Smoke Ferrys in Ireland

After a particularly long and frustrating wait at (definitely not in London) Luton airport courtesy of Ryan Air we finally arrived in Kerry well into the night to be greeted by this incredibly Irish looking chap brandishing a sign that said 'Smoke Ferrys'. It was most amusing.

The drive from Kerry airport to Dingle took about an hour across small winding roads and we only passed a couple of vehicles the whole journey. Our driver is a tour guide for eight months of the year and he treated us to a few bits of trivia about the surrounding area:

"to the left of you is a beautiful peninsula... glorious mountains all around us... of course you can't see this because it's pitch black outside"

...which was a shame but the stars shone bright so at least we saw something lovely.

Luckily we weren't too late for a few beverages at the local pub, Guinness naturally. After a conversation with one of the regulars about the Other Voices festival and how many acclaimed acts have played there like Elbow, Seasick Steve, Richard Hawley, Jarvis Cocker, The National, *cough* Snow Patrol *splutter* James Blunt, we decide that drinking copious amounts into the wee small hours is probably not the best preparation for an important show that's being filmed in HD in a church. Surprisingly sensible.

We arrived at this little church for soundcheck the following morning at 10am to be met with yet another technical problem, Kaf's guitar not working mainly because it's old, or in other words; vintage and well cool and stuff, ok? so what if it constantly goes out of tune, just listen to that tone maaaaaaaaaaaan. The techies dismantled the guitar and fixed it in a flash.

I found myself lingering around afterwards to catch some of Everything Everything's soundcheck. I do find their frenetic indie pop pretty nifty. I felt like a bit of a saddo fan boy though. 

After that we wandered around the lovely little place that is Dingle, had some tasty vegetarian Goulash then sat for a few hours in nervous anticipation... what to wear?... let's have a whisky... oh, it's the most expensive whisky on the earth? ... right then.

The big moment came and after a spot of makeup we headed to the church and in through a side window at which point I smashed my head hard on the window pane and briefly thought I'd pass out before cursing myself for being such a lumbering idiot. The show itself was going fine until half way through Summer Fades when Kaf forgot the lyrics which caused momentary panic before realising it's TV and we can start again! which we did, twice. We played six songs in total, three of which will appear on the TV show at some point in the new year. I'll post it here after it's broadcast. It should look fantastic as they had these wonderfully vibrant blue and violet lights shining brightly on stage, like this:

The following day we set of at ludicrous o'clock in the morning to head to snowy Dublin for a show that had initially been moved to a different venue, as support act to Laura Marling, but then Laura became too sick to play so the show was cancelled leaving us in a bit of a pickle. Many flustered phone calls later and the show is back on at the original venue The Working Man's Club and free entry to boot. There was no support band booked so Kris and Rob valiantly stepped in to do a stripped down version of their band Story Books but they were infected by the Smoke Fairies' something-will-stop-working-on-stage-any-time-now virus and sadly had to cut their set short. More on those tune mongers soon. The Smoke Fairies' set naturally had a technical blip or two but it was a good show and well attended; a few crazies were in tow but you're bound to get that with a free show. And with that you have the last show of 2010 for Smoke Fairies. Bring on 2011.

Smoke Fairies hit SXSW

Firstly, what the hell is up with the weather in Austin, Texas? one day its scorching sun which led to me looking like a burn victim and the next I'm wearing a massive coat and getting frost bite. It was so cold my fingers were like rocks. Karen Elson gets an Everest-sized high five 'cos she performed outside in the bitter cold wearing just a thin peach dress, if my mum were there she's be saying "wrap up warm dear or you'll catch your death!", but no, Karen and her impeccably dressed band didn't let the trivialities of weather dictate their stage persona.

SXSW was a pretty overwhelming affair, literally everywhere you go there’s a cacophony of bands jostling for attention. 6th Street in particular (a stretch of about four miles) had a huge volume of bars and restaurants all with live bands blaring out onto the street, which itself was littered with buskers of all ilk, including proper toothless hillbillies twanging their beaten up four string guitars.

Busking in Texas looked like ramshackle fun so I borrowed a violin from a duo on the street and busked with their banjo player. I earned them one dollar. 

Smoke Fairies played four shows at SXSW, the first being a set to a packed out Latitude 30 for the British Embassy showcase with buzz bands Everything Everything and Band of Skulls. It was an ace gig and it was nice to come off stage to greet a free bar. Watch a beating Frozen Heart here.

Our 'showcase' was at The Alehouse. The venue wasn't quite as exciting as the name suggests, in fact, it reminded me of Camden and I had to keep reminding myself that I was five thousand miles away.
There's a pretty dodgy mobile phone video of a potion of the set here - see, it could be Camden if it weren't for the banner.

I also added some viola mayhem to Viv Albertine's gig at Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace label showcase - they tried to get me in a nightie but couldn't find one large enough.

With America being the home of the Classic Beef Burger. They certainly know how to make a tasty burger: thick juicy beef patties cooked to perfection with jalapenos, proper cheese and thick smokey bacon - yum. We also went to a seafood restaurant that was a little unconventional in their approach to serving food. They came out with bowls of prawns and crawfish and simply tipped the contents onto your table, luckily I had a bib.  

We were also attracted to pizza vans, as you can see, it's the best way to get around in Texas.



We found some great vintage shops in the South Congress, including an awesome shop called Uncommon Objects who were selling Nomadic robes and a frock coat supposedly from the1800s belonging to the Knights Templar. I should have bought it.

Lastly, we met some pandas.

RIP Alex Chilton