Category Archives: Blog

LEEDS – 31st December, 2016

Chris Catalyst Posted on by

‘Another year over, a new one just begun’ – Happy Christmas (War Is Over) – John and Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band

Well, thanks 2016, you were certainly a year.

From the death of everyone’s favourite person in the world – David Bowie,  as if I need to say it – through Brexit, Trump, more celebrity deaths that you can shake a three-pronged trident at, plus seemingly everyone’s ongoing list of relationship trauma and health woes, and hardly any good films coming out, either… it’s definitely been a year.

For me, as you might have realised from this blog of late, it’s been very much a learning experience and one that has taken me on some soaring highs and some exceedingly perilous lows. But there is much to be grateful for and much to be happy about.

I’ve finally finished my album – as mentioned the other week, I had rewritten some of it and so went back into the studio to re-do that, which actually weirdly put a real finishing touch on it. It’s now a better and more thorough journey, in my opinion. And it’s so 2016 it hurts.

I wanted to get the music bit out of the way so that I could concentrate on doing the Pledge campaign and getting them all sent out. As I always harp on about, I do all this stuff on my own, so the fewer distractions, the better. It’s hard work trying to run a campaign, finish off a record, be ordering jiffy bags, sort the artwork, answer questions from people and do video updates and so on all at the same time. Increasingly as I get older, I find that I have to be in the correct headspace for certain things, so you don’t really want to be putting the vocals on the ballad while you’re arranging merch deliveries.

I also want to keep this short. Launch it at start of Jan, get the music up start of Feb, get the hard copies out to people by start of March. Keeps it nice and neat and tidy. I don’t want it dragging on – partially because I don’t have a million video updates I can use, as the studio stuff was 99% just Andy the producer and me, and we’re pretty boring.

I’m putting out a new video tomorrow (I probably won’t end up posting this for ages because I want to space them out, for no apparent reason) which I hope you like… I thought ‘Sticks And Stones’ was a nice easy one to get onboard with, but I’m a bit worried if some people will like this one less. It’s a bit more pop/indie than many are used to. I like it, mind. It’s called Same Old Sun. It’s weird when you listen back to songs you wrote a year ago and you realise that it could have been written about yourself a year in the future, completely unwittingly. I suppose we’re all our own worst critics.

Tonight, traditionally a night for celebration and boozing, I’m going to stay in on my own with the cat, as I am scared that she is scared of the fireworks. which she utterly couldn’t give a shit about. I got wrecked a couple of days ago at the annual Christmas game of poker which we hold in memory of one of the lads we used to play with – Neal Addison – who tragically took his own life four years ago. Neal was a great bloke, an enormous music fanatic and an incredibly good poker player. So we all celebrate his life once a year with a big game of poker, which turns into/actually is a massive piss-up, and this year I only went and won it.

Due to a bunch of heightened feelings related to a million and one things, and probably the 6000 pints, I ended up a bit of an emotional mess by the end, and woke up the next day (on the sofa) thinking that I had probably done my drinking for the year. So tonight is about staying in, toasting the advent of a new year with a cup of tea and waving goodbye to easily the worst year in memory.

Happy new year, may your 2017 be fruitful in the ways you both want and need it to be.

Chris. X

LEEDS – 23rd December, 2016

Chris Catalyst Posted on by

Home.

It’s been a long slog to get here, and it’s involved some of the darkest and most miserable times I’ve known. Sofa surfing for a month is not a great feeling… I am immensely grateful, mind you, it’s just I hate being a burden and, at 36, you don’t expect to have to do this stuff. Fortunately I am blessed with a selection of the finest friends and family known to man, so I get through it, and get the money bollocks sorted and finally there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I don’t like adulting. It’s complex and boring and I’m crap at it. But I’ve surprised myself at the level of strength and resilience that I seem to have acquired since anything like this happened before. If anything positive can come of all this, it’s that I know I am able to cope with a lot more than I thought I was able to cope with. If life can throw this much shit at me and I can come up reasonably okay – and it’s very very much an ongoing process – then I can do a lot more than I thought.

I am surrounded by some wise people. Put it that way.

I used to be a bit of a crier. I’d cry at films… weddings… EastEnders. Sad stuff… happy stuff. Latterly that’s gone away, for whatever reason. It takes something pretty hardcore to get me going these days. Marley And Me on a flight to Argentina, sandwiched between two strangers, that was a good one. But all this has taught me how to cry again. Which probably isn’t a bad thing – keeping feelings cooped up is surely no good for anyone – but it’s not so good when it’s every day… and I’m driving… or in Asda. I’m learning how to control it and it’s not always easy but it’s another learning experience.

I moved back in yesterday and woke up this morning with very much a ‘this is the first day of the rest of your life’ feeling. That’s probably a good thing. I’ve inherited a cat, which I didn’t expect, but she is beautiful and brilliant and furnishing me with a lot of cat love. She definitely knows when I’m feeling sad.

And now it’s Christmas. I haven’t even thought about it. Fortunately I’m always well prepared and have bought everything I need to – albeit a slimmed-down selection, as my outgoings have just (more than) doubled. That’s fine though, it’s not what Christmas is about. Christmas always makes me melancholy, for whatever reason, and this year is definitely no exception. But in spite of the enormous kick in the bollocks that I’ve just been issued, and in spite of a bunch of money worries that just won’t go away, and in spite of the rejection, bitterness and loneliness that I am inevitably going to feel, I have plenty to be positive about – not least the knowledge that I have the best friends and family in the world.

Heading back East with Chris Rea in the morning to my sister’s for the usual Christmas thing. Five kids running around this year, which will be totally fantastic.

Happy Christmas.

Chris. X

HULL – 1st December, 2016

Chris Catalyst Posted on by

‘Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans’ – Beautiful Boy, John Lennon

Here I am at my mum’s house, unsure of where I am and what to do next. There’s a lot of sorting out to do (read the last blog if you missed it). That’s not for now though.

The Sisters tour finished in fantastic fashion with great gigs in Bristol (where we righted some wrongs from last time), Liverpool (amazing and beautiful old theatre but could do with some heating) and Sheffield (great punk rock type show).

On the Sunday, we went to see the Near Meth Experience destroy some old Sisters classics at a fundraiser for our fallen comrade Simon Denbigh… what an amazing and life-affirming evening, and exactly what I needed after an awful week. To cut a long story short, Si had a stroke in February this year, which left him paralysed down his left side. Six months of rehabilitation have meant he is able to get around very slowly and steadily, but his flat needs modernising so that he is able to attain a level of independence he doesn’t currently have. I had an idea that we could do a fundraiser for him at the ever-excellent Brudenell Social Club, and before I knew it, I had a million people wanting to lend a hand. From the ace Membranes to the legendary Utah Saints, via a cast of seemingly thousands on merch, plus the Sisters… I mean Near Meth Experience crew, all of whom were working for free (and many of whom had never met Si before, and were doing it just because it is a good cause)… properly life-affirming stuff. The gig was fantastic, everyone pulled together, and Simon had an amazing night – and we raised enough money to not only fix up his bathroom, but also his kitchen.

Giving up a day of your life to radically affect then next 20 years or so of someone else’s is a good feeling and one which I can highly recommend.

Home for a night on my own with the cat, which was… weird, to be honest. But I like my house and where I live so I’m going to try my best to keep it. I’m over in the bosom of my family now for a bit, which is exactly where you should be at times like this.

I’m not looking forward to Christmas.

Chris. X

BRISTOL – 23rd November, 2016

Chris Catalyst Posted on by

‘What happens when you lose everything? You start again. You start all over again.’ – Maximo Park – Apply Some Pressure

… And then everything changed. I aren’t a person that particularly likes to broadcast their private life to the world, but to cut a long story short, completely out of the blue, I find myself single and possibly without home. I’ll go as far as saying it wasn’t my choice and it wasn’t what I wanted, and it was also utterly and 100% unexpected. A fairly sizeable rug has been pulled from under my feet, and I don’t really know what I’m going to do.

Fortunately for me, I find myself back out on the road with some of the finer people I know, on a (very) quick Sisters tour which was based around the very excellent Sinner’s Day festival in Hasselt, Belgium. It makes sense to put everyone together for a week of gigs rather than a one-off, so we had decided to do the rounds of a few places the band hasn’t been for a long time.

I don’t want to go into it all too much, but this has been a completely shitty time for me, and not just because of this. As mentioned before, I lost one of my best friends less than two months ago (ironically, not that it’s ironic, but when the news was imparted of my impending singledom, the first thing I thought was that I could go and stay with my departed pal Chris for a bit).

Fortunately, I couldn’t ask to be in the company of better pals, really. Some of the people here with me have been incredibly sympathetic, as well as offering a very large and much-needed dose of pragmatism, is rapidly becoming my best friend.

I’ve got lots to be grateful for, and I need to focus on that. Friendship and camaraderie will bring me through the worst first bit of this, and then a hearty thud of Yorkshire stoicism will guide me through the coming months, and probably years. No part of me chose this, but here I am, and I’m not going anywhere, so I’ve got to suss it out.

On a more positive note, the gigs have been going really well. I always love going to Norwich – it gets a bad press, but that is a beautiful city and the venues are all really good.

Belgium is the Sisters’ second home, and the festival is amazing – we’re topping the bill, with OMD, Tricky and Public Image Ltd on before us and ALL putting in amazing shows, particularly Tricky, who I’ve loved since I was a kid. I worked for OMD last year all Summer, doing a festival run around Europe, so it is absolutely brilliant to see Andy and Paul, as well as the fantastic crew, who I had really hit it off with. Obviously they are taking the piss massively as they’re used to seeing me in a different kind of role and, as I always hope to rely on good friends to do, they do their utmost to knock me down a peg or six when they see me in my leather jacket with sunglasses on my head.

The gig is great and we retire to the hotel bar, where we have a hilarious and occasionally terrifying evening with Tricky and his band, who he appears to have only met that weekend. These amazing times occur occasionally and I pinch myself that I get to have these experiences with people I’ve paid to go and see maybe a dozen times over my lifetime of being a music fan.

Birmingham last night was a stormer despite some technical problems, and I’m really looking forward to tonight’s gig at Bristol Academy. The last one here was at the end of a looooong tour and I don’t have the fondest of memories of that, so it’ll be good to get up and right some wrongs. I’m playing every gig like it’s my last at the minute… I guess I’m channelling my fallen friend, who was an amazing musician as well as being a generally brilliant person. I hope it’s not too trite to say that I’m doing it for him.

I’m in the studio tomorrow for an afternoon while I’m passing as I want to do a load of bits to fill in the gaps between songs. To be honest I just want an excuse to see the brilliant Dave Draper again. Since ‘it’ all happened, I’ve actually re-written two of the songs for the solo album more or less start to end. One is pretty savage and I don’t think I’ll change the original… it would be the wrong kind of evisceration. The other actually lets the words flow a lot better and it all makes more sense now, so I’ll go re-do that when I get home.

It’s weird, I’ve said for years that sometimes the real meaning of a song might only reveal itself six months after you’ve written it. You’ve got to allow it to breathe so that it can take on its own meaning; it’s why I like ambiguity and wordplay in lyrics. Anyway less of that bollocks.

I’m off for a drink. Actually that’s not true, I’m trying to limit my drinking, as booze is just making me feel worse and think… worser. But a trip to Bristol Academy without a trip to The Hatchet wouldn’t be right, even if I’ll be on lime and soda.

Onwards and upwards, eh?

Chris X

 

DUBLIN – Sunday 13th November 2016

Chris Catalyst Posted on by

Here we are at the end of another adventure, a truly brilliant rollercoaster ride of fun and games with a brilliant bunch of people I will never forget. I’ve loved this tour, it’s been highlight after highlight, albeit with a knackered foot which has threatened to ruin my fun, but never actually succeeded. I anticipated doing a bit more of this blog as we went along, but I’ve just been so busy, and my computer only seems to work half of the time any more (on wifi, at least). I’ve been trying to concentrate on extracting every last bit of fun out of the gigs at every touch and turn, and have managed to succeed, i think.

Highlights this past few weeks?

A brilliant night at the re-opening of the Elysee Montmatre in Paris, where I played with The Sisters in 2011ish (it was the night two of the smoke machines exploded and covered the stage in smoke fluid, the viscosity of which effectively transformed it into an ice rink). Parisians are predictably and understandably gung-ho in their enjoyment of gigs at the moment, every show feels like a celebration, which is exactly the correct approach. A thousand mental rock fans in a room where the band is REALLY hitting its stride creates a truly excellent atmosphere.

A wonderful evening at the Proxima in Warsaw, where it transpires UKJ are one of the biggest bands in the entire world. The venue comfortably holds 800 people and it appears they’ve sold 2000 tickets, it’s rammed and there’s sweat running down the walls. It also helps that the entire front row is absolutely stunningly attractive. Some brilliant Russian fans present the band with a small trophy for being the best band ever, which is nice.

An INSANE Thai meal in Lucerne, which is as eye-wateringly delicious as it is eye-wateringly expensive. Fortunately Team UKJ pick up the bill, for which we are eternally grateful.

And of course Hard Rock Hell, the festival the tour was centred around, which we were all looking forward to, in spite of us all feeling pretty jaded at the end of a six-week run (and maybe all having to add a notch or two to our belts). Of course, the reception made us all feel like it was Show 3, rather than Show 33. Unbeknownst to the rest of us (or me, at least), Whit has hired dancing girls to dress as Donald Trump and pour milk all over themselves, which is equal amounts off-putting and hilarious, and some of my mates down the front are over the moon to tell me how uncomfortable I looked at that point in the set. Brilliant stuff though and a great, well-run festival.

Tonight is the last gig, and I’m sad to be leaving the guys behind, but very happy to be heading home to the girlfriend and the cat. It’s been a long time away, and although I’m straight back out again with The Sisters on Friday, that’s only a short run and then we can get stuck right into Christmas and New Year. I’ve got lots of plans for the New Year, all of which centre around staying at home a bit more and concentrating on my solo stuff, which I am DEAD excited about….

I’ve been filming bits for a new video around the world over the past few months for a single I want to release in December, or maybe New Year’s Day, for a song called ‘Same Old Sun’. The premise of which is that no matter where you go, no matter who you are, you wake up under the same sun, and you have the ability (and/or inability) to do with that whatever you wish. I’ve done bits in LA (Venice Beach), Santiago, on the Copacabana in Rio, at the Sacre Coeur in Paris, and some of course in Leeds, I just need to mash it all up to look like a video. I’ve been wearing the same clothes for it everywhere, except in Paris where I broke my white sunglasses by sitting on them with my newly fat arse. I’m real excited by it, it’s one of my favourites from my solo album so fingers crossed everyone is into it. It’s well Summery, so Dec/Jan is possibly the worst time to put it out… or maybe that means it’s the best time to put it out. Anyway, looking forward to seeing how that goes down.

Righto, time for dinner. A short stint with the Sisters next, then onto the serious business of Christmas.

Onwards and upwards!
Chris.

LONDON – Wednesday 12th October 2016

Chris Catalyst Posted on by

LONDON,  Wed 12 Nov 2016

Strange times in the world. My prediction is that Donald Trump is going to do a Brexit and sweep the vote from under Hillary’s nose. We watched the second debate on Sunday night – where I also fell off the wagon, having done 12 days – not bad for a sober stint on a tour. My comment that ‘he is obviously awful, but she is just rubbish’ rang true with left-leaning guitarist Klaus, who I’ve shared a few good politically charged conversations with since joining this band.

Oh yeah, the band – it’s all going great. They’ve been so welcoming and helpful. And there’s none of this ‘new guy has to stand at the back’. Whit challenged me last night, telling me to get in the middle of the stage more, and that he likes having another frontman in the group. He’s been making me sing ‘local’ songs every night. This is easy in Glasgow (Proclaimers) and Sheffield (Human League), and not so easy in Barnstaple (errr… The Wurzels). It’s London tonight, I think I’ll do Waterloo Sunset. The fans are being incredibly welcoming, and I think are slightly confused by this bloke in the Cali surf dude rock band with a Yorkshire accent.

Lost one of my best friends the day before this tour started. It’s a long story, and it’s getting longer. It’s incredibly sad. After a year of losing some of the greatest figures in current world culture, known by millions, to lose one of the greatest figures in your own life, known by dozens, is a strange and awful feeling. I will miss him every day.

Everyone has been incredibly supportive though, and this band has some of the best people around them that I’ve ever worked with, on both a professional and a personal level, so that’s good.

Heading into a post-Brexit Europe tomorrow… it’ll be interesting to see how the dust is settling.

Tschuss, au revoir, adios

Chris.

LA – Wednesday 28th September 2016

Chris Catalyst Posted on by

Whitfield Crane from Ugly Kid Joe said to me earlier ‘Everything in your life, everything that’s ever happened to you, has led up to this moment’.

So how did this small-town Yorkshire lad end up in Robert Trujillo from Metallica’s summer house, where I am sitting now, with a broken laptop on my knees, to rehearse with double-platinum rock surf dudes Ugly Kid Joe?

It’s a long story.

We finished up with the Sisters in Chile on Saturday (it’s Wednesday now). I flew first thing Sunday, on two hours’ sleep, necked a couple of sleeping pills on the flights, arrived in LA at 9pm where Whit, ever-positive and personable UKJ frontman picked me up, and we started rehearsals on Monday at 4pm. No rest for the wicked, and tomorrow we will fly to London, where a connecting flight will take us to Glasgow for a night of sleep, and start the tour in Bonny Scotland.

The Sisters tour ended on a high note with a packed gig at the legendary ‘Blondie’ club, which was populated by 99.9% amazing up-for-it Chileans, and one single bell-end who thought he was in Motley Crue, and ended up attacking some innocent kid on the front row for having the audacity to be standing in the front row, while the several security guards merrily looked the other way. I can’t see that happen in front of me without wanting to stand up for the kid, so I ditch my guitar (putting a fuck-off dent in the previously pristine side) and pull the kid out of the melee. His face is a mess and suddenly the security guards are interested. This venue got some bad press recently as Johnny Rotten got a glass to the face the other week during a PiL gig, ending up with stitches, so you’d think they’d employ some decent security staff. The mood backstage before the encore was muted, as I think a couple of people in and around seemed to think I had been chucking my weight around or trying to be some kind of hero. Fuck that, I will always stand up to bullies no matter whether I am on a stage or on a bus. Andrew and I always have a policy of looking out for the audience in the face of adversity (or rubbish security) and we see everything from the stage. What seems to some is playful moshpit fun might be smashing the glasses of the girl on the barrier in front of you. Some people need to realise they are no longer a nine-stone 15 year old at a Prodigy gig.

Anyway, where were we… the tour finished well and we had a good night despite the impending doom of my approximate five hours… no four hours… actually it’s three hours… well will two hours do? amount of sleep before my lift to the airport.

On arrival in LA, I am picked up by the ineffable and ever-positive Whit Crane from Ugly Kid Joe, who takes us to Whole Foods to stock up on food and drink for the next few days. I am determined to put a halt to the constant eating which seemed to take place in South America, but it seems that the world (and my will power) conspires against me in LA, probably the world’s hardest place to diet.

I met the Ugly Kid Joe guys in 2013 when I got a call from my old mucker Toad, who tour manages and looks after the Sisters on the road. He needed a guitar tech very quickly for a tour which featured Skid Row and UKJ, and in my other life that’s something that I do to keep the cashflow going between actually playing. I like doing it because it keeps you in that world of music and gigs and touring, which is a world I’m pretty keen on. I instantly fell in with the UKJ lot, who were a bunch of piss-taking, fun-loving lads, the likes of whom I am generally pretty fond of. The other crew guys were great too and we became fast friends. Afterwards, singer Whit and I kept in touch, and when I heard that Sonny Mayo (a brilliant bloke) couldn’t do the 2016 tour, I put myself forward, being the naturally shy and retiring type. Whit was into it, I did some demos, had some Skype jams with Klaus Eichstadt the guitar player, and suddenly I was in.

One of the reasons I was keen to do it is because it’s just out of my comfort zone. There are a bunch of lead parts and I’m even doing some (shudder) solos. I’ve worked hard on it though, and think I can do a good job.

The first rehearsal wasn’t without its hiccups, but I’d done my homework and I’ve got my brilliant new Kemper Profiling Amp with me, which means I can sound good. Sonny has lent me his guitar – a posh PRS – proving his brilliance and reasserting Whit’s claim that the band, current and ex-members alike, are all just one big stupid family (his words, not mine). That’s something I’m always keen to get into. I don’t want to play with people who are doing it for the money, or the girls (ha!), or the prestige (ha ha!). I want to make music with people who are like-minded, doing it for the buzz, doing it for the brother-and-sisterhood, and having FUN.

That’s why we like gigs, isn’t it? Fun.

So here I am, in one of the most beautiful houses I’ve ever been in, in an amazing neighbourhood in California, fondly thinking about gigs we did when we were 15 in pubs in Goole and Hull that we’d lied about our ages to get into, wondering what might be coming next. All this playing for other people is a brilliant learning and building experience, and at the same time I can’t wait to get my teeth into finishing my upcoming solo stuff. We did a video the other week which I want to put online soon. We’re also talking about doing a little one-off Eureka Machines gig. Being busy is what I like to be!!

PERU – Thursday 22nd September 2016

Chris Catalyst Posted on by

Sitting here in my hotel room in Peru reflecting on the past few years, and the next few.

Being busy making music that I love, with people that I love.

Being busy touring, learning new skills and making great contacts, helping to put on gigs in far-flung places with great bands and great people.

The advent of realising that people actually like the music I make and want to support it by making me able to take six months off ‘work’ so that I can concentrate on it to the best of my ability.

And putting all this together so I can buy a house and build a life with the person that I’ve chosen to spend the rest of my days with.

I’m a lucky boy and I try not to forget it.

In the recent-est memories though, are the tastes of two of the most AMAZING dinners I’ve ever had. Who would have thought that Peru, having been frankly a bit of a disappointment (as a holiday destination at least) in 2011, turns out to be the culinary capital of, well, my stomach. I think we were just unlucky last time, because this place is incredible.

Yesterday, the lovely promoter Coco took us to La Carreta, which was set up as a meat-feast for those who do, and a tuna feast for those who don’t (me). The most incredible tuna I’ve ever eaten – perfectly seared and with amazing thick-cut chips. Lashings of perfectly paired red wines and followed with about six choices for dessert. Some of us had a taste of all six. (me).

Today, he took us to Bravo, where the eponymous Christian Bravo, a bit of a celebrity by all accounts, fed and watered us to within an inch of our lives. Tiger soup – no big cats in sight – more tuna and a drink called The Glove, which was pisco sours crossed with a mojito. Basically a garden in a glass, and a feast of incredible tastes.

And it was all part of the gig deal. The way to a this musician’s heart is definitely through his stomach; and I have to say I am filled with love.

That said, I must have put a stone on during this tour, and due to a nasty twisted ankle, I’ve not been able to keep up with the running lately. I’m going to LA in a few days and I can’t imagine that’s going to be any less of a gastronomic celebration.

Anyway, we’re here to rock and chew bubblegum… and we’re all out of bubblegum. Etc.

It’s been a curious time with the Sisters of late. We’re constantly, albeit slowly, working on all sorts of things to update the set, sounds and songs. The Sisters machine constantly turns, like a steamroller, slowly but surely, with the aim to flatten everything in its path. Andrew did an interview recently where he said that if Donald Trump got elected, he might have to put pen to paper and voice to tape and get into the studio. He’s said before that his creativity is fuelled on spite, and a great many of the conversations on the bus are centred around what is going on in the States and what people are saying. It’s a fascinating time to be interested in politics, albeit a really scary time. It’s going to be weird going to America next week.

Oh yeah, America next week. The other week, I heard a rumour that my muckers Ugly Kid Joe were short of a guitar player for their upcoming UK/Euro tour. The lovely Sonny Mayo is busy with his (amazing) Rock To Recovery programme. So, being a cheeky bastard, with a passion for being busy, travelling around, and playing the stupid guitar, I offered up my services. Three days of rehearsal in LA, staying at Robert Trujillo’s house, and the weather forecast is for 30 degrees +? Sounds good to me.

I teched for UKJ on a tour with them and Skid Row in 2013 (that’s my other job) and we became firm friends. If you think their repetoire begins and ends with ‘Everything About You’ then check out their most recent albums ‘Uglier Than They Used Ta Be’ and ‘Stairway To Hell’. Big slabs of Sabbath-y alt-rock with big vocals and bigger riffs. Try the track ‘She’s Already Gone‘.

One of the reasons I put myself forward was because the material is way out of my comfort zones. There’s lead guitar parts, solos, clean stuff… I realised I don’t challenge myself enough with my playing, and this is a BIG challenge. Hopefully I’ll be up to it.

Plus the crew are amazing people, I worked for Solj when I came onboard with UKJ, and quickly realised how brilliant he is at his job, so brought him out with the Sisters. Sam the drum tech is the nicest bloke on the planet, and Gav is one of my best friends from all over the place. I’ve also got Matt who I’ve worked with before involved for front of house sound. Should be a jape. 37 gigs in 44 days. Good schedule!!

As well as this, I’ve spent the past year working on a ‘solo’ album. More on this later.

But for now, I’ve got to think about sleeping off this seven-course lunch before tonight’s Sisters gig in Peru.

These gigs have been amazing, by the way. It’s always fantastic to come to South America. Brasil has become a real homestead for the band. We all love the laidback atmosphere, the beer, the food, and most of all, the people’s heavy commitment to rock.

Looking forward to Chile, as we’ve never been there. Our old mate John Lydon got a glass to the face at our venue the other week, apparently from an over-exuberant ‘fan’, so we’re hopeful that the security have got their heads screwed on this time.

Remind me to tell you my Lydon stories sometime.

Signing out of my first blog post,

Chris X