Part Two
The View From The Steel..
Selected days from Myron's UK tour 2002
Coniston Water
(Back: Nick, Damian)
(Front: Jez, Christian, Rob, Rich)
The following is Rob Childs (aka Myron T Buttram) giving us his views and some pictures from the UK Tour 2002...
Thurs 2nd May 2002
"Spent most of the day getting into the Myron T. Buttram character, which is relatively easy as it revolves around wearing a cowboy hat, watching the show (Me and Nick get the best view of the back of Otis' head in the room: we often make note of his choice of Bandana Knot for the evening), drinking beer and playing a song once in a while... I have my regular Thursday gig in the Essex Arms (I kid you not) in Brentwood, then load up the MyronMobile for the tour..
News filters down in general conversation (which is how we Black Liars get most vital information) that the powers that be have cancelled the Newtown show, so tomorrow will be a hike over to Brecon, do the gig and then whizz straight back to London.. "
Fri 3rd May 2002
"Brecon show goes well, Nick and I are treated to some of the material Rich and the boys have been working up in the US and Australia, and very funny it is too.. obviously the new song arrangements we are aware of as we work out stuff in the soundchecks throughout the tour, but Rich never really lets us into the much of the lyrical content or the new stand up stuff until we are actually onstage, which certainly makes for genuine reactions..
Laptop fever hits the Black Liars and as Nick, Damian, myself and Rich all have one to make use of spare time on tour, the dressing room tends to resemble Mission Control.. Nick and myself have websites to tend (and I'm doing fairly well on Championship Manager) and Damian is trying to turn his into a mobile recording studio.. I lend him some hacked music software that has the effect of blowing its brains.. he's not a happy Reverend, but is extremely polite about it, and keeps tapping away at the internal workings of Windows 98 in the forlorn hope of putting it right. The words needle and haystack immediately spring to mind."
Tues 14th May
"On our way to our second jaunt into Wales and the West Country is a trip to Bristol's Bierkeller; more of a rock gig atmosphere here, rather than the Theatre/Arts Centre style that typifies the rest of the tour..
By now Nick and I are in full curry mode, as per the rest of the boys. It is almost a ritual that after every show a local Curry House is hunted down.. The exceptions to this are long journeys after the gig when people want to get back to base; or runs of more than four or so gigs without a day off when maybe an Italian restaurant may be chosen in an attempt to ward off total collapse of the Anglo-American digestive system.. However the post-gig Indian is almost a Black Liars ritual, and on this occasion we are joined by the Priestess herself.. Then the small matter of a drive to Cardiff where we are to set up camp in a lovely hotel for a few days.. "
Friday 7th June
"Last night's show and curry in Huddersfield were great successes, and I took delivery of my new Pedal Steel, all the way from Louisville Kentucky.. this one has two necks, one in a more old fashioned-sounding C6 tuning than the regular E9 neck, and in my humble opinion really adds to songs like "Stalking and "Texas, Not Tennessee".
Straight after we proceed to our Hotel in Nottingham in preparation for the next two gigs in Northampton (tonight) and Harrogate (tomorrow).. more importantly though, at 12.30pm England face Argentina in the World Cup.. Rich had predicted some weeks ago an England-USA final and as a competition of surprises wound on, bizarrely, it was becoming more likely..
Christian and Damian have friends in Nottingham and sought out pubs elsewhere; Nick, it transpires, is vaguely aware that the competition is taking place, noting the wearing of football shirts and not being the owner of a television.. he actually has it in his head after watching the news in his room that it's being held in Coventry.
Tour Manager Jez Feeney and I don our England shirts and enter the cauldron-like atmosphere of the Hotel Bar.. Rich joins us shortly after the place goes bananas as Beckham holds his nerve for the penalty, but soon retires to his room to watch the majority of the game, returning to witness the moment of triumph, and shaking his head in incredulity at the scenes as babies are thrown into the air and congas snake around the Nottingham Moat House.. "
Sunday 9th June
"Manchester Comedy Store. Nick is elated in the dressing room as he completes the construction of his Theremin, which he has been doing as a kit for a week or two. What was a big bag of wire, Printed Circuit Boards, Knobs, transistors and suchlike has been transformed into a masterpiece of Printed Circuits Boards and Knobs, wire, transistors and suchlike.. He hasn't found a box for it yet.
He's been soldering furiously to complete the thing for use in his Edinburgh show and accompanying album with partner Jane Bom-Bane. The Theremin does the spooky oooo-eee-oooo noises in 50's horror films, and is rumoured to be on Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys. Although Nick says that's not technically a real Theremin. What an Anorak.
However it is difficult to play, so should be a doddle for Nick who is brilliant at pretty much everything musical. He even knocks out a tune on the steel which is a bit disconcerting for me.."
Monday 17th June
"A hastily arranged London gig at the Comedy Store proves to be a massive success.. unusually for a London gig, there are no special guests, so the packed house is treated to two sets of Otis and the added bonus of a couple of songs from Tex Weatherspoon, who previously appeared in Rich and Dave Fulton's Edinburgh show.. the poor Tourette's Syndrome afflicted Cab Calloway-style scat singer made a further attempt at "I Wanna Be Like You" from the Jungle Book, and then "The Devil Went Down to Georgia".. not for the faint hearted, and not a dry seat in the house either. "
Sat 29th June
"By way of a massive practical joke by Otis' management, or maybe they were just reading the map upside down; the last gig of the tour is in Whitehaven, about five miles from Sellafield Nuclear Re-processing Plant on the Cumbrian coast. About as far from home and still in England as an Essex Boy could wish to be..
Again, a sell-out (there were only about three gigs that were noticeably Not Full on the entire tour), but Sellafield being the only major employer for miles meant that we were playing to an audience of Homer Simpsons: "Whaddya do for a living fella?" "I work at Sellafield.." "Any Idea what you do there exactly?" "No, not really..."
Tonight we dine on glow-in-the-dark locally caught Fish and Chips in the dressing room, where Rich offers the some advice to the locals on a flip chart he finds (see photo). Also he has the manuscript of his new book (out in October) to us read and even the index at the back looks funny..
Onstage, Christian's amp is really struggling; an intermittent fault has been becoming more er, "Mittent" right through the tour and is really on it's last legs; either skwonking or launching into full volume mode for no reason. Not really the poor thing's fault as it's been (literally) around the world a couple of times in the last few years, but it's driving Chris nuts.
A really boisterous audience and a great way to finish the tour though, even with a 6 hour drive home..
The tour ends here for a few weeks, then our happy band of wandering minstrels wend their way to Edinburgh.. as it happens I'm the only one going solely for the Otis show, Rich has a late show running with Mike Wilmot, Damian and Christian have their Novalounge gigs, (Christian also has some stand-up stuff I believe) and Nick and Jane have their 2002 Palindromic Show (even the music and lyrics play backwards as well as forwards: I told you he was a smartarse).
The tour has been a great success though and Rich has written enough material now for a completely new show in Edinburgh, which was one of the tour's side-objectives.. Still, he never seems to stop writing, and I dare say there will be more surprises come mid August. I've got more recording and touring with my Vegas country gig before then, but I can't wait to get my Myron T Buttram outfit on already.."