Ed O'Brien on BBC Radio 1

Ed O'Brien phones Steve Lamacq at Radio 1 from a dressing room in New Haven, Connecticut, two hours before a show on the band's American club tour. The town is home to Yale and also claims to be the murder capital of the world, which he finds a curious thing to advertise. Walking the night before to what turned out to be an Indian restaurant inside a diner, they heard bangs, assumed gunfire and settled on fireworks.

It was the fourth date of the tour, playing to 700 or 800 people a night, with David Gray supporting. The bus was 45 feet long with a horse painted on the back and bunks he describes as coffins. That night they were staying off it, which he finds strange.

The American sets are shorter and faster than the British ones, he says, because the rooms are smaller. The next day in New York he plans to see the Empire State Building and possibly a gallery.