Clarky Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 (edited) Rattlin Bone have a 5 date tour of Portugal this week which I couldn't initially go on for work reasons (a slimmed down version of the band was going to play to backing tapes without me). However, I thought 'stuff it, life's too short' and have booked my flights so I can be there for the Friday and Saturday gigs in Porto and Figueira. My first ever non-UK dates. Will bring along my Eminence EUB (has a removable neck and fits into a hard golf bag case). Very excited!!!! [attachment=74913:Port_2.jpg] Edited March 21, 2011 by Clarky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truckstop Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Ooh! Well done, you! You sure you can handle the late nights? Truckstop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Low End Bee Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 What goes on tour..... I'm envious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 [quote name='Clarky' post='1164099' date='Mar 16 2011, 09:28 AM']However, I thought 'stuff it, life's too short'[/quote] It certainly is. Nice one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raggy Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Well done and enjoy I gigged over there once, it was Ace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 [quote name='Raggy' post='1164134' date='Mar 16 2011, 09:59 AM']I gigged over there once, it was Ace[/quote] How Long? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raggy Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 [quote name='Happy Jack' post='1164146' date='Mar 16 2011, 10:09 AM']How Long?[/quote] 2 nights Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmer61 Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 [quote name='Raggy' post='1164134' date='Mar 16 2011, 09:59 AM']I gigged over there once, it was Ace[/quote] [quote name='Happy Jack' post='1164146' date='Mar 16 2011, 10:09 AM']How Long?[/quote] Very, very good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidmpires Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 In Porto have a francesinha.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat Burrito Posted March 16, 2011 Share Posted March 16, 2011 Life is indeed too short:) Enjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary mac Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 Nice one Clarky, hope it goes well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShergoldSnickers Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 Have a great time and even greater gigs. If there's any chance of it being video'd I'm sure you'd have a keen audience here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted March 17, 2011 Author Share Posted March 17, 2011 Thanks gents! In the lounge at Gatwick waiting for my flight, more excited than an excited thing! Middlie-aged man gets to tour overseas, something he has dreamed of since being a teenager,. Will report back Sunday evening or Monday. Smiely face emoticons galore! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 Nice one. My experience of the Portuguese is that they are an extremely friendly nation. A tip - when filling your hire car at a petrol station where you've just encountered the one person in the whole country who doesn't speak English, 'Gasoleo' in Portuguese means 'diesel', not 'Gasoline'. Seems perfectly logical now - gas oil, gas-oleo... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 Have a great time Clarky. I'm not even slightly jealous ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted March 17, 2011 Author Share Posted March 17, 2011 [quote name='Paul S' post='1166196' date='Mar 17 2011, 08:00 PM']Nice one. My experience of the Portuguese is that they are an extremely friendly nation. A tip - when filling your hire car at a petrol station where you've just encountered the one person in the whole country who doesn't speak English, 'Gasoleo' in Portuguese means 'diesel', not 'Gasoline'. Seems perfectly logical now - gas oil, gas-oleo...[/quote] Thanks but hopefully not required. The Portuguese promoter is driving the band minibus herself. Mind you, I'm thinking Anvil and Spinal Tap ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xilddx Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 This is awesome mate! What a great holiday! Hope it goes fantastically well for you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 So, will you still have a job when you come back?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 Not in the slightest bit jealous, oh no... Have a great time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Low End Bee Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 No fair Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmer61 Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 [quote name='Clarky' post='1166182' date='Mar 17 2011, 07:49 PM']Thanks gents! In the lounge at Gatwick waiting for my flight, more excited than an excited thing! Middlie-aged man gets to tour overseas, something he has dreamed of since being a teenager,. Will report back Sunday evening or Monday. Smiely face emoticons galore![/quote] Yeah whatever, I'm playing in Berkshire tomorrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 [quote name='Clarky' post='1166182' date='Mar 17 2011, 07:49 PM']Middlie-aged man gets to tour overseas, something he has dreamed of since being a teenager,. Will report back Sunday evening or Monday. Smiely face emoticons galore![/quote] Splendid. Really chuffed for you! Have a good gig - and bring us back a nice tin of Fado. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakenewmanbass Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 Great stuff Clarky remember to buy a couple of bottles of vintage Port it's the biz over there. Hope you're having a ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted March 20, 2011 Author Share Posted March 20, 2011 I landed at Porto airport about 11pm on Thursday and was picked up 45 minutes later by the band in the tour minibus. We were staying in the Holiday Inn in the district of Matosinhos, not far from Porto (here the venues each supply the hotel, which meant changing hotels every day even if the gigs were not that far apart). The band had already played three small gigs on the Weds/Thurs, each of which was in a shopping mall (eg, the FNAC complex in Matosinhos). I don't think it was quite what they had expected but fun nonetheless. The tour featured a slimmed down version of Rattlin Bone (there are normally 13 or 14 of us). So we were playing to tapes of the backing singers and brass section. The tour band comprised double bass (me for the last two gigs; tapes before I arrived), drums, guitar, souzaphone, trombone, and lead male and female vocals. Back to the diary, having dumped my bags in my room (including the big hard golf case that contained my removable necked Eminence upright bass) we of course went to the hotel bar, where we stayed drinking until 3.30am, just to ensure we all had hangovers the next day. I am (under doc's orders on a low-fat, low-alcohol diet which was suspended in my time in Portugal!) So, Friday ... Got up at 9am for breakfast, feeling grim, as my room-mate is an early riser. Went back to bed to hold head for an hour then checked out and crammed all our gear into the minibus. This was like doing a Rubrik's cube with a hangover as there were seven in the band plus promoter and her roadie guy. Eventually we managed to pile the gear in and drove off, each of us in the back carring (squashed by) something awkward, in my case a floor tom. We drove to the centre of Porto, dropped our bags and went for a wander in search of sun (it was gloriously sunny but very cold in the shade). Bang went the diet as we found a big sunny square and piled into cheese omelette and chips. Lots of chips. With ketchup and mayonnaise. Mmmm says the man who has been living off low-fat yoghurt and grilled fish and salad (not together of course, fish yoghurt isn't a favourite). About 6pm we unloaded the gear into the venue which was a very funky bar-cum-club in the centre of Porto called the Armazem do Cha - the main 'alternative' (non-chart topper band) venue - and soundchecked. The venue then fed us at a restaurant (bacalao, salt cod, which was full of lethal bones and not great) and we went back to the hotel as we were not due to play until 12.30am. Having made ourselves up as zombies we went to the venue, frightening a few people on the way. The Armazem do Cha is a very buzzy place, packed with a young crowd, drinking beer, cocktails, or pots of tea (! Cha means tea). They pushed back our onstage time to 1.30am, which is an unnatural time for an old git like me! Anyway we played an hour-long set which was well received to maybe 100 or so people at any one time (lots of people mlling between the various drinking rooms and watching us) and got loud yells for an encore, which we duly obliged with ... And f@cked up royally as the drummer, guitarist and trombone player all came in a bar or so too early/late. We did get it together at the first chorus and probably noone really noticed. But definitely a Category 2 moment, according to the standard definitions created by BC's Low End Bee. After the gig we drunk until 4.30am and crashed. This time we were in triple rooms and I got the bed by the bathroom door, meaning I had to listen to one of my room-mates, who had overdone the caipirinhas, chucking up for England for 15 minutes. Saturday and last gig. We checked out of hotel, feeling a tad ropey, and did the 'how the hell do we all fit with our gear into the minivan' game. Then a two hour drive to Figueira da Foz, a pretty seaside resort. Were much cheered on the way in as we saw huge road-side posters for Rattlin Bone. It was a very well promoted event at a big multicultural centre called the CAE (Centro Artos and Espectaculos, or something like that). We went to the venue straight away to drop our gear and soundcheck, which we thought would allow us an hour or two on the beach later in the afternoon. Wrong. Despite having a three-man team, the manana sound engineers (who kept disappearing every few minutes for fags, coffee, or basically anything that prevented them doing anything useful) took three hours to set up the stage. Talk about boring. We then had problems with the soundcheck (having told them we didn't need the drums miked, they miked them, and the had problems with the acoustics). The room itself was a theatre auditorium with 200 seats capacity and a decent stage. After soundcheck the venue fed us some superb shrimp and saffron risotto and Vinho Verde (nice zingy local white wine) and we went to the dressing rooms to get zombified. The dressing rooms were larger than most venues we have played - each of us could have had two mirrors (the ones with lightbulbs all the way round), there were showers, wardrobes etc. Being a cultural centre our onstage time was a more normal 9.30am and we were well chuffed to learn they had sold all but 10 tickets. We waited back stage and were given the nod to go on. We then played a really good, tight set for an hour and had a really appreciative audience who got us back on for an encore with really loud yelling and applause. Probably the best we've ever played and the best reception we have ever had. Really fulfilling. We then of course went to the bar, had a few and then loaded the gear into the van. Off to hotel, drop bags and out drinking again. I threw in the towel at 3.15am as I had a 6.30am taxi pickup (the rest of the band had a later flight back) and I write this from the taxi. Conclusions: That was really fun, the camaraderie was great, the audiences were appreciative (even if the venues were quite idiosyncratic, mainly the ones before I arrived thankfully). The cramped minibus, the painfully slow sound engineers and the hangovers were not so great! But a brilliant experience overall and I will post pictures as soon as the promoter lady sends them on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Welcome back Clarky - sounds like you'll have a few memories to hang on to. Did you find a 1963 Precision? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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