the tour comes to an end...

Alas it is true... Our three week magical mystery tour through the UK has officially come to a close. On Saturday Ben and I parted ways, heading back to our respective states in the Americas. Our final show on the tour was fantastic though, sharing the stage with some great bands and the self proclaimed "most famous venue in the world", The Cavern Club (the place that birthed a little band called the Beatles) The atmosphere was joyous, the crowd was sweaty, and we ended the tour on a high note. Here are a couple photos from the final hoe down...







So... there's not really much to say from this point on. Thank you to everyone who came out to a show, bought a CD, fed us, gave us a floor to sleep on, filled us with drinks, etc. Both Ben and I are really looking forward to our return to the UK! As you know, we both have our own separate projects going in the states which you can check out by clicking the links under our photos on right side of this page. Being that we had so much fun on the tour, we have also planned another show for us (including maestro Ryan Vaughn) ...

Sept. 7th @ Rockwood Music Hall
New York, NY
Friday night, 1am
FREE!!!

This show follows the first night of Ben's band Jukebox the Ghost's residency at Piano's...

Hope to see you all soon!

Be sure to send a hello to either of us at ...

seth@thissideupsounds.com

and

benthornewill@gmail.com

Cheers!

-seth

"This is How it Feels"

To give you a taste of Tom Hingley's awesomeness, I've decided to post the video for "This is How it Feels".

Great tune...



-seth

Hingle-berry

Mein Gott!

we are almost done. how can it be? well, it can be because it is - time is relentless and so are these shows. yet each is, unrelentingly, spectacular and some suprisingly so.

Last night we showed up in Stockport, just outside of manchester, at the Blue Cat Cafe and there was no keyboard. nor any sign of our keyboard arriving. the band we had been in touch with just decided not to show. alas! Seth did a solo set, excellent and entertaining - even covering a sans-piano version of "hold it in" as i twitched in corner the of the room. seth finished (applause, applause) and then our new friend Tom Hingley (of Manchester legends the Inspiral Carpets) appeared in the back of the room like a magical elf, except not elfish in looks...so really, he just appeared magically.

we said in unison: 'why have you come here'
Tom Hingley: to let seth harmonize on one of his favorite songs with me ("This is How it Feels" by the Inspiral Carpets)
*Seth faints*
Ben: That's it? what crap!
Tom Hingley: 'Also, we will drink together (i will slip slowly on this Latte with chocolate sprinkles and you can continue to nurse on that guinness, your fourth no?) Then after, i will give you both a ride home and tell you about how i used to take noel gallagher to home here after shows and play at this famous venue, and spank the misbehaving Gallagher brothers on this street corner whilst the stone roses laughed.'
*Seth faints again*
Ben: Who are the stone roses? wasn't noel gallagher that commedian that smashes watermelons?


Mostly, that is how the night went. could have gone very poorly. ended in what seemed to be a miracle, save for any saviours born or lives bettered.

off to liverpool. final gig! ('a gig a gig!', shouted the Lady Hilaria weeks ago, hopping with each syllable). Can we have been on the road for this long? Can we have really visited this many cities? What a unique form of exaustion and ecstacy, of perserverance and optimism. And soon more of this, professional couch dwellers and rugged travellers.

yours truly,

-ben

Here's some photos...

Seth takes the stage...



Seth breaks a string (as usual), Tom Hingley rescues us, Ben plays some piano (sans sustain pedal)



Tom plays! It is marvelous! Unfortunately Seth's camera was in his pocket when they sang "This is How it Feels" ... so there was no documentation...

Fingal!

We seem to be rotating sleeping on friends couches and beer drenched floors (which of course, we are uber grateful of) and occasionally sleeping at the lovely homes of Ben's family members. So, between Bristol and Manchester we spent a day at the home of Tom & Claire (mum and dad) and spent the day with the 4 most amazing children in the world; Fingal, Hebe, Oscar, and Merlin (yes, like the wizard). We thought we were simply there to get a free meal, comfortable bed, and good 'ol taste of home, but what we did not know was that we were scheduled to perform for a dinner party of 30... with Ben on a toy piano, and I, zombie like and exhausted, strumming my guitar. Amongst these 30 folks were at least 15 energetic children under ten years old.... all smiling, all snapping, all dancing.

But it was Fingal, the 6 year old, who won the award for most awesome and youngest fan.

Meet Fingal.



-seth

MP3s! Horrah!

Finally! Some live recordings (mp3's, not videos) from one of our shows. You can now listen to magical live versions of "Strange Man," "Hold It In" and "Good Day" live from the Halfmoon in Putney.

Strange Man [mp3]

Hold It In [mp3]

Good Day [mp3]

Cynthia Quek!

We are in Bristol staying with the amazing Cynthia Quek! She is a wonderful singer-songwriter with the voice of an angel. Mothers of Ben and Seth should know, that Cynthia has taken very good care of us.

Here she is! Click the photo to go to her myspace page...



-seth

The Most Massive Meditation Yet

To begin at the beginning of what would logically follow the end of the last plot based blog post:


So, on Thursday we showed up at the Hope & Anchor for our last London gig, and our final show with the talented Mr. Vaughn. Well, they stop us at the door and tell us we shouldn't be the equiptment in, only one of us. Why, we ask kindly? Because the place has lost all power and the show might be cancelled. Also, they say, grab a drink - they are giving them away free until the freezers stop being freezy. Turns out the show was being moved down the street. The headliner Tom Hingley (the voice of The Inspiral Carpets!) was to go on first, us second.





In the meanwhile we ate dinner at a sushi place next door with the following odd and random guests at our table:

1. Seth.
2. Ryan
3. Ben
4. Three Austrian Au Peres
5. A distant relative of mine from Nantucket i hadn't seen in 8 years and her friend from Philadelphia
6. Seth's english friend Claudia
7. A girl Lindsay, who we had met the night before and kindly gave us a ride.
8 the prospect of Tom Hingley showing up
9. two of my friends from Bristol wandering the streets nearby.

The show was a wild success. Tom Hingley set was brilliant... everyone in the club was sort of astonished that the man himself from The Inspiral Carpets was there doing an acoustic set for us. Brilliant. The Austrian Au Peres even left with tshirts.



Then we headed off to Goring town...midway between Reading and Oxford. But we got to reading, intending to transfer trains to go to Goring when we find out that all trains out of Reading have been suspended due to flooding. So we go outside and i play on my melodica as Seth searched feverishly for a route to the land of Goring.

Here I am with a Melodica (not while being stranded, but still a beautiful photo)



And here's Seth lying on the damp cement as we figure out how the hell to get out of Reading...



We do manage to get a train eventualy and land ourselves at a beautiful bed and brekfast run by the kind and maternal Francis, who made us tea and drove us into town to play at the Goring Unplugged. We had been told that afternoon that the Goring festival the next day (the regatta! lord, the regatta!) was cancelled due to a high and dangerous river and because when they put the power generators in the field to power the music...they began to sink. Oh what a damp and soggy country. The earth is reminiscent of life cereal left in milk for too long...bloated and overgrown with excess liquid.

But, goring unplugged was a beautiful event. Hosted in the town hall, which would be home the next day to a shoe sale (inhabitants of goring, now go wild!). The audience was as quiet as you can imagine. Even the listeners breaths seemed to be contained, or atleast timed with the pusles of the music so that they were completely inaudible.

Coughs were taboo,
Sneezes were too.

We made a good number of friends, good friends. Small town friends. The type of friends that you could go out to dinner with and never shift in your chair for lack of conversation. In fact, the next day we went out to dinner with these wonderful new friends and fed ourselves with enough suculant food to kill a small horse. It was wonderful. We went to bed happy.

Since the Regatta was unfortunately cancelled, we decided to have a festival of our own. So, we met up with Dan & Jon Clifton (the two men responsible for introducing us to the Light Years and getting us across the sea) as well as the man behind Goring Unplugged, Chris Hawes, for an afternoon jam session by the river full of folk covers and singalongs.



The next day we high-tailed it to Bristol, it only took us 6 hours (should have taken 2). About half the stations in the country are flooded. So when we took a train to oxford, all subsequent trains in and out were canceled. We then sought out a bus, but only one bus runs to bristol a day and this bus runs at the bitter our of 9am. So we had to take a bus to london, and then from lonon meander on to bristol.

It is like trying to travel from Philadelphia to New York but having to go to Des Moines on the way because New Jersey is under water.

Good lord, have i typed this much? Tonight we play Mr Wolf's in Bristol with the ever-so-awesome Bizali. Hoorah!

-ben

Videos! Hoorah!

So I'm typing this from a bus from Oxford to London (why were we in Oxford? Why are we going back to London? We'll explain later) I have 5 more minutes of free wireless, so.... here's some videos from our London shows! We will have more words to follow later...

"Shiver" live @ the Troubadour, July 18th





"Hold it In" live @ The Acoustic Lounge, July 17th



-seth

we have been lax in our bloggin

but now is not the time to make up for it.

rushed are we, so here is what you have to look forward to:

multiple videos.
pictographs.
stories of:
flooding
thunder.
keyboard carting.
power outages.
busking with a melodica.
Ryan's last show
getting to Goring.
exploring goring.
having it be pouring in goring.

soon soon my children. the aventures abound.

-b

as seth gave instruction...

as i was about to post a blog, seth decided to hint that i could put up photographs.

he said the following

"if you teach a bird to fish,....that fish can fly."

-anon

Final days in London

So the moustache only lasted for about an hour. It was fun though. Only Ben and Ryan got to witness it. I guess the rest of you missed out.

The last couple days have been mucho fun, and tonight is our last night in London. Since it's been a couple days since we've posted any photos, ill take a step back a few and fill you all in. On Sunday evening after our show at the Rock Garden, good 'ol George Light Year made us an impressive Sunday roast... it was like Thanksgiving, UK style. Emily, George's sister, acted as mother to all of us hungry musicians (she sort of has to be the woman of the house... she DOES live with a band ....) served us all a massive meal as we sat around the table and discussed how the one great thing about America/NYC is the size of our sandwiches. The Brits just don't have sandwiches that compare to a hearty American deli sandwich...



The next day we played the Halfmoon (seems to be our most controversial gig yet... read the COMMENTS section of Ben's recent blog post if you are interested) which was an absolute blast, followed by a set at the intimate, candle lit Clapham venue The Acoustic Lounge.



The show was quite fun as once again we got to share the stage with The Light Years. Our set ended up getting a wee bit messy, as I cut my middle finger open and got some blood stains on my guitar... but hey, that's just rock n' roll isnt it? Ryan had one of his many admirers take a ton of photos (and some video) of this night, but unfortunately I'm not with him now... so we'll have to post them later!

Then last night (Wednesday) we had a show that I have been incredibly excited for, The Troubadour. The place has a ton of history... everyone from Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, to Paul Simon have walked through the Troubadour doors, down into the dusty basement room, and has played. The place was tiny, intimate, and they fed us a great pasta dish... a perfect night! We only had 25 minutes, so we busted right through our usual set... "Hold it In", "Strange Man", "My Sweet Darling", "Shiver", and of course... the Ben Thornewill/Jukebox the Ghost mega-hit, "Good Day".





Sadly, tonight is our last show with Ryan, but it is yet another we are all excited about. Most of these shows we've had to do 25 minute sets, but tonight we have a solid hour and 20 minutes opening for Tom Hingley, from the late 80's / early 90's Manchester band, The Inspiral Carpets (whom Noel Gallagher from a little band called Oasis was once a roadie for...)

So... off to find Ryan and Ben (I am in an internet cafe in Leicster Square... no clue where they are...) and head to our last london show. Tomorrow, its off to Goring!

-seth

Ain't this beautiful...

That's right...I pulled a Williamsburg.

I gots myself a lil moustache.

love,

seth

better and better

it appears that we have gelled. we are gellen.

We arrived last night at the Halfmoon Putney to a small crowd thinking, as we have for most of these gigs, maybe this will be our first lame gig. the halfmoon is a standard english pub with a back room with a sound system fit for a much larger venue. we sound checked, wandered aimlessly through near streets looking for food... (always, when hungry, are the searches for food longer and less fulfilling, until the food is found - and one is filled).

so then we played, after two guitarist singer songwriters, the first of which had a voice comparible buckley's. we did our three song set, short and appropriate. we decided to go balls to the wall, to actually rock out a bit in contrast to the established quiet attitude of the evening's other singers. the crowd near doubled during our set, applause growing after each song not due to an increase of enthusiasm but an increase of colliding hands. we then made many a friend, had drinks bought for us and entered into another night of post-show euphoria, shouting to ourselves and each other "this is why we do this! let's always do this!"

then, sleep.

i woke to light this morning. the clouds today are small and move quick and low across the sun, casting contrasting light and shadows through the windows reminiscent of passing car headlights creating quickly moving shadows through your living room window at night.

wrote this:

what is the total weight
inflicted on a canvas by the very great?
could the gentle weighted touch of a painters brush
equal the pulling force of paint?
so that the end result is weightlessness
and such is ordained
a masterpiece and held to the earth
only by its weighted frame.



until the end, of this day or tomorrow.

-ben

who is this mystery man?

riddle me this:

pant legs ripped, one side. other fought, well, strong - untainted. severed half way. purposeful, holes in the bottom - sidewalk gets glimpses shouldn't be gotten.

pissing now.

complains about the carpet, its stench. nap will you? wont. will? perhaps. depending on the blog, time of, letters to, jenna.

late? not for museums. always for gigs.

shaven? now. not for museums. always for gigs.

small razors.

please submit answers to "comments" below.

Clapham Grand / Windmill / Rock Garden

Hello hello...

We haven't been updating the blog much in the last couple of days, and both Ben and I do apologize! So, I'm going to give you a quick description of what's been happening over here (in my semi-logical way) and Ben will probably jump on here at some point and edit this post with more wit and humor (I don't think I'm as funny as he)

Friday afternoon we met up with our good pals The Light Years, who are responsible for helping set up this entire tour. We booked a last minute show opening for them at their hometown venue the Clapham Grand, a beautiful 1,000 person theater with a massive stage and great sound system. We showed up at the venue in the early evening, did a quick sound check, and were on stage by about 7:30 playing to a small (but fierce!) crowd.







Then we hung around and watched an amazing set by the Light Years, full of insanely catchy tunes and pyrotechnics (yes, there were flames and fireworks) The Light Years played a ton of great songs... including the old favorite "Emily" (where everyone went mad) as well as some new tunes they are working on with Hugh Padgham (has produced tracks by The Police, Genesis, etc)



We've been staying at George / Chris from the Light Year's house in Clapham, and they have been great hosts... they even invited us in on one of their most beloved traditions; a saturday afternoon lunch titled "Sausage Saturday" (where George purchased about 30 sausages and cooked them all for the people who woke up on their floor post-Clapham Grand gig)

Once Sausage Saturday was concluded, I briefly suffered from a food coma and slept for about 2 hours. Soon enough, I was rested and we got our gear together for London show numero 3; a festival called "Acid Country 7" at The Windmill in Brixton. We showed up at the venue and met a bunch of english blokes who were prepping to play their own mix of country/bluegrass/folk. And of course, we were the only actual americans there playing "americana" music. But, all of the bands were great! To really add to the the atmosphere, the venue gave everyone who came through the door a cowboy hat...






Sunday afternoon, we ventured to Covent Garden, where we busked outside in the rain, playing for passerbyers and tourists. Ben brought along Chris's (from the Light Years) fold out piano bought in career which confused all of the innocent bystanders.



After busking, we went into the Rock Garden for a really fun set... After our set was a great band called The End Game who we think you should go listen to right away. (Click the picture below to head to their site)



All in all, a great few days! Only 4 more London shows to go...

-seth

Ben vs. Piano

Many of you may wonder how we've been travelling around England with all of our gear. Well, I luckily only have a guitar (which I can throw on my back) but Ben unfortunately plays piano... which can be quite difficult to transport around. So, in each city we are borrowing keyboards from folks. This though has ended up being somewhat difficult, as Ben has been forced to carry a piano around on a dolly/public transportation/etc. Watch here as Ben tries to get a piano through the streets of London on our way to a show in Brixton...



-seth

cuba gooding junior

so we, the band, the group, the marvelous excellence that is benandsethandryan played at the clapham grand - it was clappin' grand.

i am in an internet cafe, with the time dwindling in the upper corner letting me know that i better make use of every megabyte available to me.

norbit is playing on a fuzzy TV in the upper corner of the room at full blast.

cuba gooding junior just made an appearance and dug himself further and further into the position of an embarrasement to the world.

i loev london

-us

The Bedford ... First gig in London

So I don't have much time to tell you about our first show in London, but hopefully you caught it live on TheBedford.com! If not, here's a quick series of photos from before and after the show...Enjoy...

We took a 6 hour journey from Plymouth and were quite sleepy when we arrived in London...



We found the venue...



Found Ryan Vaughn (our percussionist... who we had never played with before until an hour before the show...)



Showed Ryan how to play some of the tunes while relaxing backstage...



Played a set which included...

"Shiver"
"My Sweet Darling"
"My Heart's the Same/Lighting Myself on Fire"
"Losing Control"
"Strange Man"
"Hold it In"
"Good Day"



And shared a pint with the wonderful Bedford staff...



I promise a more detailed report after tonight's last minute show at the Clapham Grand (yeah that's right, Oasis played there) with our pals the Light Years.

Cheers!

-seth

the perm

on a note written note-postumously...aka, written after the post that is posted after this. . . .

the note is this:

i (ben) attempted to explain seth's new iPhone to the aged and great Lady Hilaria, this was unsuccessful. But, in response, she recalled when the "perm" was invented. She claimed it was a massive thing that made her mother wildly worried becuase it was so loud that when one was "getting a perm" one couldn't hear the air-raid sirens going off. this was war time people! Not a time for perms!

-b

To the gig!

As the lovely Lady Hilaria (age 99!) said to us this morning on the way to her former house/castle (which is now owned by England's National Trust) ... "To the gig!"

Over the past few days we've been staying at Ben's Great-Aunt Penelope's house prepping for the tour. Penelope and company (they have quite a large family... a bit tough to keep track of them all...) fed us, gave us shelter, bathed us (or at least offered their showers to us), drove us around, showed us the sites, etc. I don't think we can even began to thank them enough for their hospitality! For our last afternoon here we played a completely acoustic set at the amazing Mt. Edgcumbe, for an amazing small group of family, friends, and tourists. The building was completely mind blowing. The history of this beautiful estate can be found HERE.

Tomorrow morning we head to London where the real party begins. MAke sure to watch us live from The Bedford tomorrow night around 4pm EST, 9pm london time at The Bedford's website. Just head to the site and click LIVE WEBCAST... it should work ok! In the mean time, here's a couple pictures from our day at Mt. Edgcumbe.

So all in all, a succesful stay in Plymouth. We played at a castle, sang for an Earl, explained the word "gig" to a 99 year old lady, and had a jolly good time.

-Seth and Ben

what a difference a [sunny] day makes

waking up to a house naturally lit. It does lift the spirit, lighten the load of whatever the unrelenting clouds and perpetual drizzle had packed into that invisible weight bearing thing which always rides on our shoulders. we have two hours now in which to prepare ourselves mentally, physically for a short and fair ferry ride (fairy ride) over to Mt. Edgcumbe, the family estate, the castle-not-a-castle, the fortefied manor home. pray with us young and old bloggers alike that gale winds or amazon-downpours do not catch us on our short journey from coast to coast across the plymouth sound. we are expecting a fair number of family members and then twenty old, (likely very old) tourists on a bus (coach) that will arrive shortly before our impromptu concert in the living room.

more to come. of course. 3 weeks worth.

-b

Ben and I have found eachother, in Plymouth.

Yesterday morning I headed off to the train station in London without having spoken to Ben yet. Running on faith that I wouldn't be abandoned, I boarded the train and relaxed for three hours as it brought me out to the lovely town of Plymouth. Ben and his aunt Penelope greeted me at the station and for about an hour we drove around Plymouth, taking in the scenery that the coastal town had to offer (I think Penelope was excited to show us since it was seemingly the first day in about 3 weeks that it wasn't raining in England) After settling in at Ben's family's house, we had some tea with his 99 year old great-great-grandmother Lady Hilaria (more on her later, don't worry).

Soon enough we were by the piano rehearsing for our upcoming tour. Now, though Ben and I are familiar with eachother's songs, we do have ALOT to learn during the next few days. So far so good though. Here's a clip of us practicing the Jukebox the Ghost tune "Hold it In"...

After a couple hours of rehearsing, we headed out into town with Ben's cousin Henrietta and her boyfriend Dan, prepared to celebrate our arrival in the country. We drank, and we played pool. And yes, the Americans beat the Brits twice at their own game.





As they say here... Cheers.

-Seth

Official Statement

Official Statement on behalf of ben. written by ben.

He has arrived (i have). safely, soundly. not the slightest sighingly.

i gathered that there was still life in my touring accomplice via a recent blog, found below. magical machines! interwebbing!

soon seth joins me. in plymouth. the great Lady Hilaria (aged 99, steps one at a time, organized our first show at Mount Edgecumb) will be arriving shortly. she will probably tell me about the queen.

one proper fry up (eggs, english bacon, beans) and a spastic series of rain and sun interchanges and i am ready for the day to begin. many songs to learn. then to sing.

i have no camera, so i will have to paint a picture in my mind for you. there done. did you like it?

i like you.

from the office of Ben Thornewill,
me.

-ben

I made it to England... Alive!

Yes it's true... I'm here, writing to you from a little land called Londontown. Word on the street was that it's been raining like crazy here in London (when is it not though?) but when I arrived, it was sunny and beautiful.

So...for a while I was a bit concerned that I wouldn't actually ever make it into the country, and after all of this excitement and preparation, the tour wouldn't happen. Why? Well, because apparently the English don't like Americans oming here to tour... so, customs gave me hell (firing off lots of questions) but eventually I made it through, guitar in hand, ready to play. Has Ben made it yet though? I have no clue... still haven't heard from him! But alas, I plan to see him tomorrow in Plymouth.

Today was quite fun. I went off to do a bit of wandering around, and met up with my old friend Claudia Kennaugh, a great vocalist from London. (Check out her new band at at Myspace.com/Solenca!) Say hello to Claudia...

Claudia showed me around a pretty excellent market/event where there were a ton of artists displaying and selling art, crazy decorated cars, scantily clad burlesque dancers, and some interesting music. I took some photos to share the fun...










We hung around this little festival for quite a while, but then I got a bit freaked out by some homemade voodoo-lookin' dolls that were for sale, and decided to leave...


Check in tomorrow! Hopefully I'll have found Mr. Thornewill by then in Plymouth.

-Seth

Carolyn made us a poster.

Once again, the lovely Carolyn Wachnicki has put together a super delicious poster for us. Mmmm. Poster.

Hello! Welcome to our blog

Hello hello...

Thanks for stopping by our humble little blog. This Saturday, Ben Thornewill and I (Seth Kallen) will be heading to England for a 3 week long tour... playing music all over the country, hitting London, Goring, Bristol, Manchester, Stockport, and Liverpool. During our travels, we'll be checking in frequently with photos, videos, and all that good stuff.

So, be sure to come back every day for updates!

Cheers,

Seth