January
4th Paris Canal+
'Settle Down' played on Nulles Parts Ailleurs.
Nigel: Made enjoyable by the inclusion of Richard Paine from the Bluetones
playing keyboards for us. What a great guy. Read the tour
diary, if you want.
14th Oxford Jericho Tavern
Warm-up for French tour, celebrating the re-opening of the classic
Oxford venue.
French Tour The main in-van entertainment on this tour was some impassioned games of travel Monopoly. Leggy our lighting guy turned out particularly to have the killer instinct.
17th Brussels Botanique
Nigel: very insulting to Belgians, I'm sure, to have this under the
heading 'French Tour'. Great venue and gig though. And we honestly did
forget to put 'Finest Little Space' on the setlist, it wasn't some rock
and roll ploy. I guess it slipped my mind because I was in so much pain
with a wrenched shoulder. See the tour diary
for a more in-depth on the spot report.
Andy: Big long interview with Anelyse briefly interrupted by big window
smashing and a bottle landing close to our table. Another satisfied punter,
perhaps? Or someone from the NME?
Jim: My favourite part of this was that the Policemen who arrived to
take a statement from the Barman lost no time whatsoever in pulling up
stools to the bar and accepting his kind offer of a glass of wine, with
a great deal of mustache pulling, shrugging and gentle exclamations of
"Bof!". What does that mean?
18th Evreux L'Abordage
first gig with French support band 'Statics'.
Nigel: Pretty ugly venue. Pretty good gig.
19th Reims Usine
Andy: God knows how we managed it, but we played a show without Nigel
and I don't remember anyone booing.
Jim: What happened was that we had a quick acoustic jam backstage,
where we played a set to a pretty acceptable level - however, its one thing
to sit down in nice comfy chairs after maybe one too many glasses of wine
with dinner, and sit there with accoustic guitars strumming songs you've
known for a year or two, and knock out a passable "camp-fire" version.
It's another thing alltogether to then go out and make them sound good
in a bloody great big room full of people through a PA. There was
definitely a sense of "getting away with it" at these Nigel-less gigs.
20th Strasbourg La Laiterie
[see 19th]
21st Grenoble L'Entrepot
Nigel: Recovered enough to meet back up with the band in beautiful
Grenoble. Interviewed by T.V. before gig, who also interviewed Sandrine.
23rd Marseille Le Poste A Galene
Nigel: Very much the smallest place on the tour, but a great and vibing
gig (see Club Ifor Bach on the 'Almost Here' tour). Some cool DV footage
from this gig, particularly of Guitar Tech Adam miming his rock version
of 'Angel' along to us. We'll see if we can put it, or some stills, up
sometime.
24th Montpellier Le Rockstore
Nigel: A big old place. I don't have any fond memories of this gig.
25th Bordeaux Theatre Barbery
Nigel: And I don't have any memories at all of this gig
Andy: I think I was ill. There's a surprise.
26th Nantes Olympic
Nigel: A stage so tall that only people of Chewbacca's stature
could stand right at the front. did an interview in the bar downstairs
beforehand. I don't know why I mention this one, and not any of the thousands
of others.
28th Paris Le Caberet Sauvage
Nigel: Warwick crashed the van (and us) on the way to the gig, which
was a nice but bizarre circus tent. Last gig of the French tour, and the
last gig supporting 'Almost Here' meant an emotional end. The Minidisc
I have of this show is I reckon the best out of all of the shows I have
on tape.
March 15th - April 4th
Went to a cottage near Ludlow to begin recording for our new album,
at this time intending to release it late August.
Some b-side recording at Warehouse Studios near Oxford after this.
July
24th Oxford The Point
Jim, Jase and Nigel back Mark Mulcahy at a packed and dangerously hot
Oxford show.
27th London Po Na Na
Again backing Mark, at a packed and dangerously refrigerated London
show.
July 30th - August 20th
John Spinks and Andy got to Siberia to get photos and ideas for the
album artwork and more.
September 16th
To keep from atrophying, Nigel and Jim backup Oxford ZTT recording
artist Xan at her debut gig, supporting Bernard Butler at The Zodiac, band
also featuring Candyskin Brett on bass.
October
3rd Oxford Bullingdon Arms
Nigel 'solo' gig.
Nigel: I wanted to do a solo gig anyway, but it also seemed a good
way to get UBT out and doing some low key stuff, just so that we could
remember that we made music for a living. Some cunt put a rumour about
that Thom Yorke was playing, however, meaning instead of playing to a small
number of interested people we played a sold out show to a crowd who wanted
to see someone else. Some people are so fucking stupid.
18th Brixton, London The Dairy
Studios
began mixing (finally) for new album.
November 24th
Mixing finishes, having moved across London to The Fortress II midway
through.
December
Jase and Nigel back Mark Mulcahy on another tour, with Jim joining
in for the final Oxford gig.
2nd London The Borderline
8th Leeds Duchess of York
9th London The Borderline
10 th Oxford The Point