Secret Warm-Up Gig 16th Feb!
Dai Watts will be performing material from “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2” live on Feb 16th- ahead of the album’s release on March 3rd- at Native Tongue Barbican, 13-17 Long Lane, EC1A 9PN.
Contact daiwatts@talktalk.net by Feb 28th to reserve your name on the Guest List for the Album Launch.
Luxury Accomodation
“Travelodge-Sleep Tight”. Transl: please ensure you’re alcoholically incapacitated before retiring, as a night on a Travelodge mattress is akin to trying to sleep on an under-inflated bouncy castle that’s slowly drifting out to sea.
Worthing Travelodge, along with their Bath hotel, is known among the cognoscenti for being one of only two- yes, two! Count ‘em!- Travelodges that is distinguished by being in an attractive location. Not for Worthing the dubious charms of sitting snugly by the urban ring-road roundabout, the out of town fly-over, or the Swindon Industrial estate car-park. The Worthing Travelodge is actually located on the sea-front; it even has rooms that OVERLOOK THE SEA! You can stuff yourselves stupid at the breakfast buffet the next day- wear your coat with the deep pockets to breakfast; you might feel a tad self-conscious, but not as uncomfortable as trying to walk nonchalantly out of the bar/cafe with fourteen chocolate muffins tucked under your arm to ensure you’re “getting your money’s worth” from the buffet. You can even go to Brighton and eat somewhere really nice; top tip- the Strada next to the Theatre Royal is excellent, and catered to all manner of requests on a recent visit- not all of them sexual- with genuine goodwill. Almost wish we’d tipped them now…..
Or spend the day in Worthing itself- it’s not every day you’ll find a shop called “Man Gifts: The Shop that sells presents exclusively for men”. This is what was known in my day as a “Toy Shop”, and if you’re having trouble finding somewhere that sells telescopes, remote-controlled planes and ‘Spy-Pens’ under one roof, then your search is over, and you can make your testosterone-fuelled dreams come true for no more than the cost of a ticket to the South Coast.
’Jenny’s Fish and Chips’ on the High Street is an excellent place for lunch, so good in fact that the kids ate almost all of their chips before predictably succumbing to the temptation to pelt the seagulls that had surrounded us on the seafront with them; this was followed by the even more predictable sight of them running screaming as the seagulls came wheeling in for the kill at the first sign of food.
If you’re visiting after the Diamond Jubilee, you could also relax on the beach in a deck chair and see if you can spot the new Royal Yacht Britannia slipping by, as it performs its new dual role of providing much-needed sea-going accommodation for our beleaguered Royals whilst simultaneously carrying out vital ‘research’ projects for various educational establishments. The main research it seems to be engaged in right now is to discover just how gob-smackingly crass a gesture a government can make at a time of national economic crisis and still not realise it’s acting inappropriately. Whilst we’re on the subject, here’s an idea: why not spend ALL the £60 million on educational services and let the Royals rub along without a boat, and simply make do with their 52 bedroom principle residence in central London, and the other bijou residences in Windsor and Balmoral. Oh, and Sandringham. If they really need to get a bit of sea air, they could always get a room at a hotel in one of England’s most prominent coastal resorts- if you ring in advance you can even ask for a room with a SEA-VIEW! Might I suggest they bring their own bed, though…..
Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2, Part…er..1
As you will know if you’ve been following this blog- or even stumbled across it during an extended period of office-based web browsing, self-righteously justified by the not unreasonable assumption that there’s probably not a single office worker in the country who’s actually doing anything that could even reasonably be construed as work this week- my new album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2” has been posted online prior to its release in the New Year. So, assuming you have already adopted the slightly furtive and awkward desk-bound posture required to illicitly surf the internet whilst simultaneously creating the impression that you are engaged in the kind of meaningful activity for which you are actually paid, why not take the deceit one stage further, pop one of your earphones into the ear that doesn’t face everyone else in the office, and give yourself a moment or two to listen to the tracks below.
The tracks that make up “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2” have been completed over the last eighteen months, and represent nine different journeys and destinations of an imagined journey through the outlying countries of the Mediterranean. All the tracks are based on places that I’ve visited over the last 15 years- with the exception of “Isis in Tunis”, whose origins I will explain later in another post- and have been extrapolated into one long, continuous journey, beginning where “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.1” left off in Venice, and continuing by rail and sea to North Africa, Portugal Spain and France.
In the build-up to its release, I will be posting more details behind the choice and significance of the different destinations referenced on the album, but in the meantime if you have any personal connection or experiences with the places mentioned you can post a photo reply onto this site- the best ones will be considered for the album artwork which is currently being designed by Joe Mateo.
The album will be released as a download and CD in January 2012- enjoy previewing it by the links below, and if you have any feedback please leave your comments on the Soundcloud site www.soundcloud.com/daiwatts
Map of the Mediterranean Sea from 1926 : keep following to see how it will be developed as part
Map of the Mediterranean Sea from 1926 : keep following to see how it will be developed as part
Treno Italiano from Dai Watts’ forthcoming album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2
Treno Italiano from Dai Watts’ forthcoming album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2
Treno Italiano from Dai Watts’ forthcoming album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2”
Isle of Elba from Dai Watts’ forthcoming album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2
Isle of Elba from Dai Watts’ forthcoming album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2
Isle of Elba from Dai Watts’ forthcoming album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2”
Isis in Tunis from Dai Watts’ forthcoming album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2
Isis in Tunis from Dai Watts’ forthcoming album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2
Isis in Tunis from Dai Watts’ forthcoming album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2”
Tangier in Dreams from Dai Watts’ forthcoming electro-acoustic album “Train Tracks and T
Tangier in Dreams from Dai Watts’ forthcoming electro-acoustic album “Train Tracks and T
Tangier in Dreams from Dai Watts’ forthcoming electro-acoustic album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2”
Dai Watts – Lisbon Lament
Lisbon Lament from Dai Watts’ new album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2”
Dai Watts – El Camino
El Camino from Dai Watts’ new Electro-Acoustic album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2”
Dai Watts – Ares Masts
Ares Masts from Dai Watts’ new Electro-Acoustic album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2”
Dai Watts – Ubiquitous Eucalyptus
Dai Watts – Ubiquitous Eucalyptus
Ubiquitous Eucalyptus from Dai Watts’ new Electro-Acoustic album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2”
Dai Watts – Sous le ciel des Pyrénées
Dai Watts – Sous le ciel des Pyrénées
“Sous le ciel des Pyrénées” from Dai Watts’ new Electro-Acoustic album “Train Tracks and Travelogues Vol.2”.
Campervan Summer Part 1
The Campervan has seen a ridiculous amount of action this summer, and I think it’s safe to say there aren’t many of Britain’s longest motorways that haven’t had the pleasure of our company over the last few weeks. It’s a salutary lesson for next year that whilst the open road is all very well in principle, the reality of long hours on it is finding yourself wishing you’d been a little less ambitious with your itinerary. Which is why it was such a good idea to do a dry-run in the UK first; as demoralising as it is at realising you’re still several million hours away from Inverness- Inverness!-and that the miles are not so much being eaten up by the van as being toyed with on the plate before a half-hearted attempt to consume them mouthful by agonising mouthful, at least we’re not experiencing the error of our ways in a soon-to-be-bankrupt European country where the destination itself is fraught with the unknown and people are rioting on the streets in protest at the financial strictures placed on them by an unloved Governement who…….oh.
The Campervan was commendably reliable in delivering us to our various destinations, and obviously can’t be blamed for deciding to make the average journey time between locations around seven hours. Next year, more louche campfire activities, less panic-bought Burger Kings from Newport Pagnell services. Scotland was- you might want to sit down for this- quite wet, but there were some sunny spells, and even- gasp!- a barbecue at one point. (Thanks Mum and D.)The Lakes are always beautiful, with Low Wray campsite a real find. Interesting mix of the kind of family who probably wrote the review of it on the Guardian website- i-Phones lovingly tucked into the cup-holders of their collapsible camping chairs as they admire the twinkling lights of Ambleside across the water, Tabitha and Placenta drawing crayon pictures by the light of their head torches on an oak-tree stump nearby- and a slightly more robust style of adventurer, otherwise identified as the Northern lad, seen going for a midnight swim in the icy shallows of Windermere, clearly both determinedly pissed and determinedly ‘up-for-it’.
There was then the welcome diversion of cricket at Hinton Charterhouse, an annual match between the locals and the ‘luvvies’, which seems to have morphed in definition from someone who actually is an actor, or perhaps musician, to someone who once knew one, or more prosaically doesn’t actually live in Hinton Charterhouse. The locals, as always, somehow contrived to beat us without looking as if they were actually trying, or even intended, to win, before we repaired to the Stag to play a non-stop three hour gig. The Professionals by name, pissed chancers by nature. (Thought I’d covered ‘The Professionals’ incident, but realised I haven’t. Basically, the name given to one of our endlessly mutating line-ups for a gig, much to our amusement. Thought it would be fun to play The Professionals theme-tune at the start, before realising we were all actually humming the music to Starsky and Hutch, and couldn’t remember how the Professionals went. The Professionals. So professional, they don’t even know their own theme tune.)
After this, it was on to Wales, and the luxury of a Yurt by a waterfall, whilst the boys were upgraded from their tent to the van. Trips down memory lane are not for the faint-hearted- read Orwell’s ‘Coming up for Air’ if you haven’t already-but our visits to various sites from childhood were all a great success. We got a bespoke tour of Dynefwr castle from Kevin the National trust guide, and I filled him in with some of the missing history of the place from when I lived there, although I left out some of the more colourful detail. Not really sure how he would have been able to use the episode of when one of the more feral children tried to have sex with a Jack Russell in his monologue. Also met with great hospitality at Trewithian House- always nice to be welcomed in when revisiting old homes, and very grateful to the present owner for allowing us to snap away.
The picture below is from the ‘lost’ pools of Randir-mwyn; lost by us, that is, I’m sure everyone in Wales probably knows about them, but it was the first time in 30 years anyone in our family had been back and tried to find them. We were actually due to return to London that morning, but what with it being a perfect summer’s day, we- ahem, I -decided to go up to the remotest reaches of Randir-mwyn to see if we could locate this old childhood favourite. Which we did.
Thank you, God.
The secret rock pools of Randir-mwyn. Now a little less secret.
The secret rock pools of Randir-mwyn. Now a little less secret.
