Session acoustique #145 (03/2009) sur Le Cargo!

Earlier this year Karen, Dave and Stephane recorded an acoustic session for the webzine Le Cargo!.

The session was filmed in a quiet and secluded park tucked away in a backstreet near the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris’ 20th Arrondisment. Four songs were recorded for the session: ‘The Light Inside’, ‘Nearness’, ‘Cabo de Gata’ and ‘The Whole Way Round The Circle’.

“Heligoland et le cargo. Une histoire de jardin pourrait on dire. Juste après leur merveilleux concert pour la fête de la musique, dans notre jardin parisien pas si secret, nous mettons enfin en ligne la session acoustique tournée quelques mois plus tôt dans un jardin jouxtant le cimetière du Père Lachaise.

Cadre idéal pour cette musique envoutante. Des bruits d’enfants, des roucoulements d’oiseaux, voilà ce qui se marient à merveille avec la musique de Dave et Stéphane et la voix de Karen.”

Watch the session on the Le Cargo! website

 

 

 

 

 
Photos from the Le Cargo! acoustic session

Merci Renaud et Le Cargo!

July 2nd, 2009 | Posted by Steve

More photos from Le Cargo Fête de la musique

Some more photos from Karen, Dave and Stéphane’s acoustic set for Fête de la musique in Paris hosted by Le Cargo.

All photos by Anne-Hélène Lebrun / frall-photo.com

All photos by Anne-Hélène Lebrun / frall-photo.com

July 1st, 2009 | Posted by Steve

Photos from Le Cargo Fête de la musique

Some photos from last Sunday’s acoustic concert for Fête de la musique in Paris hosted by Le Cargo.

Photo by entropy

Photo by entropy

Photo by entropy

Photo by Steve

Photo by Steve

Photo by Steve

Thanks to everyone who came along to the show, all the other bands who played and special thanks to Renauld and Le Cargo for organising and hosting the concert.

June 26th, 2009 | Posted by Steve

Fête de la musique

June 15th, 2009 | Posted by Steve

Photos and reviews from 1bis

All photos by Morgan Cugerone.

 

Jécoutedelamusiquedemerde

Le 1bis reste un lieu de concert unique à Paris et pas seulement car c’est le dernier où les gens peuvent encore fumer ( ce qui n’est pas franchement un point positif pour moi ). Le cadre est pour le moins original et l’ambiance conviviale comme nulle part ailleurs. Jetons un voile pudique sur l’interminable set de Watine pour nous concentrer sur la raison de ma venue ici, les Australiens basés à Paris Heligoland.

Venu présenter les chansons de son troisième album ( à venir ) produit par Robin Guthrie, le groupe a bien changé depuis la dernière fois que je les ai vus ( il y a deux ans déjà, au regretté Triptyque ) et pas seulement par son line-up. Rythmique bien plus enlevée, murs de guitares… on est bien loin du doux mélange de folk et de slowcore de l’album précédent, A street between us, pour aller parfois vers des univers post-rock pas si loin de Sigur Ros mais la plupart du temps vers un son shoegaze rappellant Slowdive à son plus excité.

Ce qui n’a pas changé, c’est la voix de Karen Vogt, toujours aussi profonde et pure, à la fois ( oui c’est étrange ) chaude et cristalline, qui apporte à ses chansons un contraste et une profondeur très originaux. Et si au milieu du concert, quelques titres se font plus langoureux, rappelant pourquoi le groupe fut comparé à Mazzy Star, les derniers morceaux confirment un groupe qui a su garder toute sa richesse et sa douceur mais en amplifiant et en diversifiant ses sonorités.

L’heure tardive me force à partir avant la fin du rappel mais avec la certitude que leur nouvel album sera un des disques de l’année.

Original review online

 

Not For Tourist Paris

“Le 1 bis est un lieu un peu secret qui héberge des groupes et des concerts selon l’humeur et la saison. Ici pas de programmation sans histoire, tout est affaire de rencontres et de temps partagé. Le lieu se fait avec ceux qui y passent et laissent leur empreinte. Le 1bis s’interroge, s’empli et se vide tantôt d’un orchestre symphonique, tantôt de rock et de pop. Les choix artistiques n’y sont pas préétablis, la coïncidence nous porte plus loin, vers des percées cacophoniques ou des étreintes blues improvisées. Qu’importe, ici nous partageons avant tout des rêves, et le reste suit…ou pas. ”

Voici comment se décrit le 1bis à Ivry su Seine, et d’emblée cette présentation nous a séduit… Passion, audace, indépendance, convivialité… Et clairement, le lieu tient ses promesses, on s’y sent bien, comme chez soi, une grande famille faite personnalités hautes en couleurs, mais sans tapage, ni snobisme.

Simple et bon comme une soirée barbecue entre potes, où certains pour le bonheur de tous, déjantent un peu. Un public à la fois attentif au son et ouvert aux rencontres… Et,on ne s’étonne pas de se retrouver à faire des peintures de guerre au rouge à lèvres à un post hippie. Spontanéité de l’instant, ça fait du bien…

Nous étions donc dans au 1 bis ce vendredi soir pour revoir Watine (chronique à venir) et pour découvrir le combo franco-australien Heligoland…

Une excellente découverte!

A la fois planante et tempétueuse, leur musique envoûte et libère notre imaginaire.

Elle redessine de manière sincère et subtile les contours d’une folk onirique, caressante souvent, plus orageuse parfois.

Voluptueuse et sensible, elle invite au calme et à la méditation.
Si le sillon a déjà été creusé par d’autres, on pense aux Cocteau Twins, Syd Matters ou Elysian Fields, Heligoland trouve par des influences tant psyché que post rock à ouvrir vers d’autres horizons et surtout à livrer un set qui n’a pas qu’un effet purement narcotique.

On flotte avec eux, certes, mais l’oreille est flattée par des arrangements à la fois élégants et profonds, et qui présentent des morceaux qui ont l’intelligence de ne pas se complaire dans la mélancolie doucereuse ou éthérée.

Sur le fil, tant emprunte de gravité et de lyrisme que de fragilité, la voix de la chanteuse Karen, qui s’autorise à de belles envolées dans les aïgus, offre profondeur et intensité à des mélodies aériennes mais non moins vibrantes et poignantes.

Rythmiques sobres et guitares acoustiques et électriques entre ombre et lumière oscillent entre le volatil et la force et contribuent elles aussi à donner du relief et à accrocher un public qui d’emblée aurait opté pour une écoute lascive enfoncé dans les fauteuils à l’extérieur.

La musique d’Heligoland, si elle prend son temps, nourrie de tempos souvent lents et d’arrangements tempérés,laisse d’émanciper sans prévenir de magnifiques ascensions rythmiques et sonores et souvent s’envole vers des cieux orageux où point un rayon de soleil. Elle instaure une atmosphère sensivite, généreuse et singulière, d’une grâce et d’une beauté rares.

Un travail d’orfèvre mené modestement qui touche droit au coeur.

Original review online

April 8th, 2009 | Posted by Steve

Acoustic session for le cargo

Earlier this week Karen, Dave and Stéphane recorded an acoustic session for the webzine le cargo!.

Check back in the coming weeks for further details…

March 28th, 2009 | Posted by Steve

Germany/Czech Tour Video

A video compiled and edited by Karen from footage taken on Heligoland’s January 2009 Tour of Germany and the Czech Republic.

Shot by Karen, Dave and Philipp.

The song playing in the background is ‘Cabo de Gata’ from Heligoland’s first album “Shift these thoughts“.

March 24th, 2009 | Posted by Steve

Germany/Czech Tour Blog

A recap of Heligoland’s January 2009 Tour to Germany and the Czech Republic.

Day 1 - Paris to Das Bett, Frankfurt
Driving: 573km
Weather: Cold

From Chausson aux pommes to Wunderbars

Our departure from Paris took place on a cold, windy January morning. Heading east at this time of year we were anticipating a few weeks of similar or worse weather but the tour was off to a great start already as we’d lucked into a free upgrade at the car rental agency and we set out for the expedition in a suspiciously brand-new looking Ford Galaxy van, a cavernous vehicle ideal for long distance driving and touring. Problems we’d encountered on previous tours accommodating bandmembers possessing longer than normal legs were now a thing of the past.

Making our way across France towards the German border the first stop was for lunch in the city of Metz. Not wanting to miss a final opportunity for a French bakery snack, Steve continued his ongoing survey of the regional variations of chausson aux pommes. The culinary explorations continued later in the afternoon on the other side of the German border where at a small service station Stef discovers the Wunderbar, a delicious chocolate, peanut and caramel nougat snack that featured prominently in his diet for the duration of the tour.

Several hours later the band arrived at Das Bett in Frankfurt on time for soundcheck, not an unusual occurrence on Heligoland tours, to find the venue still closed and shuttered. With the streets largely empty, shops shut for the day and a light drizzle falling, we make tracks to a nearby bar for a few beers and game of pool that was pretty much a foregone conclusion after Dave’s barnstorming opening break. Game duly completed and glasses empty it’s time for load-in and soundcheck for the first show of the tour. As the only band performing at Das Bett that night, soundcheck unfolds at a leisurely pace with Karen disappearing at one point to do a hastily arranged radio interview with a local station and Stef surreptitiously patching a Boss RE20 Space Echo into Dave’s effects chain whilst he’s momentarily out of the room.

With no other bands on the bill this particular evening we were asked if we could extend our set a little to compensate. The only slight catch being that the requested duration for the concert was something close to twice the length of our usual sets. Comparisons between Heligoland and The Grateful Dead have been few and far between over the years for good reason and the Persian restaurant dinner that followed soundcheck was dominated by much earnest discussion and creative suggestions as to how we could effectively double the duration of the songs in the setlist. Armed with a selection of heavily annotated setlists outlining extended introductions, extended instrumental sections, extended endings and a couple of hastily prepared acoustic numbers, Heligoland took to the stage a little later to embark upon what must surely have been the longest concert in the band’s history. The set came to an end what seemed like an eternity later with a lengthy rendition of ‘Cabo de Gata’, possibly the lengthiest ever attempted in fact, that clocked in at around fifteen or sixteen minutes.

After a particularly long day’s driving and playing the foremost thing on everyone’s minds was locating the nearest comfortable chair and a beer. As the evening wound down and the crowd departed, the music playing over the PA began to exert something of a hypnotic effect over those present. No-one could quite put their finger on the identity of the group responsible for the rather cool droning psych-rock with it’s looping basslines, machine-like drumming and superb delay/clean tone guitar lines floating over the top. As it turned out Frank, the owner of Das Bett, had the answer, Verspielte Zeit, a group with whom Frank had previously been the bassplayer. A must-have record which we’re told is unfortunately a bit hard to find.

With the night at an end and the bar closed it was time for a few quiet beers in the bandroom upstairs and (eventually) a good night’s sleep to round out day one of the tour.

 

Day 2 - Frankfurt to Dortmund
Driving: 223km
Weather: Cold

Accommodation on a budget

Awakening the following morning with a selection of hangovers varying from mild to semi-conscious/non-communicative the band departed Frankfurt for… somewhere.

With a day in hand before the next show in Münster it was decided to make our way north at a leisurely pace and have dinner in the small town of Kamen, just outside Dortmund. On our previous German tour we’d been driving around this area one evening looking for somewhere to eat and taken the exit for Kamen where we’d chanced upon a local inn with a plentiful selection of cheap meals and beers. Touring as we were on an extremely tight budget, our accommodation for the night was to be at an Etap hotel. There’s two of these hotels situated on the outskirts of Dortmund, located at opposite ends of the city roughly an hour’s drive apart. With the benefit of hindsight we should perhaps have thought this through a little bit more beforehand as the Etap we were staying at was the one on the opposite side of Dortmund from Kamen, necessitating a two hour round trip for dinner.

Returning to Kamen nearly a year after our previous visit it transpired that the inn we’d visited previously was now closed. The next best offering seemed to be an Italian pizza restaurant which despite the slightly incongruous idea of having an Italian meal at a tiny town in the German countryside turned out to be pretty good. With dinner done and dusted all that remained for day two of the tour was the hour-long drive back to the Etap outside Dortmund. In the name of cost-containment/budgeting we crammed four people and a carload of musical equipment into a two-person room and settled in for a good night’s sleep despite the odd odours emanating from the bathroom, courtesy of the room’s previous occupants. The bathroom itself was one of those perplexing single-piece moulded plastic rooms/capsules that you typically find at these type of hotels which give the impression that it could be bolted onto the international space station should the need arise.

 

Day 3 - Dortmund to Gleis 22, Münster
Driving: 296km
Weather: Cold, overcast

“Hello Münster!”

On Heligoland’s previous German tour we played a show at Gleis 22 in Münster supporting American band A Whisper In The Noise. We were later told by friends that Gleis 22 is one of the finest venues in the whole of Germany, which came as no surprise as the show we played there was superbly organised, the supplied backline of the highest quality and the arranged accommodation extremely agreeable.

Thus we were very happy to be making a return trip to Münster. We arrived in town a little early and with a few hours to spare before load-in some bakery snacks and numerous coffees were in order. German bakery snacks being considerably heavier than their French counterparts the band returned to the venue all snacked-out (Karen being the possible exception here) and maybe a touch over-caffeinated.

The show this evening was a little different to our previous concert at Gleis 22. We were playing as guests of the My.Festival, a group that organises concerts to promote and encourage interest in local music from the area. Despite being neither local, regional or even German we were greeted warmly and local band Yesterday Oh I Forgot kindly loaned us their backline for the show. Taking to the stage for soundcheck with relish (and with the aforementioned half dozen coffees under his belt), Stef’s drumcheck opened with him yelling “Hello Münster!” before unleashing beats that were no doubt audible several blocks away.

Despite the late withdrawal of the headline act due to illness there was a lengthy queue forming outside the venue before the doors opened - a sight that brings great joy to any musician.

With the crowd arriving for the night’s concert we were asked to record a voice-over introduction for a podcast radio show hosted by one of the venue’s engineers. This required four or five tries to get everyone perfectly in sync, perhaps suggesting that Heligoland shouldn’t attempt four-part vocal harmonies in the near future.

After the elongated set at Das Bett it was something of a relief to be playing our usual concise set with all the songs the normal lengths. By the time Heligoland took to the stage the venue was near capacity and one of the most enjoyable and memorable shows of all our time in Europe followed. A special shout-out to Julia who led the dancing from the front-row.

After a successful performance some celebrating was in order and with the bandroom fridge well stocked for such a purpose, everyone settled in for a long night.

Notwithstanding a minor spelling incident shown above, another great night at Gleis 22 was had by all. Following a quick stop for currywurst and the cheapest cheese burgers anyone had ever encountered it was off to the local Johanniter (an organisation vaguely similar to St. John’s Ambulance we’re told - except that they operate a guesthouse) for a good night’s sleep.

 

Day 4 - Münster to Dortmund
Driving: 296km back in the opposite direction
Weather: Cold, overcast

Bifteki and Retsina

The second and final day off on the tour was spent in Dortmund where we had arranged to meet up with our friends Philipp and Wolfram from the band Teamforest.

Upon arriving in Dortmund it proved a little tricky to locate the home of Philipp’s partner which led to numerous fruitless enquiries at service stations, bakeries, grocery stores and finally at an Internet café where the owner graciously gifted us a Dortmund street and phone directory. Equipped with comprehensive street maps and the phone numbers of all Dortmund’s residents, our navigational difficulties were quickly resolved.

After an early evening rendezvous and the first beer of the evening we made our way to a local Greek restaurant for a hearty meal washed down with perhaps a little too much Retsina. The company was wonderful, the food incredible (the Bifteki with a side serve of chips comes highly recommended) and as the night wore on and the Retsina continued flowing the conversation ranged from the pros and cons of various political systems to card tricks. Towards the end of the evening Philipp mentioned he had a few days off before his next DJ gig which quickly turned to an invitation to accompany the band on the rest of the tour. With Philipp now onboard, the restaurant about to close and a long drive to Leipzig the following day it seemed prudent to call it a night and try and get some sleep before the next run of four shows in four days.

 

Day 5 - Dortmund to Paris Syndrom, Leipzig
Driving: 471km
Weather: Freezing, foggy

Paris Syndrome

With most of the band a little the worse for wear and tear from the previous evening’s festivities, we departed Dortmund around midday for the east.

The drive to Leipzig through the German countryside was uneventful save for a few snack stops and some appalling service station coffee. Rainy overcast conditions shrouded much of the scenery in low-lying fog which made for a murky drive and little in the way of visible scenery to look at along the way.

The grey, misty skies thickened further as we arrived at the outskirts of Leipzig for a meeting with Patrick, the concert organiser. There were signs of recent heavy snowfall and we later found out Leipzig had experienced temperatures of a rather chilly minus twenty three degrees some weeks prior. After making a quick detour to our hotel it was time for soundcheck.

The concert was to take place in “Paris Syndrom”, a bar adjacent to the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig’s Museum of Contemporary Art.

As the name of the bar suggests, the decor and menu contained all manner of twists on Parisian landmarks, names and dishes - furniture branded ‘Louis Viutton’, Ricard and Pastis behind the bar and crocque monsieurs on the menu.

Soundcheck was interrupted at one point by two mysterious, uncommunicative middle-aged men armed with marker pens and what appeared to be some rather shonky looking homemade Heligoland band memorabilia. After obtaining the autographs of everyone present and quibbling as to the position and readability of the signatures the pair departed the venue in the manner of someone who had just been subjected to a rather tiresome formality. Odd.

As the only band playing that night there was a little re-jigging of the setlist beforehand, though fortunately not to the extent seen in Frankfurt. Karen opened the concert with a solo/acoustic version of ‘What Was It Worth?’ before the main band set and then an encore of Dave and Karen playing the title track from the forthcoming new album and a lengthy ‘Cabo de Gata’ to round out the performance.

Having packed everything away the evening came to a close with a short walk back to the hotel, a few beers with Patrick at the ground-floor bar and the amusing sight of various band members struggling up five very long flights of stairs.

 

Day 6 - Leipzig to Objekt5, Halle (Saale)
Driving: 42km (!)
Weather: Very cold, overcast

Lengthy improvisations and coded messages

As a band accustomed to driving extremely long distances in short periods of time with minimal stops along the way (Berlin to Palanga, Paris to Porto - anyone?), the following day’s travel to the satellite city of Halle (Saale) felt more like a commute than a regular day’s driving on tour. Philipp was by now providing all the navigation via iPhone and GPS, an approach that was quickly rendering redundant our previous tour strategy of driving semi-randomly into the city of the night’s concert and stopping semi-randomly at service stations to ask for directions to the venue.

To our pleasant surprise on arrival at Objekt5 we were ushered into a wonderful venue with a big PA, raised stage and an almost theatre-like atmosphere. There were a few minor teething problems in soundcheck as the supplied bass amp had to be dismantled by the engineer and numerous connections re-soldered to ensure it would last out the evening.

This delay provided an opportunity for a bit of soundcheck experimentation with Stef switching over to electric guitar and Philipp hopping behind the drum kit for a rehearsal of an all-in version of ‘Cabo de Gata’ planned as the set-closer that night. This extra little bit of rehearsal time would come in very handy later on…

After soundcheck and with a very tasty pasta dinner and a few quiet beers beneath our slowly expanding waistlines it was time to take the stage.

At the conclusion of the main set we were determined at the faintest hint of applause from anyone in the audience or the immediate vicinity to jump back onstage and play ‘Cabo’ with Philipp. A dual-electric guitar, extended outro version followed which must have hovered around the ten minute mark. To our surprise the audience wanted more and with the song cupboard now looking a little bare we returned for a second encore with a spirited rendition of ‘Jam in A’. This new, unfolding composition opened with spacious atmospherics and haunting vocals before building to what can only be described as something of an apocalyptic noise-fest some 8 or 9 minutes later. Philipp starred behind the kit and Stef took to Philipp’s Fender Jaguar and his new RE20 Space Echo with great gusto.

After the tour’s second lengthiest performance everyone retired to the band room to work on some unfinished business - the rider. With that completed we began the load-out only to find some cryptic looking messages written by hand in thick fraktur/blackletter script in the condensation on the windows of the car… After some debate as to the author’s intentions and message the band made tracks for the Hotel nearby.

Something of an after-party followed, the details of which are mostly best left unmentioned, suffice to say that further “quiet” drinks and guitars were involved… Our apologies to the occupants of rooms 4A, 4C and 4D.

 

Day 6 - Halle (Saale) to “Acoustic Moon” at Schokoladen, Berlin
Driving: 177km
Weather: Absolutely freezing

Radio interviews, political marches, drumkits and doners

For the next concert on the tour we returned to our favourite venue in Berlin for “Acoustic Moon” night at the Schokoladen.

Several days prior we’d been contacted by Berlin’s Radio Eins with a request for an interview prior to the concert. Arriving in Berlin and again guided by Philipp’s super-handy GPS we navigated our way to Admiralspalast, arriving a few hours ahead of schedule. With time in hand it was once again off to the nearest bakery for snacks and coffee.

Returning to Radio Eins later that afternoon we were confronted by blocked streets, barricades, riot police and more police vehicles than any of us had ever seen anywhere. There was some sort of political march taking place which turned a leisurely evening journey through central Berlin into a mad dash through gridlocked traffic to get to the station in time. After dropping off Dave, Karen and Philipp at the station, Steve and Stef parked the car and retired to a nearby restaurant by the river for a quiet beer. The interview, during which Dave and Karen played an acoustic song and chatted about the origins of the band’s name, ambient music and the influence moving to Europe has had on the band’s songwriting, was briefly available for streaming briefly at the Radio Eins website but is unfortunately no longer online.

From there it was on to Schokoladen and the rather mysterious Ackerstrasse. Despite playing at “Acoustic Moon” twice on past tours to Germany we still managed, even with GPS, to end up at the other end of the very long Ackerstrasse in a neighbouring suburb, necessitating a slightly confusing bit of backstreet criss-crossing to get to the venue in time. What could have been a small crisis upon arrival with the absence of a drumkit was quickly averted by Philipp with the assistance of an old friend and former bandmate who now lived in Berlin. Our thanks to Tim for the loan of the drumkit.

Soundcheck done it was time for a few quiet drinks and a bit of collective breath-catching before the show. Of the shows we’ve played at Schokoladen this was by our favourite to date, in front of a very friendly and plentiful crowd, a wonderful vibe in the room and a really fun performance.

This was Philipp’s final night with us on tour before returning to Dortmund and once again the band expanded to a five-piece with Stef switching to guitar and Philipp on drums for the encore. After the show there were plenty of people to meet and chat with to round out a really enjoyable evening.

Post-gig it was time for the now traditional enormous Berlin doner kebab, a few beers and back to Schokoladen for a good night’s sleep before the drive to Prague the following day.

 

Day 7 - Berlin to The Globe, Prague
Driving: 360km
Weather: Cold, wet

Things get a little strange…

With Philipp’s departure our already spacious touring vehicle seemed even more cavernous than usual as the band set off for the drive to Prague and the evening’s concert at The Globe.

As we approached the Czech border the countryside was covered in thick snow and the temperature dropped from cold to moderately perishing.

Stopping for a snack and to exchange some euros for Czech crowns at the border, we drove on to Prague.

As dusk fell, equipped with only a tiny tourist map of Prague and with the street signs inconveniently located high up on the facades of buildings away from streetlights, Dave’s vast tour navigation experience came into play, guiding the touring party to The Globe through a maze of narrow streets with an efficiency and precision finely honed by several years of practice in unfamiliar cities across Western Europe.

Karen spotted a cheap hostel just over the road from The Globe and with no accommodation pre-arranged we hastily checked in. This was a decision that was to have some unfortunate ramifications the following morning but at the time the hostel’s location seemed convenient almost beyond belief.

After loading-in to The Globe it was time for snacks, milkshakes, coffees and beers while we waited for soundcheck.

Soundcheck as it turned out was something of a tricky affair. With a portable PA and borrowed gear to set up, the local band who organised the show experienced a few complexities during soundcheck and unfortunately the night began to run a little behind schedule.

So far behind schedule that by the time we took the stage, minus a soundcheck, we had time to play maybe four or five songs at the most. A Post-it note would have sufficed for the setlist.

Nonetheless, after five shows in the previous seven days everyone was raring to go and gave a spirited, if extremely abbreviated performance ending with a loud and expansive ‘A Year Without Sunlight’.

And thus the tour came to a close, ending on a F…

 

Day 8 - Prague to Paris
Driving: 1,046km
Weather: Colder in France than Czech (?!)

Getting to know the Czech Police

The original plan after the concert at The Globe was to have a nice meal, a few drinks and then to wrap up the tour the next morning with an hour or two of sightseeing, depart Prague around midday and split the drive back into Paris across two days.

Unfortunately it didn’t quite work out like that.

By the time we’d loaded out from The Globe everything in Prague seemed to have closed for the evening. With little on offer, dinner was comprised of a bucket of The Colonel’s finest Crispy Wings. So much for trying some Czech cuisine.

The band’s slowly expanding waistlines now augmented by several kilos of processed chicken meat, everyone retired for the evening, totally exhausted.

The following morning things went awry in the most unexpected way possible. From our room on the fourth floor of the aforementioned hostel everyone slept well and woke up with vague plans for the morning’s proposed sightseeing.

During the process of everyone taking turns at having a shower, a bag mysteriously disappeared from the room… The bag was last heard being slid across the floor, the identity of the person sliding it presumed to be a bandmate, perhaps a little under the weather and confused as to what belonged to whom - understandable after more than a week on the road.

Unfortunately this was not the case and the bag was later found stuffed in a kitchen cupboard minus most of it’s contents, including an iPod charger, Australian power adaptor, a digital camera (broken), a passport and puzzlingly, the bag owner’s toothbrush… Enquiries were made with the hotel proprietors who proved to be unfailingly rude and irritable when confronted by the situation.

The next step was a visit to the Czech police to report the missing passport, lest it re-appear elsewhere later in someone else’s hands. A someone who’d presumably been doing a lot of teeth brushing. The first police station visit went well, a friendly officer with a most excellent beard who spoke fluent English and who referred us to the department of Alien Immigration (or something similar) a taxi-ride away on the other side of the city. Upon arriving there, the department appeared to have either moved or closed, no-one seemed too sure and unfortunately no-one spoke much English. An official directed us to another police station with a handwritten note, presumably describing our predicament. After approaching an uncommunicative official at the front desk of the station we were directed to wait in a bare, whitewashed, unlit room with bars on the windows that resembled the visiting room at a remand centre. The room contained nothing apart from three tables and a stained mirror. The occupants of the other two tables were speaking together in near-whispered voices, charging their mobile phones and popping out every so often for groceries, suggesting we could be here for a while. An hour or two later and with no sign of any police officers, or in fact anyone to speak to, we left in frustration, approaching two Czech policeman on the street for assistance who directed us to the Australian consulate. The staff at the Australian consulate were extremely helpful and with the appropriate documentation obtained for the missing passport it was time to depart the beautiful city of Prague… In the quickest manner possible due to the day’s frustrations…

With the tour over, money running short and a long distance to travel, the original plan to split the journey home over two days was quickly ditched and it was decided to drive back non-stop. Non-stop that is apart from one last German service station meal, a final currywurst mit pommes and an enormous pork shank that Karen ordered semi-randomly from the menu.

Many hours later we were finally driving onto the Périphérique and on our way home for some well-earned sleep after one of our most enjoyable tours (the Prague shenanigans notwithstanding) to date!

Our thanks to everyone who came along to the concerts, bought a CD, said hello and had a beer with us.

A very special thanks to Philipp from Teamforest for joining us on the tour, for his excellent company, his assistance with navigation and for playing drums with us at two of the shows.

For organising the shows our thanks to Frank and Laiki in Frankfurt, Frank and Kevin (and the My.Festival crew) at Gleis 22, Patrick and everyone at Paris Syndrom in Leipzig, Objekt5 in Halle, Sarah at Schokoladen and The Globe in Prague.

Photos by Stéphane, Steve and My.Festival.

We’ll be back on the road in April, stay tuned for further details…

March 24th, 2009 | Posted by Steve

Live video from 7ème Ciel

In September last year Karen, Dave and Stéphane played an acoustic concert at 7ème Ciel in Paris. Held on a rooftop balcony overlooking Sacré-Coeur the concert was very memorable not only for the unique setting but also as the first ever acoustic Heligoland show.

Here is a song from the concert - “The Light Inside”.

Thanks to VideoTrack for filming the concert.

February 9th, 2009 | Posted by Steve

Back from tour

We’re now back in Paris after the shows in Frankfurt, Münster, Leipzig, Halle (Saale), Berlin and Prague. Our thanks to everyone who came along to the concerts, everyone who helped organise the tour and a very special thanks to Philipp from Teamforest.

Tour blog, photos and video to follow…

February 5th, 2009 | Posted by Steve

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