Porto to London - the art of touring

It's been a while. Teenage Fanclub's tour of Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Ireland & UK was amazing. Long but fun. But long. But fun.

Let's not talk about the time I screwed up the ending of The Concept or brought Everything Flows to a halt *slightly* early while everyone else was expecting to play on. Or the time I ventured to the front of the stage for once in my life at the end of a gig to offer to my set list to a young lad in the front row only to be politely turned down cos he already had one, leaving me looking like a right 'nana! I mean - we all survived.

I had my first visit to The Louvre. I saw Guernica in Madrid and a Velazquez self-portrait in Valencia. I had an amazing roast tomato in San Sebastian, Kolsch in Cologne, Guinness in Dublin and Turkish food with Harry Pye in Hackney.

As ever I did my best to take in some art that I may never get the chance to see again.

In Porto/Lisbon I was in danger of turning into a Pasteis de nata.

The local aguardente wasn't three bad either.

And this was a new one on me:

I (re)visited the Museum Nacional Soares dos Reis:

Aye good. How about a drink...

Paula Rego

We had a couple of days in Ciudad Real, home of the Quixote Museum...

Even our hotel had pictures of Sancho Panza and The Don...

So I paid my own tribute...

Cervantes

We were reunited with some Juan Gil in Murcia.

A glass of Juan Gil recently.

And here's a wee aide-memoir of the wonderful city of Granada.

Oh and I did send a postcard home...

Visited the Reina Sofia in Madrid..

A wee souvenir of Madrid...

I took in the Thyssen-Bornemisza:

*burp*

On to Gijon.

(We should acknowledge that the Osborne Bull was designed by Manolo Prieto.)

Manolo Prieto

The Museum Of Juan Barjola was closed. So this will have to do..

Juan Barjola

But I did stumble across the Museo Casa Natal de Jovellanos..

Delicious!

Museu Belles Arts...

Golly.

Velazquez!

(See what I did there?)

And on to Barcelona, La Rochelle and Tours.

Our gig in Paris was cancelled due to industrial action. So I went off to visit the Mona Lisa in the flesh.

From France to Germany...

The Comics Art Museum in Brussels was nice.

Not a self-portrait of Hergé - ahem.

The Centraal Museum, Utrecht had an exhibition of Statement Chairs.

To quote Neil Armstrong, you had to be there. There was also a space recreating the studio space of Dick Bruna.

Dick Bruna - not a self portrait...

I saw a Warhol exhibition in Dublin...

The Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh...

Leeds...

On to Gateshead...

(Nice seafood here)

Sheffield...

Bath...

Our last shows were in London where I made it to the National Portrait Gallery...

Audiences were great (thank you, audiences). We played 9 out of 10 of the songs on the new album. Stephen 'Sweet Baboo' Black was a pleasure to tour with as were Norman, Raymond, Dave and Euros and our crew: keith, Johnny, David & Martyn. Let's do it again sometime.

Book recommendation: 'One On One' by Craig Brown.

TV: 'Picasso: The Beauty And The Beast' (BBC) and 'Two Doors Down' (especially the one about Billy Connolly and the last episode of the latest series).

I enjoyed composing music for the BBC documentaries "Loch Ness: They Created A Monste" and "Keeping It Up - The Story Of Viagra".

*ROLL UP!* You can buy one of my posters HERE.

So, bye for n-

What's that? 

Not enough art? Ok - here come some more of my own efforts. Extra points if you can pick out Peter Nardini... x