Rod's UK tour Blog

Day 15

Flew into London. Overcast, top of 15. Picked up at airport by Rob our tour manager for the week. Drove straight to Westminster Church in the shadow of Big Ben. Played to a small audience as part of an promo for an event called ‘Pentecost Festival’. The PA snarled and crackled for the first set, we think Spikes bass was clipping. Looked at a statue of John Wesley in the foyer of church. He is around 5 foot tall. The plaque on the wall says the statue is life size. I’m five ten and when I stand next to him I feel like a giant. But his heart for God was huge. He set out to change a nation and succeeded. England needs revival. It may sound audacious but I believe God for revival. If you are awake to God then you have to believe for big things because your vision is filled with something bigger than you can contain. God fills the horizon, the depth, the height, the width. You can’t help but believe that what you feel with all your heart will not be appropriated through the whole earth.
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Day 16

Woke up early in town called Swindon, 2hrs out of London. Went for a walk in the dark down forested lanes. Scripture often talks of Jesus rising before dawn. I’m looking for Him. The Psalms talk of awakening the dawn. My natural man fights against this. I would rather the dawn awaken me. I hear a massive sound approaching in the sky. It’s a helicopter but I can’t see it, the sky is dark and cloudy. Its directly above me, low but still I see nothing, it flies off into the distance. I read it as a spiritual warfare metaphor. As the dawn begins to lighten up I find I can make out the landscape clearer, another metaphor of how things in the Spirit unfold as you walk in Gods light. I spent a year in England back in 1990. It is where God gave me the vision of serving Him with music. I went through personal revival. It was an outpouring of the love of God that lasted many months. I kept saying to God, “is this ever going to stop?” Everything I read in scripture jumped off the page at me. During that period some black gospel singers prayed for me and prophesied that I would be involved in an international music ministry. They hadn’t even heard my music. I worked washing dishes in a resturant and early in the morning on the way to work while walking through the park I discovered what scripture calls the song of the Lord. Isaiah says ’the Lord is my song He has become my salvation’. Ps 32 states, ‘He shall surround you with songs of deliverance’. When I returned to Australia I prayed for a long time for the right combination of believers to work with, to fulfill this vision. At the time I had no real idea what shape it would take. Back here in England 20 years on and God is moving through this band, through this land. The audience in Bath last night were touched by God in a powerful way. A man in his eighties was radiant and kept talking of how deeply he was moved. Everyone I spoke to was powerfully touched by God.

Day 17

On our way to Southport. it’s a long drive, 6 hrs. The seats in the van are set at vertical so there is no chance to recline and sleep. I think of John Wesley again and how he reportedly rode 250,000 miles on horseback to evangelize England. Many of the churches here are Methodist churches which were started by Wesley. Charles Wesley, his brother, wrote over 5000 hymns. I would love to step back in time and catch some of the fervor these men had. We played last night to a small audience. Band was flat after the long drive. We literally jumped out of the bus and unto the stage. Had a good prayer time in the van praying about the performance, getting our hearts right. Today we are off to Nottingham. M6 motorway, caught in traffic snarl. Time to write. Thoughts on sleep……I heard that Leonardo Da Vinci used to get by on 3 hours of sleep. I’ve been giving 5 hours a shot. See what happens. I’ve slept approximately 14,000 nights over the course of my life. I still haven’t figured out how much I need. Sleep is a mystery. I figure if I can save 3hrs sleep a night and translate those hours into activity, that’s a lot of hours over the course of say the next 30 years of my life (I’m too tired right now to work out the math’s on that). The thing that annoys me about sleep is you can go to bed with a vision and wake in the morning struggling to even get your feet moving. This constant break in continuity, every night. I read that there is a man in Cambodia that hasn’t slept for 34 years………freaky. He has some condition (I’m sure he does). Another child in Nth Carolina apparently has only slept one hour per night her whole life. I’d like to run a sleep conference. Invite these sort of people along as speakers. Wonder if the attendees would fall to sleep during sessions. English countryside is charming. Listening to Wynton Marsalis, a jazz monster ripping through some awkward chord changes. It’s a jazz day. It is not fitting the scenery but I’m diggin’ it. I should have Benjamin Britten or Elgar playing, that would assimilate better. The countryside looks very composed. Where classical music speaks of nature jazz is more urban based music. It lives for the moment, draws from the surrounds with a quick breaths then spits out the magic. Some days I love it. Drive past sign to Liverpool. The home of the Beatles. They put Liverpool on the map and made human beings famous. No one ever thought humans could be so cool. Before them music drew attention to landscape or community or to itself. A combination of good hooks, good looks and a camera to capture it all served up a meal the whole world gobbled up in one afternoon. Little 2 minute morsels. Bit sized songs the whole family could eat. Four Liverpudlin lads did their thing then split up. Only two left. Wonder where the other two are now? 　

Day 18

In the van again.4 hrs to Bristol. Played last night at Nottingham. Small church, round building, nightmare design for acoustics. We wrestle during the sound check trying to get a half decent sound. The material of Sons of Korah does depend a lot on a good sound. We have composed material that has a broad dynamic range. The room itself we perform in is treated as an instrument in itself. The sound that we hear through a PA very much determines how we play our instruments. One idea feeds the next idea, the joining of thoughts. Well there wasn’t much idea glue on tap last night. Lots of random notes picking there way through acoustic landmines. Mini explosions going off inside my head. I almost lost composure on stage. I nearly did a John McEnroe, I really did, with the mandolin, into the stage. It wouldn’t have looked pretty. The funny thing is that one hour before this Spike and I met with God backstage in a powerful way. I sat at the piano and we went after God, and found Him. It was a beautiful time. 　 We traveled 1700km in Holland. After 5 days in England we are approaching around 950km. Matts chatting to Rob Cotton ( UK tour manager) in the front of the van. Rod Wilson (asleep) and Spike are in the back. I have the middle row to myself. Spike’s reading ’Sound on Sound’ magazine. When he’s not reading that he is reading ’Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance’. It’s a book that explores the classical versus the romantic mindsets. Two guys traveling across the USA on motorcycles. One guy loves the mechanical process of how a motorcycle engine works, the other guy will only take his bike to a workshop to have it tuned or repaired. They reach an impasse time and time again. Its really a book about the clash of cultures, technological versus natural. I gave the book to Spike to read. Spike is a child of the digital age. Its his natural language. He fixes everything that beeps. Yesterday he fixed the navman. But he is not a nerd. He doesn’t treat people like machines. I play the double bass. Its around 150 years old. Sometimes I feel older. I’m uncomfortable with technology. I fumble around on the computer, like I’m trying to keep my head above water. I find no beauty in it. I don’t trust where it is taking civilization. Its taking us somewhere now as the navman spits out directions. But a few days ago it took us in the wrong direction. I like a map I can feel under my fingers, one that crumples and gives the impression at the end of a journey that you have been somewhere.
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Day 19

Van time. 4 hrs. Off to Stoke on Trent. Played concert last night in church in Bristol. The church was built in 1850. Huge building. Beautiful acoustics. Played this morning at two services, everyone extremely appreciative and blessed. Stayed the night at house in the countryside. Keith (the owner) told me it was built in 1794. Gardens where very expansive. Mercedes very expensive. House had lots of clocks. Only a few worked and the ones that did told the wrong time. I think this is a sign of eccentricity. I’ve seen it before with a wealthy mans house we stayed at a few years back. That particular man told us a joke that finished with the punch line which he screamed at the top of his voice, something about a rabbit, we had only just met him. Apparently (I read once) the health of any society can be gauged upon the amount of eccentric personalities. I think its true. Anyhow our short stay with Keith was wonderful, he is a charming man. Tonight is our last performance. We have played 19 performances since leaving Australia. It seems years ago since we left. Tomorrow night we fly home. Tomorrow afternoon we are planning to have a tour of the House of Commons in London with David a chaplain to MP’s.

Day 20
Van time 4 hrs. Get stuck in traffic jam round Trafalgar Square. We move a mile in one hour, I guess that means we are moving at one mile an hour. I say to the guys, “let me walk to Westminster” (house of commons) I hear multiple voices reply “stay with the band”!! So I stay. Finally we spot the Westminster building and arrive just in time for the tour. Sit in on parliament session in House of Commons. Israel and Hamas are the point of discussion. Back in the van for a two hr drive to Heathrow airport. Bid farewell to Rob Cotton. Time to hop on plane for the big flight south.

Rod's Netherlands Tour Blog

Day 1

14/10/2009
　
Its all jumbo jet. A lounge room at 30,000 feet. First leg was Melbourne to Hong Kong. 9 hours of night flight. 2nd leg Hong Kong to London 12 hours all day light. Many of the passengers went through to Hong Kong so the plane is now half empty. That means row upon row of unoccupied seats, up with the arm rests and presto!! a bed. I’m lying across three seats, on a single fare. Yahoo!! I walked down to business class before which evoked some pity as I noticed they had only one seat each and paid three times as much for it.
5 hrs to go before Heathrow. Haven’t watched a movie yet. I’ve found with past experiences that movies tend to drag out the flight. So I write, read and sleep when I can.
Mongolia or Kazakhstan has filled the horizon out the window for hours. Brown and expansive, a wasteland interspersed with the occasional cluster of tiny buildings. Its another world. Same earth but might as well be another planet.
So the tour is underway. Our very first trip to Europe as a band. We spend two weeks in Holland and one week in the UK. The schedule is crammed with concerts. We can’t imagine what God may do through and in us.

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Day 2

We are in Holland. Top of 13c. Everything is flat and surprisingly sparsely populated for a country with 17 million people. Holland is less than half the size of Tasmania.
Picked up at the airport by our tour hosts, there‘s about 9 of them, all smiling like they have been smiling for days.
Driving to our accommodation I realized how flat Holland really is. Just flat green fields everywhere. I asked hosts Maarten and Herm “does anyone ever get lost in Holland”? Talking of lost we lost two pieces of luggage, Rod Wilson’s and mine. They are presently somewhere in Heathrow airport. At this stage only Rod’s has been confirmed to be located. Mine could be at Heathrow or perhaps still back at Tullamarine airport. The suitcase was brand new and I think that is why it got lost.
Band is traveling well. Rod Wilson got twice the amount of sleep than the rest of us. This is why we think he has so much energy to converse with every single person he meets. Actually he has one ongoing conversation that he simply picks up with every new person. It is quite a gift. The only thing that ever stops him is the language barrier. We all admire his social kit. Matthew is enjoying being in a small country where he can find so much personal space. Spike is struggling with a virus that he can’t completely shake. We will shake him a little more tomorrow. Me I’m just blogging.

Day 3

First concert last night, Zwolle. 700 people. It is overwhelming, really overwhelming to come to a country for the first time and play our songs to such an engaged audience. It truly must be God. Our music started here as a seed planted by Jeremy van der Noord a friend of ours who dropped off some of our Cd’s at a youth hostel in Amsterdam around the year 2000. Now it has spread like a fire. It felt last night while we played that people were being fed and made hungry at the same time. This is a good sign. We can never have enough of God and we can always come to him to receive more. One man Rolf said to me numerous times after the concert that our music bought a peace to his mind. He said it three times and on each occasion continued to point to his forehead. We stand in awe at the power of Gods word. We sense he has placed something in our hands that he wants to pour out on the nations of the earth. We ourselves are being poured out. If it is truly of God it will not diminish although we are aware that it is constantly under siege.

　
Day 4

Saturday. Sound checking at church at Ede. We are all jet lagged to varying degrees. I never travel well. Its all the movement. New venues, different hotels night after night, different food, everything is constantly changing. Even trying to find the light switch in the room or how to work the microwave when its all written in Dutch and all you want to do is boil a cup of water. But this is life on the road. When Willie Nelson said he couldn’t wait to get on the road again I think he was being sarcastic. But it certainly gets you out of any rut you may have found yourself in back at home. Musicians like to get into a groove, its when their groove turns into a rut the problems begin. So this blog is partly a tour survival mechanism I’m using. Something static for me in the midst of all the motion. Hopefully I can keep it going till day 21, lets see. I’m writing it on a new mini laptop with a sticker on the cover boasting of a 6 hour battery life.
For the Holland part of the tour we are working with the same sound crew for each gig. Jonathon the head tech is a master at what he does. Sound men can make or break you. Working with the same sound man each night is a relief. Especially if he is good. The analogy I sometimes think of is that imagine you are a professional water sking troupe and you have this elaborate routine worked out, the driver of the boat hasn’t even heard of you and is unaware of what you require. You tell him a few things you want prior to the performance but because of his obvious unfarmialrity with your routine he ends up sending you into the riverbank, up trees, smashing up against bridges ect
The Ede concert goes well. Sold out again. Over 1000 people. We find out from Maarten our tour manager the whole tour is almost sold out. Whenever I hear the word sold out I think to myself, “am I sold out,” sold out for God. We don’t want to be celebrities but if God is not number one in our lives it can become an obvious substitute. Ps 127 is always relevant to us. ‘Unless the Lord builds the house the workers labour in vain’. God is jealous for our hearts. He wants us to build a throne of praise for Him and not towers of our own accomplishments.
Wrote a simple worship song this morning ….‘our heart is in his hands, our wealth is in his ways’.
Spent the night with Dutch family, four floors all small with spiral staircase up the middle. This we find is a typical European house design. My wife Angela tells me on the phone from Australia she lived in a house with this design in West Germany where she grew up. The mother and daughter of the house we stay in play a Chopin duet on piano and violin for us before we hop in he van to head to our next venue.

Day 5

Sunday morning playing at church. Service is in Dutch. Our songs go over well. Spent the previous night in a circus caravan out the back of a B&B. Woke up feeling like a bit of a clown. This would be a great way to tour Europe, in a circus caravan. Monkeys could drive the car while we drink herbal tea in the back.
　
Day 6

Staying in a huge four storey house on the edge of a city called Houten. 100 year old house previously used as home for orphans. Has been purchased by four families 13 years ago. Went for early morning walk. Beautiful countryside setting, oak trees, canals and bikes, bikes and more bikes. And all the same classic unpretentious bike style. The only exception was a fully lycra clad man on racing bike. Spotted him a few times during the day flying past all the other cyclists. Figured he was a failed European tour rider out to atone for bitter memories.
Had the day off so did the tourist thing and walked round the city centre of Utrecht for the afternoon. The old city is quite attractive, lots of canals, cathedrals. Went to a museum filled with late nineteen century music boxes, pianolas, organs ect.

Day 7

Ok the fun started. Bad gig. And lots of people to witness it. Microphone packed it in mid song, my loop station acted badly and then looped my mood for the rest of the concert. Instruments dropped tuning and all sorts of those strange things. Rod Wilson said afterwards that the gig was like swimming through custard. But you have those nights. Nights where the sound turns on you. But what is perfect in this life. Being a musician often reminds you of the imperfections of this life, including a host of your own. Some nights you sing and play like an angel and the next it all falls apart. My faith saying is that if your wheels are falling off perhaps God is wanting you to fly. I think of flying home.

Day 8

Day 8 was a big day. The Dutch film team who did a documentary on the band in Australia a few years organized a filming of the band to show on TV over here. The running of the doco here in Holland created a fair bit of interest in our music. They have a semi trailer out the back of the church full of screens and cables running to the stage. A massive generator nearby. I thought we were an acoustic band?
It’s a little nerve racking being filmed. It is hard not to be preoccupied by the thought that everything you do will be held against you in a lounge room somewhere in Holland. During the set I found myself doing a cover version of myself. Picking in my mind the musical ideas that had worked in the past and running with them instead of playing in the moment. Sort of like a preacher who relies on a bagful of well worn anecdotes and pulls them out when he gets desperate.
Thankfully it wasn’t a live broadcast. We (mostly matt and I) mulled over the devastation backstage post concert. A sort of philosophical rendering session. (We are both reflective types with an internal volume level that is mostly turned up all the time. Sometimes when we share some deep reflections with each other its like that mirror affect in bathrooms where you have a mirror on opposite walls and you see this never ending series of reflections/reproductions of yourself).
Most bands who release a concert DVD film do so over a series of nights, picking the best of the best. We didn’t have that luxury…. however the sound was multi tracked so some editing will be possible. By the end of the night we were exhausted and fell into bed from about three metres away.

Day 9

2 hr road trip to Leeuwarden listening to some Larry Norman. He is good to listen when life gets rough. He sings in a real and rough way, bit like Dylan. Don’t ever really listen to either of them when you are happy or want to be happy. They are just themselves and that is confronting. We live in commercially polished driven culture. Our heads live in marble mansions while our feet drag through the mud.
Highway is lined with enormous wind turbines. They swing their blades through the thick fog. I wonder whether they are here to clear the highway of fog or to make electricity.
Conversation with Dutch tour manager Maarten. He tells me that the Reformed Church here in Holland has splintered over the years into over ten separate denominations.
Night concert. Our support band for the tour is a band called Trinity. There are four in the band, three are brothers. They sing high energy Spanish flavored songs. They spent 9 years as missionary children in Lima, Peru working in the slums.
They are a delight to be around and we will miss them when the tour concludes. Elbert the singer told me last night that they (the brothers) recently went back to do a documentary with a Dutch film team. They filmed 45 hours worth of footage that ended up being stolen from the airport in Ecuador. They never saw it again.

　
Day 10

3hr drive south to Katwijk. Lots of fog. More wind turbines. There is no wind but they are still spinning. I wonder if they have engines, or if they import wind from other countries during the calm season. I’m as grumpy as an old boot this morning. Haven’t woken up yet. I want to be back in bed. I’m not a morning person. I need Gods grace this morning. I’m generally a Calvinist in the morning and after midday more of an Arminian.
Driving by the ocean at the moment at the north of Holland. Listening to Rachmaninov on my ipod. No one else in the bus knows. Its my private world. When the symphony is over I will come out of this world with a sweetness the size of an orchestra….maybe.
Been scouring the countryside as we drive looking for something Van Gogh may have painted. I suppose its all overgrown by now. Spike is still coughing in the van as he has been all tour. I think I will call him Van Cough. Or cut my ear off so I can’t hear him anymore. It started to annoy me the other day until I thought of mother Teresa working in Calcutta amongst the diseased. I think she had more love than me. I sometimes think when I am struggling to love that I need to give up music and go to Calcutta. But maybe I need to deal with the Calcutta that surrounds me. If I can’t deal with the Calcutta here and now how would I survive with mountain sized issues in far away places.

Day 11

Last night was pretty special. Played in a massive wooden cathedral circa 1871. Elders took us up the spire to look over the city. 360 degree views over Katvijk a beautiful seaside town. Amsterdam 30km away. The church is filled with 1600 worshippers on any given Sunday. The congregation belts out psalms from the Geneva song book while the organ (we are told is the biggest in Holland) belts out the accompaniment. It must sound amazing. The space inside the cathedral is so massive it feels like we are playing outdoors. It is a good feeling sitting in a church where your mind is clothed with the theme of immensity. Because the cathedral is wooden the acoustics are softer and warmer than in the marbled equivalent.
The church leaders have only recently embraced the idea of bands playing in the cathedral. There is much tradition in this part of Holland and things do not change overnight. Sometimes I think traditions are like moods.
A lady in the street dressed in black voiced her disapproval to Matt about playing music in the cathedral. She puffed out her cheeks and wrung her hands in disdain while stating something about bands playing Gods house.
I open the front door of the cathedral to walk outside after sound check, I find a long chain of people winding out into the street waiting to come inside. The concert goes amazingly well. The cathedral is almost completely full.
　
Driving south to the Hague. Spend afternoon walking round the city. Beautiful palaces, statues ect. Another concert tonight. We are all ready for a break. I often take along endurance classics like Earnest Shackelton or Robert Scotts South Pole treks. I sometimes read out sections to the guys in the bus to snap us out of our white western woes. The thing about serving God with a team is that you push yourself much harder than on your own. We don’t really know how much we can take. It’s the thought of being out of control that unsettles us. He knows our weaknesses but who knows His strength.
Play a concert in drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre. 75 involved in the program come along as well as another 300 locals. I reflect on my days as an unbeliever and my abuse of drugs. Drug experiences are often referred to as trips. They start as a rollercoaster ride and lead to you yourself becoming the ride and being ridden where you don’t want to go by powers beyond your control, only God can break the cycle.
We are encouraged after the concert to hear that normally when bands play here the rehab group get out of their seats and are restless often leaving the building but on this occasion they all kept quiet and stayed seated.
We say farewell to the sound crew, lots of hugs, photos. They have been a gift from God. In the 11 days of working with them we heard not a single complaint. Always smiling, always helpful, always humble. They worked harder than us. Their daily routine consisted in getting up at eight, driving to new location setting everything up, running the gig and then pulling it all down loading back in the trucks and getting to bed round 3 AM.

Day 12

Up early to play at church service in Ede. Our last performance in Holland.
Found out last night from my wife Angela that my youngest daughter Anna (3 years) has a fever and has been sick. I want to be there to comfort her.
The church service is all in Dutch, I almost fall to sleep a few times during the sermon. Playing a Saturday night full concert and then getting up to do a service first thing Sunday morning is not my idea of fun. I talk to the preacher after the service and he tells me he works as a chaplain for the Dutch army, he recently got back from 4 months service in Afghanistan.
We have no playing commitments tonight. In two days we head to England for a six day tour.

Day 13
　
Rest day. It is a day for me to re-tune my heart to God. After 12 days of activity it is time to stop. I must hear Gods thoughts about me. We really have had much praise poured upon us in Holland and this is wonderful but to live in that and feed on the memory of it too much can shape you into a shallow human being. I must give all the praise back to Him for He is the Creator and I the creature. We are designed not to store the praises of people in our heart but to pour out praise upon Him for only He is worthy. As Ps 115 states, “Not to us oh Lord, not to us but to your name be glory given.”
So all the good things that happen are really invitations to come to Him. Today I need to rsvp to the Lord all of these invitations.

Day 14

A word about the Christians in Holland. They are beautiful people with big smiles and servant hearts. We are all undone by the degree of hospitality we have received.
A word about Maarten and Herm, our tour managers. Maarten and Herm have been exceptional. They set the tour up. They are 22 year old Uni students but have handled all the complex elements of a tour like professionals. They loved our music and felt compelled to get us here. God has used them powerfully. There are many others to thank, especially Hans Loeve who stocked our Cds and helped promote us, all the wonderful families we stayed with. Our wonderful sound crew led by Jonathon van Klaveren, a huge thank you !!