Category Archives: Tour Blog

Posted on by November 19, 2013

30.05.13 VON GROHL, TALLINN, ESTONIA

After Pskov Russia we 2 two days of and stayed first night in a camp site deep inside the Estonian forest surrounded by young sport scholars and lots mosquitoes, grilling Russian steaks that we had smuggled over the Russian border.

The mosquitoes sucked us dry so we left next day for Tallinn, and stayed in the old town, we were supposed to be nice guys, but instead most of the band ended up in a Bar and went straight to sound-check next day, meeting Lord bishop, whom we had to play the next 4 shows with.

von-grohl-tallinn-estonia
Well me and the boys gave up on the sound-check and went sleeping instead. The show went good but pretty empty on this Wednesday so it was hard to keep the energy.

We ended up in the hotel with some new friend from the wine bar below the hotel and drank wine till sun came up, getting in trouble with the the hotel administration, i understand him today.

 
Louie Fontaine

Posted on by May 26, 2013

26.05.13 PSKOV TIR CLUB, RUSSIA

Leaving straight from the street corner drinking, cheap whisky with no name, saved by manager Johnny Anchor, the Starlight Searches was is a pretty bad shape. DC Washington’s face was more tomato red than ever before, Tomato John was now more like blood red, though he’d promised to lay low on the whisky and look more like a onion the day before, it seemed like John Onion from the United States, got scraped once again.

The Golden bus again saved the band with it’s extreme sleeping comforts, and the band arrived fairly fresh to the TIR Club About 75 people showed up on this Sunday and the Starlight Searches played it’s best gig on this part of the tour so far, i gave up playing guitar half way through the show, which made a nice chance in the set, the crowd loved us, and we again sold CD’’s and shirts. After the show the batteries were low and we ended up in a 24 hrs supermarket during extreme shopping, buying T bone steaks and fruits any thing healthy.

The promoter had a house for us with a private football field the only problem the owner who was in Jalta ,friend apparently a legend Russian rock star slept heavy after, most likely drinking ,did not open the door , so we had to break in through the window. The next morning we took it easy, day off, but the Russian Rock legend, was pushing hard and went to buy a bottle of whisky and was begging us to stay since he was lonely in this big house and wanted to jam in the basement studio The legends face color, was more red than Tomato John I made an escape plan and booked 3 country cottages in Estonia we will be in 10 min

Louie Fontaine from the golden bus

Posted on by November 19, 2013

25.05.13 MANHATTEN CLUB, ST.PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

Beautiful town, the club was in the heart of the art town by the Fontanka river, nice PA and sound man. 200 people size club, we had 2 support bands people were quite intellectual types, they were making photos and filming all the time a bit to much i had to ask a gobo camera freak to back off, which he finally did.

The band played a great show and my wife’s father Alfred Kalita who i never seen came to the show 80 years old, with wife and my wife’s new sister Valentina, we had a good talk and agreed to meet later this year.

manhatten-club-st-petersburg-russia
After the show, our Russian promoter gave us another whisky bottle and the trouble started ,we were hanging with some girl fans , one of them went singing on stage , there was some kind of weird lesbian karaoke show happening and DC Washington joined them with his little hand drum. After the party we went to a Turkish restaurant and further out in town to see a bit of the city , Johnny anchor went home and the band was stuck on a street corner with a bottle booze to fucked up walk any further. EK had earlier fallen a sleep on a bar chair and hit his head badly after a free fall from the chair to a concrete floor, that caused a giant bump in his forehead and a massive blue eye, he passed out for a while and we were afraid he had got himself a brain concussion, Manger Johnny Anchor was called in and came to save us, the golden bus with new engine came get packed and the tour continued to Pskov.

Louie Fontaine

Posted on by November 19, 2013

24.05.13 ROCK CLUB, VELIKIJ NOVGOROD, RUSSIA

After driving 24 hrs the last 10 hrs on Russian bumpy roads, we finally reached the place just in time. A third floor club on of a supermarket with no elevator, the first impression was not to good the stage was small and covered with chain and strip poles.

The clean man of the band was desperate for shower ,and the owner fixed us up with a sauna club were we all got clean and warmed up to rock. Arriving back dinner was served, rolling chicken and the bar lady nice English speaking girl served it with of cause a liter of vodka and took a couple of shoots her self.

rock-club-velikij-novgorod-russia
After dinner i was sitting in the bar drinking a beer and noticed to my surprise a 2 meter snake in the kitchen, were 2 African cooks were working, they washed it in the sink, no killing, it was to live and was instead going to take part in a strip show. We were told that the ladies/stripes wanted to meet us, during the evening we found that they wanted money for that, so we lost a bit of interest, they were pretty for sure especially Julia we all loved her.

The 3 stripes were dancing trough the whole and during Dc Washington’s solo he played with them , and stictly focused on there moves, very good feature it does not happen so often.

The place had no microphones and only like 10 min before the show they arrived and the show finally started,we had already sold CD’s and merch before the show, the place could hold about 100 people it was almost full.

After the show we were signing lots of posters and cds a lot compared to how was there, people were extremely happy to see us, not everyday a band comes to town.

All together, the impression of the place changed during the night to great. We met a lot great people. We stayed a real soviet hotel which with the view over the river and a mini size Kremlin i love soviet hotels.

Louie Fontaine

Posted on by November 19, 2013

30.04.13 THE FERRY TRIP

the-ferry-trip
28 hours in the sea is a lot for traveling rock band, when buying the tickets there was no cabins left, but as always manager Johnny Anchor finds a way, cool cash to the receptionist, he managed to get 6 beds in 2 rooms for 20 euro for each rocker, which was 200 euro less than the price list. EK and me of cause shared a upper class 2 bed cabin, since we both seem to be a bit cleaner than the rest of the band, and use very strong smells, just simply clean at all times.

The band was a bit split on the ship, the 4 bed cabin people (a bit lower class), played poker most of the night. I felt sick, got a yellow tongue, not sure if it’s whisky detoxication or simple a virus, we seem to have one in the band all the time.

On the second day of the ferry trip i meet and old Danish friend, the master mechanic Bjarne of the ship, who invited the band for a excurtion in the engine room, so our own master mechanic Martin Burke also known as the Dieselmaster, could see some real engines in action. After the excurtion we went into a little rest room, the crew had some beers hidden in the fridge, so we all had a good talk about ships, engines and motors, and men stuff in general.

It all ended up, that i invited the crew to come see the show in Liepaja on the up coming Friday show, they agreed, so we will meet soon. Having a year 1983 Golden Mercedez D508 made in Germany, It’s necessary to know Captains and mechanics were ever we go, now we know, one in almost every corner of the world.

Louie Fontaine

Posted on by April 28, 2013

28.04.13 THE GOLDEN BUS BREAKDOWN

Bad news
Manager Johnny Anchor and driver Andris took the bus toward the ferry for Germany. After arriving in Germany, driving only 30 km, the Golden car made some strange noises. We pulled over and saw that water was coming out of the engine block, the top was packing was blown out that was for sure but what else, bad news in the middle of no mans land.

Good news
There was a small tankstelle and a Hotel and a mechanic, on the other side of the road (Gremersdorf).

Bad news
It was Sunday and everything was closed, and we had a show in Berlin 450 km away on this Sunday, not much to do, but to cancel, it would have been impossible to make it, no matter what we would have done.

Poland Cancelled
Also it turned out to be necessary to cancel the Monday show in Torun Poland, 850 km away, since it was impossible to fix the golden truck in time to go there, it would have been impossible to make in time, even in Taxi, only thing to do, was go to sleep and wait for the mechanic to take a look in the morning. The doctors took a look early Monday and said, it could take days to fix, since there could be more serious problems, than just the packing, he therefore arranged for a tow truck to pick up the golden nugget and trailer, and put it on the ferry from Travemude to my home town Liepaja Latvia.

The Lucky Breakdown
If we were going breaking down, this was the right place to do it, there is only one ferry to Liepaja and we were only 58 km away from there, the golden nugget already has an appointment with the doctor at arrival, it still starts and is not dead, just needs a new heart or pacemaker, and it’s as good as new.

Louie Fontaine