America rocks!

Amazing drive into California. I love this place!

Desert by moonlight

We pitch up camp in the middle of the desert. Warnings of the plague are everywhere –

Plague!

I didn’t even know that still existed. We shoot soldiers –

Targets

start another fire –

Hunter gatherers

and drink beer. A great day off before the craziness of LA.

Desert living

Over the hill and into town…palm trees and blue skies welcome us as we drive to the El Ray Theatre, which looks great. A nice deep dark red with a great stage for me to strut

On stage in LA

Before the gig we have an amazing interview with a guy called Jefferson

Best interviewer ever

…who made me feel like I was on a movie set. Thank you Jefferson. Hope you enjoyed the show, even though I managed to spill rum and then stomp on some electrics and cut the sound out! Sorry Mule. Anyway…the crowd seemed to love my threats of taking my clothes off which wasn’t far from the truth in our post gig antics. Good times.

Lorna gets amongst it

Next day was supposed to be a day off but us Skinnies aren’t good at that. John our dear friend we met in SXSW has organised 2 gigs for us that evening. We do pull into an RV park with a swimming pool and hot tub though so we can wash away our sins and hangovers. Very nice.

Finger Prints

The gigs are great. The first is in one of the coolest record stores I’ve ever been in called Finger Prints. They had The Foo Fighters play their last Record Store Day. They made us feel very special then we were off to Alex’s Bar – which has a much more punky vibe – not so busy as it’s Monday night but it’s a great place. People ply me with rum and beer and we have lots more fun. I want tattoos on my feet.

At Alex's Bar

Last day in LA we play for Warped Tour and Side One Dummy Records…

Playing in Side One Dummy Records car park

…they give us our first beers of the day, a box full of goodies and huge smiles. We sing and dance for them. Good times and great people! Then off to Fox TV for our debut interview and performance on US TV!!

Arriving at FOX TV Centre

So surreal. How do I explain it? GMTV with a sugar overdose…before we go on I’m in the ‘hair and make-up’ department watching the show on a telly. There’s an feature on the Titanic with a shit load of tweets and messages coming in saying stuff like “W-T-F? The Titanic was real?” and “Hell, I’m never going on a cruise again!!!” Wow… Then there’s a guy in the ‘waiting room’ in doctors’ scrubs ready to be interviewed about brain surgery before we get called on. It’s amazingly slick – I can’t tell what’s on screen or what’s being heard…

Chatting to the anchors

Geoff chats and laughs and then the floor manager starts calling numbers out – 15 seconds – Geoff is still laughing and joking – Dan Hep tells him to shush when there’s only 4 secs left and then wham – we’re in…

Live on FOX TV

Fun fun fun and very bizarre. Anyway – everyone seems to like it and we’re asked to hang around to play the show out. Lovely stuff. Once we’re all packed up and said our goodbye’s we’re on the road again. Next stop FOOOOOOOD then Phoenix via Joshua National Park for a spot of tourism. As we travel we laugh a lot to “True stories and bad ideas” from Joe Sib. We love you Joe!!

The new anchors of FOX 11 LA