Newton Faulkner—The Official Site

Hey guys,

Made it back in one piece! It was a pretty insane run, must admit it is good to be home - every now and then. When I first sat down to write this I got to the end of "Hey guys" and realised I could only remember tiny fragments of the last month. So I started scribbling notes and piecing the thing together. If I have plucked up any characters from New York and dropped them in the middle of the Arizona dessert, I am truly sorry.

First stop Minneapolis, the coldest place I've been in my life! Most days there were a few radio bits during the day. I would've had to make notes every few hours to remember all of them, but I didn't - so I can't. I do remember The Uptown Bar though. My first gig in the U.S and my first American meal, a burger the size of a pizza, a bucket tater tots (not sure of spelling or what they were) and a tiny bit of salad. Tasty as hell, but not for the faint hearted. The gig was wicked! It was just me and tour manager/sound dude Patch travelling around most of the time. It was nice going back to being fairly self contained, after tour bus-ing up for a bit. I can't remember how a song called Billy went, that's usually a good judge of a gig.

Then off to Canada. There were flights everyday for the first week. I did an interview in a tattoo parlour and got a free belt. I was playing a venue calling The Horseshoe Tavern so I went for a metal horseshoe with a zippo built into it. I've used it once to light some candles but it did feel pretty smooth! Not great for getting through customs though! Another fun gig, late night, early start, straight to the airport. So I can't say I learnt much about Canada, but I did have good night. Now Indianapolis I can only remember the venue, Radio Radio, and a restaurant just down the road where I had the flaming cheese. Really nice venue, awesome people, another good night! TO THE AIRPORT! Chicago, The Hideout probably the gig in the strangest location. Your driving around, the people, buildings, the usual and as you keep driving the people start thinning out the buildings turn into factories and warehouses. The thing that worried me was the guy that was driving kept checking his sat nav and looking around anxiously. When there were no people and only massive warehouses, tucked between two huge buildings in the middle of a large industrial estate, is a wooden shack. That is the aptly named The Hideout. Admittedly it's not really a wooden shack, it's more a wooden building surrounded by metal giants. A whisky and coke, some noodles, no flaming cheese, bed. Off to Detroit to support G love and special sauce, as you do. I shared a dressing room with an absolute legend called Travelin' Blues (or Steve) proper old school blues man with endless stories pouring out of this mouth, of homelessness, The Rolling Stone and freaking out pilots by telling them he thinks the wings might be on fire. Another good night and not a ridiculously early start so all's well, to Denver and a day off.

TO BE CONTINUED...