Jason is a worrier like me, and I’m ever thankful that he takes the band seriously enough to have anxiety. He always seems to pull it all off marvellously in the end though. Up until now things have fallen into place at the right time. We’re on track, but need to be ever diligent. Pats on the back followed by enthusiastic accolades are no barometer for a chance at real success.

 

Last night’s rehearsal was a struggle. The older established songs sounded impressive, but the new, more nuanced material for ‘Fall Of Chronopolis’ need work. Part of the mandate for the tour is to road test pieces like, ‘Ghost Armada’, ‘Imperator’ and ‘The Minion’. ‘Ghost Armada’ is a tricky piece based around Kephera’s 5/4 piano motif with a 4/4 chorus; it is working well but has many land mines. Airing might strengthen the other two.

 

 

Krack, our lighting guy, was taking a lesson on DMX control systems while we ran through the set. We carry our own lights and operator in hope of adding some pizzazz to the normally mundane small clubs. This all adds to the set up time, but at least the photos and videos look great.

 

I spent all day at the DMV again, this time with Ursula and at least now we have our number plates. Two days remain to have our mechanic install a bulkhead to retain the gear at the back and make various other adjustments. New batteries are being installed. The bus runs great empty, all 9,900 pounds, time will tell if it’s so happy going up the grapevine with 2 tons of prog gear and 9 people on our way down to LA. That is always a worrisome stretch. 

 

Thursday is prep day. The bus is still not ready and we need to pick it up in the morning – stressful again. St James and the Apostles arrived and are staying at Ari’s place. They are a 3-piece bluesy psychedelic prog band comprising of Keyboards, drums and guitar. We stayed at their spacious place in Philadelphia on the last Nik Turner tour.

 

I’m thinking of swapping out my Fender Starcaster for a different guitar for the tour. I use it on just one song ‘Somewhen Veaa (Dreamstate)’, and find it a bit heavy on the bass notes for the finger picking style. It is tuned down to D for that song. Also it doesn’t fit in the double guitar case so I can take another guitar and have room for a spare Stratocaster all in two cases. I’m not sure yet.

 

Tomorrow night’s show is at the Golden Bull in Oakland. On April 6th a 26-year-old bass player was shot to death there as he loaded his gear into his car outside the club. Another bystander was wounded. Krack was doing the sound that night for the victim’s band The Lucky Eejits. Oakland can be dangerous; however it has the vibrant music scene that once thrived on the other side of the bay. All manner of artists have fled San Francisco, forced out by ever-greater rents and gentrification. 

 

The bus is still not ready. More stress! So we have arranged to ferry all the gear to the venue in cars. We have a rehearsal first at the Oakland practice space. It was good; the band flowed through the set with few problems save ‘The Minion’, which is a tricky little piece.

 

Outside the Golden Bull is a small makeshift memorial to Emiliano Nevarez, the 26-year-old victim of the recent shooting. The downtown location seemed unperturbed like a handful of blocks of New York City dropped in the otherwise ramshackle spread of mostly unkempt houses. Satya Sena, the opening band furnished the night with gorgeous fine art posters highlighted with metallic ink. (See right...)

 

There is, supposedly, a good buzz on Hedersleben in Oakland, but this Friday night we are up against tough competition with Glitter Wizard playing in town along with a couple of other shows.  

 

St James & the Apostles sounded powerful through the very good sound system and the Golden Bull, but soon into the set Mike’s bass peddles for the organ broke. With no bass player it was for them a not insignificant problem. To the audience I think it was less disastrous as the sound engineer was on his game and the band still came over well.

 

The turnout was scant and before our set the room was almost empty. After our line-check people reassembled and if you didn’t squint through the lights it wasn’t embarrassing. 

 

Hedersleben. Oakland 17 April 2015
Left to Right: Ursula, Jason, Kephera, Nicky and Ariana - click image to enlarge

 

The stage, and I suspect the majority of stages on this tour, was not built for a prog band. Kephera, Ariana and Ursula were along the front while Jason and I were crammed in at the back. We played okay, but not relaxed enough. Ursula did well, this being her first gig with us, and there were no major train wrecks. Still, the feel was not what I’d hoped and I was completely cut off from the audience behind Ursula. Ariana is starting to develop into the front person she was brought on board to be.

 

It’s the first show so I was not too worried. Then, after talking to audience members, I realised they genuinely got what we are trying to do, were gushing in their appraisal and we even sold a fair amount of merchandise.

 

Hopes were not high for the Concord show. Jerry, my good friend from the Science advocacy community, opened the show with his cover band The New Originals - yes taken from Spinal Tap ! The attendance was abysmal but like last night the reception was fantastic. All-in-all a show best forgotten. Furthermore we, still without the bus, had to rent a U-haul van.

  ...Nicky Garratt 19 April 2015

 

Regarding his ongoing Hedersleben project, Nicky enthused to T&M that "Hedersleben are doing very well, the reviews on the new (second) album have been great. Read them here: http://hedersleben.com/merchandise-reviews2.html.
The recording on the third album 'Fall Of Chronopolis' starts on May 7th with our new bass player Ursula Stuart and violinist player Ariana Jade, both of whom will also provide vocals: http://hedersleben.com/news.html"

 

 

"This will be our most ambitious project to date - The Fall Of Chronopolis. Movements from this concept album were played live on the 2013 and 2014 tours and now the band is in rehearsals for a spring recording... my articles for T&M will give you exclusive insights to this exciting time for Hedersleben.."
 

Click the above tour poster to enlarge

   READ NICKY'S TOUR DIARY PART 2 - CLICK HERE   

   CDs SIGNED BY NICKY GARRATT  AVAILABLE...  

The Time & Matter webstore has got the first two Hedersleben CDs in stock, of which we have a limited amount signed by Nicky, and we have also just taken stock of a limited number of Brainticket CDs, which Nicky has kindly also exclusively autographed for us...

Buy Hedersleben I CD - click here (autographed by Nicky Garratt)
Buy Hedersleben II CD - click here (not autographed)
Buy Brainticket CD - click here (autographed by Nicky Garratt)

 

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   FURTHER BACKGROUND INFO...   

The following articles/news have previously appeared on T&M and are added here to give the reader further information on Nicky's ongoing Hedersleben project...

  Nicky Garratt T&M Exclusive 

  Nicky explains the new songs exclusively for T&M  

"This is the only time I've ever explained the meaning of these songs!

I envisioned the first 3 Hedersleben LPs from the band’s inception.
It's Time and Matter - or strictly Time and Space - in a sense.
The first album 'Upgoer' is about humanities ultimate goal of going up.

Upgoer (part one)
We look up! You will hear the sounds of Earth and at the end the voice is a recording of the last speaker of a dead language.
Der Donnervogel (Dreamstate)
Up we go and we pass, allegorically, through the mythical Thunderbird constellation.
Dark Nebula
Thoughts during the journey. (Words by K. Bean).
Upgoer (Part 2)
The expansive galaxy engulfs the ship as do the possibilities.
The End of Love. (Dreamstate)
The crew emerge from the cryogenic machines. To them they have just said their goodbyes to lovers, friends and families who have, by now been dead for thousands of years.

The second, new album, 'Die Neuen Welten' continues our saga as we celebrate the new worlds discovered by the Kepler space telescope. Now these planets await.

Zu Den Neuen Welten
To the new worlds.
(On The Ground) Safe and Sound
The unmanned probe lands.
Nomad World (Dreamstate)
We know planets can be ejected from star systems to drift darkly through interstellar space. It has been postulated that they might be more numerous than stellar bound worlds. These orphans mimic humanity itself until we can show we are not alone.
XO5B
One of Space telescope Kepler's triumphs.
Tiny Flowers/Little Moon
…and life goes on. Little Moon is our keyboard player Kephera's world - you'll need a passport.

The third album 'Fall Of Chronopolis' is about that unsettling dimension that robs us of everything: Time. It is based on the glorious book of the same name by Barrington J.Bayley.

 

It is due to be recorded next year..."

Nicky Garratt 16 July 2014

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   HEDERSLEBEN FILM RELEASED IN AUGUST 2014   

Hedersleben released a 17 minute film/video version of Zu Den Neuen Welten back in August 2014. It was shot and directed by Erren Franklin, and at the end of the piece, there is a little footage of what Nicky described to T&M as "Hedersleben goofing around..."