Return to the Shed
My equipment arrived home today. Darin and Justin set up my keyboard rig and stacked the cases and video equipment in my storage unit. Then their yellow Penske truck rolled off into the sunset. Somehow this officially wraps up the Sole Inhabitant Tour 2006!
My head is still numb. I walked across the wetlands to the bluffs this morning to get some fresh air and clarity, but none came to me. I stared out over the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, and pondered for one last time the intricacies of hardware i/o buffer settings, and cutoff filter resonances. And it made me realize just how insignificant the Pacific Ocean really is….
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What’s next? A couple of weeks to recover and regroup. Once I come up for air I might start sifting though the video footage from the tour, and planning out the live concert DVD I’m hoping to release later this year. Or I might start working on a couple of new songs that have been buzzing round my head during this the last few weeks. I have a few doodles on my laptop, and I’ll admit i was tempted to debut them at one of the shows: but I’m too much of perfectionist, and it’ll have to wait until they’re more evolved.
Then in mid-June I have a gig in New York followed by a couple in London. These three gigs couldn’t be more different from each other. One’s a flesh-fest called the Exotic Erotic Ball, in a warehouse on the Hudson River, at which I hope to jam with my old friend George Clinton while dominatrixes and latex fetishists dance their tails off. The Scala gig will be as close as I can get it to a UK version of my US club/theater shows. Then the Wireless Festival in Hyde Park will be an opportunity to renew my association with Depeche Mode, and meet some of the new kids on the block like the excellent Goldfrapp. I will be playing a shortened set in broad daylight to tens of thousands of picnickers.
After that, I’m off on a much-needed few weeks’ vacation with my family. The kids love going to England, and feel a strong connection there. They get a big kick out of their many cousins, most of whom are in their twenties, and they like when I take them on a trek around the nether reaches of Britain, stopping in silly tea shops and climbing castle ramparts. We’ve rented a converted slate mining cottage on a small remote island in the inner Hebrides, and I’m hoping Eddi Reader and her two sons will come to stay with us for a couple of days. On the way up there we may stop in Co. Durham and see Paddy McAloon so I can listen to some of his new songs.
I feel really good about this year so far. The 26-date tour was a rare and fantastic event for me and my audience. I am very optimistic there will be another one this Fall, featuring new material. It felt great to be back onstage, and I was blown away with how well my crew performed, and the overwhelmingly positive response from the audiences. Thanks to all of you who came out to see me and helped sell out the gigs! Bring your friends next time and help me take it to the next level.
Right On Dolby!, Congrats on a Fab tour, as i heard from many friends, I’ll be sure to attend Boston if its a stop in Autumn! ROCK ON
I really like this blog entry. It’s so sweet and honest.
The tour was wonderful. Every audience in which I took part had a fantastic time, and all the accounts elsewhere seem to have been in awe as well. To put icing on our cake, it was wonderful for those of us who’ve talked about your music for years to meet finally, or become reacquainted. Thank you, Thomas! For everything!
Thomas, just want to let you know just how much it means to me, to be able to now say, that I have seen you play live, three times!!! LOL, you were at the top of my “I have to see, before I die,” list. It was such a pleasure to just soak in your music, and watch you make your songs come to life, layer by layer!!!! You are gifted beyond description!!!!!!!!
Love ya,……. and do tour again in the fall!
Here’s one person who will do his best to load up each and every (of the twenty or so…;^>) shows you do in Chicago this Fall!
ooOOOO I can’t wait for the new music!
sooOOO exciting !
Looking forward to June’s performance!!!
Thomas,
thanks for one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended. We caught you at the Sellersville theater…and despite what were (to us, the audience) some minor technical glitches (I know, I know…a crashed hard drive is a little more than MINOR) we had an outstanding time.
If you’d like to see my impression of that show (with pictures), you need look no further than this Livejournal entry. One of my friends brought someone who’d never actually seen you in concert nor collected your music, but was blown away by the concert.
I would love it if you decide to create a concert DVD (as I loved the reworkings of so many songs) and a new album would be spectacular.
Now go get some rest.
Thank you so much for coming to Seattle and cranking out your tunes. This was the most connected I have ever been to the music at any given venue — I think mainly because you actually enjoyed being there! Believe me, it certainly showed!!
See you soon — don’t forget to keep Seattle on your list of cities you will be revisiting. Go relax and let your brain deflate for a while.
Korky
Couldn’t resist to login and say few words. For a couple of years I’ve been checking your old site and getting kinda depressed about statements how you don’t have intensions to do a tour or new album… not in a near future.
Couple a weeks ago, I discovered you were touring and doing it so well, full of some new and beautiful energy.
1988, Novi Sad, Yugoslavia… , a friend of mine just came back from Paris with something in his pocket that blow us up in heavens… of course it was “Aliens Ate My Buick”. I will never forget that moment when we listened to it for the first time in a local bar. All I can tell you, it was a “soul catcher”… from then on for aprox. 2 years whole city was blasting with your tunes. There was bearly a night out without that tape in the car or bar or home.
I am very happy you are finally back. Now (14 years) I live in Budapest and I hope that one day you will sit in that ‘Blimp” … fly to here and give us a treat that we will never forget.
I sugest that you check one nifty and relatively new venue (if you decide Europian tour)… it’s called “A38″ and its actually a huuuuge boat (totally hi-tech) on Danube bank in Budapest. (Just couple a months ago I saw Tony Levin concert there.)
Dear Mr. Dolby I wish you to continue to surf on that big new wave of inspiration and bless us with some new exiting material and hopefully visit us “by the blimp”…
Lots of love and tons of positive energy from Krisztina and Joe.
congrats on a successful tour, i’m sure it feels good after so long.
please come to Texas next time around!
Szia Joe and Krisztina!
There is always that “blimp” on top of West End. That might count as “Budapest by Blimp”. Maybe that too was inspired by Mr. Dolby’s song.
After my London Study ended in ’88, and I saw the AAMB opener there, I ended my travels in Hungary where I listened to TMDR’s music the rest of my stay there. The memories…
Question — will the EEB performance be recorded for possible inclusion in the Sole Inhabitant 2006 DVD project? It would be great to be able to see the George Clinton jam!
Thomas, Have you got any pictures of your shed?
I’ve just started my own blog with pictures in my shed/studio (Polaris) I like sheds!!
link to my shed
http://www.peterjames-stephen.blogspot.com/
I’ve been a Dolby fan since high school, but I had missed his previous tour. I had read on Thomas’ web site about the “economics of touring” which basically said he wasn’t going to tour anymore because it simply cost too much. So, I had to accept my place in life as being one who missed out on experiencing Thomas Dolby live. So be it. At least I have his CDs to enjoy.
Then, this past April, I had a fortunate discovery. I was doing a search on the web for windows (and by windows I don’t mean Microsoft, I mean glass windows in your house), and somehow, the third item in the search said something about a Thomas Dolby tour! It was one of those moments that didn’t register right away. My brain went “huh?” and I clicked back and found the link again. Amazingly, he was touring and one of his shows was within an hour of my house! Two months later, I was standing less than 10 feet from Mr. Dolby as he rocked the house in Royal Oak, MI.
I tried to reproduce the search on my computer, and the link was gone. Obviously, divine intervention steered my browser to his page. I have been rewarded for being a loyal fan after all those years. I can’t see the connection between Thomas Dolby and “do it yourself” repairs for vinyl windows, but there must be one. Yahoo was looking out for me.
The show was amazing, truly one of the best concerts I’ve seen. It was more than a concert, we got to know you a bit as you shared stories between the songs. It was obvious that you appreciated us as much as we appreciated you. Thanks for a great evening and all of us will be happy to stand in the rain again outside the theater waiting for the doors to open for the next Thomas Dolby show!!!
P.S. Where did you get that great coat???
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