Aaahh, day 27 and off to beautiful Vienna for their famed Jazz festival, after a lovely night off in the hotel bar, we get to the gig fresh as a stinging nettle, This place is stunning and pictures just don’t do it justice, so here is a pic of Dave showing how ecstatic he is.



Gig went pretty good and I played the nicest sounding Bass I’ve ever had supplied, It looked like it had been dragged up in the Mary Rose but sounded like a dream, Don’t get me wrong – It may sound like I’m ungrateful of all the other hire Basses that have been provided for me over the years and that’s because I am, sometimes providing me with a student Bass with a 30 quid pickup strapped to it or a microphone wrapped in a t-shirt stuffed into the tailpiece just doesn’t cut it.
Ahh Vienna xxxx

Wowzers - Its Day 26! after a liquid sleepover in someplace near Oxford, we (Coff and I) venture forth to the prestigeous CORNBURY FESTIVAL, yet another festival with a great lineup! Imelda May, Dr John (again?) Buddy Guy, Noisettes and my fave raves "Squeeze" not to mention David Lakeman and Seth Gray! anyhoo Cornbury has been pretty good to us over the years and this year we had headline spot on the second stage, went down a storm! loved it, Cornbury is a great festival with a difference, its like a Garden fete with mild pogoing, the sort of place you really can take the whole family - of coarse I would say that wouldn't I, Hugh Philimore who helps run cornbury festival alongside the real brains Caroline and Emily, does happen to also be Imeldas Manager, so please take it from me, no matter what anyone says - Its not crap, its ace!.
Here is a pic of Imelda talking at Dr John, I too would liked to have had a word but unfortunately Dr John wont speak to anyone taller than himself - note Imelda had to take her shoes off - oh look there's Peter Greene sitting there in the background...hold on he wasn't even on that gig!

Ok so I've let the blog slip a bit, so sue me! please be patient while I trudge through the glittery showbiz memories of the past few weeks......
Ok, here we go! Day 25, Just home for the time it takes to blow ones nose, look at it and say eaugh then its off to Sunny Hop Farm Festival in Kent, This was a great festival with a terrific lineup, Imelda May, Dr John, Peter Greene, Blondie, Los Lobos and Van Morrison and that was just the day we were there! anyhoo, much fun was had by all although I felt that the fest would have benefit from another 10'000 punters, sometimes even great weather and a great music can't persuade some lazy bastards out of their armchairs can it!
I didn't get any pics from this festival but if I find any I'll attach at a later date, here is a picture of Ralph the thief just in case you may have forgotten about him.

Day 24, "Psycho" The brand spanking new Imelda May single is out today and we're performing at the Borderline, London, for....I'm not sure why, I think it was competition winners and Record Company gubbinz, with this knowledge I half enjoyed it

Here is a picture of Coff our sound man, he used to go to school with George Formby's Dad.

Day 23, Lovely, a day off, just enough time to put my feet up and catch up on my hatemail, I love sending that stuff, it keeps me going.
had a good chat with Tallulah my Daughter about Dinosaurs, ate lovely Tapas and early night for tomorrow its the Borderline, London!
I couldn't help but notice that ALL Band details have been removed from The Official Imelda May Website, I'm sure that this must be just a clerical error and obviously normal transmission will resume shortly.
Here is a lovely pic from Spain of Dave Vanian from The Damned and I that I forgot to include in an earlier post.

Day 22, Same ole, same ole, Glastonbury Avalon stage was really good, didn't really have chance to catch any bands though which was a shame, got to see Stevie Wonder again which was brillo, we performed a live version of "Psycho" at around 11.30pm for the BBC, just after Mark Ratcliffe interviewed Mr Wonder inches away from us, Id like to say for that moment Stevie and I broathe the same air but at Glastonbury thats not always a pleasant experience.
We then high tail it outta there as tomorrow is a well deserved day off.

Day 21, Glastonbury today, its all a bit much but we are genuinely looking forward to kicking some seriously Hippie ass! Paddy our lovely tour manager informed us its his 17th Glastonbury festival! look how excited he is..

After a refreshing sleep in the bus and a belly full of mung beans from catering, we hit the Acoustic tent - Great gig!

Day 20, Spain Rock Fest!! Jeez, a hot one baby! Two gigs today, one in the Market square to show Locals that "look rock can be pretty too, come to our festival". Great crowds as you can see and a fantastic night, The line-up was Imelda May, Slash, The Damned and finally KISS, I stayed up for the Damned then went to bed.


I would liked to have stayed up but Jet lag had kicked in and we had a 4am lobby call for the Airport as its Glastonbury tomorrow!

Day 19, Back in UK just long enough to use the Loo and we're off to Victoria Rock Festival, Spain, This was excellent as 1. The Festival line-up was brilliant and B. I get to meet up with some mates!
We caught AIRBORNE which is one of Coffs favourite bands, I didn't really get it but it was his Birthday so I told him I thought they were amazing, heard some of the Black Lips which I enjoyed but was in no state to converse at that point so my judgement may have been clouded, had a great time with Imelda, Captain sensible and Magic Dave ( The Damned's stage tech )Imelda had a headbang in her imaginary moshpit and Magic Dave and I thought "what a silly arse"

Day 18, Fly home today from Denver, somehow the words "Denver" and "fly" feel strange together, anyhoo we get to the Airport and its like a scene from C.S.I Dublin as we find our lovely dependable driver Ralph has been a dirty imposter all along, yes, thats right RALPH....I know! turns out a substantial amount of money found its way to his wallet using the sidewalk of shame route, anyway, all sorted now, here is a nice pic of me and the now jobless Ralph.

Day 17, After a greeeeaaat sleep in the Mountain Lodge, Telluride we board the bus again and drive through the Rocky mountains once more, this time heading for Breckenridge, even higher! sooo beautiful although the altitude sent me brain a bit do-lally-tap, luckily oxygen was on hand, not the greatest gig to finish on but was ok, was nice to once again have a lovely room to sleep in, looks like Dave could do with some oxygen!

Day 16, Drove through the Rocky mountains on the way to Telluride Bluegrass Festival, what an absolutely gobsmackingly beautiful part of the world - breathtaking! the venue was 9000 ft up in the mountain so at that altitude we had to have oxygen supplied side of stage - weird! As it took us 38 hours to drive there I hightailed it out of there to the Hotel as soon as we finished, after such a long journey the last thing I wanted to hear was a Banjo! Back at the Hotel I got a Cable car that went over the mountains, looks like my vertigo is no more, it was so stunning, I think we all had a go! I visited the site where Butch Cassidy carried out his first Bank robbery and I also saw an Elk Herd, very nice. Coff and I shared a romantic log condo, I was asleep by 9.30pm in a real bed and slept for 10 hours! Coff was in bed by God knows and slept like a keg-ful of Bloody Maries!









Thanks to Dave for some of these pics.

Day 15, Lamb Tika Jalfrazi woke me and the whole bus up at 8am (sorry about that everyone)huge journey to Telluride, Colorado, looks like we gunna be in this buz for a mighty long time! Footy this afternoon and a stack of comics to get through!

Day 14, woke at 6 am to what sounded like a giant rip-arse in a shit-storm! our lovely motor home had a blowout! Jeeezusss!!!



anyhoo here is a pic of me holding a watermelon to calm the situation down.



Ok, we arrive in Kingston a little later than planned but still early, Coff and I had a fry up and then walked five miles so I could go to a bookshop ( we were told it was just around the corner and....its a long story, when I got back Darrel and I then hit the thrift stores -yey!
Kingston was the last of our Jeff Beck supports, bit sad really, Jeff, his band and Crew were all really nice to us and have helped us a great deal and we all thank them very muchly.

Coff, Tim and I found a great Indian Restaraunt where we had fantastic Vindaloos etc just before embarking on our trip to Denver, 37 hours! God help the rest of of the Band!

Here is a pic of me holding a small beach ball.

Day 13, Woke up underneath the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, Philadelphia, I like it when the drivers do that, spent the day in Vintage clothes shops and filling my fizzog with steamed mussels - lovely!
Gig was at "Johnny Brendas" and very cool it was too, really great crowd, support came in the shape of April Mae and the Junebugs, great fun and we had a private smelling of Dave their Guitarists guitars in the dressing room.Also met a few our creepy stalkers, was good to put a face to "giggles" and was nice to meet Kat and Mike. after a boozy aftermath we boarded the bus for Kingston NYC!

Day 12, woke up outside the venue in Asbury Park, New Jersey feeling like I'd been hit in the face with a large frying pan, that'll be the hangover then.
Darrel and I hit the streets for thrift stores and vinyl, very cool place indeed. Beautiful venue right on the seafront, visited The Stone Pony - the place where Bruce Springsteen had his first gig.


Dave found a real gem of a place, A Pinball museum, over a hundred fully working mint condition pinball machines from 1940 through to modern day, entry fee of $10 lets you play on all of them for free, had a great time! went to an ice cream parlor and had a candy cane ice cream with big lumps of candy cane in it - marvelous, that got rid of the bad head. Gig was fabby and we got a well deserved standing ovation - AVE IT!
Missing my little girl today.

Day 11, Wellmont Theatre, New Jersey, great place and a lovely crowd, aftershow party at "Eagans" Chris Eagan the Gaffer treated us like stars and I got absolutely plastered on Jameson whisky, I think I hit the deck a few times.Great night had by all, have no idea how it all ended.

Day 10, 23 hour bus journey from Tennessee to New Jersey, It was ok for the first few hours but 11 people travelling in a bus for that length of time got a bit testy no matter how big and nice the bus is, It was like being in a submarine....that you cant poo in.

Day 9, BONNAROO FESTIVAL, TENNESSEE, Arrive at 3am and parked up in testosterone central (whose got the biggest bus syndrome).

This was such a great festival, our stage was small but ample for the crowd that sang along to the Love Tattoo tracks, seems the Album is circulating nicely over there.
Our set aside, I got to see and speak to some amazing people, I watched The Avett Brothers, they were inspiring and reminded me of Langhorne Slim who I incidently bumped into later on (surreal moment number 1),watched Dead Weather Uber great and I received a high-five from "Red Mist" the baddie from the Comic Book Movie Kick-Ass, I don't really do high-fiving as a rule but he was pretty cool (surreal moment number 2) I went up in a Ferris Wheel and took some pics - I suffer from Vertigo but for some reason I don't anymore? weird!

Weezer were tres cool also but jeez it was too busy for me! Just got to Jeff Beck at the end of his set to catch Imelda tearing it up before he played an impossibly incredibly brilliant version of Nessen Dorma, sounds as though it would be tackky but no, It was unbeleivable!
The highlight for me was watching Stevie Wonder, Paddy got us into the VIP enclosure at the front! It was an amazing set with all the big hits, "Superstition" being the highlight for me, having a right old Disco Dance with Dave (Surreal moment number 3), On the last number of the set we found Imelda and Paddy and yet again Imelda led a Conga out of the enclosure, an outstanding day allround, what a fantastic bunch of Bands!