I have not written anything for a week, simply as I was away on tour with Apartment and only went on the i.net once…to check some mail.
So here follows a lil’ recap.
I will edit and add things over the next few days….
I meet the band Monday the 24th at midday in Bethnal Green where we and tourmanager/driver Kevin “Captain Kevlar” Williams (also guitarplayer in the band Capricorns) are heading off to Leeds to play the first show. The Mercedes Sprinter is quite fast and comfortable, only downer is it has a dvd player and a tv and no one has thought about bringing some discs….not even for the cd player. We end up discussing music, politics and movies because of that….
I am introduced to certain mannerisms that go along with touring such as visiting any M&S store on the road like “Toddington” service station , which seems to be the good idea foodwise while travelling this week. If you have to live on the road, then make sure the food is of decent quality. We live most days on the stuff.
Gigwise the band is still riding high on the London gig from a few days before.
We arrive in Leeds and the first thing the band does is practice for the accoustic session at the BBC in Hull the next day.
The dressing room at the Cockpit is a fleepit and it stinks of piss………nobody stays there for even a second. The gig goes ok but the crowd most definately have come for one of the other bands…………as I said the band was on a high and this one brings brings it somewhat down. And that is about the most negative you’ll hear me about this tour because I must admit that the guys were well disciplined, life-wise. food-wise. Total pros.
David, Liam, Kevin and I have a curry afterwards (Tom and Davide went for tapas)
and then hook up with labelmanager Biff who came to show, at the Mojo bar where his son happens to be bartendering……..free drinks galore and everyone indulges in cocktails and gets rather well intoxicated,
esp. Davide who throws up outside the hotel (I know he will appreciate it loads when I mention this and show you the photograph :-0).
The band even played an impromptu acoustic set in the bar……………a good laugh.
We sleep in the Travellodge, not the one just outside the venue….nope 8 miles outside of town…. Now I could go on about travel lodge….it is a roof above your head and that’s about it…it smells in the room, and it requires a serious airing before we deem the place habitable….not in the mood to argue with the hotel peeps, as it is 1 am……and we wish to hit the sack.
Tuesday the band practices in the van before we get to Hull (for the BBC they record a 3 song session and do an interview),
they try some versions out as they have not choosen what to actually play, so they really start from scratch figuring this out (less than 24 hrs before the actual gig). The band will do a proper acoustic set on Aug. 11th at the Spread Eagle in Kingsland Rd. btw.
The show goes well and is fun, good thing is the coffee across the road from the studio, it is simply superb (we are all a lil’ hungover). My phone rings during the session and I am well and truly told off by Tom and Liam………..heh heh.
Straight after it is off to Manchester to do an instore acoustic set at Fopp record store where they play 4 songs and then it is off to the Mojo bar where they play a very good set (first time they have a band in the bar) and once again it is free drinks galore and this time yours truly is larging it………………
I even shoot a couple of kissers in the bar. I am reminded about this the next day and descriptions of all this are me doing it commando/sniper style…….as it ought to be :-0
The next day hung0000000000000000000ver and dying for fizzy drinks, pillz and copious amounts of food just to get rid of that dodgy feeling…….
We are off to Birmingham and it is not going to be a good day, Apartment play at the Barfly and we are not offered anything by the promoter, not even bottled water…tap water is good enough for us so it seems…..I could write loads about what I think about matters like this, but you propably caught my dift anyways so I am going to spare you the rant. I doubt I ever will go back there…..
Apartment are on first and we dissapear straight after, the Travel Lodge in Birmingham is horrid as well (was a bitch to find on top of that), and we are leaving soon early the next day as well…….what a difference compared with the last time I stayed in B’ham in the Regency Hyatt in Dec. 2004. Which is a palace compared to the T.L.
I go for a run in the morning on an indistrial estate as everyone is woken up at 8:15 by drills and other heavy building equipment as they are building a massive shopping center right next to the T.L.
We have a day off and our next hotel is in Carlisle as the day after that we play in Glasgow, so we decide to hang in the Lake District and try and have a swim/chill and make some pictures.
First we go for a quick swim and some water volleyball, then David and I go for a stroll and a chat and when we come back some of the others have left as well. Liam arrives back w. a stick and is doing a Mozes…….if only.
We hatch up a plan to buy a few barbecues and try to find a nice spot, which we do at the Thirlmere, I find a small plateau that overlooks the lake and the mountains, simply breathtaking. I have made a dodgy panorama shot and pasted it sloppily together….no time for photoshop right now so ul have to live with the chopped version.
Captain Kevlar proves to be a kick ass chef as well and we eat like pigs/kings
taking some shots on different little plateaus with different backgrounds just before the light is dissapearing, I post some outtakes…
The weeds thing was an idea by Tom, I took three shots and then gave up………there was just laughter and mucking about….
…..we chill till sunset and then make our way to Carlisle and sleep like babies….this all after a much hilarious search for the travel lodge, the day before in Birmingham we had trouble finding the entry towards it as well.
After seeing such magnificent views we are on a upper which turns into a massive downer the second we arrive in Glasgow. I have been in Scotland before and it has some real beautiful spots, but Glasgow does not fall in that catagory at all it simply is sodom and gomorrah, it should be nuked and built all over again…….what a shithole.. Not one attractive woman and the blokes are all wearing sportswear….you think I am generalising here but I am not.
We eat dinner at Cafe Uno and that is a distaster; the burger I order is burned and so is the bread……on top of that it is expensive (£ 10.00 for a burger….) fucking awfull so avoid that place at all costs. The gig is good (the band starts at midnight) and a sweaty affair.
After the gig David is confronted by one of the girls overthere and starts comparing him to the singer of The Strokes, a hilarious moment which is repeated by me the next day. This is more or less a lil’ payback for the fact that David called our (Kevin and me) and later Tom’s and Davide’s room to prentend to be someone Scottish and mess with us for a while on the phone…..
I managed to snag a couple outside the Barfly@ it…
We drive off to our hotel and sleep again like babies (must be the fact that everyone is so disciplined) to be ready for the final date in York.
York is pretty but touristy….we play the venue (Fibbers) as the first band (Voom Blooms are headlining) and the people organising have a go at us for being one minute late and at the end again for the fact that the band overplayed by roughly 5 mins…. This was due to the fact that one of the punters requested “People” (a song they had not played since last Dec.). Soundman Ru was a nice bloke to deal with, someone who cared about what he was doing! At the end of David did a “Sucking Satan’s Cock” (from late great Bill Hicks) routine…….I like it when they jam, problem is most sets do not allow this as they are time restricted.
In the end we decide to go for some kebabs and chips (first junkfood of the week) and we almost get in a fight coz the bloke in front of us whois soooo drunk (at 9:30 pm) thinks David called him something (as a matter of fact David never said anything at all until further down the argument). the dickhead doesn’t know when to stop and four of us move towards him and tell him to shut up and bugger off, his g/f understands what is about to happen and pulls him away………………
We have a four hour drive ahead of us and by 2am yours truly is back at home
One more thing tho, I think they should blag a sponsorship from M&S tho……:-0
