SKAMP Didžiojoje Britanijoje

It’s been a mad week here in England. It took us 32 hours to drive, with our tour bus, from Vilnius to London which was pretty good going. With 7 of us on board it was nothing short of eventful :) Since then we’ve had radio interviews, today we had one with the BBC of Warwickshire and Coventry area, press interviews and concerts. At the radio interviews we’ve done acoustic versions of “Calling after Me” and “Split the Atom (na na na)”. Both songs have gone down really well and we get great feedback. “Calling” will be our first uk single this autumn. We talk about the Baltic music scene too and how we think LT music is going to blow up in a big way in the next 5-7 years. But that’s a whole other subject and alot has to change before that happens.

Last Friday (July 1st) at 6:30am we flew to Berlin for a concert that evening. It turned out to be really great! We played for ab 700 people from all over Europe celebrating Jonines. They were a good fun crowd drinking Lithuanian beer. We had a great gig and then met up with some old friends who we hadn’t seen for 5 years or so. The afterparty continued long into the small hours of the morning back at the hotel. Which didn’t leave much time to sleep as we had to leave the hotel at 8am to catch our flight back to London. It was well worth it though, because July 2nd was the amazing day of “LIVE-8”. We got to London in the early morning and went by Camden town to check it out. Camden is a very famous music hotspot in London where many new bands start out. It has great markets too. :)

Then we headed into the centre, to Hyde Park, for the once-in-a-lifetime concert. The atmosphere was amazing. The whole city had turned up. Those who didn’t get tickets, (because it was a free concert and tickets were given out by text lottery ), sat around the outskirts of the park watching on big screens. The line-up was astonishing. It all kicked off with U2 singing “Sergent Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band” with Paul McCarthy for God’s sake!! Then U2 did some songs. Madonna was wicked as always. Joss Stone, Velvet Revolver, Sting, The Who and Robbie Williams were just a few of the acts. The grand finale was a reunited Pink Floyd singing “Wish U Were Here”. Doesn’t get better than that. We’re glad we were there on the day. Unforgettable.

Afterwards we went back to our ‘headquarters’. On our days off we stay at our management teams home about an hours drive out of London. It’s a beautiful, converted farmhouse with built-in recording studios, old 60’s style heated pool, tennis courts and lots of gorgeous scenery. Very inspiring!! So if bored we have plenty to do like jamming or recording in the studio. :) July 3rd, the next morning, we were up at 7am to be at the big biker festival “The Sheene Run” by 9am when all the roads are blocked off. It’s an all-day affair with lots of lovely bikes (and bikers!) and talented stuntmen doing scary bike stunts. We played a 90 minute set and we got a brilliant reaction! I got to kick off our concert with a grand entrance on the back of a big bike driven right up to the stage :) We sold a bunch of cds and lots of people are coming to our gig on the 10th of July in Leamington.

Anyways, tonight we head to Ireland for our Limerick gig tomorrow night. We play tomorrow July 7th at “Dolan’s Warehouse” in Limerick city at 9:30pm.. After that we’ll be driving up to Dublin to have a mad party and a great gig in Dublin July 9th at “Eamonn Dorans” 10pm. Then July 10th we’re in Leamington, England for a concert at the Leamington Spa Centre that evening. We hope to see lots of you there. This is our first UK / Irish promotional tour so we need all the support we can get. I’ll be writing some more diary entries after the Irish gigs and will keep you all updated on the upcoming London gig :) til then much love and huggggs and mucho smoooochoz to all! *peace* e.