Danny North

Last week I returned from Brazil, and since then I've been flat out, I wanted to blog about it since I got back but I've literally only just got round to it...  Too much to mention, but I've tried my best!

 

Tam Air lost my luggage, which was slightly disconcerting, not only from a clothing point of view but there was some stuff like battery charges etc in it!  So the time I spent in Sao Paulo was split between wondering if my luggage would ever turn up, and actually trying to find it. I had a nervous trip to the Airport the day after I arrived as customs wanted to see me, but all was fine, and the feeling of fresh undies was the highlight of the day.

We did a TV show which you can see here:

 

 

It was actually a lot of fun, the band played a couple of tracks, which aren't on that link.  Plus Ronaldo was in the room plugging a new DVD or something.  Which was pretty cool.

If you watch the video you can see me skulking around in the background somewhere.

 

Pamela and Elizabeth backstage at the gig in Sao Paulo

The night of the gig there was a massive power cut, which left most of Brazil without electricity and most of Sao Paulo scared to leave there homes. 

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Brazil-Power-Cut-Millions-Without-Power-In-Sao-Paulo-And-Rio-De-Janeiro-After-Electrical-Outage/Article/200911215451224

Luckily Gogol Bordello were playing the only venue in the city with it's own power generator.  And despite the outage, there was still a more than 3/4 full gig, some what of a triumph!

 

Sao Paulo is a strange city, I really didn't get a feel for it.  All towering sky scrapers, but not much Brazil vibes, or at least the kinda Brazil vibes I expected.

Rio on the other hand is everything you imagine it to be and more.

The videos (shot by NME's very own James McMahon) - illustrate the variation.

The Night video was shot in Lapa a few hours before Gogol played. Lapa is an old run down part of Rio, historic building slowly decaying in the humidity.  I'm pretty much told that this is one of the most dangerous places a Gringo can go by themselves, but the main drag in the evening in pretty busy and comes alive with street parties.  There was an old Cachaca bar round here somewhere, we  dipped in for a few shots of homemade ginger moonshine, it was rather nice as it goes, if not a little fiery!

 

 

 

And the second was shot in the car with Eugene and Oren on the way to shoot a feature for the NME, driving down Ipanema beach.

 

 

My first full day found me being shown round Ipanema by Eugene, how's been living out here for a year and a half.  Highlight of the day was hanging in Eugene's flat, whilst he jammed various Slayer and Pogues songs for me.  The next day the band were invited to a private drink at this guys house who was a fan of the band.  A modest affair, with Uzi totting security guards (8 of them), a cocktail mixologist dude, continuous food being served by Geeves & co, and more staff than your average Hyatt hotel.  The party took place in the smaller wing of the house, twice the size of your average Chelsea mansion, it turned out to be just the Granny Annex.  Our Host lived in a castle somewhere else on the property, hidden by dense jungle foliage.

 

The next day we headed over to soundcheck around lunch, Uri and I played Frisbee in the ridiculous heat.  I've never sweated as much ANYWHERE in the world as much as in Rio.  Humidity is off the scale.  For the first time since hitting Rio, I hit the beach.  Our hotel was right on the beach and central to the gay area on Ipanema, more budgie smuggling than you can shake a stick at.

 

 

A couple of hours jumping through waves followed by a punk rock siesta, we head out to the venue.

Stage time was 1.30am, but everything was running late, I think the band made it to stage around 2.45am. 

 

 

The crowd was as intense as the band, people getting flung around and the whole room bouncing throughout the entire set.  One of the best things about this tour was seeing Pedro out with the band.  Pedro is the band percussionist and also vocals on a number of tracks, he's an awesome performer, and really adds something special to the mix.  I'm really really chuffed he's able to tour outside the USA now the visa situation is finally resolved.

 

There was the craziest number of people in the dressing room after the gig, and I think we finally left the venue at around 5.30am -The plan being we head down to Ipanema beach to enjoy sunrise with a few extra drinks.

Just before heading out the venue parking lot, I grabbed a couple of shots of Jonathan Shaw and Eugene on Jonathan's bike. 

 

Jonathan Shaw and Eugene Hütz, 5.40am Rio De Janeiro. 

 

You should check out Jonathan's book, Narcisa.  I've not read it yet (it's on my christmas list) but it comes highly recommended.  Jonathan is one of Eugene's friends in Rio.  He's a really interesting person, former world famous tattoo artists, raised by Hell's angels and best mates with Johnny Depp, a very interesting story teller and he kindly watched my back when we were in the dodgier parts of town.

 

 

Pam, Uri, Oren and James 6.20am Ipanema Beach

 

Pam & Oren 6.41am Ipanema Beach

A few drinks on the beach, followed by some of the Guy's swimming, an incident with a wave and a pair of spectacles later, and I was beat.  I'd been up all night and was seriously ready to pull the blackout curtains in my hotel room.

Latter in the day we shot a feature on Arpoador Beach for the NME, I think it's going to run in 2 weeks or so, so look out for it.

 

Tommy T enjoying the view over Arpoador...

 

Apart from a massive beef burger and a few Cuba Libre's, that was me for the day, pretty much everyone was burned from the all nighter. 

 

Fully rested up, Oren, Pam, Eugene and myself head up Corcovado Mountain to see Christo redemptor.  We stopped off along the way and shot a TON of photo's most under wraps for a little while.  For a good reason I assure you.

However I managed to sneak myself into a one of the snaps...

 

The final night ended up in a massive get together at a great restaurant who's name escapes me, the chef was a friend of the bands, and the food was amazing.

The following day we were due to leave the hotel for the airport at 3.45pm, flying back to London via Sao Paulo.  Except Eugene had other plans!  Over breakfast he was trying to convince me an additional 4 days in Mexico with the band was what I needed!  haha, so true, I wanted to go pretty badly, I had too much on back in the UK that would be a logistical nightmare to rearrange at short notice.  Mexico wasn't meant to be.  The rest of the day was a lot of fun though...  Before leaving the country Eugene, Jonathan and myself headed out to shoot a bunch more.  We headed downtown, which was pretty scary for me, I was the only Gringo for miles in the Market, and Eugene had pretty much scared the life out of me with story's of murder and robbery, and here I was with a D3, 24-70 f2.8, and a crumpler bag, which positively shouted ROB ME.  I was shitting myself, and we came close to a moment that could have gone either way, but we shot some amazing stuff and I made it out intact.  We then head up to Lapa, and shot a ton of stuff in the hills high above Rio.

 

I made it back to the hotel at 3.05pm, I had 40 minutes to pack and shower, then off to the airport.

The week had been everything I'd hoped and more, I've only written about a fraction of the stuff here, there's simply too much and I've probably bored you all now anyway.  I'll end with this, Gogol Bordello are not only one of the best live bands on the planet, but also some of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of working with.  That not only includes the band, but Paul the Tour Manager, Patrick the band Manager who came down to Rio for the week, and all the crew guys.  They all made me feel like I was part of the family, you can't ever ask for any more than that.

Big up the Gogol massive.

Oh and check this out, Tommy T - the legend that is the GB bassist has a solo LP out on Easy Star records, it's an Ethiopian reggae dub record, I bought it from iTunes and it's a damn fine record, loving it bigtime.  I interviewed T on the roof of the Ipanema Plaza for Easy Star, the video should go live real soon...  Check it out yall!  PARTY.

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-prester-john-sessions/id334124873

 

There are a ton of photo's I'm working on from this trip, they're going to appear in a number of different places, starting with the Gogol website shortly.  I'll let you know when they're up.

And one last thing, James McMahon did a Brazil blog on NME.com  check that out as well...

 

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Apologies to Sao Paulo!  I'm certain I wasn't there long enough to get stuck in!  I promise you I'll come back and drink your streets dry.