union chapel gig

Someone posted a video from the Lucette London show (Secret Sisters UK tour) featuring me and "the Brit".  I thought I'd post it since I never did post any of our actual performances. Enjoy!

tour diary: Londontown

It's the final installment of the Lucette UK tour diary! We ended the tour off with a bang in my dearest, London.  I've posted about London a lot in the past so I figured I would simply share some photos from our stay rather then do a full-on guide this post. We definitely packed a lot of the city in to a few days...

 

 

Nothing like a rainy London stroll...

 We stopped by the British Museum where "the Brit" had a staring contest with a lion...

 and I took photos of pretty girly-er things...

Lucette and her dad had never been to London before so I felt the strong urge to drag them on a little trip up the Jubilee Line to see Abbey Road Studios (very near where I lived many moons ago).

e We signed the wall outside the studio, of course. We also called my dad and I asked him to go to this website so he could see us live in front of Abbey Road! and he could see us, which was pretty entertaining :D 

Obligatory Big Ben photo-op...

 

on to the last show of the tour...

We played our final show at the breathtaking and magical Union Chapel.  I have dreamed about going to watch show there for ages but actually playing there!?! I needed someone to pinch me for fear I was just having a really vivid dream! 

 

sound check...

"The Brit's" parents came to the show all the way from Cornwall since we didn't have time to come to them this trip!(As did a few close London buddies)...

Still waiting on the photos of us performing (because, obviously, someone else had to take those ;) but I will post them once they emerge! Then the Secret Sisters took the stage and did an incredible job. It was bittersweet though since it was the last show.

 

During the last song the girls brought a surprise guest to the stage, the fabulous Brandi Carlie. It was a gorgeous end to an amazing show.

and, just like that, it was over and we were plopped back in LA. back to reality. But we had such an unbelievably wonderful time!

PS: to hear more from the band I toured with here's the link LUCETTE  and while I'm at it here is the link to the band we supported THE SECRET SISTERS < all of them are lovely lovely ladies, incidentally.

tour diary: Birmingham

Onward to Birmingham...

Please note the ungodly hour of our train's departure. And the beautiful misty countryside out the train window which put me in a better mood.

Again, I didn't know what to expect from this city either but we had two days to explore which was nice.  Here are a few places we went while we were there...

The Mailbox - an upscale shopping center which is also home to several restaurants.  This was very near our hotel so we ended up going there a couple of times. We ate at Cafe Rouge - actually, a chain of french cafes, but still very good.

Plus it has a beautiful view...

Back towards the center of town is the famous Bull Ring shopping mall (the silver spaceship-like  building in the photo below).  To be honest, I didn't go in but a few of our tour-mates went and liked it.  It just seemed very Americanized to me...they even had a Forever 21! Still the building is impressive.

We knew of some vintage stores down toward an area called The Custard Factory.  One of which was the sister store of one we visited in Manchester - COW (82 Digbeth, Birmingham) It is a very large warehouse sized store and it had some really great dresses plus a huge menswear section which made "The Brit" happy.

We wandered further down the block to the Custard Factory which is an artsy quarter located at the former site of an actual Bird's Custard Factory.  We were there on a Sunday so many of the shops and restaurants were shut but it was still a very unique area to walk around. Definitely worth a look.

Oh and here's a beautiful Church in the city center on the way back to our hotel.

 

One night we had dinner with the Secret Sisters and company at a delicious Indian restaurant called Maharaja (23-25 Hurst St) which was very near our hotel and also very near the venue we played.

Speaking of which, the venue we played was called the "Glee Club"...

pre-show...

 and post-show!

 

Only one more stop until the tour diary madness finishes....LONDON!

 PS: HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! ❤❤❤❤❤ xdjrd

Tour diary: I ❤ MCR

 Meanwhile, back on the tour... we caught an early morning flight from Ireland to England - Manchester, to be exact.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Manchester but luckily our hotel was pretty central and I was able to do a tiny bit of research once we got situated.  We headed for the center of town where I knew there were some shops and places to eat.

 We happily stumbled upon a vintage store called COW (Unit C1 City Tower,Parker Street)

It's funny how so many vintage shops in Europe and the UK are filled with American clothing. For example...

We then went to a few other places including Primark which proved a bit overwhelming for our Canadian friends (Lucette & her lovely Dad) but "the Brit" and I snooped around for a while (I spared you photos from that jam-packed mess of a store! but did escape with a couple pairs of tights!)

We then headed a few blocks away to what quickly became my favorite part of Manchester; the area known as The Northern Quarter.   We had heard about restaurant/bar there called Odd Bar (30-32 Thomas Street, Northern Quarter ) and wanted to give it a try. 

It did not disappoint. I loved the quirky interior and we had one of the best meals of the trip there. I had the Sweet Potato Veggie Burger which was beyond delicious.

After dinner we wandered up the street to a little bar called Apotheca (17 Thomas Street, Northern Quarter) for a drink.  Unfortunately, I did a poor job of taking any photos of it. But I would definitely recommend checking it out too.

The next morning we woke up to a very rainy city...

and headed back to our beloved Norther Quarter for breakfast.  We ended up at a little diner called Koffee Pot (21 Hilton Street, Norther Quarter) for coffee & eggs.

Then it was time to do some more vintage shopping since a few of the stores in the area had been closed the evening before.  My favorite was probably Pop Boutique (34-36 Oldham St) but there are at least 4 other vintage shops with in a two block radius of this one.

We spent most of our last day in Manchester shopping, wandering and enjoying our time there.

We played a show that evening at the Ruby Lounge - but this post is long enough already so I'll post photos from that gig on my Flickr page for those interested! However, here's a cell phone photo of me & "the Brit" post performance...

Hopefully I didn't bore you all to tears but we had such a great time I wanted to share as much as possible!

xo djrd