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Last week of November

Last week of November, 2019.

Hello to you – the person reading this. Thanks for taking the time.

If I recall correctly the last newsletter I wrote was just before we were about to leave for our annual UK/EU tour. Well, the good news is that we made it! We survived the month and are now back at home! The tour started in London and moved swiftly along through Brighton, Liverpool, and Birmingham, before we jumped aboard the trusty P&O Ferry and landed ourselves in France, where we hit the ground running through Germany, Switzerland, and The Netherlands.

Thank you to all of you that came out to the shows, and to those of you who made our trip a little bit easier in any way, we thank you too. We had a lot of laughs while we spent many, many hours in the van zig-zagging across the continent, we even managed to watch the World Cup Rugby Final in our van on one of those trips, via the wonders of today’s technologies. I fondly
remember our first international tours where you were lucky if you got to make one phone call a week from a ticky-box somewhere in whichever city you found yourself in. These days with Wi-fi, Maps on our smart phones, WhatApp, and pre-loaded sim cards touring life is a lot easier, but also not like it used to be. But we love it regardless, and will continue to do it as long as this poor planet allows us to.

One thing that I loved about touring back then (when we each had to make our tiny per diem of 5 pounds a day last) and that I continue to love today is SUBWAY! Spotting a Subway on tour is something that makes me so happy. When people ask me what I miss the most about travel when I’m home – the answer is Subway – but I’ll generally tell them something else that they probably want to hear. When they ask me to tell them about cool tourist sites we visited, I kindy oblige with tales of 5000 year -old temples, and giant skyscraping cathedrals, but really in the back of my head I’m really just thinking of that “Veggie Delite 6” I grabbed after sound check in Birmingham. I am a sandwich man.

Speaking of exploring the places we go to, Neil is an avid ‘Geo-Chache-r’. I feel that he may be the only band member in South Africa who actually goes out and finds these things. And he has found A LOT of them. Often Rob and I will join him on the hunt, and we have seen so many cool places and things on this tour, and on previous tours, that we wouldn’t have ever even known about, had it not being for ‘Geo-Caching’. If you don’t know what it is, then download the app – it’s very much worth it. If you think that you may perhaps be a legit challenger to Neil, please let us know, and we can compare numbers (You’ll lose).

So now we only have a few more shows left for this year. This weekend we bring ‘The Choraltones” to Monte Casino, which will be a very special show featuring us, a choir, some strings, and guest artists. If you are reading this and you haven’t bought your tickets yet…you know what to do.

Then in December we tour a little up and down the coast, before taking a little break in January to regroup, recover, and think up a plan for 2020 that will make it even more awesome than this year was!

Hope to see you on the road.
Glenn.

Back in the USSR (well, Joburg…)

Back in the USSR (well, Joburg...)

Hello to all you beautiful people!

We have returned to the sunny shores of South Africa after spending the last 4 weeks or so traipsing around the UK and Europe where it got pretty chilly. Mostly it was just jacket and/or scarf kind of weather, but towards the end it started getting very cold and it was double-sock weather. You can prepare for the cold, but it’s the rain and damp weather that you’re not ready for. You can dress as warm as you like, but when your hoodie and shoes are damp then you start getting miserable.

(And it was weird talking to folk back home and hearing about how it was over 36° and they’re all sleeping with fans on and the windows open, while we were shivering with jackets and hoodies on in beds!)

We had such an amazing time in the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Malta, and it was so good to see all our friends and fans again but it’s always great to return home.

If you go browse our Facebook and Instagram pages, you’ll see daily tour diaries that our trusty cameraman Jerome put together while we were on the road. It’s a great snapshot of life on the road and gives a little bit of insight into what goes on behind-the-scenes… which is mostly just us sleeping or joking around.

 
 

 

Now that we’re home, we’re putting the final touches to our CHORTALTONES shows at Teatro in Montecasino, which happens in ONE WEEK! (eek!)

CHORTALTONES is a production we’re doing alongside the National Youth Choir and a small orchestra section. So you’ll hear all (or most, anyway!) of your favourite Parlotones song performed alongside an amazing youth choir and a beautiful string section, bringing a whole element to the songs you know and love. 

There will also be performances and co-labs with Majozi and Bard, so get ready for an epic show.

Friday 29th is almost sold out, so if you hurry you might be able to get some seats, but for you slowpokes we’ve added a matinee show on Saturday the 30th. Of course, you may enjoy the Friday night so much that you’ll want to get a ticket for Saturday afternoon as well. 

Hope to see you all soon!

Ciao,

Paul, Kahn, Glen, Neil, Rob, Josh, Gregg, AK, Mr. Beck, Ash, Chad, Gwen, Jo & Kayleigh our merch ladies … etc. etc. etc.

aka the whole Parlotones gang

(as they say, it takes a village to look after a band…)

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