It’s pretty amazing to be back on tour again after spending most of last year in the studio recording Cut Out And Keep. It’s like being in two different bands in a way. The studio based Farrah is quite poppy, thought out and methodical but the live show is a lot more rock and hopefully gains in attitude what it lacks in subtlety!

We had our first show in Okayama last night. Okayama is an industrial city located quite near Hiroshima. It took five hours from Tokyo by high speed bullet train to get there. As always, we were met at the station by people to help us with our equipment. In this case, it was the members of Comatose, (one of the support bands) who helped us to the hotel with our guitars and bass. We arrived the day before the show so we had a rare evening off. We were taken to a great Japanese restaurant near the station. The food was ‘oishi desu’ which means really tasty. Being vegetarian can be a pain on tour (especially for the poor organisers who try and locate meat and fish-free for Michelle, Mal and me) but the restaurant had great tofu, deep fried edemame, cheese in tofu wrappers and (of course)cold beer. You’ll be pleased to know that I’m drinking again after a month off. I am back to my inebriated self again.

We got up the next day to have a tour of Okayama Castle and the surrounding gardens called Koruko-en. These gardens are meant to be one of the three best gardens in Japan. They were really serene despite the sub-zero temperature and biting wind. The castle was bombed in the Second World War but a replica made of concrete stands in it’s place. After the castle we popped into Tower records to sign the wall of fame and buy our own single! Yohei Kikkewa is the singer of Comatose and he also works at Tower. He’d done a great job getting Farrah racked out and on the listening post

We we’re playing Okayama’s new club called Image and were the first non-Japanese band to play there. Whenever we play in Japan we’re always amazed by the meticulous attention to detail. Image had great amps and Kit, a carpeted stage and even a backstage toilet with a self-warming seat and choice of flushing sounds!

The club was rammed and after great support bands (The Telepathys and Comatose) we played a really good show. The audience seemed to know the new songs from Cut out And Keep (probably better than we do) and we signed a bunch of albums after. I’d like to say that after the show I partied hard and snorted cocaine of dwarves buttocks but tragically enough I went back to the hotel and washed my pants. Rock and roll. This morning I got up stupidly early as my body clock is still a bit weird. The hotel breakfast is traditional Japanese fare of Rice, miso soup, pickles and oolong tea. A sickenenly healthy start to the day.

I’m writing this on the Train to Hakata. We’re playing a club called ‘Keith Flack’ tonight. It’s the third time we’ve played there and we’re still non the wiser as to why it’s called this ridiculous name. Perhaps the mystery will be solved tonight, perhaps Keith will be there. Stay tuned for more exciting updates tomorrow.

Sayonara

Jez

The life cycle of a band. Stage one Band forms with hopes of fame, riches and artistic integrity. Band members contrasting personalities seen as ‘a good thing’ Stage two Band starts meteoric rise to success. Diferent agendas emerge. Although fractious due to long hours trapped in the bac READ...

Good lord, this Christmas excess is catching up with me. I’m in York today suffering with an immense hangover after partying til 6a.m with lots of dear friends. Every year my mate Mike who used to be the bass player in Farrah organizes a Christmas dinner. He bills it as ‘the works-do you actually wa READ...

Hello all, long time no blog. Apologies for that. What have we been up to I hear you all say? Well… We've got a new drummer for a start off. He's called Dana, he's fantastic. Mike left the band to pursue other interests and we all wish him the best with that. We've been gigging a whole bunch i READ...

Trying to write songs is a bit silly. It's not like a proper artistic pursuit like sculpting a face of Jesus out of elephant dung or writing a performance poem about earth worms. Met a good friend yesterday and she'd written a list of things she had to do and things she wanted to do. The list of thi READ...

Ahh, the famous words of JFK as he stood by the Berlin wall mean 'I Am A Doughnut'. I've just got back from Berlin and I've made many linguistic mistakes. It's the first time I've been to Germany since working a as a washer-upper in a Hotel when I was 18. Back then I hitched there and listened to th READ...

Hello everyone, we've just been on a whistle-stop trip to Spain and had a great time. First on the schedule was a Radio show on Spanish National Radio. We were invited on DJ Charlie's evening show to choose some songs to play. For an hour we had the chance to broadcast songs by everybody from Bre READ...

Hello everyone. How are you all? We've all had a hectic couple of weeks. We've been gigging in Liverpool and Madrid and we had our launch party for the record at the legendary 100 club on Oxford St. It was a fantastic night. The place was rammed with people and we played really well. It was great to READ...

I’m delighted to tell you all that we’ll be holding an exclusive album launch party in the heart of London on Wednesday June 6th. We’ll perform some songs from Cut Out And Keep and there’s even a rumour that there will be free drinks! It’s an invitation only event but if you want to come, keep y READ...

Hello everyone, although all might seem quiet, in fact we’re busy preparing for the launch of ‘Cut Out and Keep in the U.K’. I’m impressed by the amount of you who noticed that Avril Lavigne ripped us off for her new single “Girlfriend”. It shows a remarkable similarity to ‘I Wanna be Your Boyfri READ...

So here we are playing in our third continent in as many weeks. Our show was originally booked for last Friday but we were bumped off the bill because the guitarist from Midnight Oil stole our night. How Australian is that?! It’s been cool in a way, as we’ve had chance to see the best this beauti READ...

What an amazing show in Tokyo! Where do i start? Well firstly, we'd heard rumours that the show had been selling well as the tour progressed. When we got to the venue we we're blown away. Unit held a few hundred people, had had a fantastic stage and great sound and lights. We arrived at the venue t READ...

Okay, I admit it, I got pissed last night and have a mild hangover, which has been partly cured by eating noodles on the train platform. It was a late one last night and we had a great time. Nagoya is a huge industrial sprawl and home to Japan’s Toyota factory. It’s about an hour from Tokyo on t READ...

Hello again, sorry about the delay in getting these on the site. We haven’t had the internet for a couple of days. Last night we played in Osaka and had a fantastic time. Osaka is the second-largest city in Japan and has a real up-and-coming feel about it. Fast cars and cool clothes abound. It also READ...

Hello again, I’m once again writing on the bullet train. We’re on our way from Hakata to Osaka after a crazy show last night. Hakata is one of my favourite cities in Japan. If Tokyo is über-cool and Osaka has a tough upwardly mobile vibe, Hakata’s populace seem to focus on ‘having a good time, a READ...

Everyone was rocking at Image tonight! The club was great and the Telepathys and Comatose played great sets. The DJs were cool too, and we had lots of fun meeting everyone after the show. Thanks to everyone who came up and said hi!! Right, next stop Keith Flack in Hakata tomorrow night, or tonight r READ...

Hello everyone, i hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. This is a very exciting time for the band. We're finally playing some of the songs from the new record live. We played a show in London on the third and we played six songs we'd never played before. Besides me forgetting the lyrics o READ...