I have been attempting to learn Albanian. It's one of the hardest languages, apparently, there are so many tiny variations of pronunciation which change the meaning of the word. I can say useful things like "thankyou", "are you having fun?" and "we love Albania!" Hanging out with DJ Piko and Benny from Club FM, the radio station we are working with on this tour, often results in me learning new things to say like "are you ready to go crazy?!" and "that's life, buddy", which is allegedly slang and no-one i've said it too has understood it. Also there is a strange saying which translates roughly as "what are you, what are you?" - for instance, as Jake is utterly off his rocker most of the time, I'd probably say it to him.
I can see him now, he's asleep in bed with half the sheets wrapped over his head. Much amusement was had when we realised Jake has the same fringe as Clare, who makes everything happen, together with Daniella and Aida.
So we played in Sarande by the sea, there was a promenade which had a few locals and tourists strolling along it. Sarande is very much the Albanian seaside resort, and holidayers from Corfu (just across the water) and all over Albania come here to relax. By the time we came back from the hotel to the stage, realising we'd missed our tourmates the Martin Harley Band by mistake, there were hundreds of people all over the place. Families with young children all come out at night to socialise, and it appears that snake owners come out, too, as a gentleman with a massive green snake wrapped around his neck was parading around.
It's strange how some tunes go down really well and some don't. Orange is the new black, for example, prompts a similar reaction as me presenting a thirty year old sock to my girlfriend on valentines day after we mutually agreed we wouldn't do presents and then for some reason I panicked and thought that giving her the archaic gift of threadbare wool, saying it had been worn by Jack 'Pomegranate" Geoffreys, the infamous fireman of the 1970's who saved his ladyfriend from a burning building, was actually a hugely romantic gesture. Fail.
Still, we've played Orange every night. I like the jumpy bit at the end. Tunes that DO go down well include Mirror on the wall, with it's manic dance medley at the end, Life is a grimm tale (if I teach the lyrics as it only makes sense if you can speak english), the Asylum dance and Recurring dream. I put forward the idea to the British Embassy that we should release Recurring Dream as a single here.
More blog later!
