It's a tough climate for guitar bands right now.
For many, the only route to success is the old fashioned way: pack up the van and hit the road.
And that's exactly what Little Comets did. The Newcastle band have built their fan base show by show, concert by concert, accruing remarkable loyalty in the process.
Releasing new album 'Hope Is Just A State Of Mind' earlier this year, the band were blown away when the record landed in the Top 20 during the mid-week countdown.
Fresh from a full UK tour, Clash invited singer Rob Coles to take part in Good Trip, Bad Trip.
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Best Trip…
I think the first time we toured America was lovely for us all – growing up playing in bands in Newcastle we never dreamed that we would get to do something like this: playing gigs in iconic music cities like New York or Seattle. We really made sure that we took it all in: the gigs were special, some epic scenery, and meeting some lovely people.
Worst Trip…
I'm not sure we've ever had a total nightmare – our van broke down in the middle of France once but even that turned out well as we just decamped into two Ford Fiestas and had an extra night in Paris while the World Cup was on, and got a tow from a trucker with gold teeth called Pascal.
Our favourite foreign venue…
Ah that's impossible really – I don't think the magic of playing in a different country has ever worn off and we've played lots of special venues. I think a lot of the time, even in the UK we don't pay too much attention to the venue in retrospect. It's the gigs we tend to remember – the venue for our first gig in New York wasn't amazing but the gig was.
We've been lucky enough to play in places like the Paradiso in Amsterdam, the Olympia in Dublin, Stubbs in Austin and at Governors Ball in New York: the memories from all of these gigs tend to transcend the location though.
We're surprisingly popular in…
Haha, everywhere for us! Any time we play a gig anywhere and people turn up it is lovely – like selling out a gig in New York or Los Angeles, it just doesn't make sense to us. We did a gig at First Avenue in Minneapolis and lots of people were singing back words and clearly knew a lot about our little band – I think every time that happens it is a really lovely experience.
Writing songs at home, you really don't think about where people might listen to them, so learning that your music has made a connection with someone in an entirely different part of the world is pretty crazy.
Best or worst exotic foodstuff…
I don't think it is that exotic but we had a crazy drive once from Kansas City to Salt Lake City in a day and the place we decided to stop for tea was Denver. We were searching the internet in the van looking for a curry or fish and chips but everywhere had bad reviews.
Eventually we found this place called Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs. They did rattlesnake, reindeer or bat hot dogs topped with roasted cactus haha – it was amazing. Lovely people too. I ended up leaving my passport there, but they found it and posted it to San Francisco for us to pick up at the end of the tour, but then I left it on a plane and had to chase it to Houston. That was a fun day…
Most interesting individual you've met on the road…
We've met a few – from the bloke in a service station in Utah who had invented a new type of plane and wanted to fly us around on our next tour for no charge but we HAD to bring our own food…. or this ex-French rugby player who swapped us a case of wine from his vineyard for a few albums.
Erm… the best one was probably when we did this mad gig in Universal Studios and asked if we could borrow a kettle – the bloke in the control room recognised our accents and saw that Greenie had a massive bag of Yorkshire tea bags (we went well stocked!). He turned out to be a bloke called Mike Ging from Wallsend who had worked his way up to being an engineer in this amazing studio from humble beginnings. His wife was there and they had met while they were working on Thriller, he was just as chuffed as we gave him a shitload of tea.
Honestly, I could go on all day…
Worst on-tour injury, or infection, or accident…
We were in Austin and Matt (our bass player) was doing his best roadie impression, lifting amps into the back of the van like a big, strong person wearing flip flops…. we heard a yelp and he'd fallen backwards and hurt his ankle. We were sympathetic but also a) harshly found the flip-flop aspect quite funny, and b) convinced he was putting it on – limping only when someone was watching.
A couple of days later his ankle was still wrecked and even though part of me still thought that he was method acting (albeit very impressively), he decided to go to hospital. Unfortunately for Matt and us he had broken it – so came back in a cast for the remainder of the tour carrying himself about like some hirsute Stuart Pearce. We felt awful for having doubted the sincerity of his injury. He managed to do the rest of the gigs hopping about on stage from pedal to mic. What a hero.
My essential travel item…
Ah people know the craic about holidays and travel. I think whenever we go away we just try to really enjoy it – we never know when it is going to end so I think touring with a positive, open mind and an active imagination is the best thing to do.
My essential travel tip…
Never ever, ever leave your passport in the back of a plane seat on a connecting flight before you go home. Also, if you do then remember to get it back before the plane flies to its next destination.
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