Hit The Road, Wasp!

To quote great Australian songwriter Don Walker, “I measure my position to the obstacles we crossed, the territory covered and the parties that we lost. Those were the days.”

Here is a small selection of photos from 10 different countries and 5 different tours, both solo and with Sean M. Whelan & The Mime Set, Water Music, Remarkable Shipwrecks and Lady Danger.

I think the photos show that, more than the shows themselves, touring is about the people you’re with, the fun you make and the amount of crap you have to carry.

Tour packing down to a fine art

The kind of packing that goes into touring a full band in Australia

Found in our hotel room in Canberra

House Concerts are mainly about the lovely people

Firenze House Concert photo by Frederico Porceddu

Live at Frau Frisor FOSCA by Kate Seabrook

Frau Frisor FOSCA, Firenze photo by Kate Seabrook

Blaison House Concert photo by Jordane Chaillou

Sam and Olga by Jordane Chaillou

Lady Danger and Wasp Summer at Prinz Willy, Kiel by Gabi.

Brussels House Concert. Photo by Sam Rasschaert.

Water Music and Wasp Summer at Cafe Retro, Copenhagen

Our stage under a Stockholm railway station by Eric Lindstrom

Oslo Tour Elk photo by Matty Barker

Every merchandise table needs a protective dinosaur

Juniper style! Bratislava band photo by Kate Seabrook

On a cold December day in Dresden

This lady, on her hen’s night, correctly deduced that we were touring rockstars

Album Recording in Castiglione Olona

On August 11 2011, mt producer Henry Hugo and I drove over the Gotthard Pass from Switzerland into Italy. High Summer and perfect weather meant awesome visibility and pinch-yourself scenes of happy brown cows with bells, Audi drivers doing unsafe things on hairpin bends and incredible mountains.

Did I mention the BIG FUCK-OFF mountains? I’ve never been above 2000m on land before. We drove past the beautiful azure Vierwaldstätersee in Switzerland, passed the lazy border cops as we entered Lombardy and on around the spectacular Lago Maggiore. Our destination was the house of Paolo and Maria in Castiglione Olona. They hold house concerts, have 15 cats and kindly let us take over their house for a long weekend to record.

Us being:

The Producer, Henry Hugo. The Guitarist/Bassist/Chef, Fabio Gallarati and The Drummer Stefano Caldo from great Milanese band Guignol. We bonded very quickly over music, food, politics, movie quotes and Henry’s gun impression of Jean-Claude van Damme. “Yes. It’s me.”