15/9/16 - Butchers Tears, Amsterdam

After getting a goldmine of new objects (Toys mainly) due to the grofvuil daag (dumping anything you like on the nearest street corner day) i went to the venue fully loaded. The gig was the most poorly attended show on the tour (6 people i think) but the most messy (shit went everywhere). The recording turned out fucking raw too as maybe i didn't check the levels before hitting record :-/




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14th Sept - De Hallen Diorama, Amsterdam, Holland

Today's performance was a welcome break from the mostly energy/injury heavy evening performances from the past week. I set up my gear in the walkway outside an art gallery and played acoustically for twenty minutes as part of De Hallen Diorama (An art's trail) .. 

I removed all clangy metal objects from the box to give it a softer sound and had my eyes closed when performing so was unaware of any people, just the rhythms occurring

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13th Sept - Rotterdam, Holland

After the calamity of Den Haag we have been taking a few days of rest, relaxation, good food and music with our host and new tour manager Jankke. Allthough it felt strange not performing it was probably needed. The sun is blazing today as we head to the venue, Arnol’s car has turned into a fucking oven. The venue tonight is a cafe by the port of Rotterdam, which has a lovely landscape view of the harbour. As we start to set up i dash out to check what pickings there are on the street. i immediately come across a load of fly tipped stuff. I take Die Hard on VHS, 10 pairs of shoes, a bread bin and a saucepan lid and head back to the venue.

A last minute addition on tonights bill is ‘Drunken Harrings’, the duo of janeke and arnol. The duo was conceived in an after dinner improv session a few days earlier which culminated in them gargling water together, trying to push out new sounds with there mouth and the next day recording the video on this page

https://www.facebook.com/events/307919469563490

The harrings open up the event with an excellent Iive performance outside near the water. Gargling, spitting and coughing there way through there set with a Manhaten esq backdrop.  DJ sajji is spinning the tunes, which sound like obscure folk music through granula synthsis. I’m up next. I start with nothing in my box, surrounding me is various containers and objects i can add as i see fit.

Caught the set on video this time

Fureau Keel VriL, is next performing one of his best sets yet on the tour, almost falling into hiphop territory! 3 short and noisy vocal improv sets finish the event featuring myself, arnol and janneke
 

10th Sept - Den haag, Holland

Note : Need to get elbow pads next, arms not bruised anymore but elbows knocked up.

The day starts well and we leave Aimens at around 2.00 pm with plenty of time to get to Den Haag (4 hrs). The first bit of the journey is mega enjoyable as we make recordings of improvisations as we travel. Proper bonkers stuff. As we hit Belgium we get lost and it takes us a while to get back on track. I swap places with Chris and fall asleep in the back of car. I wake up, the time is 7.30 pm, we are 40 minutes to Rotterdam, meaning we should be in Den Haag by 8.30 ish (Ok, but not great) but navigating to and around Den Haag is more the a pain, it's nightmare. I never ever want to drive round this city again. We stop at least 8 times to ask for directions, call and text the promoter, call friends, look at maps, try everything we can. Stress and panic kicks as me and Chris shout 'Left' 'Right' 'Slower' 'Stop' at poor old Arnol. I've never liked sat navs but I'd swap a kidney for one now

Eventually we find the address we have written but it's a house not a club, i knock on the door just to check and a miserable Dutch woman answers looking confused. We drive up and down the stupid road again and again. By this point we are so tired, stressed, confused, snappy and hungry it's becoming distressing. But we ask one more person for help. We drive 5 more minutes and we are there!!! but the time is 11.00 am and the promoter informs us there is no time to perform now. Fucking Shit Wank

Take a quick peak at space, amazing PA, it's proper. It's fair to say well grumpy, uncommunicative and pissed off so i take a walk to clear my head. The streets are full of skips and littered with interesting potential rummaging stuff, i have this nagging feeling that if we had made it, tonight's show would of kicked ass. I find solace in a terrible cheeseburger a 4 pack of Heineken. Time for bed

9th Sept - Accueil Froid Nuke, Amiens, France

Due to the complete lack of objects on the streets and area, all i found were some bits from a tree, so i attached them to my box which looked pretty. I also found 3 balloons and made the addition of an extra trash can of junk to top up the box and put the dominate grimsburger tray on a mic stand at hand for me to add at a choice moment.  

Before ..

during...

after


vid clip of end bit

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8th Sept - Le Havre, France

After crashing out in a practice room and getting woken up by a stupid dummer playing blastbeats at 3.00 am next to my head, we make a quick pit stop at a decathlon to buy some arm protection and then were off to Le Havre, a port city destroyed in the war and rebuilt by architect Auguste Perret. Fantastic setup tonight, PA is great and people are well sound. Emmanuel, who runs the space, shows us around and lends me a soldering iron to fix a broken SM58 i have. Set goes like a dream tonight and the arm pads give me extra powers to go hard.

Henry Collins live at PiedNu in Le Havre (8/9/16) from Rummaging on Vimeo.

Fureau Kell VriL, Henry Collins and Sajjra Sajjra mandatory tour photo

7th Sept - Apo33Studio, Nantes, France

The human body does a wonderful job healing itself. That being said my right arm fucking hurts today, apart from the welts and bruises, my right wrist aches so much, it hurts when i wipe my arse, my wrist not my arse. Usually i have weeks for my arms to heal after a show but when you perform most days you do not have this luxury. The injuries often come from knocking your arms against the sides of the box, something that could be avoided by wearing protective arm guards i reckon, so i think that's the solution so i can continue doing shows and not screw up my arms to bad.

Tonight were are in Nantes at Apo33Studio, an arts centre/arts space/cinema. We arrive late and set up immediately. There’s some good objects laying around the courtyard; ladders, old film spools, general junk, art materials and random bottles (there acid, the organisers warns me). I decide to not use the acid and use two boxes of packing materials i find near the bins instead; polystyrene, empty cardboard boxes and loads of that inflated plastic padding stuff. I begin in the centre of the space rummaging through the plastic padding which sounds like the sea, moving onto the hollow sounding cardboard and polystyrene and then onto to the assorted objects I've been using for the previous shows. A good show all in all, but more bruises and cuts. Gonna get myself to the sports store decathlon tomorrow and get myself some protection

6th Sept - Ingrandes, Plage de auf de boeuf, France

The day begins with me rummaging, it's going well, in the zone again, then this tall bald man tells me he doesn't like it, hang on where am i? i don't recognise this place, well maybe it's the venue tonight, no wait it's meant to be on a beach, hang on am i dreaming, think i am, yep i am, better wake up" .. i wake up with a hazy head as i couldn't get to sleep the night before and touch the trackpad on my laptop to acquire the time .. SHIT!!! It's 11.14 am and my bus leaves in 1 hour. In a right panic i try to get together all my stuff, find out where the bus station is. Predictably i get lost and miss by bus. This is just the start of a day of ma journée de tracas et les erreurs.

Trying to find and connect to wifi is proving a ball ache but eventualy i'm connected only to find i'm unable to get a refund and the next bus will get in too late. So i search trains, 65 freaking euro to get to Angers, my destination to get collected from. Fuck that's quite a lot to fork out, like 65 pan au chocalits to be precise but it's my only option. I  make my way to the station and try to buy ticket, card declined so I'm forced to travel ticketless. Bunked up in the train toilets for a few hours i make good use of the time, tidying my bag up, listening to a couple of albums and being anxious about getting busted. Luckily i get there with no problems, in time to meet my friend who will collect me.

The sun pummels me as i wait at the train station for my ride. Thirty minutes pass and i start to think maybe i'm in the wrong place or he didn't get my message about missing the bus. I scope out the station unsure of what my driver even looks like, once again trying to get connected to the wifi with no luck. I decide to grab a baguette and charge up my lappy at the pomme de pain cafe. Once connected i send messages at all angles (email, facebook, text, phone calls) to my Arnol, my tour mate who arranged the ride. No luck and i'm starting to freak out that i will not make the gig and have to sleep in the park. After more faffing about i decide my lift aint coming and look up where the nearest town is to the beach location I'm playing.

I jump on a bus to Ingrandes and get off in what seems like a ghost town. I head to the river to find someone who might know where the 'Plage de auf de boeuf' is. The people in the pizza place have no idea but this drunk old dude in the pub says he knows and can drive me there. I jump in his car thinking yay, why was i freaking out so much earlier. He drops me off, i hear no music as i walk towards to river. Nothing there, fuck, i drag my rollercase across the grass verge when i spot the old dude that dropped me off five minutes ago. I make my way back and he says he's sorry but he got got the wrong location so i jump back in his car and get off at the spot he says is correct. As soon as he drives off i know it's not, no amplified sounds can be heard. I make my way to the river and my heart sinks. I'm now stranded in the middle of nowhere and the old dude isn't coming back.

As the sun starts to disappear i start freaking out again, i have no water or food, I'm phoneless, there's no wifi and no chance in hell i'm getting to the show. I decide to not give up and go knock on the door of the only house around and ask them if they know of the 'Plage de auf de boeuf' .. "Bonjour Monsieur" i hear from the garden. There is a family sitting round a table having some food and drink and they smile and invit them to join them, thank you French hospitality!

A whisky or water for you? .. The man, fabrique could see i needed refreshments. "Both please" i answered with a grin. Some food, bread, sausage ? "Both please" i answered once again with a grin. Cassey and Fabrique got out a map this time and with i knife pointed to exactly where 'Plage de auf de boeuf' was. I tried to hold in my excitement until i actualy got there this time, Cassey, fabriques partner explained she could drive me there but first more whisky and food, "Qui si vou plait" i said with a grin. On the off chance i thought it may be worth trying calling arnol again, ring ring, ring ring "bonjour" .. He answered! Yay! And is coming to collect me.

After a broken conversation about brexit and other topics, and a couple more whiskeys with my new friends,  i leave the family and they wish me luck on my travels. In the back of Arnols car i explain what happened, we laugh and make our way to the mysterious 'Plage de auf de boeuf' .. By this time it's pitch black so it's hard to appreciate the beach as much as i would have in the light, but i don't really care, I'm here and can't believe i made it. I grab a bottle of wine from the communal box,  neck half of it and get acclimatised to my new situation. My other tour buddy Chris is playing his set, a thousand flies and mosquitoes swarm around him as he rocks out on his guitar, noisy, psychy and just what i needed. 

I end rummaging after the the super loud/mental Liverpudlian grindcore band chinsniffer which meant my set just did not have the impact it would have done soundwise. I started playing to audience of zero, eventually people migrated towards the speakers as the shitty table i was playing on collapsed , forcing me onto the course sand which ending being stuck in every orifice of me for days to come.  With more wine and smokes and I end up crashing out soon after in the tour car after a stressful but funny day. Looking forward to the adventures ahead!

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4th Sept - Au Saveurs du Monde, Paris, France

After a decent sleep and a relaxed journey on the eurostar, i was In Paris. The venue this time was the function room in an African restaurant.  After i met the other acts of evening i tried to order some food, the waiter was most friendly but my french is awful so he tried to translate the menu. I chose what he translated as 'Chicken entrusted with the heart' but ended up being served fish curry! .. On hunt for some new rummage bits, I did a loop round the block and stumbled across some great new additions; a toy drum, various stationary,  parts from a broken hat stand, a broken mug and a stop road sign. I sound checked but this time i had control of the mixer which was so good, i got the sound exactly as i wanted it. Shrill and Loud. The set ended up being the shortest i'd ever done, 3.22, as the box broke into pieces catapulting the objects over the floor. That being said it felt like a good ten minutes to me as i harnessed the raw energy of my vacant rummaging partner Robin Foster and went ape.

3rd Sept - 'Colab Instalation' Fort Process, Newhaven, UK

Due to a heavy night the evening before, i ended up having a minute amount of sleep before Fort Process. That being said i was smiling and the weather was lovely when I got the train in the morning. Funnily, i ending up sitting opposite the author David Toop on the connection from Lewes to Newhaven , of course i drunkenly tried to explain rummaging and how fantastic it is, and how he should write about it, but don't think he really got it or didn't care or i smelt, haha...

I arrived at the Fort (Which was a fantastic space, google it) and got antiquated with the space and my collaborators; Graham Dunning, Leslie Deere and Sam Underwood. The idea was to showcase each of our projects and do various collaborative things as we saw fit. After a bit of setting up i went straight into a trio improvisation with Graham and Leslie. I used my rummage bag,  Leslie on tape loops and Graham with his mechanical techno setup. This was a pretty mellow set, with various textures and layers, enjoyable, and an appropriate way to start the day.

My solo rummaging set a few hours later was also fairly mellow (by rummaging standards) .. i sat on the floor cross legged and got lost in junk for fifteen minutes or so. I got more into the zone this time although i wish i had done a scavenge for site specific objects.

Next up me and Graham set up a new experiment using contact mics triggering drums in the rummage box, this sounded pretty cool as the objects collided with the mics setting off a pletherer of electronic drums tweeked by live by Graham.

Various other sets followed including an improvised XXX Tippex set with me and Jason Williams smashing symbols and a wheely bin about like lunatics.

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1st Sept - The Green Door Store, Brighton, UK

After a bit of a shaky start in London doing the AV Experiment, the plan was to go back to basics for this show, no frills, just rummage to fuck. Firstly i scavenged the streets for some new additions to the the bag of objects and some containers to put them in. Brighton has loads of shit dumped on the streets, stuff everywhere. So it didn't take long to find some good new bits. Finding the right containers took a bit longer but i managed to come across a decent polystyrene box in the market and and vegetable compartment from a fridge outside a Mexican restaurant.

I used 2 sm58 microphones, one in each box, placed on an oil barrel table on the floor of venue with a couple of concrete slabs under them to kill the feedback. Soundcheck was ok but in hindsight i should have been more fussy. The performance billed as 'Short and brutal' by the organizers, spirit of gravity only lived up to half of what i should have been. ie; It was short but lacked the intensity i wanted.

The microphone in the polystyrene box was Eq'd (from my command to soundman) to be bassey, the other microphone i wanted less bass and more high and mids. I also asked for it to be as loud as possible without feedback. Unfortunately the sound just didn't zing and wasn't loud enough and i only realized once I'd started so i just coped with it. The performance it's self was decent, ending up  with a mess allover the floor as usual.

*Next gig i will bring my own mixer so i can do the EQ and Volumes myself!