SLAM TOUR DIARY - CBS, SXSW and beyond 15th March 08

CBS - ADAM'S STORY...
"Well we've just got back from playing the CBS early morning show here in New York, it was the most frightening & exhilarating experience we've ever had!

"We spent just under a week in New York before the performance which gave us time to relax and iron out any of the creases in our set before the show. During our stay here we visited Times Square and the Empire state building, New York's a very different place than back home on the Isle of Man!

"Myself and Ross were very fortunate to find a place called McCoy's, an Irish bar in downtown New York where we got up to date on all the latest football scores from back home whilst Davy took advantage of all the sight seeing opportunities.

"Whilst we kept ourselves occupied down in New York the CBS morning show crept up and before we knew it the performance was the next day.

"We all went out and a had a big lunch followed by a very early night as we had to be awake by 4am to get to CBS in plenty of time for sound check.

"I had a vanilla milk shake and then decided it was time for bed at around 9pm, managed to get to sleep for about 10:30pm but by 1am myself and Davy were awakened by laughing and shouting in the hotel corridor. We ended up having to call security at the hotel and the people dispersed from the corridor but we still didn't get a very good nights sleep.

"Anyway after this rock 'n' roll story I can now confirm that we've been booked to play the Jimmy Kimmel show on April the 2nd and we can't wait!

  
 
CBS - ROSS'S STORY...
"This morning we had our first experience of live national TV, we had all brought a spare pair of underpants just in case and had to wake up at a ridiculous hour in the morning to get down there. We were all a bit nervous as messing up with a few million people watching would not be fun.

"We arrived at about 5:15 in the morning for sound check and a time check for the performance, we were then led downstairs to wait for our first "teaser" going into a advert at a little after quarter past seven.

"The heart was racing just before we went on but after we had gotten through that first little bit we relaxed and after waiting an hour we did another teaser and performed two songs.

"It was a different feeling playing live and although Adam was distracted by something on the floor we all played well and would like to say thank you to all the crew at CBS for easing us in to our first major TV show. We are now looking forward to our next national TV performance on the Jimmy Kimmel show on the 2nd April.

"Last Tuesday we traveled down to New York for a few days to rest before the CBS morning show. It was nice to have a few days rest but we did miss playing gigs and we're looking forward to CBS just for a chance to play again. It was great staying in New York but the one night out I had drinking cost me enough that I'll be glad to get back gigging so that I won't be tempted by the evils and expense of Alcohol.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
IMAGES FROM CBS (more in the gallery)
  
The week that was SXSW and all the early mornings ahead...
It's been a week after the CBS Early Show and it's still frightening to know that we were watched by so many people. Since then we've made our way through Texas ending up at SXSW. Last Monday we played in Houston at Warehouse Live, which we hadn't played since the summer. It was a great line up for the night with some great bands playing before us. The show was fantastic and it was good to see a lot of people there and after playing at CBS it was nice to play in a more relaxed setting.
 
 
Warehouse Live, Houston
Manx flags flying in Houston
 
On the Tuesday we played in Dallas at the House of Blues, which is a great venue and after proving our worth playing in the restaurant we have played our last few shows in the bigger, better Cambridge room. We were worried that with SXSW being on we wouldn't have a very big crowd but a lot of people came out and made it a great night.
 
House of Blues, Dallas - Davy gets his harp out
Merch table/autograph line, Dallas
 

We had some problems this week with our van twice breaking down. It left us having to rent a few other vehicles for the shows and wandering if we were going to have our own equipment for our first SXSW show. Luckily the van got it together and we had our own equipment for our shows.

Playing SXSW marked our one year anniversary of playing in the United States, last year was fantastic and even though no-one would let us in to the venues we really got the impression that Austin was an amazing city. This year was no different and we really enjoyed our two shows - the first was at Opal Devine's and was a late start (1am!), with quite a few other bands playing before us. They were all great, and there was a 'small world' moment when we realised that the drummer for the artist on immediately before us (Danielia Cotton) was the drum teacher for the kids of our NY Slammer, Shari!

A few images from SXSW 2008 - more in the gallery
 
Setting up for Me TV recording
Playing in the DMX tent
Interview for KLAQ Radio
Ross regresses at the Lego Table
Adam gets Alien Eye syndrome
BDS in lego form - may the Slam be with you!

Speaking of which, Shari had travelled all the way over to Austin to be at SXSW, and she worked REALLY hard for us while she was there, so a big thanks to her for her time and effort :-)

The gig for DMX on the Saturday went a bit over time (we went on four hours later than expected) but we did get to see UK artist Duffy, who was incredible; and, as we ended up going on last, you could say that Ludacris was our warm up act!! Me (Ross) and Davy were also treated to a spar day by Jim Moran, who then took us all out to dinner Monday in Houston. We would like to thank Jim for his great generosity and for helping get us our second show at SXSW.

On a sad note we've parted company with our driver/ monitor engineer/crewman/ assistant tour manager Mark Hamilton (aka Hammie). We would all like to thank him for his tireless work this past year and wish him the best of luck in the future. His friendship will be sorely missed.

We are now on our way to Nashville and will make our way up towards New York in the next few weeks.

Thanks for listening! - BDS

 
Mark 'Hammie' Hamilton at the controls.
 
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Management: Running Media Group Ltd. Booking Agents (US) CAA. (UK) Helter Skelter