Saturday, June 27, 2009

live in berlin



heres a video of bobby long in berlin and a message from phil taylor (manager) regarding the trip (from land of dreamers):

Im having a day off today working from a friends guitar shop in Kings Rd, London. I work from there when Im having a day off so that I only get called on my mobile phone. Does this sound like a day off to you?

Bobby and I got back last night from a weekend in Berlin and then a little festival yesterday in the UK. Bobby Long has been asleep since he got back to London and Im trying to give him a proper day off, but I wanted to let every one know what we have been up to.

We flew in to Berlin, which is by far the hippest city in Europe right now, on Friday 5th June. We left Bobby's London apartment at 6am to get to the airport. We went to bed at 4am the night before! So, a little bleary eyed, we turned up at Heathrow and got on the plane to Berlin.
rest of the blog and 2 non-related videos of bobby playing live after the break!

Spent the day with press and trying to get some sleep before getting to the Knaack Klub for the first gig. As we walked along the street to get there, I spotted some posters for the show. The first Bobby Long posters we have ever seen up on a wall. They were not very big and they were not printed in colour, but we were both over the moon excited by them!

The Knaack Klub is a great venue with a great stage and a nice area out side for meeting people after the show. About 120 people turned up to see Bobby play, which was amazing bearing in mind that the show was only booked 8 days before he played it, so again we were excited to be there and Bobby was dying to get on stage and make friends with his audience. People had driven 800 miles to be there! Bobby likes to play every night of his life and gets a bit jittery if he has not had a gig for a while. The set was good and I think that Bobby really enjoyed the chance to play to new people. He used the opportunity to try out several new songs, which I had not heard before. They are probably up on you tube by now.

After the gig bobby and I went to a club that I feel may well become what Bobby and I call our "GCHQ", we have one in all the cities he plays. A "GCHQ" is a place where he and I can hang out after gigs and chat to old friends. Its nice as its important for us to feel at home somewhere when we are on the road. We have $50 hidden behind the bar at our GCHQ in NYC so that we can go there even when we are broke! We left there at 5am. So quite a long day.

Next day (the 6th June, 65th anniversary of D Day) Bobby and I went for a walk in a park before setting off to do an interview. Luckily we managed to get the juornalist to show us the way to the venue for that nights film event gig. So we were taken on the metro trains with out getting lost!

We arrived to screaming fans at an old power station which was the venue for the Twilight DVD release where Bobby was booked to play that night. Right from the start we knew we were going to have a great time and a great show. While Bobby did his customary two minute sound check ("Can you hear the guitar Phil?" "Yes Bobby." "OK great, thanks sound man, thats it." !), Ben Kirby who is the Subways manager and one of my best friends came and found us to say hello and give us both a hug.

Ben had got to know Bobby at a party we had in Sweden a week or so ago and Bobby was happy to finally meet The Subways of whom he is a big fan. Ben took us down stares to say hello to Billy, Charlotte and Josh from The Subways and we all chatted while we got ready for what we learned is called a "Red Carpet Event". We went out and got into an SUV and were driven from the back of the building to the front of the building (not very green is it?) and then we walked down a red carpet with Bobby signing autographs,
talking to fans and being photographed and filmed. It was great fun.

The show that night was a good one. Bobby played to about 2500 people who all went mental, waving and shouting at him to come off stage and sign autographs. His image was projected up behind him so every one could see and I thought he looked natural and great.

Bobby and I watched The Subways with open mouthed amazement as Billy stired up the audience by getting them to sing along with hit after hit. He is the best front man on the scene right now by a very long way. www.myspace.com/thesubways

After their show Bobby, The Subways and I hung out with various actresses and actors before heading back to GCHQ and another crazily late night. We left the club and headed for the airport ("Dont worry Bobby, sleep on the plane!") and our 6.45am flight back to good old Blighty. Hayley, Bobbys European press coordinator picked us up at the airport and drove us to Sellinge festival in Kent where Bobby again played new songs.

After that we went home and I fell asleep after ten minutes!

Thank you to all the people who came out to see Bobby play in Berlin. Bobby loved meeting you all very much. We will be back in Berlin during the first week of October 2009 after playing several dates in Spain and France in late September. In October Bobby and I will be back in the USA playing a 40 date touur until Christmas, these dates will be announced soon.

Sorry for rambling on and on, but I wanted to show you the bits you may not get to see.

Phil Taylor
New Kings Rd Vintage Guitar Emporium, Kings Rd, London.


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