Home / Friday / 0930

sorry for the very late final update, but i didn’t have internet access at home until yesterday. now, after a day of pointing a satellite dish at various parts of the sky, i finally do! the last forest show was great – a natural amphitheatre at Cannock Chase – a great atmosphere, another sunny day and gorgeous sunset. then we headed off to Glastonbury to take part on the 40th birthday party – it was really nice to see so many familiar faces there, and it looked (and sounded) like everyone had fun. the singing along to our cover of U2’s With or Without You was ridiculously loud. With a bit of luck we’ll be able to see them play there next year. So here are a few final photos – thanks so much to everyone who came along to a show, or has taken the time to look at the blog!

i know this photo looks a bit wonky, but it is lined-up straight (look at the trees!) – the whole backstage at Cannock was on a slope, but it didn’t stop Tim busting out the acoustic…

it is so good to see people in the crowd wearing "I AM TROY DAVIS" t-shirts – thanks for the support!

Glastonbury: you can’t really see, but the tent was totally rammed, and the area outside it too. Thanks to the very nice people who ran the Avalon for letting us come and play your wonderful tent! This next picture is clickable if you’d like to see it bigger…

Cannock Chase / Saturday / 1555

a few more tourist board-style photos from our day off, and then a couple from the gig last night in Dalby Forest…

Cannock Chase / Saturday / 1230

we left Dublin straight away, and then spent a very old-school tourist-y day in the beautiful town of Helmsley, so part of the blog is going to look like an advert for the Yorkshire tourist board. fair enough, though – it was incredibly beautiful. if i told you that a parade of tractors came through you might not believe it, but i have the photos to prove it. random, but cool.

I’m now melting in the dressing room (tent) backstage, celebrating being able to get online and do this blog, and catch up on Troy Davis – for those interested, the hearing lasted two days, involved a lot of new testimony being heard by a judge for the first time, and the judge will make a decision in a few weeks. read this for more info: http://blog.amnestyusa.org/deathpenalty/troy-davis-hearing-day-two/

and, while i’m on the subject of Troy, you must look at this – a blog of a simple action by three keane fans – i was stunned by this -http://iamtroydavis.tumblr.com/ – thanks so much Ninon, Cynthia and Virginie.

Soundcheck, Olympia Theatre, Dublin

it’s a beautiful place

but it looks even better with people in it… i’ll send the big version of this to Mr KM.com but he’s at glastonbury so i’m not sure when it’ll be clickable.
UPDATE: It is done. (It’s very sunny here. Can’t wait for Keane tomorrow.) km.com

Day-off in Helmsley

This is what a quintessential traditional, old English town looks like – no wonder it is so full of tea shops and tourists (like us!)

the tractor drivers were driving from coast to coast to raise money for a cancer charity.

this lovely old Rover was parked up, too. does this count as a self-portrait?

Olympia Theatre, Dublin / Wednesday / 1545

Firstly, thanks to everyone who came to the Troy Davis vigil at the US Embassy in Dublin, and those who went to any event worldwide, and who are following his case. Here’s a photo of all the supporters in Dublin.

(thanks to Colin, TMTTS for coming along and taking the photo)

Here are a load of photos from Glasgow – including going to see Sir Paul McCartney at Hampden Park – we had a blast, he and his band were unbelievable.

this one is clickable now:

on the tourbus, leaving Glasgow / Tuesday / nighttime

Hi everyone. we are on our way to Dublin after an amazing show in Glasgow. Today (Tuesday) and Wednesday are very important days to me. Today is a day of action for Troy Davis, ahead of a vital, unprecedented hearing on his case in Savannah, Georgia, on Wednesday. Most of you are probably aware of his case, but just in case: In 1991 Troy was sentenced to death for the murder of a heroic off-duty policeman, Mark Allen MacPhail, in Savannah, Georgia. I have joined the worldwide campaign for his release since I first heard about the case. I visited him on death row, in Jackson, Georgia, last year. Troy has always maintained his innocence (if you have heard contrary reports of an admission they have been proven to be false). There was no physical evidence linking Troy to the murder – he was convicted on witness testimony alone, and seven out of the nine non-police witnesses have changed their evidence since the trial took place. There is a very detailed report from Amnesty International that I would encourage you to read, here:

http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGAMR510232007
also see the front page of http://www.amnestyusa.org and http://www.iamtroy.com

As a part of the day of action I will be at the American Embassy in Dublin at 6PM (Tuesday), with a delegation from Amnesty International, who have been campaigning on Troy’s case for a number of years. If you can make it, and wish to lend your support to the campaign then it would be great to see you there.

There are also events at the American Embassy in London, Tuesday at 6PM, and a list of events in the USA can be found here: http://is.gd/cXZ5O

I will be continuing updates on twitter (@richardkeane) and so will my friends Kim Manning-Cooper from Amnesty UK: @KimM_C and Laura Moye, Amnesty USA: @lauramoye who has written this blog about visiting Troy for a second time this past weekend: http://blog.amnestyusa.org/deathpenalty/a-visit-with-troy-davis/ I was with her on her first visit.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope the links above will help you to decide if you would like to support Troy too. If so, you can make a difference by taking action, taking part, and just by being aware of this case. Martina Correia, Troy’s sister, maintains that it is activism that has kept Troy alive up until this point. I know many of you have already signed petitions, written letters to Troy (and had some replies!) and told your friends, classmates, colleagues and families about his case, and I am very grateful for that support, and I know that Troy is too.

Richard.

standing L-R: me / Troy / Alistair Carmichael MP / Kim Manning-Cooper / Laura Moye; seated: Troy’s mother and sister.

Glasgow / Sunday / 1154

I may be a country guy at heart, but it’s quite handy being back in a world with internet access and mobile phone coverage – haven’t been able to call anyone for two days, and the blog, i admit, has suffered! thanks Mr KM.com for uploading the last batch (to the person who asked, he is Mr KM.com because, um, he’s a him!). So, here we go with some photos from the last few days.

Last night, Sherwood Forest – probably the most beautiful setting so far, in fact i can think of few nicer places to go and play music: (Click this first one to see a bigger version)

Soundcheck, JQ providing the entertainment, Scott provided the tea (it was bloody cold at this point – only got sunny later – well done the hardcore fans who were there all day).

Westonbirt Arboretum

Long-time friend of the band (he saw us at the Astoria a long time ago) Mr Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall came to see us (see http://www.rivercottage.net). It turns out he’s been to Raasay and knows Paul, the guy who runs my favourite blog on the planet: http://lifeattheendoftheroad.wordpress.com/ Small world!

another ‘can you see yourself?’ shot…

Saturday / 0726

More pics, as promised…

Birmingham Academy:

Westonbirt soundcheck:

Westonbirt Arboretum / Friday / 1911

trying but failing to upload some pics from the last few days… i give up – think i’ve got three up – will do more when i’m somewhere with half-decent internet!

a big hello (and thanks for the sweets) to the two Korean fans who were on the same train as me today! 

Birmingham:

Birmingham Academy / Wednesday / 1740

lensbaby soundcheck photos, mainly by the talented Jesse Quin

Tourbus on the M40 / Wednesday / Lunchtime

ok, not a forest exactly, but we played at the Roundhouse in London last night, as you’ll know from the excellent Live Blog (nice work, Mr KM.com!). It’s so good to read that so many people from all around the world were reading about our night in London – it was a lot of fun – great singing along, as ever, and also the hottest gig in a long time (though i suspect the USA in July and August is gonna beat it hands down). I took some photos, as you may have guessed. here we go (fingers crossed for the internet connection…)

I don’t live that far from the Roundhouse, so i walked to work, and on the way met our neighbours’ cat, Nestor

Amazing mural opposite Chalk Farm Underground Station

my touring luxury… a proper coffee machine, case built by the carpenters on the PS tour. i burned my finger on it yesterday – first time in 3 years. #fail

lots of flags – South America was out in force, but also Korea, Australia, USA, much of Europe… what an amazing group of fans… 

London / Saturday / 1330

i hope you liked the timelapse that i made of the Thetford show. here are a few more photos from the last couple of days. the gig last night was great. i can’t remember having so much fun onstage – great atmosphere, insanely loud crowd (singing along was epic), and lots of friends and family around. bring on the roundhouse – another venue in London we haven’t played before (must be approaching 70 london venues by now?!). playing for 1 hour and 40 mins, and still leaving out songs we want to play. remember when we’d struggle to play enough songs to last 40 minutes? anyway…

Thetford sculpture

ok, here’s one of me…

Bedgebury – we had the pleasure of the company of the very talented Alex Lake (http://www.twoshortdays.com/)

on the news

shit photo / great band: The Helio Sequence

this next picture is clickable – can you see yourself?

people heading home (or at least to the queues in the car park). thanks for coming!

Bedgebury / Friday / 1800

sorry for the lack of updates – there was no internet connection yesterday, and today’s is too slow for photos, so i’ll upload some tomorrow.

the first forest show was incredible – really great fun, and an amazing crowd, and the sun is out here, so it could be even better… so good to have our friends The Helio Sequence back with us, and Everything Everything sounded great last night.

more tomorrow…

London / Wednesday / 2022

sorry for the blog disappearing – i was halfway through updating it when my takeaway dinner arrived, and then i watched an episode of you have been watching… the combination of Frankie Boyle and Charlie Brooker is one of British TV’s current highlights!

anyway – i’m really looking forward to our first forest show tomorrow (bit worried about rain), but there’s no internet access there, apparently… we’ll see, but this might be the last update til friday.

today’s rehearsals:

Jesse was watching The Road – a film I watched on a recent flight – thought it was unremittingly depressing, and somehow hugely enjoyable.

there doesn’t seem to be an end to Tim’s talents…

London / Tuesday / 2315

good day rehearsing, trying a couple of songs we didn’t play on the perfect symmetry tour, and thinking of a couple more to try tomorrow. thanks for all the suggestions on twitter… we’ll see how we get on!

Tim, Tom and Jesse played a show for War Child at the weekend. I couldn’t make it, sadly, but sounds like it was fun, and helped War Child raise some more money for their amazing work –

http://www.warchild.org.uk/

The long-suffering white drumkit has not been retired, but my friends at Yamaha made me this lovely ginger sparkle kit a while back, and i’ve been wanting to use it ever since… sounds bloody lovely, too. ok ok… enough drum talk.

The Night Sky:

CD TMTTS:

London / Tuesday / 1330

we are rehearsing for a couple of days ahead of the tour, but i’ll start with some photos from yesterday – we played a show for Absolute Radio at the very beautiful Lyric Theatre. i took a few pics at soundcheck, below.

I’ll try to keep this updated as much as i can, but i guess it will depend upon having internet access… like i said – i’ll try…