Diary of a touring musician: day 11 - part two

In September & October 2023, we took to the road in the UK to introduce our new album STARLITE.ONE. Lunch with legends & a gig at the Eel Pie Club. This is part 12 of the warts-and-all-account.

If you happened upon this episode for the first time, we suggest you check out the other articles in the series by heading over to:

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Lunch with Legends

Following our eventful morning at Abbey Road Studios, the day swiftly bade us move along - we had an hour’s drive ahead to beat a path across London in time for our special lunch date with friends in Twickenham.

The city is full of surprises and today was no exception. Twickenham is a lovely part of London situated on the river Thames, which has a fabulous historic network of 18th-century buildings and pleasure grounds - we were suitably impressed.

Jon Astley had kindly sorted out a resident’s parking permit for the Van of Rock for the afternoon which was very thoughtful and much appreciated - no more having to wrestle with the stress of NoGo-RingGo!

The river Thames in Twickenham

Jon & Judy Astley

We have been working with Jon, a mastering engineer and music producer of great repute, for many years now.

Jon has worked with many of the music industry’s finest musicians producing albums for Eric Clapton, Barclay James Harvest, Corey Hart, and Deborah Harry and has mastered records for the Who, ABBA, George Harrison, Tori Amos, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Jools Holland, Tom Jones, Judas Priest, Emmylou Harris, Tears for Fears, Led Zeppelin, Level 42, the Boomtown Rats, John Mayall, Toto, Norah Jones, Stereophonics, KT Tunstall, Van Morrison, Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, Slade, Sting, Bono and Starlite & Campbell

It had been around 35 years since Simon and Jon last saw each other in the flesh and Starlite had never met him so today was a perfect opportunity to meet up and chew the musical fat together. It would also be the first time we would meet Judy who is a creative in her own right and a renowned author, so we were in for a double treat.

Jon had been very efficient and had kindly made a reservation for eight people for 1230 at the Osteria Pulcinella - a local restaurant around the corner that was known and deemed friendly to the musician’s purse - it had been a while since we had gone Italian.

Phill Brown

We love our dear friend and legendary recording engineer Phill Brown who has lived a fantastic life with many great stories to tell. In 2011 he wrote a memoir documenting many of his professional and life experiences, aptly called Are We Still Rolling?

“Are We Still Rolling - Studios, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll - One Man's Journey Recording Classic Albums”

It’s a fascinating read with wonderful stories and a must-buy book for anyone interested in rock ‘n roll history, music and recording. The book has just been reissued and the 2024 updated version is now available!

Phill started his career at Olympic Studios in London where he worked as the studio's tape-operator on Jimi Hendrix's “All Along The Watchtower” and “Beggars Banquet” by The Rolling Stones. Later, he worked on Bob Marley's “I Shot the Sheriff” and has also worked with David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Cat Stevens, Traffic and Talk Talk to name a few.

To top off a wonderful guest list, our great friend Mark Cleator from the Isle of Man and his partner Sharon Bridgens were on a travel adventure in the UK and planned to come to our concert later that night so we invited them to join the merry throng.

Mark is also a musician and audio geek and owns Red Lyon Studio - the only analogue recording studio on the Isle of Man - featuring a 32/24/2 Trident Series 80 console previously owned by Robert Ponger (Falco’s producer). Neither of us had met Sharon before so it was a lunch of new experiences.

A merry bunch, al fresco dining at the Osteria Pulcinella, Twickenham

(L-R) Mark Cleator, Jon Astley, Simon and Phill Brown

We had a fantastic time! So much fun!! Lunch was delicious and we all got on so well. It was again another ‘pinch-yourself’ moment because we felt so at home with such wonderful friends.

Mark, Sharon and Phill went off for a few hours and we went to Jon and Judy’s place for a cup of tea, a perfectly British affair.

The history connected to their house is pure Rock ‘n Roll as it used to belong to Pete Townshend from The Who from whom they bought it and has been the Astley family home and Jon’s studio for many years.

Townsend wrote many of the tracks from Who’s Next in this very house including the Lowery organ sequence from Baba O’Reilly. Cool ehh?

Pete Townshend in his home studio and now the home of Jon and Judy!

The kettle was on and Jon unveiled a special box set of The Who he had mastered with a book showing photographs of Townshend recording upstairs. How cool and again how surreal! We love all these stories.

A cup of tea chez Astley

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The Eel Pie Club

We collected the Van of Rock and drove a few minutes around the corner to The Cabbage Patch public house - the self confessed home of English Rugby. The upstairs venue is rented once a week by The Eel Pie Club which was formed in 2000 to preserve and continue the heritage of UK Rhythm & Blues which started down the road at The Eel Pie Island Hotel which was situated on Eel Pie Island in the middle of the River Thames.

“Feared by parents as a den of iniquity and forbidden to many” - you could see musicians as they began their rise to super-stardom including The Rolling Stones, Long John Baldry, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, The Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Pink Floyd.

The hotel¹ is the stuff of legend and a few weeks before the gig we recorded a special edition of The Supertone Show about the history and stories of the original venue which was an alternative scene for new young talent in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Episode 123: The Supertone Show with Suzy Starlite and Simon Campbell

This was our first visit to the new Eel Pie as when in London we usually play another legendary venue - The Half Moon In Putney and love the team there. They have a great sound system with professional sound engineers and the manager, Nina Jackson, is a delight to work with - super-positive and really cares about us as artists; we have been a part of their artistic family for a few years now.

Last time we played there, the lovely Peter French, lead singer of Atomic Rooster - yes, the Atomic Rooster and Simon’s first album purchase - came to see us and asked if we had ever played the Eel Pie. He knew Gina Way who ran the club and said he would tell her about us and recommend she book us to play.

When you have that sort of a recommendation and given the history of the place it was an opportunity we felt we couldn’t turn down. So two years later, after numerous emails back and forth, we finally managed to make the dates work for our band to play a night at the club.

The British live music scene

Before continuing, we need to expand a little on what’s happening in the live music scene.

Every week, there seems to be an article about grassroots venues closing their doors due to poor ticket sales and stratospheric increases in running costs. The Guardian regularly reports on this and its grim reading.

“Bath Moles going shocked our sector. Bands that played there – Oasis, the Cure, Eurythmics – made the music industry millions, if not billions, of pounds. On their last two nights before closing, they were sold out, but still lost £1,100. Allowing that venue to close demonstrates a complete failure by the music industry in research and development.” | Mark Davyd, Music Venue Trust

It’s a perfect storm and totally respect venues and promoters who have the guts to put on small gigs for new and upcoming artists.

To cater for established artists who are full-time musicians is an expensive business, but it can be done.

Half of our gigs on this tour were sold out, some were cancelled and some poorly attended with no discernible reason between them - apart from the promotion.

It seems nothing has changed since Ian Hunter wrote his superb book Diary of a Rock'n'Roll Star - another essential read.

The get in

Back to the gig.

We are doing something different and yes, we have a lot of gear which we need to create something special for our audience.

If you have read any previous articles in this series you will know that touring as a three-piece without a crew is excruciating and an experience never to be repeated.

The ease of getting in and out of the venue is of paramount importance and rocked up to the venue only to find no loading bay or parking outside and had no choice but to rock up onto the pavement.

We were informed by one of the guys who worked at the pub that whilst unloading, someone should stand by the van to watch out for opportunist thieves and traffic wardens - not that there’s much difference between them.

In all our years of gigging, the get-in was one of the worst we had experienced. You had to push heavy wheeled flight cases across inch-thick artificial grass through the beer garden at the back of the pub (which is like rolling through fudge) then up an external fire escape with numerous steps and a two-corner turn to get into the upstairs venue through the fire doors.

We struggled from the off - so in desperation we called Mark, Sharon and Phill for assistance.

There was a guy called John who was acting as Stage Manager but apparently, he wasn’t there to help lift huge flight cases up the fire escape. What a relief we had friends to help.

As there was no parking at the venue, Starlite went off in the Van of Rock to a car park five-minutes walk away whilst the final bits of gear were being lumped upstairs.

A little while later Gina Way and a chap called Warren Walters turned up. They had started the club together and would run the event that evening.

Vibe…

While Simon and Hugo were setting up the gear, Starlite was across the sorting out the merchandise. Gina had agreed to sell our music and merch from their club table for a fee of £1 per card transaction to cover their costs. We didn’t have enough time or personnel to look after the sales for this gig so it was a case of needs must and appreciated that at least we had someone there.

Gina was nice and communicative but sadly Warren appeared to be having a difficult day and was not particularly helpful or kind - moaning about everything from the amount of merch we had, oh if they had known how much gear we had… and so on… it was all rather odd. We were working hard and all Starlite heard was complaining - it doesn’t make you feel very welcome that’s for sure.

Gina Way and Warren Walters

Rider

It is usual for a professional band to provide a rider. This document details the fee, promotion, publicity, technical and hospitality requirements. For this particular booking, no accommodation, food or drink was provided - not even a bottle of water.

The question you are asking yourselves is ‘Why did you arrange the gig in the first place’? We are still wondering, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

We were setting up and everyone was drinking beers, except for us. Simon asked if there was any chance of a tasty beverage to be informed: “the bar is downstairs…”

Drumming is a very physical job and Hugo is always hungry so we went downstairs to eat in the bar. It’s London, it’s pricey and unusually, the band didn’t get a discount.

Technical troubles

Now to the set-up. To our surprise, we discovered that the sound system was in mono and did not have enough channels despite the fact we had sent our technical requirements many weeks beforehand.

The stage was small and at one point John the assistant just moved the drum kit to where he thought it should be without referring to our stage plan or asking Hugo if it was OK to touch his gear. It had all been set up as we needed it to be - very confusing!! To top it off they hadn’t sold as many tickets as they had hoped. Welcome to the Eel Pie Club!

Friends

To our deep joy and relief, love and acceptance finally started to enter the building in the form of the St Albans Massif - Jez and Pauline Levy and their talented son Joshua, Adam ‘The Calling Cobbler’ and Jo Hailey from Striking Places Photography. Jon and Judy Astley arrived and sat with Peter French from Atomic Rooster, Phill Brown was also there with Mark Cleator and Sharon Bridgens.

Our eldest son James Campbell rocked up with his fabulous girlfriend Sarah and Scout the doggo. The wonderful Agent Cowboy arrived resplendent with a large blue beard and to our great delight, another of our super fans Robert Dean made a surprise appearance. He had taken the night off work and driven two hours to see us. What a guy!!

Agent Cowboy and friends

The venue started to fill but it was a disappointing turnout bearing in mind on our last tour we almost sold out The Half Moon which is only 8 miles away.

Starlite & Campbell - photo by Striking Places Photography (iPhone)

The St. Albans Massif

We felt supported and loved. It was no surprise that we played with mucho gusto and really enjoyed the concert. That was what we were there for and we always give 100% - when you have so many loving people in the building it’s just the best feeling - meeting together in the music.

Money

After the gig, Gina came to settle the fee and merchandise sales with Starlite. We now have quite a large body of work and sell bundles of vinyl and CDs wrapped together as a pack with hairy ned². That evening we sold a few CD bundles for £45 to be informed that their commission was £5. Suzy questioned it was one transaction so should be £1? Gina replied “But it was five items". Holy mother of fuck…

That did not make sense but after the day we had had Suzy didn’t argue. We’ll just leave that there with you.

The get out

After we had finished our goodbyes to members of the audience and friends it was time to de-rig.

After they had packed up their microphones and cables, John the Stage Manager and the sound guy went home citing the last train, leaving the three of us to do the get out and load the van. What a nightmare.

Starlite asked Gina and Warren if there was anyone who could help. Warren didn’t offer, but fortunately a couple of the bar staff agreed to give us a lift.

Starlite had to walk down back streets to collect the van of rock which is not ideal when you don’t know the area you are in. As she was about to leave Gina offered her a lift: much appreciated.

And so the long arduous process of the get out began. We had set up, rocked out on stage for an hour and a half and now, here we were, working our asses off shifting heavy gear down fire escapes, rolling wheels over thick artificial grass again then loading it all (like a game of Tetris) into the back of the Van of Rock!.

We finally set off around 1230 and the bar staff saved our bacon!

Late, knackered with a long way to go…

It was late, we were knackered and still had a two-hour drive ahead as we were staying in a hotel just north of Birmingham. We had to travel that far north as driving out of London in the morning is unpredictable and there is a very high risk of delays and accidents.

The next night we had the most important gig of the tour, The Met in Bury, North Manchester. This was the night we would present the full multimedia experience with a massive stage-wide cyclorama screen, resplendent with videos for every song including HD footage provided by NASA - and the whole event was being filmed for a live video release.

Dangerous, exciting and new

The Eel Pie Club caters for an audience and performers who want to connect to the halcyon days of the original venue - blues/rock bands with simpler setups and there is nothing wrong with that. A great blues band still does it for us.

The original club had great music to offer. It was the ‘60s - blues and rock was dangerous, exciting and new.

Now audiences are aging with younger music fans seeking new and dangerous music elsewhere - if at all. How long this type of venue can continue is determined by the willingness of people to buy tickets and bands to play there, which brings us right back to the crisis currently faced by grassroots venues.

The Eel Pie Club is an homage to a once legendary venue and certainly the wrong choice for us and our latest music - it was a strange experience and we learned some hard lessons.

The STARLITE.ONE show needs two technical assistants doubling as tour managers and drivers. This would impact us financially as we would also need a bigger vehicle(s) - the Van of Rock only has three seats - and earn enough to cover their fee, subsistence and accommodation.

2023/4 sees us doing something exciting and new. We need to book venues that have the skill and capability to work with more complex setups.

Silence

Simon drove through the silence of the night, the Van of Rock purring steadily along the dark conveyor-belt tarmac roads of the motorway network, Starlite snoozing and Hugo listening/watching drummers on his iPhone - he loves the drums.

It was 0230 when we finally rocked up at The Spread Eagle, Gailey, part of the Marstens pub/hotel chain.

We had arranged for a late check-in and had stayed there on previous tours so we knew the score. The night manager sorted out our room keys only to discover we were on the first floor and there wasn’t a lift - you have to laugh!!

Next up: The Met in Bury, a dirty kebab and a cottage in Embsay.

1. http://www.eelpie.org/

2. Hairy Ned | The name given to hemp twine by the local farmers of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.