I'm sat at the airport in Frankfurt with Vicky. We have a 5 hour wait and then we fly home to England. The first leg of the tour has been really fantastic but I can't wait to be home!
Last night we played a gig at The Cotton Club in Kaiserslautern. It was a fantastic show... what a great venue; I hope I can come back with my own band! I was feeling a little bit down before the show; I was having a silly girly moment of looking in the mirror and wishing my nose wasn't so big (I have my dads nose), and my chin wasn't so round. I was wishing i'd achieved more with my life and also wishing that I could do more for my kids in Kenya. I know i'm not supposed to have favourites, but their are a select few kids in Kenya who I love so much I feel as if my heart might burst out of my chest just thinking about them. I wish I could give these kids the world, you know. If It was up to me, they would be living the life of princesses in a castle with chocolate flowing rivers and candy growing on trees; not a life of hardwork, hunger, sickness and struggle to survive. I just wish I could bring them home with me, but obviously that is not the answer; the solution is to make sure they live in a safe place with access to food and water and that they have a good education so they may grow up to escape poverty.
After the show, when I came over to our merchandise stalls to sell CD's, I noticed next to my collection box was a huge jar of money. Thomas Ruf (the head of our record label who came on the tour with us to sell our CD's each night) told me that a good looking, shy, young man had left it there for me for my charity. I begged Thomas to point out to me who had donated the money so that I could thank them and after I had finished signing Cd's, fortunately the kind man was still hanging around. Oh my goodness, he was so cute looking and intelligent and lovely. He had driven 100 miles to see us play and to give me that gift for my babies in Kenya. When i'd hugged him goodbye and went back stage, I opened the jar and I was overwhelmed by his generosity. I was so happy I cried. So, Thank you , thank you, thank you.. You made my day!
Since I last wrote this blog we have done a lot. We all got colds which was worrying, but on the night of our DVD recording in Worpswede we were near enough recovered and it was a very fun show. Making the DVD was great. Not only did they film the show but they did a lot of filming backstage and of us visiting a record store and doing an acoustic promo performance earlier in the day. There's a lot of casual interview bits and it really gives a behind the scenes insight into the 'girls with guitars' tour as well as capturing the performance. It should be a fun DVD to watch; it was certainly fun to make it!
Sam also played more awful pranks on us and she made me believe our lovely drummer Denis was responsible. At out gig in Karlsruhe, I was about to go on stage when I realised that there was a bananna skin covering my microphone on the stage in front of the audience. When I went to put on my guitar, someone had lengthened the strap so that it reached my ankles! I thought Denis had done it, and so i took the banana skin and placed it in between his high hat symbols. He didn't realise until three songs in to the set. I felt bad after the show when I realised I had taken revenge on the wrong person and that it was Sam Fish who had started the prank! It was funny, but I'm quite a boring person and prefer a quiet and smooth tour without practical jokes. Save the rock 'n' roll for on stage! lol
So, after Soest, we drove to one of my most favourite clubs in the world, 'The Blues Garage' in Hannover. The club is run by our friend Henry and his family. Herny also runs 'Motel California', the coolest hotel in all of Germany. All the rooms are stunning and homely and decorated with artist memorabilia. I chose my usual room there, the 'John Lee Hooker' room which has a huge carving/painting of John Lee on the wall, guitars and amps everywhere, and an organ in the corner which you're allowed to play. The show was fantastic. We had a large and passionate audience who were all up for a party, singing and clapping along from start to finish. It was a really great night.
The following day we played Museumskeller in Hannover. The venue is like an underground cave which is pretty cool and again the place was packed. It was an interesting night... I was ready to murder Sam. Thomas Ruf was rushing us out of the back stage room and onto the stage to start the show just as I realised Miss Fish had posted two of the most horrific photo's ever taken of me onto my facebook wall. One was me asleep in the van with my mouth wide open and the other was a photo I had to get a fan to remove from facebook page several months back because I appeared to have developed an extra 30 chins from somewhere. I was so embarrassed; I couldn't believe she'd be so mean (Yes, Sam Fish... Mean!) and obviously her, Vicky and Denis found the whole thing hilarious! So, I did my best to laugh at the joke even though I was struggelling to find it funny. In my panic trying to get the photo's off of facebook as Thomas was shouting at me to get on stage, I unfriended Sam as my facebook friend. Sam and I found this funny, I could never fall out with Sam for real, even when she does play harsh jokes on me. But when Sam posted on her facebook status "Dani Wilde has unfriended me", her loyal American fans didn't realise the two of us were joking and immediately turned on me. I was relieved when Sam told them it was all a big joke.
The following day was a much needed day off. I feel when i've played over eight gigs in a row my ears stop working properly and it's hard to concentrate. I spent my day off reading my Nelson Mandela Biography (I've read lots of them; he's a hero of mine), sleeping and then going out for a nice meal with the girls and Denis in the evening. Then we finished up in Sam's room eating Rolo's Chocolates and drinking her birthday Champagne. That was fun! The conversation us girls have is always hilarious. It's not sweet girls conversation, oh no... I think the topic just before I left to go to bed was that of prolapsed wombs, and what happens if the inside of your anus falls out! I think it's a musician thing, to be just a little bit disgusting at times!
Yesterday we were happy to be back at a great venue called Colos-Saal. We were all coming down with colds and having to drink plenty of multivitamin drinks but it was still a great show and I think I played some of my best guitar yet. 'Mississippi Kisses' was very fun. Today we are at a beautiful theatre 'Reithalle in Offenburg'. Big thank you to the soundmen for helping me to raise the action on my guitar with a wrench (I left my allen key at home). My big high bends sound as they are supposed to again now and I can wait to get out there and play. One hour of chilling backstage and then it's time to rock n roll! Can't wait!
Dani xxx
03/02/2012
Sorry I haven't written for a while. We've been too busy having fun :-)
Bonn was a great show. I raised lots of money for my children in Kenya, sold lots of CD's and had a great time with a wonderful audience. The day after the show in Bonn I got up early to make the most of the hotel gym, swimming pool and sauna and then we set off for one of my favourite German cities 'Stuttgart'.
I love Stuttgart. I've played there many times at two clubs: Laboritorium, and Merlin. We always have a great crowd and sell out the shows. A few years back I played a winter show in Stuttgart and the city streets were filled with Christmas Market stalls. It was magical.
We performed at Merlin and it was our best show so far in that everything really came together. We no longer had to remember how the songs go... that's all coming naturally now so we can really enjoy the music and the vibe and the audience. Like Bonn, the show was sold out and we had a big mixture of fans who come every year and new audience members too.
The next morning (Thursday 2nd Feb), Sam, Denis, Vicky and I got a tram from our hotel into the city for two hours of shopping. It was icey cold but we had a great time. I didn't buy much; Vitamins, Headache Tablets and a pretty blue flower clip for my hair. Vicky bought a cute skinny black dress and Sam bought a new curling iron to curl her hair for on stage. Poor Denis was very bored as we dragged him around womens clothes shops. He didn't buy anything.
The we were back in the van on route to last nights show in Lorch. The venue was called Musictheatre Rex. It was a nice big hall with a great sound system and lovely soundman. I had the best on stage sound of the tour last night. When I can hear everything crystal clear on stage it makes the show really enjoyable. Big thank you to our hardcore fans Analease, Thomas and Paul who showed up in the front row with their custom made Girls With Guitars Tshirts. We love you guys! Again, the show as sold out with a fantastic mix of our loyal fans and new audience memebers. We had so much fun last night. It felt like we had a real connection with the audience. Cd sales were great and that's exciting for me. I want every one to hear my new record!
After the show we were buzzing with adrenaline and acting really silly. Denis had had some Jack Daniels to drink and was on top form making us laugh. When he left the room Sam and Vicky filled each of the pockets of his bag with bananna skins. We were really giggely all the way back to the hotel wondering when we was going to look inside his bag; Slimey bananna skins everywhere. Sam was laughing so much that she fell over on the floor in the hotel lobby with all of her bags and guitar case and couldn't get back up. I don't speak french, but in the van on route back to the hotel after the show I managed to string some sentences together; "Je' Voudrais une bananne dans ma sack a doe" , and 'Une Bananne; Ce'st a' bon pour gross levre" (because at disney land, denis' lips had an allergic reaction and swelled up like balloons). At the time, Denis just though we were being crazy but when he opened his bag this morning he realised we had been making fun of him all evening. At breakfast this morning he declarded 'The war is on'... so now us girls will have to be careful as I'm sure he'll plot revennge of some sorts.
I stayed up late last night getting on top of my emails and then this morning went for a run with Denis for half an hour in the freezing cold. I felt like a frozen chicken defrosting when I had a hot shower afterwards. Today we have a short 3 hour drive to soest where we play a venue called 'Alter Schlachthof'. Hope to see some of you there!
