US tour 2001

15th May: Philadelphia, PA.

Disaster before we've even played a note. An early morning phone call informs us that Matty has been denied entry to the USA. We're confused - what are we going to do? Is our dear friend OK? We're worried - we always rely on Matty as providing the magic glue that holds our drunken sloppiness together on stage. We're sad, we stumble on, a man down...

17th May: Philadelphia PA, The Killtime.

The first show of the tour and I'm starting to feel the pressure of knocking them dead in my adopted new town (haha). I'm so excited. I'm so drunk. It's late and it's a 5-band bill. I'm tired but they won't let us play, insisting we play last - boo! Frank's also drunk. He decides to jump on my back. Next thing I know I'm on stage, next thing I'm on the (concrete) floor. Ouch. Frank laughs, I do not. The Philadelphia Presbyterian Medical Centre inform me my collarbone is broken in 3 bits and I can't play guitar for three months. Ouch. What are we gonna do? Who is going to play guitar for the Racer?

18th May

Awake, everyone assumes the tour is over due to the lack of guitarist, but wait, we've got a plan: enter our knight in shining armour, Ara Hacopian. 'Hey Ara, wanna go on tour?' - 'Sure'. The day is saved, though everyone is still nervous. Annah (Rabbit in Red, who we are touring with), decides to do a tarot reading: 'We will overcome all obstacles' - boy if we only knew! With arm in sling I attempt to teach Ara a set list in 4 days....

22nd May: New York, The Knitting Factory.

The 5-piece Anderson, Hacopian, Jordan, Slusher, Turrell Racer are all set to set this town on fire. I feel slightly uncomfortable not having a guitar as I don't know what to do with my hands. I opt for filling my hands with bottles of beer to hide my newfound nakedness. It sounds fine. Ara surprises us all by not only playing everything just dandily, but by managing to play guitar like a monkey on a piece of elastic. Some fine feedback from Ms Slusher, the expected chaos of Frank, and solid bass by Jen. (Jen is the new glue I decide.) Christ, this may just work - let's go get a drink.

24th May: Washington DC, Metro Cafe.

Arrive on time only to find there's a play still going on at the venue. We're told to come back 4 hours later and leave to eat bad pizza. The gig is OK, not great by any means and too loud for the room, I think. But we catch up with some old friends. My arm is really sore but I don't wanna tell anyone. Later at Ara's mums house we eat some good hummus and tasty prawns. Rock and goddamn roll.

25th May: Norfolk Virginia, Coogans Instant Art Space.

Weird. Arrive to find local emo-punk rock kids having an early show. Confused we go to eat. We arrive back really late and set up assuming no-one will turn up. I'm all set to drive to Athens. I'm cranky and sore. How wrong I was. Norfolk is fun. Rabbits play well, Racer plays well. Frank press-gangs half the audience into buying copies of his merrytime cassettes. He leaves happy and drunk with loose change and girls phone numbers in his pockets. The ladies adore his crazy English accent(!)

26th May: Athens, Ultramod Lounge.

Athens is cool. Home of my heroes. Gordon Kindercore is one of the sweetest guys you'll meet. The show is ok too - Rabbits play 52 girls (B52s) and the kids dig it. Ara clicks and disappears into the night - rock and roll Ara. We upset the audience by referring to (Sir) Michael Stipe as 'our good friend Stipey'. We invite everyone to join us and Stipey for breakfast the next day.

27th May: Jacksonville, Florida, Imperial Lounge.

Yah! Florida! We get to play with The Plastic Mastery. These kids are great! Spastic and fun. It's getting hot. The show is pretty swinging and we're happy we get free beer. We hang out with Dan from Clarecords. His house is very comfortable and his cats are cute.

28th May: Gainesville, Florida, The Common Grounds.

Great show. Fast and frantic. The Plastic Mastery sound even better than last night. We are introduced to the game of squareball by the baby killers (who are the support band). Josh from The Baby Killers/Brittle Stars has a very impressive moustache. I'm almost jealous.

29th May: Tallahassee, Florida, Cowhaus.

Florida is fun. After playing a pretty good set we make The Plastic Mastery headline. The last song is a hoot - cue stage invasion, pogoing, feedback and kicked-over drumkit. Fun fun fun.

30th May: New Orleans Louisianna, The Mermaid Lounge.

In my extensive and lengthy career as a professional musician I'd be hard pushed to imagine a gig going more wrong. This town stinks. Truly it smells. There are flying cockroaches.

Local band open up and play an incredibly long and loud set. I do something I try always not to do, and go outside to drink beer instead of watching them. The Plastic Mastery play and try to lift our spirits. Nick (trumpet/gtr) launches himself into the drumkit, managing to cut Tic the drummers head open in doing so. Oh dear. Rabbits play and battle on during dreadful sound. The sound man has fangs like a vampire, and I'm starting to not want to play. We start... a guitar amp breaks. The drumkit breaks. Then Frank manages to break 2 fingers. It sounds shit, there's no-one here.

We slump off back to Rachelle's house (who is a wonderful host, I should add). We are wondering if we can carry on the tour and which racer is next for some broken bones. It's quite hilarious. We drink all night with the Plastic boys to try and salvage some fun. Our misery is complete upon waking to find the van has been broken into and we've had Annah's bass amp stolen. We then realise our good fortune and the stupidity of the thieves who not only took the biggest and least valuable item in our van, but managed to miss 5 guitars plus our box of merchandise money. Still, New orleans is bad news and I'm sure I won't be playing the Mermaid Lounge again in a hurry.

31st May: Houston, Texas, The No-Su-Oh.

Glad to be the heck out of Louisianna, but more than concerned about Frank's broken fingers, which now look like hotdogs. The venue is cool, even though all the people working there seem mashed off their bonces on some kind of hallucinogens - not least the owner, who scares me a little. The show is fun but we don't play very well. There's lots of kids there thanks to local band Port Vale (I have no idea why they call themselves after a crap English football side either). Port Vale are very cool. They paid us too much I'm sure - but it secures our petrol for the next few days - thanks boys.

1st June: Austin Texas, Red Eyed Fly.

This venue is great. It's outside. Nice big stage, lovely red velvet walls inside. I'm drinking lone star beer. Just trying to blend in with the locals. Rabbit in Red start to play, but theres no-one here. shame as it sounds great. Mike is a madman tonight doing spazzy drumfills all over the shop. Port Vale are tight. Sounds good. Racer play pretty good. I'm happy, Ara kicks Frank's snare off stage. Punkrock. We go back to stay with Lance from J Church. He is very cool and takes us to eat mexican the next day. The waiter laughed at Frank for asking for a chocolate milk.

4th June: Tempe, Arizona, Modified.

After a long 12-hour drive we arrive a Jen's mum's house. We descend en masse upon Jen's sister, Shana, who is a doctor. Crikey we're a mess. Frank's fingers are broken, confirmed. Still, you can't stop the pop. The Modified is cool. The support band is our first all girl punk band, the Billy Nomates. They sound pretty good. Rabbits are tight. Racer are sloppy. Frank manages to rehurt his hand after audience member asks us to play more songs. Is frank a trooper or just stupid? I cant decide (so says Mr Crippled Shoulder!)... Having no-one to stay with and not enough for a motel we drive through the night to San Diego. I'm punch drunk and delirious through lack of sleep.

5th June: Tijuana, Mexico, El Lugar del Nopal.

Mexico! Exciting! With our recent track record of bad luck we had some doubts about this gig. It's true that everyone laughed and told us not to go. We were pretty scared at the border, or at least I was. The van was stopped for quite some time by border people. Eventually we were let in and dodged maniac drivers in a scramble to get to the gig. Upon arriving at the venue we were told the owners were less than happy as we were late. Not speaking any Spanish, I started to feel quite paranoid.

The Love Letter Band play. Very good stuff. Chris, opting to ignore his mic and guitar amp, instead stands on a table in the middle of the room to sing to us. Very cool. Rabbit next, sounds fine, but oh no the venue ask them to turn down. What are Boyracer gonna do? Eeek... We play a fast and pretty together set. Frank somehow manages to rotate his drumkit by 180 degrees as he's playing. Ara is up to his monkey tricks again. It's fun, but the kids are confused by us. We are invited to stay and go drinking with our new Mexican friends but are scared to leave a van full of stuff in Tijuana. We drive back to San Diego. I'm so tired.

6th June: Los Angeles, Knitting Factory.

Swish. Nice stage. Dressing room. Lots of free beer, lots of old friends...WANKER soundman. Our friends from Melbourne, Origami play. They are great. I love this band. The sound is rough and half-assed. They have a very uncomplicated line-up so why does it sound so bad? The answer is revealed upon witnessing the soundman leaning back on his chair, foot on the mixing desk scratching his balls. Despite this, Origami play well. Rabbit too do just fine. Mike breaks his snare drum head. We like that. Next up is Stunn Gun. Bland, boring, dated Hollywood rock. Why do they bother? The drummer looks like a Tommy Lee cliché and later tries to claim we broke his drumkit. We laugh at how pretentious and moody they come across.

Then Boyracer. A tough night. Pretty much the worst night of the tour with the exception of New Orleans. It sounds so shit. And why? Well, the soundguy left after 2 songs and appeared to have purposefully fucked up our sound (no bass and tons of echo on the vocal - what gives?). We ask a random audience member to fiddle with the mixing desk. It couldn't sound much worse.

We leave annoyed that we had to pay the idiot soundman, who was clearly unable to do his job and also basically not a very nice person. (His name is Scott and he has a stupid moustache and a beard. If any bands reading this are unfortunate enough to play there and have this amateur human being stuck behind their mixing desk, all I can say is good luck.)

7th June: Las Vegas, Cafe Expresso Roma

After a relaxing time at Jen's Aunt's we set off on a truly hot and sticky drive. Phew! We arrive sunburnt and headachey. It's Rabbits' last night. Boohoo. Boyracer play first. It sounds great (no idiot soundman). Origami next, very cool. Then a tearful end of tour performance by Rabbit in Red. I'm disappointed Jayme doesn't strip as promised during the last song.

We pack up and hit the casino. Vegas is plasticky and surreal. Especially at 3am. We go to a place called Paris, and what do you know, everyone's a winner. Frank spends the evening on the nickel machines taking advantage of the free drinks. He wins $11.35. Jen wins $40, myself $20. That's our motel tomorrow! Cool! Arrive back at Rhonda's (Origami) sister's swish house at 5.30am. We get up at 9am to pick Kelly up who rejoins the Racer tour.

It's hot, we're tired, but drive 4 hours and find a motel. Sleep, sweet sleep.

9th June: Salt Lake City UT, Kilby Court.

Show was OK. The Loveletter Band are great, as anticipated. Not a great turn out for a Saturday and it's 'pass the hat' so the result is we get paid pretty poorly. We are starting to feel glum. Just as we are about to resign ourselves to sleeping on the venue's concrete floor we are rescued by Matt. His parents are out of town. Woohoo! His house turns out to be pretty swish and very comfy. We stay up drinking till the wee hours in the fully stocked bar he has in his basement... cool. At 5am we can't resist the shell-shaped jacuzzi. Later, after sleeping some, Matt cooks us crepes with homemade jam. Yummy tummy.

10th June: Grand Junction CO, Main Street Bagel Shop.

Coming from England I find the concept of playing in a bagel shop quite odd. And as it is a Sunday they have managed to run out of bagels, which is something I found even odder - a bagel shop without bagels. Never mind... the opening band DLO Crew are cool - some genuine Colorado hiphop. The Racer set is fast and frantic, but just as we're getting there we have to stop short. Would you believe it - Frank has hit another (different) finger!?. Now it's starting to be beyond a joke - a drummer with 3 broken fingers is pushing it a little, I'm sure you'll agree... We go to a local bar with Chris and Anna Loveletter and try to drink to forget, which is a little difficult as Frank stumbles around the bar with a sock full of ice wrapped around his hand. Argh...

11th June: Denver CO, 15th Street Tavern.

The swelling has gone down. Frank lies and says he's OK... hmmmm... crazy kid. We spend the morning looking for a distortion pedal as Kelly somehow managed to forget to bring the most important part of her boyracer set-up. It's pretty difficult playing feedback guitar without a fuzzbox. Ara finds a pedal called the 'Punkifier' and it's super nasty. Yeah! So here we are, Monday night, downtown Denver; the venue is OK, free beer, sounds passable. Everyone plays well and the breezy porticos are lovely. I am given a button badge inbetween songs that reads 'eat Debbie's shit pancake'. Later I tell someone I am Paul Weller's cousin. Not a bad night for a monday.

12th June: Boulder Co, K's China Palace.

First a bagel shop, now a Chinese restaurant. Odd. Boulder is a weird place and we all feel uncomfortable being here. It is full of goddamn hippies. Everywhere you look there are beads and beards. We are not expecting anyone will come to see us and the venue owners don't seem to like us. They won't let our new friend Kate inside the venue to see us as she's 2 months off being 21. She manages to watch from the doorway outside the venue. Third Straight Loss are the local support. They are very together and super nice. Boyracer play a very fizzy trebly set mainly thanks to the newly purchased Punkifier - ouch, my ears hurt. But the faithful few seem to like it. Myself and Frank split without paying for 4 Coronas. Punk fucking rock.

13th June: Omaha NB, The Gunboat.

We arrive mid-day after driving through the night and boy I feel scuzzy. Maybe the Gunboat isn't the most relaxing environment for us weary travellers. The Gunboat is a house and it smells of rotting vegetables. Hmmm... I'm tired and it's oh so hot. I attempt to sleep. No good. I'm feeling cranky. Myself and Jen escape and eat some yummy Japanese food. Starting to feel better. Drink some beer, now I'm fine. There is a tornado warning, sirens in the street. Wow! That's exciting.

We play in the basement and the gig is chaos. We sit amongst broken glass and witness the Loveletter Band's last performance with us - beautiful as ever. I love Chris' voice (and you should all buy their cd, and not JUST coz I put it out!). Kelly plays and the kids get rowdy, the kids get semi-naked. One young hopeful throws his sweat drenched t-shirt at Kelly. Ms Slusher isn't too impressed (but I thought it was funny). Boyracer play. Chaos. The paper-thin naked teenage boys of Omaha try to take my pants off. There's crowd surfing, lots of falling over and lots of feedback guitars. I'm genuinely concerned I'm going to re-break my collarbone. We survive the heckling, missiles and naked bodies, and its a lot of fun in truth.

After the gig the boys get in the shower together, and drag Frank in (fully clothed). Someone runs outside in their underwear to piss on a neighbour's car. Everyone is drunk. Jeez, I feel old tonight. I escape to a different neighour's house with Jen and Kelly, leaving the kids to piss the night away without us.

15th June: St. Louis, Fredericks.

I manage to confuse some 'proper' mod kids and scooter boys who for some reason assume we're a Who tribute band (maybe they're thinking of my other band The How?). Anyway, I find this hilarious. We play a pretty good set, but have to endure a lengthy country rock set from the local headliners. They're OK I guess, but play forever. We meet Beatle Bob - a local legend of sorts who dances crazily and enthuses wildly about the Racer. We like him. The mod kids leave during our set, haha. We meet Jesse and Dan who inform us they are coming to the next 7 shows that were playing. I haven't the heart to tell them if they do they'll hear the same 15 songs each night.

16th June: Louisville, KY.

I love Louisville. I could live here....yeah. Show was good. We played at a weirdy artspace with some quite disturbed 'art' hanging on the wall, including a bloody rag which made me feel queezy. It is hot and sweaty (again). Our new friends Jesse and Dan seemed to enjoy it, despite me forgetting to put them on the guest list. The show finishes very early, which is a blessing. We hang out with my dear friends Eric and Stacey and get drunk in their back yard. Later Chuck brings over some potent 'overproof' Kentucky bourbon that truly burns my mouth (he works in a distillery as a tester/taster). That finishes us off good and proper. Yeah... Louisville is cool.

17th June: Columbus OH, Bernies.

Columbus Ohio however is not so cool. I can't believe Boyracer released a live LP that was recorded in this town last time I was here. Upon arriving at the venue I am laughed at by the bar staff who insist there are no bands booked to play. Don't I know Sunday is hip-hop night? Eeek... Mr Metronome who supposedly set the show up is nowhere to be seen. I speak to the manager. No-one confirmed that Boyracer are playing. I am told - he doesn't care I've come all the way from England because Sunday night is hip-hop night. Hmmm... We are reluctantly told we can play if we're finished by 10.30pm. All we need is a soundman.

Of course the sound man never shows up so we can't play. What a rotter! We ask each of the 6 people who did turn up to see us if we can play a punkrock show in their house/apartments in a last ditch attempt to save the night somehow . No-one has room for us. Defeated and disgusted we leave for a quick drink before driving to Cleveland.

Columbus sucks.

18th June: Cleveland, Speak in tongues.

A bit better, at least we get to play - flaky Mr Metronome is unable to make the show so we are left with the task of supporting ourselves. No worries, Boyracer are professionals y'know. Ara kicks off the night surprising us all with a punk rock one-song set under his newfound moniker of 'Bend over Boyfriend'. Top stuff. Next up is the Red Light District, who are Jen and Frank. More punky mayhem. Racer proceed through appalling sound that sadly has become our trademark of late. We get paid pretty well as there are no other bands to consider - haha. Maybe we should support ourselves every night? ...hmmm... we hang out with Rick. Not bad for a monday.

19th June: Ann Arbor MI, The Gun Shop.

A house show. I'm starting to have mixed feelings about house shows. The hanging out and getting drunk is cool, the not getting paid is not cool at all. No-one seems to be organising anything so I take it upon myself to ask some people who have showed up for petrol money. It's pretty pathetic. This is our worst paid show so far and won't even cover our drive to Chicago tomorrow. Still, if I was in it for the money I wouldn't be here, huh? Certainly I would not be in a dank stinky basement in the middle of Michigan on a Tuesday night, that's for sure.

It's not all bad though. There's a great storm outside with some impressive big lightning. And there's some kids who've travelled to see us from Canada. That's exciting and rewarding. The show is sweaty, hot and very smelly. Later myself and Jen get pulled over for driving the wrong way down a one way street. Michigan police are thankfully very nice.

20th June: Chicago, The Hideout.

Windy City, bring it on! We awoke after very little sleep and set off hungover. When we arrived in Chicago we realised that instead of losing an hour (the initial panic for our early start), we in fact gained an hour in our favour (we're so dumb). Slept a while at Dutch Cory's swinging new pad then left for the venue.

Nice. I like it here, (50c bottles of Pabst Blue Ribbon! Well alright!). Happy Supply play - they're funny and pretty dirty rude. Boyracer show is OK. I'm delighted to re-meet Adam, even if he isn't wearing a dress this time. We wanted to play some new songs for our diehard fans Jesse and Dan, who, remarkably are still following us around. I'm starting to feel guilty about dishing up the same 25 minutes of drunken slop for them every night. We finish and I anticipate launching into a wondrous version of 'Naked' for the boys, as attempted in our soundcheck earlier. Instead we somehow finish the evening looking sheepish and clueless as some of us flee the stage for more 50c Pabst, leaving the rest of us contemplating an encore of sorts. Thankfully our northern English charm works a treat and everyone loves us and thinks we are very funny. Phew...

21st June: Grand Rapids, The Pop Cafe.

I love small towns. Whilst stood outside the venue we actually had rocks thrown at us by grown men. Odd. The show itself was pretty fun. We gaffer-taped sparklers to Frank's drums. Lots of sweat. It took Kelly 3 songs to realise her guitar wasn't plugged in. Boyracer! - celebrating 11 years of professionalism.

It was Jesse and Dan's last night in our company. Boohoo. We miss you guys! You deserve medals for duty way and beyond the call of any sane persons.

22nd June: St Paul, The Turf Club.

Hectic. It's 5pm and we're 350 miles away from the gig - eek... time for some true boyracing. After clogging it some we manage to arrive at 10pm in time for the show. We manage to miss the first band Blitzhosen though, which is very embarassing as drummer Andy not only set up the show but is letting us all stay at his (very nice) house.

We do catch most of the Hawaii Show who are crazy stupid lots of fun and have a guitarist called Afro Diziac. Racer do OK - there are lots of people but mostly not to see us. It's fizzy and I'm tired and drunk. We stay at the venue drinking till 3am. A good night. Everyone is nice and the sound guy pays us too much. Yah! We love Minnesota!

23rd June: Duluth, The Norshor Theatre.

A cool town. After eating pizza with Sara we shuffled off to the venue. I was delighted to see 'Boyracer' in big letters on the marquee board outside, but then I'm easiy impressed. The venue was very cool. An old cinema, so nice. We played well, I danced like a spazz, sold lots of stuff and made lots of new friends. I love Minnesota.

What I didn't like was the 20 hour drive to Missoula - argh!

24th June: Missoula, Upstairs at Jays.

So, we were meant to play Montana the 25th, which would have given us 2 days to drive the 1500 miles between Duluth and Missoula. But the venue moved the show, and we didn't think about this until a few days prior to the show. We left Duluth at 2am after playing and drove straight for 20 hours arriving at 10pm. Punk rock eh? Montana on a Sunday night seems it would be a tough call despite the hellish drive. We played a great show though, even if it was to 5 people and a dog. We left tired, happy, drunk and grateful. You've gotta pay your dues, and boy we earned them tonight. All $28 worth.

26th June: Seattle, The Paradox Theatre.

Gosh we were shit tonight. It seems every show we have high expectations of go disastrously wrong. Everyone else was cool. Suretoss - tight, Tullycraft - poptastic, Lunchbox - fantastic, Boyracer - shit.

Poor Frank's drums wouldn't stay together. I'm sure he won't mind me telling you that he's not the tightest of drummers to start with, bless him. Tonight was tough, but tomorrow's another day.

27th June: Portland, Jasmine Tree.

Fuck Seattle, Portland rocks. And we were tip-top Racer tonight. I just wish all the Seattle kids could have seen us do it right.

Awesome played. I love Awesome - Luke Hollywood, you are very cool and make me want to shake my pants. Honeybunch played next. This was exciting for me, being a big Velvet Crush fan. Jeffrey was supersweet and they played great. I sadly missed most of Lunchbox as I was cornered by a stream of people at the bar (I'm such a popstar y'know). They sounded great from where I was stood though. I love Lunchbox. I found out the barlady's son is the drummer for Lou Reed. That's pretty cool huh?

Boyracer played a crazy good set. I'm very proud of boyracer 2001. But we've got 2 more shows so I need not get too slushy just yet. My arm is nearly fixed and to celebrate I played drums on 2 songs with frank. 2 stand up drummers - nice! Go team Racer, we fucking rule!

28th June: San Francisco, Bottom of the Hill.

The good times continue and for the 2nd night in a row we play a scorcher. Lunchbox were the best I'd seen them. How exciting for me to see Mike doing the Papa Slumber dance down the front of the stage, just like old times. There's so many friends to catch up with. We were great tonight. Everyone's sad that the tour's about to end just when we seem at the peak of our powers - heh heh...

We sat up till 4am with Matt watching Keith Moon videos. A perfect evening.

29th June: Sacramento.

Sacramento, home town of Kelly Slusher, last night of the tour - and, oh my, it's starting to get all emotional...

The show itself was another blinder. 3 out of 3 shows great? - consistent Boyracer at last. Just a shame we’re about to stop touring - heh heh. It's fast and sweaty. We’re at the peak of our powers. I am enjoying a dance. Frugging up against the Snapple machine covered in sweat, I am feeling quite proud that we’ve actually done it despite the ridiculous run of bad luck. Frank surprises us all by throwing his snare drum into the audience during the closing feedback squall. An audience member further surprises us by throwing it back at us. A dream.

We stay at the Darla mansion where we are fed very well by Chandra and James. We swim in the pool and drink beer. Everyone is happy. Boyracer rule.

14th July: San Francisco, Popfantasy, Bottom of the Hill.

I've never been too sure about festivals as such. There's always so much ego involved with petty squabbles about running orders or soundmen. Not so the SF popfest. This is pretty cool. I manage to play in 4 bands total (the Cannanes, The How, Boyracer, Lunchbox), and delight in jokingly telling everyone the festival has changed its name to ‘Stew-fest’. I manage to drink an insane amount of alcohol each night and spend twice as much at the bar than we made. Still, you gotta do these things huh?

The show was without question one of the finest slices of Racer mayhem that even I wasn't quite prepared for. With Kelly gone back to Philly we invited Matt Hartmann (Henrys Dress/The How), and Mike ‘Papa’ Schulman (Slumberland Records) to fill out the sound with some good old fashioned feedback... boy oh boy. With my ears ringing we set off - FOUR guitars! I like this - Go team racer! There's lots of dancing. I give up trying to play guitar after one and a half songs. Mike throws Frank into the crowd. We're playing very well I think, especially as we haven't rehearsed with Mike and Matt, and THEN...

Ara decides to pull a Pete Townshend and smash his guitar up! Brilliant! Sincerly one of the coolest things I've seen. I urge all you kids reading this that you should smash up at least one guitar at some point in your life. It Looks cool. And it SOUNDs cool. (And it worries pretentious hippy bands from LA who are playing after you and have too much of their precious equipment on stage that they refuse to move despite being warned.) Not wanting to be outdone by Ara, Frank sets off smashing his snare drum against the back wall of the venue. There's feedback and crunching sounds everywhere. Fans clamber for souvenir pieces of Ara's guitar (honest!). It's a big sweaty drink-stained mess. It's funtastic. All I can do is stand there laughing at the chaos. The rest of the festival is great fun. I get to meet loads of cool people, drink loads and play South Park pinball.

Personal highlights for me include:- Tullycraft, The Aislers Set, Ciao Bella, and of course Lunchbox, The Cannanes and the How.

20th July: YoYo Festival, Olympia, WA.

Pat Maley is an amazingly generous guy who I respect a great deal. But Olympia? Hmmm... There's a funny vibe, I can't work it out. I'm not sure if it's Olympia itself, or a result of everyone desperately trying to be cooler than the next punk-rocker. It is weird for sure. There's people wandering around with video cameras expressing an obsessive need to document the entire event. It feels like Twin Peaks. I don't feel so comfortable.

We spend most of our time (well 5pm-7pm anyway), soaking up the happy hour in the Thekla bar next door to the Theatre. Maybe I'm just feeling festivalled out, but I can't bring myself to watch much. The only band I did see that I was overly excited about was Tracy And The Plastics. This was brilliant, brilliant stuff.

The Boyracer set simply had to be a little of a come down after the genius of breaking everything in San Franscisco. We played well, but it's the middle of the afternoon and stone cold sober it feels a bit odd. We invite Chuck (Bright Lights), to play feedback guitar on the last few songs. He feedbacks just nicely, and looks pretty dashing.

We hang out with Harold from Tullycraft who is super nice and gives me an amazing bullseye guitar strap. We eat pizza and drink beer with the Cannanes. Old times, gold times. Racer USA, you will sleep hard tonight.

Mobstar Pop Frenzy

18th August: Bristol, UK.

Only UK date? Enter Gedney. Hello old friend! Matty? We’re re-united at last. The nostalgia continues.

There is a big difference playing with Ged in that we are pretty much in time with each other for a change for the first time in 3 months (sorry Frank). This catches us off guard and it's a tiny bit slower than I was anticipating. But for 2 hours rehearsal we’re doing OK. So how does Mattys guitar sound after all this time? Well, from where I am stood on the opposite side of the stage I can't really hear him too well. I am thinking of copying Ara and smashing up my guitar (which I can't take to America with me when I leave in a week), and feebly throw it to the ground and tread on it... Oh, I can't do it. I can't snap its brittle neck. Disgusted with my over-sentimentality I head for the bar.

The REAL highlight for me was seeing the Groove Farm reform. They haven't played for 11 (ELEVEN!) years! It seems everyone from any old crappy forgotten Fuzzy-Indie band has the re-unite bug. I'm so glad they did because The Groove Farm are BRILL. (As I write we’re putting together a Boyracer/Groove Farm tour for the USA next Summer. Yeah!)

So, what's next for Team Racer? You’ll just have to wait and see!