in, 'balance', and we thought we were off.. after the first 2 minutes of keyboard stuff, i gear up to play my first loud power chord of the tour..
and nothing comes out.
what a great start..
i have to stop the band when we should have run straight into 'closer' to fix it.. we managed for a while but it was half way through the set before we really found out what the problem was. i had only plugged a lead into the wrong plug! bloody technology! everybody's gear fucked up, but it was still a good night. afterwards as usual we met friends old and new, hung around, then left for holland.
with the new songs in the set, and the addition of lee douglas to the line up, we all knew this was a different anathema we were presenting this time, and it only took until the next day at utrecht in holland for us to hit full steam. this was one of many really good nights, and i can probably sum up this 'new anathema' just by
describing this particular gig.
for a start, the new songs are a welcome addition. tracks like 'closer' 'flying' and 'a natural disaster' are a lot of fun to play, and when we hit quality venues, like the ones in holland for example, where the stage sound is inevitably superb, the intensity of the songs can really come across to us as well as (hopefully) the people.
bringing lee along adds a new dimension to the sound of the band too, and it is something we are keen to develop further. she herself felt really comfortable on the tour and sang great every night. a real talent and a real friend.
the gig in utrecht was very enjoyable, a good dutch crowd turned out to see us in one of my favourite towns in holland. add to that lots of friends of old turning up to the gig, a disco afterwards, great hospitality from the tivoli, and a really easygoing atmosphere between all the band and crew, and it all adds up to one thing.
harmony.
and fun.
2 things.
and rock.
3 things.
that reminds me of..
(our chief weapon is surprise, fear and surprise our two chief weapons are fear and surprise...and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope. our three weapons...
..err..i'll come in again..)
it was between utrecht and tilburg that we added a new member to the tour entourage. a few of you may have seen him near the drums onstage at some gigs. his name is horace and this is a picture of him..
tilburg was next, second of two dutch shows, and we were supported by a really good dutch band called 'lawn'. very nice to have quality music to listen to before we do our stuff. (although i must add that vincent did a DJ session at quite a lot of the venues before we played, and 'godspeed you black emperor - the gathering storm' was played before every gig, always got me in the mood)
the lawn album is very good i have to say, tracks 2 and 3 are doing it for me at the moment. not metal at
all, but a little bit cleverer with guitars than your average modern metal band in my opinion. a touch of mogwai about them too so i am not complaining.
no 'are you there' in the set yet, that will take a bit more rehearsals in the soundchecks. that was the idea, practise in the soundcheck new tracks that we would play that night. it actually worked!
in tilburg i personally felt like i was playing to quite alot of friends, not to a crowd. everywhere i looked there were people i recognised. holland is always a pleasure to visit, and this time was no exception. ended up going to a local rock pub that took us over an hour to find. old mates from holland had waited for us, so it was cool. cheers piet and the others! ten yaar en nederland indeed!
germany was the revelation of the tour for me though.
what a great place! the crowds every night were fantastic, very friendly people from where i was standing. what's more, the venues really look after the bands properly, no matter what their size or budget.
i loved the gigs in germany, and the place holds more meaning for me now than it did before.
bochum was our first stop. we did not know what to expect as ticket sales in the weeks leading up to the tour had not been too promising. but it was a saturday night in the matrix and the place was packed. the disco afterwards mixed great rock with something approaching crap rock, but who cares when your having fun?
a nice night this one for sure.
berlin was a good night too but if there was one gig on the tour were the band had an 'off night' it was here. we did the gig ok and people seemed to like it, but we came offstage a little deflated. i wasn't worried at all because i knew we would hit the nail on the head the next day in hamburg and that is exactly what happened. for dinner they ordered us a tai meal though so i went for tai green curry 'o chicken which more than made up for feeling a bit dodgy whilst playing pulled under.
by this time our crew is really on top of things. andy watson the lighting technician used the dynamics of the music to create a light show that really made great use of the limited lights (by his usual standards) that he had. i was so pleased he joined us for this tour.
he is such a character that i will leave it for an alternative tour report written by the other guys to describe just how funny this guy (and this whole tour) really was. i just left it to him to do what he wanted with the light show, knowing full well it would look great.
same goes for both our soundmen, timo and raymond. two dutch blokes, as professional as they come, and very talented too. we can't imagine touring without these two guys. you can trust them to get results from even
the dodgy PA systems, (and one or two of them were not the best)
our two stage technicians, mick and ali, both very knowledgable in their own field, made sure all the equipment was fine and that all the gigs went smoothly. two real characters there if ever there was one...er.. two!
our merchandise guy was sandor of holland, practically a brother in law to jay, and so to me and vinny too. a great lad to work with. he had fun on his first tour with us and worked very well at his job.
les mixed crew and band and lack of sleep with the minimum of fuss.. he was keyboard player and tour manager and general jack of all trades on the tour. no idea where we would be without him. a few nights he had a few drinks and the old lector would come out, but generally, was the
man responsible, and so kept the whole tour ticking over smoothly.
and last but by no means least, the one and only nigel,
our bus driver, who drove us everywhere safe as houses, who warmed to us all.. and provided his own entertainment in soundchecks. it was hard to get him off the keyboard sometimes! we actually jammed on a riff of his in the soundcheck in aschaffenburg, i remember i was doing the lyrics and it was about hangovers. vinny on drums and john on guitar, with nigel jamming out his pretty groovy synth-bass line.. should have recorded it. i've seen people dancing in clubs all serious to worse songs than that. it sounded pretty good. maybe a little 'daft punk-ish' or something..nigel was proud anyway
anyway, the hamburg gig was great because the crowd were very warm, very close and we pulled out all the stops knowing we had been 'maybe not so good' the night before. had a meal in the australian restaurant next door before the gig. there was a australian bloke singing acoustic in there and he ended up doing the theme tune to 'home and away' while we all joined in.
bonza mate!!!
in hamburg we had a photo and interview session in a sauna for stalker magazine. what great things saunas are! then it was drinks in hamburg in the only bar we could find that wasn't some strip joint or other. loads of classic 60's music on too...
les went the toilets and at the same time some wierd german bloke wearing a long leather coat and hat (and not much else) walked in the pub and made straight for the toilet making funny noises. needless to say les made a pretty sharp exit...
its a magnet for headcases the reperbahn...
i remember us all staying up till well late that night talking about the future of the band and having a rock shout. average bed time on the tour for me must have been 5 to 7 am or something... oh well.. you only live once eh?
glauchau, east germany next to be supported by a local band with quite a lot of pyrotechnics and a singer who dressed like a pharaoh. entertaining stuff.
then it was off to poland..
poland is one of the best places for anathema to play just because of the sheer numbers of people who turn up, as well as their enthusiasm.
also, we made a new discovery...the polish sway'..
when were doing one of the softer tracks, where the crowd obviously can't mosh around and that, they all took to swaying in unison to the tempo of the song. les said they reminded him of penguins.. i found it very endearing.
ho ho ho..
we filmed the DVD in krakow. that was a busy day. it was non stop from the moment we got up. soundcheck early in the morning, followed by photos and interviews, all that stuff. the gig itself was a strange one, but a good one i feel. with so much building up to this one performance, i guess it could never really go exactly to plan. if it had been scheduled another week into the tour, we may have been a little tighter, but generally i thought it was good. we gave it our best shot anyway. we'll see how it turns out.
great gigs as always in poland. cheers you guys!
back to germany.
nurenburg.
a good venue the hirsch, good food too. by this time i am getting well into medal of honour for the PS2 on the bus. quite good shooting nazis in nurenburg of all places. theres a support band called opalessence for the next leg of german dates. they were nice people, had a few good tunes and were easy going and pretty professional for a young band. we wish them luck.
by this time, new additions have made it into the setlist such as 'are you there' 'wings of god' 'barriers' 'everwake' and 'albatross' by fleetwood mac. i guess thats half the reason i prefer this tour to previous ones. i just think the music is better. the new songs seem to be just as well recieved as old ones too which is a good sign. things seemed to have taken a step up since the last tour. saw signs of a newer, younger generation coming to the gigs too. seems to bode well for the future..
aschaffenburg and karlsruhe saw me and vinny doing 'wish you were here' on acoustics for an encore because by this time john was getting a bit exhausted. its quite a workout playing like that for nearly 2 hours a night. he did so well though. there's better drummers in the world but give me john every time. same goes for the other guys, vinny, les, jay and lee...its a good team and that's the main thing.
munich was a disco afterwards in another part of the venue. top stuff played there. alot of ska and good punk stuff, as well as motorhead and AC/DC and the rest.
even played bad religion. can't go wrong. the only thing they never played and should have done, was nirvana.
that beer desperado's is naughty stuff. tastes great, goes down quick and is well strong. very pleasant.
pratteln in switzerland is one those really good venues where the facilities are superb, the dinner is great and you can wash all your clothes too. alot more people turned up than last time too, which is useful cos the place is a bit big.
some nice but drunk bloke spilled jack daniels and coke on me then spent half an hour apologising. i tried to tell him it didn't matter as i was hammered on desperados the night before but i think it fell on deaf ears... if your reading this mate, its ok!!
the last four dates of the tour were all in italy and again, its a great place for us to play, because of the people. thats mostly why i like doing this so much. We get to meet alot of the people who come to the concerts and they are really nice to us. its such a pleasure for me to meet and make friends through the band. it keeps me going through the not so good days.
first one in italy had quite a few problems onstage. not least me getting minor electric shocks every time i touched the microphone. still our attitude is to 'give it some anyway'.
vinny got me going cos i was pissed off about the microphone. i can rely on vinny to get me up for it when i am a bit...how can i put it...catatonic? no... erm... withdrawn.. anyway in the end we did the business.
but if i had to choose one gig in our recent career, one gig where i feel we really started to gel musically, and get close to where we all want the band to be, it would have to be milano.
15 gigs into the tour and we were tight. a superb venue the transylvania is too, one of the best i have seen in europe in some respects.
this was a special night. i remember it sounded great on stage (which is not always the case) the people were loud and enthusiastic (as always in italy)
but most of all i remember playing the fast stuff like panic and pulled under and we were so locked in it was great to hear. flying and temporary peace were also about the best we have played them. needless to say, lee brought the house down as usual.
"now.."
i thought..
"this is a real band.."
although i could mention we were doing the ultra mellow 'albatross' and there was a tom waits song from the sound desk that was coming through the monitors... or i could mention john finishing 'closer' 16 bars early. but i am splitting hairs here.. it was the best we ever played and that's that.
..i don't.
i personally do not think we are as good as some people say we are..
i am under no illusions about the quality of our material. certain songs do the business for sure..
but we have not yet matched the brilliance of something like 'ok computer' 'wish you were here' or other great works.. but we are getting better, and i think, in our own way, one day (soon) we will do it.
went out for a meal in rome centre and did the tourist bit. don't often get the chance to do that. good to be in a place that is so historic.
our last gig was in treviso, and was a bit of a 'no rules' gig. towards the end we started playing whatever we felt like. lee asked for phantom of the opera, and other surprises followed that one.
there wasn't a single gig that i didn't enjoy, there wasn't a single time where i wished i was somewhere else, and just about everyone i met was gracious or helpful or friendly or just plain nice.
so i must say a big hello and thank you to all the old friends we met out there.. and to all the new ones too.. to the band and crew and the agents and promoters who put it all on. its been a pleasure to play for you all. i can't wait to get out and do this again.
and get even better.
cheers everyone!
danny. february 17th, 2004. 5.05 am
but dont use it as an excuse not to visit the site!
anathema tour report 2004 by danny.
best tour ever? possibly. who can say? without doubt it was an experience that all of us, band, crew and the people in the audience, have really enjoyed.
the reasons?
good crowds, good set list, good light show, good crew, the list goes on...however, i feel the true reason this tour has been so successful is because anathema seems to have found real consensus and direction.
it started with the rehearsals that never were. les has a little studio near his home in yorkshire and we convened there to rehearse before the tour. the extent of our practises (we have never been a band that really enjoys rehearsing) involved running through a few numbers before getting a bit bored and just jamming out a few crazy improvised tunes and stuff. then going off to the pub. that was about the extent of it. it actually beats the 'fine day' tour rehearsals, when we set up for half a day and just played beatles songs..
the first gig was in belgium and was a bit of a disaster in terms of technical problems, but in terms of atmosphere and general crowd/band interaction, was a really good night. as belgium always is.
first song in, 'balance', and we thought we were off.. after the first 2 minutes of keyboard stuff, i gear up to play my first loud power chord of the tour..
and nothing comes out.
what a great start..
i have to stop the band when we should have run straight into 'closer' to fix it.. we managed for a while but it was half way through the set before we really found out what the problem was. i had only plugged a lead into the wrong plug! bloody technology! everybody's gear fucked up, but it was still a good night. afterwards as usual we met friends old and new, hung around, then left for holland.
describing this particular gig.
for a start, the new songs are a welcome addition. tracks like 'closer' 'flying' and 'a natural disaster' are a lot of fun to play, and when we hit quality venues, like the ones in holland for example, where the stage sound is inevitably superb, the intensity of the songs can really come across to us as well as (hopefully) the people.
bringing lee along adds a new dimension to the sound of the band too, and it is something we are keen to develop further. she herself felt really comfortable on the tour and sang great every night. a real talent and a real friend.
the gig in utrecht was very enjoyable, a good dutch crowd turned out to see us in one of my favourite towns in holland. add to that lots of friends of old turning up to the gig, a disco afterwards, great hospitality from the tivoli, and a really easygoing atmosphere between all the band and crew, and it all adds up to one thing.
harmony.
and fun.
2 things.
and rock.
3 things.
that reminds me of..
(our chief weapon is surprise, fear and surprise our two chief weapons are fear and surprise...and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope. our three weapons...
..err..i'll come in again..)
it was between utrecht and tilburg that we added a new member to the tour entourage. a few of you may have seen him near the drums onstage at some gigs. his name is horace and this is a picture of him..
the lawn album is very good i have to say, tracks 2 and 3 are doing it for me at the moment. not metal at
all, but a little bit cleverer with guitars than your average modern metal band in my opinion. a touch of mogwai about them too so i am not complaining.
no 'are you there' in the set yet, that will take a bit more rehearsals in the soundchecks. that was the idea, practise in the soundcheck new tracks that we would play that night. it actually worked!
in tilburg i personally felt like i was playing to quite alot of friends, not to a crowd. everywhere i looked there were people i recognised. holland is always a pleasure to visit, and this time was no exception. ended up going to a local rock pub that took us over an hour to find. old mates from holland had waited for us, so it was cool. cheers piet and the others! ten yaar en nederland indeed!
what a great place! the crowds every night were fantastic, very friendly people from where i was standing. what's more, the venues really look after the bands properly, no matter what their size or budget.
i loved the gigs in germany, and the place holds more meaning for me now than it did before.
bochum was our first stop. we did not know what to expect as ticket sales in the weeks leading up to the tour had not been too promising. but it was a saturday night in the matrix and the place was packed. the disco afterwards mixed great rock with something approaching crap rock, but who cares when your having fun?
a nice night this one for sure.
by this time our crew is really on top of things. andy watson the lighting technician used the dynamics of the music to create a light show that really made great use of the limited lights (by his usual standards) that he had. i was so pleased he joined us for this tour.
he is such a character that i will leave it for an alternative tour report written by the other guys to describe just how funny this guy (and this whole tour) really was. i just left it to him to do what he wanted with the light show, knowing full well it would look great.
same goes for both our soundmen, timo and raymond. two dutch blokes, as professional as they come, and very talented too. we can't imagine touring without these two guys. you can trust them to get results from even
the dodgy PA systems, (and one or two of them were not the best)
our two stage technicians, mick and ali, both very knowledgable in their own field, made sure all the equipment was fine and that all the gigs went smoothly. two real characters there if ever there was one...er.. two!
our merchandise guy was sandor of holland, practically a brother in law to jay, and so to me and vinny too. a great lad to work with. he had fun on his first tour with us and worked very well at his job.
les mixed crew and band and lack of sleep with the minimum of fuss.. he was keyboard player and tour manager and general jack of all trades on the tour. no idea where we would be without him. a few nights he had a few drinks and the old lector would come out, but generally, was the
man responsible, and so kept the whole tour ticking over smoothly.
our bus driver, who drove us everywhere safe as houses, who warmed to us all.. and provided his own entertainment in soundchecks. it was hard to get him off the keyboard sometimes! we actually jammed on a riff of his in the soundcheck in aschaffenburg, i remember i was doing the lyrics and it was about hangovers. vinny on drums and john on guitar, with nigel jamming out his pretty groovy synth-bass line.. should have recorded it. i've seen people dancing in clubs all serious to worse songs than that. it sounded pretty good. maybe a little 'daft punk-ish' or something..nigel was proud anyway
anyway, the hamburg gig was great because the crowd were very warm, very close and we pulled out all the stops knowing we had been 'maybe not so good' the night before. had a meal in the australian restaurant next door before the gig. there was a australian bloke singing acoustic in there and he ended up doing the theme tune to 'home and away' while we all joined in.
bonza mate!!!
in hamburg we had a photo and interview session in a sauna for stalker magazine. what great things saunas are! then it was drinks in hamburg in the only bar we could find that wasn't some strip joint or other. loads of classic 60's music on too...
les went the toilets and at the same time some wierd german bloke wearing a long leather coat and hat (and not much else) walked in the pub and made straight for the toilet making funny noises. needless to say les made a pretty sharp exit...
its a magnet for headcases the reperbahn...
i remember us all staying up till well late that night talking about the future of the band and having a rock shout. average bed time on the tour for me must have been 5 to 7 am or something... oh well.. you only live once eh?
glauchau, east germany next to be supported by a local band with quite a lot of pyrotechnics and a singer who dressed like a pharaoh. entertaining stuff.
then it was off to poland..
poland is one of the best places for anathema to play just because of the sheer numbers of people who turn up, as well as their enthusiasm.
also, we made a new discovery...the polish sway'..
when were doing one of the softer tracks, where the crowd obviously can't mosh around and that, they all took to swaying in unison to the tempo of the song. les said they reminded him of penguins.. i found it very endearing.
ho ho ho..
great gigs as always in poland. cheers you guys!
back to germany.
nurenburg.
a good venue the hirsch, good food too. by this time i am getting well into medal of honour for the PS2 on the bus. quite good shooting nazis in nurenburg of all places. theres a support band called opalessence for the next leg of german dates. they were nice people, had a few good tunes and were easy going and pretty professional for a young band. we wish them luck.
by this time, new additions have made it into the setlist such as 'are you there' 'wings of god' 'barriers' 'everwake' and 'albatross' by fleetwood mac. i guess thats half the reason i prefer this tour to previous ones. i just think the music is better. the new songs seem to be just as well recieved as old ones too which is a good sign. things seemed to have taken a step up since the last tour. saw signs of a newer, younger generation coming to the gigs too. seems to bode well for the future..
aschaffenburg and karlsruhe saw me and vinny doing 'wish you were here' on acoustics for an encore because by this time john was getting a bit exhausted. its quite a workout playing like that for nearly 2 hours a night. he did so well though. there's better drummers in the world but give me john every time. same goes for the other guys, vinny, les, jay and lee...its a good team and that's the main thing.
munich was a disco afterwards in another part of the venue. top stuff played there. alot of ska and good punk stuff, as well as motorhead and AC/DC and the rest.
even played bad religion. can't go wrong. the only thing they never played and should have done, was nirvana.
that beer desperado's is naughty stuff. tastes great, goes down quick and is well strong. very pleasant.
some nice but drunk bloke spilled jack daniels and coke on me then spent half an hour apologising. i tried to tell him it didn't matter as i was hammered on desperados the night before but i think it fell on deaf ears... if your reading this mate, its ok!!
the last four dates of the tour were all in italy and again, its a great place for us to play, because of the people. thats mostly why i like doing this so much. We get to meet alot of the people who come to the concerts and they are really nice to us. its such a pleasure for me to meet and make friends through the band. it keeps me going through the not so good days.
first one in italy had quite a few problems onstage. not least me getting minor electric shocks every time i touched the microphone. still our attitude is to 'give it some anyway'.
vinny got me going cos i was pissed off about the microphone. i can rely on vinny to get me up for it when i am a bit...how can i put it...catatonic? no... erm... withdrawn.. anyway in the end we did the business.
but if i had to choose one gig in our recent career, one gig where i feel we really started to gel musically, and get close to where we all want the band to be, it would have to be milano.
15 gigs into the tour and we were tight. a superb venue the transylvania is too, one of the best i have seen in europe in some respects.
this was a special night. i remember it sounded great on stage (which is not always the case) the people were loud and enthusiastic (as always in italy)
but most of all i remember playing the fast stuff like panic and pulled under and we were so locked in it was great to hear. flying and temporary peace were also about the best we have played them. needless to say, lee brought the house down as usual.
"now.."
i thought..
"this is a real band.."
although i could mention we were doing the ultra mellow 'albatross' and there was a tom waits song from the sound desk that was coming through the monitors... or i could mention john finishing 'closer' 16 bars early. but i am splitting hairs here.. it was the best we ever played and that's that.
---------------------------------------------------------
i say these things with pride but not because i think we are the dog's bollocks (meaning very very good)
..i don't.
i personally do not think we are as good as some people say we are..
i am under no illusions about the quality of our material. certain songs do the business for sure..
but we have not yet matched the brilliance of something like 'ok computer' 'wish you were here' or other great works.. but we are getting better, and i think, in our own way, one day (soon) we will do it.
---------------------------------------------------------
rome next and a another enthusiastic crowd. loud and italian and all that goes with it.. they were great.
went out for a meal in rome centre and did the tourist bit. don't often get the chance to do that. good to be in a place that is so historic.
our last gig was in treviso, and was a bit of a 'no rules' gig. towards the end we started playing whatever we felt like. lee asked for phantom of the opera, and other surprises followed that one.
there wasn't a single gig that i didn't enjoy, there wasn't a single time where i wished i was somewhere else, and just about everyone i met was gracious or helpful or friendly or just plain nice.
so i must say a big hello and thank you to all the old friends we met out there.. and to all the new ones too.. to the band and crew and the agents and promoters who put it all on. its been a pleasure to play for you all. i can't wait to get out and do this again.
and get even better.
cheers everyone!
danny. february 17th, 2004. 5.05 am
.. 
