Oy Loyk Oyrland
I’m currently in a hotel in Glasgow counting CDs and half-listening to the television. I can’t tell if it’s the jet lag or all the Irn Bru I drank during my set at Oran Mor tonight, but I’m not so sleepy even though it’s past midnight. It doesn’t help that there’s some kind of wedding in this hotel and a bunch of kids in suits are running up and down the halls randomly banging on doors (not as relaxing as it sounds).
Both shows have been amazing – the crowd in Dublin sang everything all the way through very loudly, which was great. I played Danny Boy, which is such a beautiful song I couldn’t resist even though I knew it was going to make the audience groan. And groan they did, but they sang anyway. I wish I could have spent more time in Dublin – I was staying with friends of friends who are actual Irish people, and they were very nice and fun.
Today I had a frenetic day of traveling and a second great show here in Glasgow. The crowd was less sing-y to be sure, but no less kind and enthusiastic. Also there was steak pie and Irn Bru and Tablet. I had no set list because the only pen I had in the green room was broken (I wish I made this excuse up but it’s true), so I kind of made it up as I went along, took a few requests, played some songs I probably should have practiced before playing in public.
Manchester on Wednesday!
October 25th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
That’s the U.K for you.
October 25th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Wahey! I contributed to that singeyness in no small way. I just wish I had had time to say hi to you and get a picture or something. Come back soon ya hear!
October 25th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
I was at the gig tonight, it was amazing. so good to see joco live! i tried the singing but theres a reason im a scientist… again fantastic gig!
October 25th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Glad to know you now know the awesomeness of Irn Bru.
October 25th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I was at the Glasgow Gig! Your short rendition of Free bird was great! Also it was a pleasure to get to talk to you and shake your hand! (Also, our mutual friend Brad was right, you are a good guy!)
October 25th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Come back to Ireland; we’ll practise our bad american accents so that you can understand us!
October 25th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Irn-Bru! I remember those from my Scotland-obsessed phase. I don’t know if they make these anymore, but Irn-Bru chew bars are spectacular. And by “spectacular,” I mean “the chew candy equivalent to crack.”
October 25th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
IRN-BRU! Scotland’s second favorite national drink! The best drink ever!
*Neither a significant source of iron or brew.
October 26th, 2008 at 4:11 am
I was singing! I think it was just because it was a sit-down gig, everyone felt a little more reserved. There was certainly lots of audience participation…!
Absolutely awesome gig. I was grinning and singing all the way home.
October 26th, 2008 at 5:34 am
Hey awesome gig last night!!! The audience was a good laugh from what i can remember. Penis reduction anyone?
October 26th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Come on London gig! I’m all excited! You’re drinking Irn Bru, man that is my drink, after Mountain Dew that is the best soda you can get!
October 26th, 2008 at 5:48 am
actual Irish people
… as opposed to bogus Irish people, of which there are many…
We be lookin’ for’ard to seein’ ye at Manchester next week. We only wish we’d seen ye in Dublin as well.
The Pirates of the Cutty Shark.
October 26th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Dublin was most excellent fun. We’re looking forward to your return, though you will need to get a venue in the west next time. Make the Dubs travel for a change!
October 26th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Fantastic concert last night, you need to get that guitar tuned better or the Manchester lot *will* stab you. And remember:
‘Code Monkey like Fritos
Code Monkey like Tab and Irn Bru’
October 26th, 2008 at 8:00 am
it sounds like you were in the same hotel as me p.s loved the scottish flag look!
October 26th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Glasgow gig was awesome! I agree with Al K about it being a sit down, less crowd energy / singing along. Still a very fun night
Come back soon!
October 26th, 2008 at 10:08 am
been a devoted fan for absolutely ages!
Can’t wait to see you in Manchester
October 26th, 2008 at 11:08 am
That was definitely, a brilliant show was my first concert but i got a photo with You, and a signed ticket what more can i ask for?
I couldn’t stop whistling all the way home!
October 26th, 2008 at 11:09 am
*is looking forward to Wednesday*
October 26th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Great show!
Wish I could’ve stayed for a bit, maybe tried to get something signed.
Can’t wait to see Joe’s video (the guy that went on stage for the robot voice)
October 26th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Hi !
Remember me? The annoying guy who gave the “code monkey likes tab and Irn Bru” line, and The Penis Reduction line, and the suggestion you did “When You Go” (Sorry!) And then had the audacity to come up on stage with you ! ;’ ) Great Show, Jonathan. What you should realise is, in a general type of audience people DO ‘want’ to sing along… But they also want to be respectful to ‘you’ and let you be sung without butting in. Personally, I didn’t sing cos I was filming, but, as you rightly pointed out, on stage I was belting out the Harmony to Chiron Beta Prime !! ;’ ) Haste Ye Back!
October 26th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Show in Glasgow was awesome.
I was singing my wee heart out, but quietly..felt the crowd weren’t really into that. Told the t-shirt guys I’d be up moshing. Mega hungover from partying with Feeder the night before. Wonder if i’d started if anyone would have joined in??
Liked the fact there was no set list..so Big Bad World got played. Wayhey!! As I told you, really missed Flickr..but everything else I wanted got covered.
Oh, and really wanted a t-shirt, but felt they were a wee bit bland??
So many great lyrics that would look awesome on a t-shirt!!
That’s all.
October 26th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Your Glasgow gig was awesome! It was tough not to sing along, but I wanted to hear you and not encourage the off-key bloke behind me to sing any louder than he already was. I wanted to hear YOU!!
As an American in the audience I was thrilled to finally have someone back me up: Irn Bru does taste like bubble gum! I also found it highly amusing that you sang Over there.
Come back soon!!
October 26th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
The Irish gig was pure awesome. Shame you couldn’t have hung around: there were at least forty people who would’ve bought you beer all night.
Next time you come back, I’m pretty sure more people will ask you to sign their coconut.
October 26th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Was asked to the gig in Whelans in Dublin on Friday night by my geeky son, a lookalike for Jonathon and am so glad he bought tickets with my credit card . What a gig, amazing talent and can’t wait for the next. Really enjoyed Danny Boy, maybe next time try some Thin Lizzy. Only one downer was the fact that my daughter couldn’t go as she is 16 and under age.
October 26th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Hey Jonathon and all users, it;s Martin from Ready-up, thanks so much for the interview, such a nice man. My post will be up on http://ready-up.net/ on Monday lunchtime, check it out I think it’s awesome,but then I wrote it so….BTW hope you liked the Irn Bru and the flag
October 26th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Am horribly excited about Wednesday! Keep telling people about it and giggling in a slightly worrying way!
October 26th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Jonathan, the Glasgow gig was wonderful. Glad you learned about Irn Bru and tablet. The sugar buzz must have been awesome. Apologies for the wedding party – were they the same ones that had the reception in the Oran Mor tower?
I have to say, I’ve never seen so many computer scientists in one room at the same time – even when I used to work at the University. What a great demographic for an Internet musician! Must find a way to break into that.
Anyway my son and I both enjoyed the show and we hope you’ll come back to Scotland soon.
Awrrabest,
Mark (bassplayer – not computer scientist)
October 26th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
The Dublin gig was fantastic, even if the audience did get Rick Rolled!
October 26th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Enjoyed the Glasgow gig! An infinite number of thanks to you.
Please come again, we’re all missing you already
October 26th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Dude, did you seriously play When You Go?? Why am I on -this- side of the ocean??
Even unpracticed, those guys were lucky over there.
October 27th, 2008 at 4:34 am
I’ve heard a recording of the Glasgow gig, but not of the Dublin one. From this I conclude that whenever people are not singing, it’s because they’re recording.
Can’t wait till Wednesday. I won’t be singing.
And I hope they have Irn Bru in England too, because you’ve got me curious.
October 27th, 2008 at 4:47 am
Come back to Ireland soon! I missed the gig because I had to deliver my mam to the airport and do some other things for her. And you *will* be bought many-much beers when next you come.
Vaticon are using your quote on their flyers now, which rocks, and the signed Code Monkeys got….oh, some obscene amount, I can’t remember, at the Gaelcon Charity Auction last night. If it wasn’t €1000 it was damned close.
(Vaticon and Gaelcon are gaming conventions. Irish Gaming Convention Charity Auctions won the Diana Jones award for Excellence in Gaming)
October 27th, 2008 at 4:49 am
Dublin was just amazing, the Monkeys in the audience were pure genius, they did a dance routine during Robotnik’s first songs that was just awesome, and even got to dance along to that amazing version of Pat the Baker… well done guy and girl!
As for JoCo himself, well, what can I say. Just the best. And so nice to find myself in a room with so many other people who not only knew the songs as well as me but some far dwarfed my feeble knowledge of Coultonicity… Other rock singers get ladies underwear thrown at them. JoCo gets coconuts, monkeys, and a selection of pens to sign them with. At other concerts, fights break out over one look at another guy’s girl. At JoCo concerts, fights start over the accuracy – or lack of – of the math in Mandlebrot Set. Never will I forget that moment when from behind me came the sinister warcry: “your math is wrong!”
Angelastic, I have a couple of videos of the Dublin gig, probably a little shaky because of the singing and laughing, but still… If JoCo doesn’t mind I’ll put them up on YouTube…
October 27th, 2008 at 5:10 am
The Glasgow show should be named ‘JoCo Jukebox’ it was great fun.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:16 am
Coconuts?!
Put them on YouTube, link to them on the forums and/or the wiki… if JoCo minded, he’d be living comfortably off the profits of suing us all and he wouldn’t be doing any more concerts, which is just as well because we wouldn’t be able to afford to go, having had our arses sued off and therefore having nothing to sit on while coding for money.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:17 am
Kerrin: JoKoBox?
October 27th, 2008 at 5:41 am
The Dublin gig was AWESOME, had an absolute blast. There must have been at least fifty JoCo t-shirts at Gaelcon the past few days, so hopefully sales went well. Aer Lingus are kind of insane in terms of excess baggage, yes. For a while I was doing periodic work over in Germany that required fifteen pounds worth of kit on a twenty-pound luggage allowance, and at one point I had to pay €150 between the extra bags and the weight. Thankfully it’s all chargeable, but it was a bit ridiculous! Hope they’re treating you well over beyond, and let me add my voice to the chorus: Come back! We love you!
October 27th, 2008 at 9:33 am
Yes Coconuts! Well, just the one coconut technically. It was a fairly crazy night, but tremendous fun! I’ll join in the “come back soon” chorus… We loike yeww too. A lot.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:17 am
I have great respect for those you can truly write in dialect. Shows that you listen carefully. Mark Twain had something nice to say on this subject.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Hey Jonathan, Gianni here (The quiet guy who was with Martin (Ready-up)). Was really really nice to meet you the other night. You are a totally awesome guy and were so helpful on the interview Martin done with you. Hopefully i will get an add to your Xbox Live list and we can have a bash at something. Good luck with the rest of your shows and hopefully talk to you soon dude!
October 27th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Looking forward to the Nottingham gig on Friday! It’s a shame gamecity are trying to upstage you with bloody guitar hero though.
October 27th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
After the Dublin show, I was less eloquent than I really intended to be, but I will reiterate what I said, so you hopefully don’t forget:
Record your version of the Londonderry Air! It’s so damn rare to find someone who plays that song with even an ounce of feeling in it, normally it’s really droning and funereal; I used to really dislike the song, but you made me see why you like it so much.
Hope the rest of the tour went/is going/goes well!
October 27th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
The Glasgow gig was very much worth, well, setting foot in Glasgow for. As an Edinburgh-er that’s saying something.
October 28th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Glad to hear you liked Ireland! We were in Dublin just a day to late to attend (but we saw you at PAX 08 anyway). Next time you come over, do a bit of a tour, and come to Cork! You have a heck of a lot of fans down here in the real capital!
October 29th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Glad you learned of the utter sugary awesomeness that is tablet.
Seriously cannot wait for the gig tonight!!!
October 29th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Hi! I’ve only started listening to your music (after watching the Spiffworld WoW music videos for them on youtube
) and I have to say, you are one of the most creative and genuine musicians I have ever listened to in my short 20 years of life. It’s very very different from the music I generally listen to (Garbage, Rammstein, and AC/DC) but it’s SOO CATCHY and QUIRKY in so many good ways. I just wanted to say thank you for inducing my one song playlist of “My Monkey” and sometimes to switch it up, “The Future Soon” (and also causing my roommate to forcibly shut down my laptop after the 50th repetition of said playlist).
You’re the best! When are you touring the US?
xoxo
Helen
October 29th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Hi all, me again just a few things to let you know about. First, my interview with Jonathan can be found at http://ready-up.net/2008/10/27/feature-jonathon-coulton-singer-songwriter-internet-superstar/, please read it and leave comments. Secondly and thirdly on the same website we will have a video interview up for the weekend possibly and lastly we will also be doing a competition soon to win two t-shirts signed specially for us by Jonathan. Keep watching the site for more. Cheers.
October 30th, 2008 at 4:45 am
The Manchester gig was awesome, though I wish you’d played “I Feel Fantastic” too … I guess I’ll have to get a t-shirt with the song title now.
October 30th, 2008 at 4:53 am
Looking forward to the London show. Can anyone give a rough idea of how long the set lasted in the last few gigs? Trying to make travel arrangements and want to allow enough time for maximum JoCo.
October 30th, 2008 at 5:02 am
Set list was approx 1-1:30
nice spread of songs at the manchester gig too.
I was an honour to help run the merch stall last nice and super nice to meet Amber, Jonathan, Paul, Storm and all the rest of the backstage crew at manchester!
Here’s hoping you don’t wait too long for another UK tour!
October 30th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Just to say, was incredably awesome on you to drop in on the Neil Gaiman talk Jonathan! I was torn between which one to go to, unfortunately my girlfriend held the casting vote, but it made my day (or week, month, year, I suppose) that I got to see the three of you as well as Neil! You should make a habit of it. Better still, if you tour here again, the other half has promised she’ll be dragged along to see you, after loving Skullcrusher Mountain, even with he dodgy acoustics in that hall.
Thanks again!
October 30th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
You and Paul & Storm dropping in and opening for Neil was wonderfully strange and amazing. I love Skullcrusher Mountain, it’s so quirky and fun! You’ve got me and my flatmate singing along to it, and we’ve ordered the boxset cause we can’t wait to hear more.
October 30th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Just to say I was at Neil’s reading in Manchester and it was wonderful to see the three of you – (I was one of the woment sitting in the front row and signing along to Skullcrusher Mountain…..) Nest time you tour in the UK you come to Bristol, OK?
October 30th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
top gig in manchester, loved it
what was that iphone program?
and pleeeeeeeeease record neil gaiman doing that spoken word thing sometime, its like ‘thriller’ for the noughties!
October 31st, 2008 at 5:13 am
Saw the London gig last night and it was awesome! If I closed my eyes it was just like listening to my ipod
Seriously though, big THANKS for coming over to the UK. I still can’t quite believe it, it’s like a crazy ninja monkey zombie dream thing. Very very cool. Had a fantastic time!
October 31st, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Just got back to Norfolk after the London gig, absolutely amazing!
I’d love a download of the remixed Fancy Pants, it had me in awe and stitches simultaneously.
Come back soon! (Dejected arr…)
October 31st, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Glaslow is a great city. I envy you Jonathan Coulton.
October 31st, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Saw you at the manchester gig on wednesday, seriously one of the best gigs ive ever been to, seriously you were amazing, come back soon please please please
November 1st, 2008 at 11:39 am
I’d completely forgotten about the comedy remix of Fancy Pants! I am now giggling to myself, bouncing around and occasionally going “fancy pants!”. It is a good thing the boyfriend knows what I’m talking about or the men in white coats would be on their way already…
Any chance you guys can come to Cambridge next time? It took me three hours to get home on Thursday night, which is odd as the train OUGHT to take only 45 mins. *shrug*
Gig at Shepherd’s Bush was fantastic, and I have been humming various songs to myself ever since. Come back soon! Fantastic stuff
)
November 1st, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Incidentally, is it just me who gets a mental image of frilly French knickers from “Mr Fancy Pants”? (I suspect this must be at least partially due to the fact that for English people, pants are underwear rather than trousers, and thus fancy pants must be of the lacy lingerie variety)
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:33 am
Hey JoCo! I tried to make it down to Dublin but in a terrible combination of short notice and lack of money/transportation I couldn’t go.
Any plans for Belfast, Northern Ireland?
Plenty of code monkeys and zombies here! Promise.
November 5th, 2008 at 5:24 am
Since I seem to be the only one voting on Eventful for JoCo to come to Sweden, I had to fly to Dublin to see him. It was however, as I expected, totally worth it. I got to experience the complete disregard for the stage-audience boundaries that the Irish host, which made the gig more of a choir-event and a conversation between artist and fans than pure performance. Don’t get me wrong-this was in no way negative. Instead, I believe I have been part of something kind of unique. Also, Mr Coulton graciously accepted the IKEA-tshirt I brought him, but to my horror he hadn’t included the song in the playlist…so the joke kind of sunk. Finally, one of the highlights of my life will always be the beef between the two mathgeeks.