Preface:

Our band Dlugokecki were selected to play the prestigious and monumentus 'South by Southwest' music festival in Austin, Texas. So, we planned a 4 date USA tour - which included 2 nights in New York and 2 nights in Austin, Texas. Marie couldn't come due to family commitments (3 young kids, a beautiful new husband!). Aidan, Boyd, Andy Wild and I were the musical force. Mark and Athena were the managerial force. Rob and Malc were security (Boyd & I's Dads!). Sarah and Rudi were the eye candy! (Groupies!). Words can't really express how fun and mental this trip was for us, we have over 1000 photos, 9 hours of footage to edit, but for now please read what we got up to. I know I speak for all of us when I say the trip has been unreal and surreal every step of the way!

DAY ONE - Wednesday 18th March

--- The Drive ---
We left Andy Wilds home at the gorgeous time of 4.30am. Not good. Bad skills. Waking up at 4.00am is not on my life agenda, but something we got used to on this trip! Aidan, looking sexy and fit at this stupid time of the morning had prepared an outrageous compilation CD for the car journey. I think he simply googled the words 'America', 'Texas' and 'New York' and threw the songs together onto a CD. Hits included 'America - f**k yeah!' from Team America and 'Halo' by Texas (A particular piece of genius!). Mark, Athena, Andy, Aidan and I drove up to Heathrow listening to Aidan's special brew of hits whilst I cut up over 1000 stickers. We parked, I was already sleep deprived because of the trip prep so I was singing the 'Purple Parking' song along to Tina Turner. We met up with my Dad who was providing Security for the trip - what with his SAS training and secret service training! Passing through security was fine (We got the guitars on the flight!). Boyd and Sarah were meeting us in New York.

---Guiness at 6.00am ---
As everyone knows, Andy Wild is a legend. The man is a human god. We had a gorgeous english breakfast as Andy Wild consumed a pint of Guiness as if it were 1999! We boarded the Continental flight which turned out to be freaking awesome. The plane was pretty empty and it was a 777. So we had free reign of the seating, and had about three seats each with loads of leg room and over 300 movies to choose from. It was the beginning of a special journey, especially when Andy Wild closed his eyes for the first time to sleep. I saw some beautiful ice glaciers from the window and the cars looked like mentaloid ants. Freaking awesome!

--- Even the Americans know Dr Who! ---
Now, the management and the rest of the band prepped me about how to behave and talk to people on this trip - especially the American immigration. They said "Don't be weird, don't be silly". Well - I really tried for two seconds. I ended up chatting to the officer about who his favourite Dr who is! He was a Joker, he thinks Tom Baker was the best. Whatever mate!

--- We arrived like the tide ---
Seeing New York for the first time doesn't seem real, and I'm sure anyone who has been before would agree. It's magical - how the hell did man create this place? It's bonkers. The flight was brill and we found a cab. Now this cabbie was blatantly illegal . The guy was brilliant - he was a guy who had a stroke but was in a band (he was signed to the Egyptian EMI). He couldn't drum as well anymore so he drove cabs. But he had a habit of playing his drum sticks on the driving wheel whilst driving. Very scary when you've never been to New York before and all the cars are rammed so close together. A bit of advice - don't drive and play drums at the same time.

---- Subway - and not the Meatball Marinara kind! ---
We checked into the hotel which was simple but had a lot of character. 3 bunk beds, brilliant. We took the subway to the central part of New York, scary subway! We came out of the subway right in the centre - OMG - the buildings are like the ones you see in the movies. And the Empire State is so absolutely huge. Unbelievable. Of course we got Andy Wild to act like King Kong and did a little play in the middle of Madison Square Gardens. Mark purchased a pretzel - how very American! We had a beer and read the schedule. Lots of things to pack in so Dad and I went up the Empire State. It's just incredible - it made me recognise how small we all are. We're tiny. After a burger in Jack Demseys, and a beer it was off to our very first American gig!

--- Anyone for a gig in Harlem? ---
Our first American show had to be unique. We arrived at 'The Shrine' which is an amazing venue on the outskirts of Harlem that prides itself on social integration and it's commitment to all genres of music. This place was like something I've never seen before - people from all different countries, religions, colors and star systems. It was a bit like the cantina in Mos Eisley from Star Wars, it was terrific. We played a 45 minute set (with no Boyd, but Andy on a Rhodes!). It was great (We got $30 in tips!). When we finished the crowd asked for one more so we pulled 'Calm Before The Storm' out of the bag. Sounded great, then the crowd asked for 7 more. Boy we did laugh. Seeing as we were in New York, and I'm a massive Paul Simon fan, I did 'The Boxer' and 'Me and Julio'. We had been up for 26 hours and we looked like crap. In fact, on the subway home, we looked like zombies from Shaun of the Dead. We passed out on the squeaky beds.

DAY TWO - Thursday 19th March

--- Pizza for breakfast ---
As everyone knows, Dlugokecki love food and drink. We headed on down to the local deli for a fabtastic breakfast. I didn’t eat much – just a pizza, a chocolate croissant, a yogurt, a banana and some of Dad’s food! Aidan and Andy Wild had a cheese and bacon bagel and looked happy beyond all joy. This was going to be a great day!

--- Kiwibox interview ---
The New York skyscrapers blow my mind every time I see them. We stepped out of the subway and trundled towards the Kiwibox headquarters. Kiwibox is a brilliant social networking and review site visited by millions of American young folk daily. The excellently professional and fun guys filmed an interview with us with some pretty deep and clever questions. Andy Wild was on fire as usual – exaggerating about the amount of hours we had been awake. At one point he said 35 hours, Aidan claims he said 46 days! The interviewer ‘Kylie’ was lovely and looked like Britney Spears, but with hair and not bonkers. Good times.

--- Meeting Jeffery ---
I met some of my all time heroes on this trip, but meeting Jeffery inside the worlds biggest and best Toys R Us was the highlight. Look – the giraffe is a legend – he’s up there with Lennon and Martin Luther King! Seriously, Aidan and I went on a little excursion to the times square Toys R Us where they have a ferris wheel inside the building. Nuts. This place was incredible – Jurassic Park section, Star Wars section and even a robot spider section. Cosmic (Aidan’s word!). We went on the wheel together (we made an adorable couple!) and had our photo taken with Jeffery. However, we went to the photo pick up point and the photo was $20! I swore at the person behind the counter. What cheek! This was by far the darkest part of the trip. It was a low. It was hard to move on from such a farce, but we certainly did.

--- Strawberry Fields Forever ---
We met up with the others and headed for central park. We went to the place John Lennon was killed by that idiot Mark Chapman. This was actually quite moving – especially for our manager – and we were all a bit quiet. Lennon was such an awesome poet, such a shame he was shot. We could have been mates.

--- The arrival of Boyd ---
After another beer, a Mcdonalds and a scary incest story involving my Dad we headed for out second gig in the USA – playing the awesome ‘Living Rooms’. This venue was wicked – a gorgeous piano, a lovely bass amp, candles and the sensual Boyd. The guy is a drumming sensation – it was great to see him and have the band semi-complete (We love you Marie!). The gig was great but what really moved us was the people who came to see us because they had heard the music on Myspace. It was so humbling – one guy, Eric, had traveled 45 minutes from Brooklyn to see us. So lovely. The set was fun and the debauchery then began involving a Mexican restaurant, Corona, Mexican hats and Celine Dion singing.

--- Empire and the Limo ---
No longer are we the ‘tea and biscuits’ band! Inebriated and full of beans we grabbed a taxi to the Empire State Building. It was about midnight, the place was deserted so we got a lift to the top and looked out over the New York night. So inspiring, but also scary when you’ve had a couple. We did a photo shoot and then we got in our limo home. I’ve never been in a limo before, and it was a laugh. We were sliding around and having the time of our lives. Great times.

DAY THREE - Friday 20th March

--- Do we have to get up again at 4.30am? ---
Yes. God we were tired. Sleep deprived. Hungry. We got a plane from New York to Houston, Houston to Austin, Texas for the important part of the trip. Andy Wild invented a new genre of music and we’re going to petition i-tunes to get it registered. ‘Rocky Poppy’ is apparently our style of music. Andy Wild has good skills at genre labeling. We got our SXSW 2009 wristbands and descended upon the festival. The place is simply amazing. About 100 music venues rammed with music, bands and musicians everywhere and music coming from every direction. Simply balmy! The sun was shining (26 degrees) so we headed for a bar and ate the best chili burger we’ve all ever eaten in our lives. OMG. We started our SXSW experience by attending a few parties including the Sonic bids party where we saw an awesome band from South Africa called ‘The Parlotones’.

--- Meeting another hero, Ed Harcourt ---
We went back to the hotel and I jumped in the pool which Aidan found amusing. He loves my belly. We got changed and headed back into town to see ‘Ed Harcourt’ play. He is one of my inspirations – I know every song, I know every album and have followed his music for over 5 years. He walked in, told me to look after his guitar and I bought him a drink. He said he was hungover and tired and asked me what songs he should sing in his set. He didn’t like my choices but was well up for a photo and chuffed with my knowledge of his songs. Unfortunately his performance was not great – he burped, swore and broke a string before singing a note. He was out of time, out of tune and out of luck! Bad times. The crowd were generous – but he played the day after which I saw where he was beyond awesome. So he’s still ace in my book.

--- I didn’t know shrimp were prawns ---
We’re playing ‘The Bedford abroad’ tomorrow night. This series of showcases at the festival were organized by the legendary Tony Moore (founding member of Iron Maiden, Cutting Crew and a singer/songwriter in his own write). We checked out the venue and Andy Wild caught up with his friend Nate James. Andy Wild co-wrote a song with Nate that was used on the soundtrack for ‘Run fatboy run’ and ‘How to lose friends and alienate people’. The venue is outstanding, the sound impeccable and the beer $3. We were really looking forward to rocking out. Boyd and Rudi (Boyd’s mate) encouraged us to visit a ‘Hooters’ restaurant. After an 8 mile hike across Austin we arrived. The women were disappointing, but the food was great. I also found out that Shrimp were prawns. Wow! You learn something everyday! Again another long day, but it was just the beginning……

DAY FOUR - Saturday 21st March

--- Doughnuts for breakfast ---
I could never live in America – the food is too good. Got up, had a swim in the pool with the warm sun on my back. We all headed into Austin to the festival very excited about the days events. The group were having such a ball but I don’t think we were ready for the events of the day. To quote Boyd “I feel like I’m in a movie”.

--- Party after party ---
We started at the MPress party where there was food and drink galore, we watched some great American acts and schmoozed. Lots of free badges and CDs. Then we went to the Parish party where we saw a great band from Austin called ‘The White white lights’. They were top notch, but were distracted by a lady in her 50’s who was on drugs dancing like a fool at the front.

--- The Q magazine Party ---
This was great. Very cool. We were on the guest list (mainly because we’re only one of a few British bands playing the festival!) and we walked in straight into the editor of Q magazine. Mark chatted to him for ages, handed him a demo and I went over and mentioned how much of a fan I was of the mag. We hung out with ‘Longview’ and I met my doppelganger. This really excited the group as he was simply a clone of me. Dad and Mum have some explaining to do! While all this was going on Mark was running around meeting publishers and sorting us out!

--- Graham Coxon (Blur), New York Dolls and Flashpoint Studios ---
The Q party was just so cool – Boyd grabbed Coxon for a photo and we chatted about our journey and gave him a CD. We left the party for an interview at the legendary Flashpoint studios. This place was so cool – the studio is years old and so many famous faces were on the wall. We played our best acoustic set we’ve ever played (real piano, Boyd clapping and playing tambourine) and the interview was funny. Boyd was drunk as a skunk and was impersonating ‘Bo Selecta’. He said that he didn’t know what to say so was being the ‘weird one’. The interviewer (Matador) was the nicest guy you’ll ever know. As we left, two members of the punk band ‘the New York dolls’ walked passed. Another photo opportunity we did not miss out on!

--- The Showcase ---
I was nervous, we were all nervous, but we were ready. We had rehearsed, warmed up and really had put everything into this. We were re-writing the setlist in the car though as ‘Calm before the Storm’ sounded so good in New York, it ended up replacing ‘All Stations’. We arrived and it was busy and I believe and so do the others, we played our best gig. It was just a relief. It was busy, the crowd loved it and we made 5 people cry when we played ‘Insecure’. The setlist in the end was:

SET IN STONE
SAVE MY SOUL
A HEAVEN TO BELIEVE IN
GUIDE
HOWITZER
RIGHT TIME/WRONG TIME
CALM BEFORE THE STORM
TOO MANY BORDERS
INSECURE

--- Meeting Proclaimers ---
Tony Moore said lovely things about us when we finished and we went into the crowd and signed CDs and chatted to people about our adventures getting here. There were lovely comments and we were all a bit relieved. It had been just so fun and worthwhile that Andy Wild got emotional! We went backstage for an interview with American Blogger and journalist Annie Router while the Proclaimers loaded in. They were lovely lads, talkative, friendly and were generously interested in us. It was fun. The venue outside got to capacity and we had a great photo with the guys and tried to blag support slots off them! 500 Miles and Letter from America are legendary songs. We partied, chatted and generally were on cloud 9 as the Proclaimers belted out the hits!

--- Bedouin Soundclash and the riotous taxi home ---
With the showcase over we headed to 6th Street where the major venues were. The queues were enormous and the atmosphere amazing. We got into one place to see a band called ‘Bedouin Soundclash’. They had a big hit with ‘Beautiful Day’ and were just incredible. We drank a lot and danced a lot. We wanted to carry on but all the venues shut strictly at 2.00am. The Police pushed us out of the venue when we pilled backstage for another photo – this was funny. We piled into a taxi and Aidan and I were fighting (Andy was filming it!) and singing the whole way home. We got in and passed out. Amazing day.

DAY FIVE - Sunday 22nd March

--- Hanging in the mall ---
Hungover and needing foodage we headed for the mall. I dislike shopping at the best of times, but there was loads of good stuff at the Mall. It did not compare to ‘The Marlands’ in Southampton. Boydy had a massage, we met Wiggles the dog from the dog shelter (Austin puts down 12,000 animals a year!) and Andy Wild and Aidan bought me a special selection of sweets (just wait for the video!). In the taxi back a truck pulled up alongside us. He wound down his window and said “First time out west?”. We replied “Yeah”. He took a toke on his cigar and said “You can tell!”.

--- The great SXSW 2009 Music Quiz ---
I speak for all of us, apart from myself, when I say this was the 2nd lowest point of the trip (after the $20 photo incident). I made a quiz about ‘the Warm’ (Boyd’s band), ‘Caroline’s Capuchin’ (Aidan’s band) and Dlugokecki (Andy Wild’s band!). Andy Wild was called ‘Dave’ for the quiz, and we drank an extreme amount of things. It was sunny, it was funny, and Boyd won the quiz. Malc and my Dad came last because of bad language point deductions.

--- All you can eat - Brazilian meat ---
In hindsight, I wish we went straight to bed. This was by far the best food we’ve all ever eaten – I’m not surprised for $50 a head. You had a coaster with a green side and a red side. If you wanted more meats, you turn the coaster to green and let the juices flow. If you feel you’re about to die/throw up/explode you turn your coaster to red. To quote Andy wild as he sits to my left “That was the best meal I’ve ever eaten”. Meat. Meat in every shape, form, style and amount. Meat. Everywhere. Good quality meats. My vegetarian wife would have been appalled. We all looked life death – so we carried onto another bar…..

DAY SIX – Monday 23rd March

Well, that’s about it, we leave for the plane in an hour so I better go pack. We return to the UK tomorrow and are playing two gigs next week – but the one to go to Is our band gig at the Joiners on Friday! We’re going to rock the venue. Pop down to the Railway in Winchester to see Marie and I play a nice acoustic set.

Goodbye from Austin and we’ll all see you on our return!