Collect Call From: Guy Garvey of Elbow (Day 4)

The Britrockers have embarked on a rare U.S. tour behind their 2008 release, The Seldom Seen Kid, and lead singer Guy Garvey will be checking in periodically to let us know how it's going.

Day 4
May 8, 5:20 P.M.
Having traveled south from Vancouver, Garvey phones from backstage at Bimbo's, the San Francisco club.

We're coming off a day off in Oregon, where we went whitewater rafting along the Rogue River. Three boatloads of us, all the band and crew, in Category 4's and 5's. We nearly lost one in the string section, but she managed to cling on. Afterwards, we all went to a place where you can play pool. Oregon's got this big weed thing, it supplies all of New York's weed, and I think the waitress was stoned. It took fucking ages to take our order and then even longer to get it. Once we realized she was stoned, it stopped being irritating and started being very funny to watch her work.

I suppose being a lapsed Catholic and playing in a Catholic church last night I had plenty of old memories come back to me from my altar boy youth... We made our own starch out of sugar, and the cotta — the white outergarment just about your waist — became like cardboard for me and my brother, so when we sat down, our heads disappeared into it, to the hilarity of each other and most of the congregation. It really upset my boss, father Joe Feely. He called us a pair of duck eggs... about as foul-mouthed as the man got.

I did have a bit of a Lost in Translation moment with my girlfriend. She got up and was having her breakfast, I was on the wrong side of a few beers, I'm just like, "How are you?" "Fine, how are you?" "Fine. What are you doing?" "I'm having my breakfast with my dad. What are you doing?" "I'm just on the tour bus. See you tomorrow." I can't wait to be in the same time zone again. After I got off the phone I had a look on my face and Mark [Potter, keyboards], who's been with his partner longer than I've been with mine, leaned over and said, "We don't bother. We call every three days to catch up and make sure we're OK, but we don't bother with a nightly phone call because ¾ of them are terrible." Smart.

The end is nigh. We've played everywhere now, churches, synagogues, ancient nightclubs like this one. The new and the old songs are loved equally, which is always a relief, and we've just been having loads of fun doing it. We've tried to fill the space we're in and have a unique experience every night, and we've all got a taste to write — as soon as you get on the road everyone starts thinking about the next album.


I'm listening to: "Chico" by The Concretes

I'm reading: [Laughs] I haven't read anything. Me and Philip Roth are still strangers.

Read Guy Garvey's entry from Day One: CLICK HERE
Read Guy Garvey's entry from Day Two: CLICK HERE
Read Guy Garvey's entry from Day Three: CLICK HERE

Stay tuned for more posts as the tour progresses...