Seton at Haldern (aug 11)
6/ 28/02
Glastonbury Festival
In what I believe to be SB's FIRST official gig as Fiction Plane, the band played the Glastonbury Festival on Friday, June 28, in the New Bands Tent. By all accounts, they had a great time playing and checking out the other bands there. Matt Nethercott, a friend of the band, sat in on drums.
6/7/02 KINGS HEAD
submitted by M.W.
I'm writing from an Internet cafe in London. We saw Santa's Boyfriend a few nights ago. Here's the important stuff.
First, they had no CDs for sale.
Second, their new name is Fiction Plane. Joe started off the set by saying "We're Santa's Boyfriend, probably for the last time." I asked the keyboard player about Factory X and he said they couldn't use it because it was some other band's name or something.
The show was in a small bar/pub. There were about 35-40 people. The band did not have a drummer. I guess he got fired from the band.
Abe L. (Sting's drummer) was there. I talked to him for quite a while. He told me about the drummer getting fired. One other guy recognized him too and bought him beers all night. Abe is a great guy. He's playing with Paul McCartney. I asked about Paul getting married (it's in all the papers here) and Abe said that "might have something to do" with why he was still in London. Of course, now everyone knows Paul is getting married today. Paul had just finished playing the Jubilee. Abe said he talked with Prince Charles for 5 minutes at a party at Buckingham Palace. |He was stoked. He is such a good natured guy. He actually knows the town where I work becuase he has a friend there and I think one of my friends knows his friend, too. Small world!
Abe sat in on one song for the band. Joe played drums on a few others. He also played keyboards on the opening song. They only played ONE song from Swings and Roundabouts (Everything will never be ok). All the other songs were new. There was one called "Lies" and one called something like "Fuck you and fuck your cigarette." I didn't think he sounded as much like Sting as he does on the CD, but he sure looked like his father at certain times. Even my husband noticed and thought it was eerie.
Abe says Fiction Plane has signed with MCA, he thinks, and Joe told me that they hope to have a CD out in 6 months, that's why they weren't selling any of their old ones. They "want to do it right" he said. That's typical when a band signs. rubyhorse did the same thing when they signed with Island. They quit selling their indy CD at shows.
Oh, a guy named Brian, who is Paul McCartney's bass player was with Abe.
Abe was great on the drums (even though it was a tiny little drum set). I took several photos. Joe trashed the drum set at the end of the last song. They played for about an hour.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WATERRATS 10/13/2001
Just heard that this was a GREAT gig! A huge crowd showed up to hear the band, and the set was said to be brilliant!. Rumour has it that Joe threw a smashing party after the gig as well!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aug. 11,2001 HALDERN
Set List (courtesy of R. H. ~ thanks!
1. Smotherly Love (new)
2. Serenade (new)
3. I want to die
4. Days of Nothing (new)
5. Insect love
6. Boeing Boeing Gone (new)
7. Silence
8. (little drum solo by Olly)
9. I'm so tired
10. War
11. Charity (new)
After a soaking wet first day at Haldern, the sun came out for Santa's set early in day two. They played an 11 song set, previewing *5* new songs! Santa fans at the gig say that a couple of the new songs were more aggressive and less melodic than the songs on the current cd- and even hinted at a bit of rap. By all accounts Olly was in good form, fully recovered from his previous injury, and even gave the crowd a little drum solo near the end of the set! Joe was heard to say "he's an animal!" Way to go Olly!
Oh, and what about the, shall we say, "erotic" picture taped up next to Joe's set list?? A little inspiration for the band perhaps? ; >
Whose Guitar?
It's been reported by a concertgoer that Dan was playing an old brown Ibanez bass guitar, taped up in places. He also played a fender bass, which was reminiscent of a previous bass taken on tour by an older bass player. Is it just a coincidence, or could these guitars be hand-me-downs?
from R. H.
Joe made a joke about Dan being from Belgium and messing around
with his bass.
At the very beginning even Dan said something stupid
in German ("Meine Mami ist ein Gummibaum" or so,
meaning "My mother is a rubber tree"...).
In contrast to the CD the new songs are more aggressive,
more in a Nirvana-like style.
You know, the CD sounds like something between The Smiths and Nirvana
but the new stuff is really more 'rocking'.
from Luke:
Santa's Boyfriend from London played their first gig on the continent at the
Haldern Festival in Germany.
It was the 18th edition of this festival, which had some established names
on the bill e.g. Neil Finn and Travis.
Santa's Boyfriend was the second band to play on the second day. Most of the
crowd was still awaking, but they might regret missing a superb performance
of Santa's Boyfriend. The sun came out when they started to play, where the
day before had it pouring down all day.
The set were 10 songs; 5 new one and 5 from their album "Swings and
Roundabouts" (BUY IT !).
Some of the new songs have a little change of style. Songs "Insect Love" and
"Silence" have a catching "grunge" sound, where new songs like "Smotherly
Love" and "Days of Nothing" are extremely fast and energetic and have a "rap
element" to it. Although Joe would have like to play "nein more songs", the
band have to leave the stage after 3 quarters. A pity cause I would have
loved to hear more from the current album.
To conclude of my first Santa's Boyfriend experience is one of a very
talented musicians and a strong live band.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 30, 2001
Hushdrops tour diary
Hi, John here. I suppose I'd better tell you all about our fantastic time in
London.
The first gig, at Water Rats, was a bit shit-to be honest. The only thing
remotely memorable about the gig was that the headline act featured no other
than little Joey Sumner (yes, the son of Sting himself) on lead vocals and
guitar, and that their performance was enjoyed by a crew of midwestern
pensioners from Sting's American fanclub who flew in especially for the gig.
Little Sting was quite a nice man, it must be said. Since you ask, his band
were called Santa's Boyfriend. Also memorable was that Joe and Jeff found
their pre show dinner at a place that we identified as one of the 7 gates of
hell. It's 7, right? Seriously, the temperature inside of this tiny, tiny
kebab shop must have been no less than 120 degrees, though all of the
employees were smiling obsequiously. Thanks must be given to the opening act
(What were they called-Blank Slate, perhaps?) who shared their gear with us.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WATER RATS July 30
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Word is that this was a screamin great gig generating lots of energy from the audience. The band played some of the new songs they've been working on (can't wait to hear these!!). Joe showed up in a red shirt, blue shorts, and his trademark mismatched sox.
