Blog
China & Jersey
21 October 2009by Noble (9)We’ve just returned from the Far East and are now back in the thick of recording our new album.
Over in China, we didn’t play the Modern Skies festival in the end, but ended up busking on the Great Wall of China.
With no real venue or audience to play to in Beijing we played and acoustic show to a field of hundreds of goats and sheep.
We played an acoustic show on a lake, where a man stood on a pillar in his swimming trunks and sang opera.
After Beijing, we played two riotous shows in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Everywhere the food was incredible (we saw no dog on any menu), nothing like Chinese Food over here. Spicy. Mint with chillies. Dim Sum and Hot Pots. Kidley beans. Many mushrooms.
We drank lots of the rice spirit Baijiu (pronounced “By Jove” i think) and went beserk.
Our manager got a black eye.
We walked round the forbidden city in Beijing when totally jetlagged which was surreal.
I saw a Panda Bear (at Ocean Park, Hong Kong).
Saw thousands of bicycles in Beijing, and thousands of Mopeds in Taiwan.
We got to play the Chinese version of hacky-sack called Jianzi, which is a load of feathers and some rubber discs stuck together like a giant ramshackle shuttlecock. We joined in with some old chinese ladies who were far superior players.
With the help of local Hong Kong birders Paul and David, i got to see a Black Faced Spoonbill, Pied Marsh Harrier, Osprey, Purple Heron, Goshawk, Pied Kingfisher, and lots more at Mai Po wetlands reserve… so thanks to them.
We had a great time and hope to be back soon.
Thanks to everyone who came to the shows.
I think we all had a good time…
Prior to China we performed “Man of Aran” at the Branchage Film Festival in the wonderful Jersey Opera House, Jersey.
Also on the same day at the Opera House was a screening of the brilliant Sci-Fi film Moon, directed by Duncan Jones (a.k.a Zowie Bowie, David Bowies son)
The film festival put us up in a zero-facilities Martello Tower. The wind whipped up at night and the wooden window shutters clattered all night, like 20 ghost children banging on the windows. We wouldn’t want it any other way.
Now, on with recording….
Noble
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Can’t wait for your new album!!
— yaks · 22. October 2009 · #
New album!
We needs it!
Glad that you had good times in Asia. I wonder how this trip will influence the new album…
— Eru · 23. October 2009 · #
Ah. Sounds good. We miss you – and have some Bulgarian berserker juice in the freezer. Get in touch.
— James · 23. October 2009 · #
Congratulations with your conquest of the Far East. Now I hope you have lots of inspiration and I’m sure the new album will be another example of sheer brilliance
— Jeroen · 24. October 2009 · #
Hey
it was great to hear that you played in jersey, alongside mars volta and g, love and the special sauce you are my favorite band, and i moved to the u.k for uni literally 7 days before you played, now that is bad luck. i just hope i still get to see you up north in newcastle soon.
— Ben · 3. November 2009 · #
Far East tour sounds like fun. Can’t wait for the new album. I see you’re playing two shows in Perth. Please, please, PLEASE come to Adelaide (and if you feel like it you could go across to the eastern states too). You have loads of fans in Australia and particularly in Adelaide. It’s 2691 kilometres, 1672 miles or 13,376 furlongs from Adelaide to Perth and a return airfare costs hundreds of dollars. I beg you, if you enjoyed the Far East, please visit the Australian south.
— Theodore, a most attractive man · 6. November 2009 · #
I have written to bspmanagement@googlemail.com about this already, but maybe this is as good a place as any to mention an incentive to your visiting / playing in Singapore when t0-or-from Australia in 2010:
http://www.birdpark.com.sg/
http://www.birdpark.com.sg/l3_t1.aspx?l3=5&l2=1&l1=1&langid=1
There are over 8,000 birds of 600 species in the Jurong Bird Park. Of those, 29 are of endangered species.
list of birds in Jurong Birdpark
rollers
marabou stork
yellow billed stork
brown pelican
black swan
mute swans
superb starling
rainbow lorikeet
white bellied sea eagle
scarlet ibis
toco toucan
macaws
shoebill stork
mandarin ducks
bali myna
hill myna
barn owl
great grey owl
night herons
red crested cardinal
lesser bird of paradise
spoonbills
fairy penguin
macaroni penguin
king penguin
crowned pigeons
indian pied hornbill
ostrich
crowned cranes
egrets
turacos
carmine bee-eater
white faced tree duck
barbets
whydahs
weaver birds
purple glossy starling
lesser blue eared starling
wattled starling
Yellow-hooded Blackbird
tanagers
emu
great white pelican
saddle-billed stork
rheas
cassowary
black hornbill
eclectus parrot
cockatoos
yellow-naped amazon parrot
sun conure
Australian pelican
black-necked swan
12-wired bird of paradise
lesser whistling duck
stone curlew
fish owls
boobok owls
— Ben Harrisonic · 9. November 2009 · #
Dog is not a usual cuisine in china….so happy that you guys really enjoyed the trip in china:) welcome back and i am sure there will be a lot more interesting places in china you will enjoy!
— Mia · 11. February 2010 · #
thank you
— çizgi film izle · 19. February 2010 · #