Big Big Train North America Tour Diary Part One
27th March to 2nd April 2025
Planes, Trains…
I’m writing the first half of this post in mid Atlantic at 38,000 feet. It is four hours into a nearly eight hour flight (with a two hour connecting flight and then a three hour drive to follow). The members of our touring party are scattered across the rear section of the plane (no premium or upper class seats at our humble level of the rock music world).
For me, this lengthy voyage began yesterday with a train journey up to London. Trains being generally a Very Good Thing, that was a nice trip, different from this cattle class flight where the level of comfort is low. Leg room for anyone taller than maybe five foot ten is way less than adequate. The woman in front of me is a wriggler and keeps pushing back on her chair. Breakfast was a shocker, even by airline standards. In short, I am hating this part of the journey.
Most of the time, being a musician is a pretty cool job. But, alongside long-distance early morning flights, there are quite a few other things which are not that great. Listing just a few, let’s start with the ludicrously expensive and bureaucratic visa process; cross-border carnets; epic tour bus drives (I like tour buses, but not when the routing - unavoidably - makes for very lengthy journeys); learning bass parts (yawn); listening to mixes seventy billion times and then having to listen to the same mixes on test pressings (double yawns); packing and unpacking suitcases (‘where did I put the bloody toothbrush?’); lack of sleep; terrible coffee.
I could go on, but you get the picture.
On the other hand, time with the band and with listeners is a precious thing, so it’s not all doom and gloom. But right now, for me, this plane cannot touch down soon enough. The best hope I have at the moment, though, is that Mrs Wriggler falls asleep soon. Unfortunately, I must report that the wriggling lady did not stop wriggling.
At JFK, our connecting flight to Indianapolis leaves us with little time to spare. Getting through immigration was super slow, but the staff were polite and welcoming. And the carnet process was actually a breeze, with two very friendly chaps on the counter.
A carnet is basically an itemised list of every single item we are carrying. It provides a temporary grant of an import license without having to pay duties on our kit.
We actually have two carnets, one for our monitoring engineer Dammes (who has brought his kit into the UK from the Netherlands) and the band carnet with all our musical equipment plus Rob’s mixing desk. For the most part it seems to be a box-ticking exercise, and, if the staff are tardy or truculent it can lead to lengthy and frustrating delays.
But, this time we are in luck and, in fact, there was considerable good humour all around (especially when one of the carnet staff asked for Dammes’ name and, once hearing it, looked up and said: ‘your Mom named you Dumb Ass’!?)
Even with a happy carnet experience though, the connecting flight situation is becoming perilous due to lengthy queues at security. I just about make the flight and am lucky to get a free beer from the flight attendant as their card machine has failed.
…automobiles
On arrival, though, while waiting to commence the final leg of our journey (this time by road) we find out that Rikard, his partner Amanda and their daughter Merit were not on the plane with us. They were held at security (because, of all things, some baby food). Tour manager Graham had stayed behind with them and, in the end, rebooked on the next flight, they all arrived at the hotel just a few minutes after the rest of us.
We head off to bed at 10pm-ish and, whilst not quite adjusted to a non European time zone, we are able to get to work fairly early on the following day (Sunday 29th March). Our rehearsal base is Sweetwater, the giant music retailer and recording studio. As always, the crew’s working day is longer than the band’s, and they beaver away plugging things in and setting up kit and technology which I barely understand. By the afternoon we are ready to play some things but we are tired from travelling and so leave the main rehearsals for the next two days.
With all the equipment operating smoothly, we make an early start on Monday 31st and work our way through the set list. Last year, I borrowed a Rickenbacker from Sweetwater, but this year I have brought one of my own. I’ve also brought my Kemper pre-amp and have been able to borrow a set of Moog Taurus III’s from one of our friends, John Galgano of IZZ (saving us some shipping costs: the Taurus pedals are immensely heavy).
Our first show, a warm-up in the Performance Theater at Sweetwater is scheduled for Wednesday 2nd April. That doesn’t leave us much time to prepare but rehearsals go well and we soon feel back in the groove. On the morning of the 2nd, all our gear is shifted from the studio to the theater and, with everything in place, we treat soundcheck as an extra rehearsal session before doors open.
Meanwhile, more of our crew have arrived: Yenz on lights and Rita, Denis, and Scott on merch and all are getting to work on preparing for the evening performance.
I don’t generally enjoy the hour or two before gigs. Back in my 70’s school days, I used to do some sprinting (my speed was enhanced by my extra long legs) and the period just-before-showtime gives a similar feeling to waiting for the start of a race. I find a Fender Precision bass in the studio and work my way through some of my parts. I don’t get super nervous these days but there is always the fear when onstage of forgetting which note is next, so some repetition practice is in order.
The gig is really good fun. We play a longer set than we will be able to on Cruise To The Edge and we hope the audience enjoy the extended show. We are very conscious of the dreadful weather that the Fort Wayne area has experienced today and grateful that people still came out to see us. Afterwards, we get to meet some listeners and then, in a brief gap from the almost incessant rain, make a dash for the cars to head back to the hotel. Tomorrow, we fly south to Miami to join the Cruise.