Gbenga Adelekan is the newest addition to Metronomy’s backline, alongside drummer Anna Prior (fucking love girl drummers). Before he packed up his pants to tour the country with Master Mount we cheekily requested that he jot down some memories from the ride. Surprisingly, he said yes. What follows is his unedited diary. Nice.
This town is a mirage and I was never here. I did not come to Manchester, I came to the Academy and the pub round the corner and the hotel. Birmingham, I never knew you. But it’s really great to be back here with you in Brighton. Can you hear that, Norwich? It’s the sound of the summer. The sun is high and the wasps are coming for your jam. We will see you again, Newcastle in one wedding’s time. Never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn. Take everything that isn’t nailed down and never, never let a good rider go to waste.
SNAPSHOT EXPERIENCES OF MY FIRST METRONOMY TOUR
Although the ‘proper’ tour was Norwich to Glasgow, honourable mentions must go out to our show at Liverpool Sound City (in the oddest venue ever – a church that’s been converted into a Cuban-themed restaurant) and two shows in Austria where we were driven by a hip-hop DJ called Elvis. First stage invader at our show in Vienna during ‘You Could Easily Have Me.’
For anyone with a bit of perspective, there is something about touring and playing festivals that gives rise to thoughts along the lines of: The World Is So Big, I Am So Small. The other day Ady from Vacuous Pop in Oxford said he’d received so many friend requests on MySpace that it was beyond his ability to vet bands before accepting them, which had previously been his policy. There are just so many musical acts out there. Signed, unsigned, half-signed, bankrolled by mobsters, whatever.
There’s a chapter in Kill Your Friends that opens with the protagonist (who’s not John Niven, okay?!) going through the odds of getting signed as a result of sending a demo to a record company. He concludes that there’s literally more chance of winning the lottery. And this is in a book that’s set in the late 90s, so you can imagine how much the number of acts has increased since then.
So, in this context, making a living from playing music is something I’m pretty lucky to be managing. And rocking up to Birmingham, Glasgow, Nottingham, Newcastle or wherever and being able to play to a few hundred people is frankly amazing.
But, anyway, the tour. Notable stuff that happened can be categorised thus:
STAGE INVASIONS/FIGHTS/GENERAL PANDEMONIUM
Top of the class here are Newcastle, Vienna and Nottingham.
In Newcastle, the guy who got up onstage looked a little sheepish ‘cause you could tell he had expected to be bundled off by security before he actually made it onto the stage. But he was obviously harmless. Aww.
And somewhere out there, a picture exists of a young lady in Nottingham posing next to a very bemused Gbenga who’s trying to continue playing ‘Radio Ladio.’
The stage invasions have so far all happened on my side of the stage. As have the fights that have been breaking out in the audience. A guy at the show in Manchester punched the girl behind him. In the face!! Come on people, this is good-time music.
At least… I think it is. I’m the new kid here, so maybe there’s an undercurrent of violence in Metronomy’s music that is only just becoming apparent.
STAVING OFF BOREDOM IN THE VAN
Moment of crisis on the way to Newcastle – we thought the DVD player was broken. And we all know there’s nothing more terrifying than being stuck in an enclosed space with a bunch of your friends and having to talk to them. Or, worse, having to put the radio on.
False alarm, though. We watched Nathan Barley. This may be slightly overstating its merits, but there are many, many moments spread across its six episodes that recall something Alan Moore said in an interview once about dealing with truth even though he wrote fiction.
We watched a lot of Catterick too. And Chopper. And The Thing. And The Departed. And Fargo. And… Evolution.
I listened to Girl Talk’s Night Ripper and Niyi’s Brotherhood of Truth Vol.1 mixtape on repeat. Both absolutely incredible. The kind of thing that makes you want to sell your guitars and buy turntables, or whatever the late-noughties equivalent is.
JOE MOUNT, DJ
Following the show in Nottingham, Mr Joseph Mount Esq. got onto the wheels of steel for an hour or so at the sort-of afterparty. Straight R&B and hip-hop, much of it classic. MOP. Amerie. Beyonce. Lil Wayne. DMX. Snoop.
Apparently Joe cleared a room in Brighton a couple of months ago with a similar set. They’d expected him to play ‘cool’ music. More fool them. The good people of Notts were a little broader-minded than that. As soon as he’d delivered the one-two punch of ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’ and ‘Cold As Ice,’ he had the room gyrating in the palm of his hand.
NME, ETCETERA?
On the day of our Brighton show, we opened up the New Musical Express to find a review giving a big thumbs up to the Great Escape show we played there a couple of weeks before. Nice big picture of Oscar on his birthday, too.
Being new to this Metronomy lark, I will admit that as well as being excited about playing the shows, it’s cool having my name mentioned in the NME. Even if it does remind me of something Martin Amis says his father Kingsley used to remark – “The thing about awards, of course, is that they’re okay if you have them.”
I guess however much I believe the print media is doomed and that the best music journalism has been found online for the best part of a decade now, there’s still something about getting into print. It feels less ephemeral. And, let’s face it, your mom and dad don’t believe in things published solely on the internet.
We were in the next week’s issue too, which we saw on the day of the Glasgow show. A valiant effort was made to portray Gabriel’s exit from Metronomy as acrimonious. Must have been a slow news week. Your Twenties were on the whole tour with us. After most shows we hung out and chatted over drinks. We went out a few times. Everything was totally cool. As they used to say in the olden days, we got on famously.
NEW METRONOMY LIGHTS/MCDEATH
Two firsts in Norwich. Opening night of the tour and maiden voyage of the new Metronomy lights. Aside from the fact that we kept stepping on the power cables and pulling them out and had to remember to unplug them before trying to walk off-stage, they were a big success.
Shout out to McDeath (yes, that’s his real name) for building them. And Oscar for keeping the dream alive.
Now we just need to work more of the dance moves back into the set.
And that’s it. I could give you details of each show, but they were all enjoyable in different ways. Anna, Joe and Oscar were amazing every night. The fans have all been cool about the line-up change. (Most) People now realise that I’m not a dubstep DJ.
I won’t go into the incident involving Joe, Oscar, our tour manger’s motorbike and a gaggle of fourteen-year-old females. Let’s just say there are pictures and the guys are being really nice to me right now.
Ha.
You are cordially invited to any and all of our festival shows this summer.
Oh, and our dirty, great big show at the Kentish Town Forum in September.
Peace and Fucking.
Believe.
Got to love a man who signs off “peace and fucking”.
WORDS AND PICTURES: GBENGA ADELEKAN