Monday 5 November 2007

Never bundle

I have learnt my lesson the hard way.

After maybe one sip too many mulled wine I got rather over-excited and starting rugby-tackling my 'friends' whilst we were all watching the fireworks from the top of Alexandra Palace hill.

I found it all very funny watching the big guys fall over, until someone took it too far. He did it back to me and now I can't move my neck. Moan moan moan.

This is war, he thinks he is forgiven but wait till it next gets dark. His name is Roshan, if you see him, tell him I'm looking for him.

And he laughed afterwards!!

Wednesday 5 September 2007

New York

We are back! Still a little dazed after the flight as I stupidly took 2 night nurse with one hour left of flying thinking we still had another 4 hours....

We're in the lovely Brooklyn right now, staying with Ladybug's Gary before the first gig with Peter Bjorn & John tomorrow night.

Off alla spiaggia now,

Molti baci, x

Wednesday 8 August 2007

Benicassim and beyond!


What fun we had in Benicassim!

I got stuck in the path of Iggy Pop as he finished his pretty amazing gig and ended up having his wiry and very tanned am around my neck as he walked back to his dressing room. The conversation went something like his....

"Good gig Iggy"
"Hey Baby, what's your name baby?"
"Mel"
"You from England baby?"
"Why yes I am Iggy"
"What you doing here baby?"
"I'm playing tomorrow night"
"what's your band called baby?"
"The Clientele"
He was also surrounded by what seemed 500 photographers at the time, all very confusing for me!

I have to say I was rather surprised at his size as I always thought he was a towering hunk of a man but he is actually very small, well-formed though, orange with very tight size 0 girls hipster jeans on.

We went off to Australia straight after and I ended up having my ticket stolen in Shanghai so nearly got stranded there, luckily James and Mark saved me - now we just have to get the £1000 back from the airline that they owe....


Had great fun playing with Robert Scott, he even let me have a go at some violin on a few songs in his live set. He has the most haunting voice, was a pleasure to get to see him play every night.

Monday 2 July 2007

Sweden and Norway here we come!

Just 2 more days and we're off to Scandinavia. Apparently we're playing a festival in a hotel basement so after we've finished we can just pop upstairs to bed and have an early night!

We've been pretty busy since coming back from the states, we did a video shoot for the single, I got to be makeup artist for the boys which they obviously loved (have a look at James's radical makeover on our flickr site theclienteleflickr ) Al was probably the least keen to let me apply his blue eyeshadow.

The Yahoo music feature we did is up, sadly 50 cent or 25 pence as we kile to call him didn't manage to make into any of our photos.

Been listening to a lot of Robert Scott recently as we're playing with him in Oz and NZ soon. Everyone apart from me seems to have heard it but I'm loving his music now.

x

p.s. I have spell checked this as I am dyslexic and did spell genius wrong on my last blog.

Friday 22 June 2007

Brian's Poem

Not meaning to jump on the bandwagon with The Brian of Bark Studios blog but I had to mention his great poem.

It is situated just above his loo in Bark Studios.

"If you sprinkle when you tinkle,
Be a sweetie, wipe the seatie."


Pure genious. It's obviously there for the male users and not ladies like myself.

x

p.s. Take that Al NO spelling mistakes today!

Tuesday 19 June 2007

To Pezaaz or not to Pezaaz

Over the tour James lost his Pezaaz.

It was a very strange incident-one moment it was there and the next, gone gone gone. (!) It happened whilst he was merrily sipping gin in Montreal.

He seems to have recovered a little of it upon our return to the UK but still something is missing and he doesn't seem quite 'right'.

If anyone hears of anything on this matter, please do help. Poor James needs you.

Wednesday 6 June 2007

It's my Birthday in New York!

And I can't wait, have been looking forward to playing the BOwery Ballroom all tour.

Got a load of people from Wieden + Kennedy New York office coming ( I used to work in the LOndon one) some friends from London too, and of course the Great Lakes and Ladybug lot will be there. I think there may be some treats in store for the stage that night as Louis Phillipe is in town, Heather our tour manager (also in Elf POwer) may bring along her Cello and I heard there may be a trumpet popping up somewhere...maybe!

Montreal tonight, have loved Canada so far, the Econolodges are a cut above. Bagel time, bye bye x

Friday 25 May 2007

The Ladybug Transistor





We miss you!

Gary sent us some great photos, I'll stick a few up here. WE had great fun touring with them, nights of Elton John piano recitals by Kyle, Trumpet lessons from Gary......after listenening to their new album every night I now know all the words and every trumpet solo.; Gary watch out, you're not the only trumpet player around here.

See you all in New York on the 8th June!

The Owl necklace.....


Had rather a strange thing happen which I forgot to mention before. When we played in Hoboken, this guy called Simon Cardwell came up to us and asked if I would like a fairtrade silver and rubies necklace completely free! Apparently he had seen the artwork on the new album and thought it quite fitting that I should have it! I'm so glad Al didn't end up drawing a hippo or something, not sure I would have ended up wearing that around my neck......

Anyway, it turned up at Merge offices a while back and I love it, I haven't taken it off since it arrived.

Check oiut his stuff on www.designsbycardwell.com

Saturday 12 May 2007

It's Atlanta night

And we're just sitting backstage listening to Beach House for the first time before going on They sound great!

Had a shambolic but enjoyable gg last night at the Map room with The Explorers Club supporting, was loving their 4 part harmonies. Even managed to swindle a free CD out of them!

Got suck in the most hugemongous rainstorm today from Charleston to Atlanta, rain, lightning, dead skunks and everything. Been eating far too many Nachos out here-I don't even like them, the boys had their first waffle house today, I escaped without eating any hashbrowns this time.

Better go write a setlist.....

Sunday 6 May 2007

We are here!

After the best flight ever, with about 10 rows of seats each and a glass of champanski.

Got the first gig tonigt in oboken, I didn't realise we were in New York, again, made the same mistake last year when I got my boyfriend to fly to New York to then find the city ad sate were 2 very different things. A 9 hour train journey soon got him to the right place though....

Looking forward to plaing tonight, even though my brain is telling me it's 6pm already.

Over and out, x

Monday 23 April 2007

Tour is nearly here...


And I cannot wait. Just a few more days of working then it's a month of playing every night.

We've got our dear friend Ricky from BJM playing with us in San Fran, he has a new band called Mellow drunk, should be great fun. Beach House are supporting us all the way around, have never met them but like the sound of their music.

I've just realised it's going to be my 24th Birthday the night we play Bowery Ballroom in New York, never have played a gig on my brithday before, should be interesting!

This is my favourite flyer from the last states tour..I wonder if there will be any better this tour?

See you soon! Mel x

Tuesday 27 March 2007

My first ever blog......

Blimey, I can't believe I'm actually turning into a computer geek! Al persuaded me to do it-might be quite fun when we're on tour. Or I can just put up some awful pictures of the boys dribbling in their sleep or something....

Well, our USA tour is all confirmed, I am so excited-these are the dates so far....

Sun-May-06 Hoboken, NJ Maxwell's Mon-May-07 Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda's Tue-May-08 Washington, DC Black Cat Wed-May-09 Charlottesville, VA Satellite Ballroom Thu-May-10 Carrboro, NC Cats Cradle Fri-May-11 Charleston, SC Map Room Sat-May-12 Atlanta, GA The Earl Sun-May-13 Nashville, TN The Basement Mon-May-14 Memphis, TN Hi Tone Wed-May-16 Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon Thu-May-17 Houston, TX Walter's on Washington Fri-May-18 Denton, TX Hailey's Sat-May-19 Austin, TX Emo's LoungeMon-May-21 Tempe, AZ Modified Tue-May-22 San Diego, CA Casbah Thu-May-24 Los Angeles, CA Knitting Factory Fri-May-25 Visalia, CA Howie & Sons Pizza & Beer ParlorSat-May-26 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall Sun-May-27 Portland, OR Doug Fir Mon-May-28 Seattle, WA Crocodile Café Thu-May-31 Minneapolis, MN 400 Bar Fri-Jun-01 Madison, WI High Noon Sat-Jun-02 Chicago, IL Subterranean Sun-Jun-03 Detroit, MI Magic Stick Mon-Jun-04 Toronto, ONT El Mocambo ***NEW DATEWed-Jun-06 Montreal, QUE Club Lambi Fri-Jun-08 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom Sat-Jun-09 Boston, MA Museum of Fine Arts

And then some more in other places.

Had a great time in Denamrk Aarhus last weekend, we drank solidly from friday 6pm until touching down in the UK again sunday at 1am. It was propbably the best gig I have ever played-I enjoyed it so much even though my tummy was hurting rather! Had my first shot of Absinyth too.....it made me lose my balance.

x