Chumbawamba UK tour diary - March 2008Hebden Bridge

Well if you're going to debut half a dozen tracks from yournew album all at once, then Hebden Bridge Trades Clubisn't a bad place to do it. The audience in the Totnes of theNorth were a) numerous b) in a good mood and c) on ourside. Together we rode the emotional rollercoaster of thenew songs, the (fewer than expected) lyrical cock-ups andthe first night unintentional vibrato. So, to all of you whowere there, thank you!

St Albans, Norwich...(Jude)

Norwich - not the saucy acronym, the town. Arts Centre tobe precise. Onstage in 45 minutes. Probably ought to bementally preparing for tonight's onsluaght. St Albans wasfabulous - a lovely gig. About as different from HebdenBridge as it gets. Offstage before our onstage HebdenBridge time. Stayed in a lovely ramashckle old pub withserious Real Ale people much in evidence. We had a jar ortwo for politeness' sake. A morning's pottering, managedto take in the cathedral and buy a pair of funky ankleboots, then onto Norwich where we were met by a brief flurry of snowfall. It's wiild out east, you know. Tonight weare in a converted church with beautiful swooshyacoustics to cover the words we still haven't learnt. Okay,time to apply eyeshadow now. Will try and persuade Boff

Chumbawamba UK tour diary - March 2008

to write something later.

St Albans, Norwich...(Boff)

St Albans... again, sort of. So anyway we get there and meand Phil spend twenty minutes looking for the Arts Centre.Phil insists on asking directions from every second person,bounding up to them like an over-enthusiastic kangarooand licking their faces. It's in the second floor of theshopping centre, of course. Just past the TK Max. Cosy asyour grandma's armchair, too, it is. Proper theatre set-up:backstage mirrors and ironing board (rock’n’roll venuesdon't have ironing boards), "just set up your merchandisestall on top of the grand piano love."And a very good gig it is too, though in these surroundingsI should call it a show rather than a gig. "Two minutes MrSmith!" There's some incredibly polite heckling from thelone scientist in the audience – he musters up a gruntwhen we roll into a version of the Charles Darwinsingalong 'Charlie' – and a smattering of forgotten lyricsalong the way, before we head to the Lower Red Lion,where the bar stays open long enough for it to resemblethe scene in 'Withnail and I' where our heroes attempt tobuy a dead fish from the poacher. We're not from London,indeed. St Albans is revealed next morning to be quainterthan quaint, huge church full of stone martyrs and a

Chumbawamba UK tour diary - March 2008

demonstration of original Roman under-floor heating in thepark. Jude ignores this and runs off to buy some crazyweird shoes (yes, she's already told you about the crazyshoes) that clatter along corridors and announce herarrival. And so to Norwich!

Frome

When in Frome… what at first appears quaint andpicturesque turns out to be the setting for a low-budgetvillage melodrama, with a cast of idiots running ringsaround the funny outsiders from the North. Cobbledstreets, model shops and one café (shut), gangs of well-brought-up youths wheeling around on bmx andskateboards, filling up every corner of the big car parkwhich acts as the town's centre. The show is in a barn of a place which somehow iswarmed up and cosied by the time we play. People don'theckle, they just talk loudly and cackle at mobile phonegames. Strange gig, really. We're getting the hang of allthe new songs and most of us can now play without apaper pyramid of lyrics and notes at our feet, and Jude'snew trumpet looks set to weather the storm, beautiful as itis. Myself, I'm enjoying singing 'I Wish That They'd SackMe', it's better live than on the album and has morepoignancy what with realizing that yes, this is what we do