18/2/2010

[Pictures to come]

It was the last gig of the 'You say potato, we say potay' Tour: Part 1 and the venue was The Ringside in Hull. It's not the best venue in the world (it's pretty much a working man's club) but the sound is decent and the sound men are dedicated. The unfortunate thing about this show was that seemed to be playing the wrong gig. We were playing downstairs with a Metallica-esque band and upstairs were a bunch of hardcore/post hardcore bands playing to a room full of kids. You can guess which one we thought we should of been playing.

Anywho, we plotted with the opposition (who we've made into allies, we're crafty like that) and planned it so we start just as a band finishes upstairs, kind of like a festival set up. It sort of worked but we definitely played to more kids than we would of if we hadn't planned anything. Kudos to us.

After the show we went to club called 'Welly'. Probably the coolest club I've ever been to. 3 rooms playing electro, indie and alternative, cheap as hell drinks and totally rammed with students. Awesome. Safe to say things got silly and we had a rad night. That was the night my love for Paul Champion (our tour manager) became real. That guy is an absolute diamond.

17/2/2010

[Photos to come]

Tonight we were gracing the cobbled streets of Stockport. Gonna be honest, I had bad things in my head when I imagined the place but I was actually pleasantly surprised. Instead than the bleak northern industrial town I pictured it was actually rather quaint with some cool architecture. Pretty similar to Wimborne which is where I'm from in Dorset. It's quite nice to feel a little bit of home when you're 200 odd miles away.

The gig itself was fun (and the only one with a rider!) although some of the bands (along with the crowd) we played with were seriously young. Like 'this is my first band' kind of young. Although it did mean we were treated to some cracking pop punk covers! Blink 182, Good Charlotte, all that good stuff.

That night was the first of our 2-night residency at James' house in Hull. What a nice chap.

16/02/2010

Every time I come to London it makes me want to live here even more and this time was no exception. Driving through the residential parts of Islington showed me how ridiculous some of the houses here are! Obviously they are slightly out of my price range at the moment, but you never know, one day...

We were in Islington because were playing at the Hope and Anchor, a really nice pub with a small venue in the basement. To be honest I couldn't fault the venue at all, nice atmosphere, great sound, great soundman, just all around what you'd want from a venue. The only let down this evening unfortunately was the promoter. We'd been put on a bill with a bunch of skinhead Oasis wannabes and a hip hop act. Generally just not cool. I mean don't get me wrong, the hip hop act were insanely good, they were obviously all session musicians and they really knew what they were doing (the less said about the opening act the better...) but just for the fact that the promoter had literally no clue and put us on with these acts really says a lot.

I'm pretty unsure how he expected the show to work musically, when all the bands playing were such polar-opposites. The only thing I took from the night really was that bearing in mind the headliners were obviously seasoned and uber-experienced, I didn't feel intimidated and I felt we held our own pretty damn well. Something that a year ago I probably wouldn't have been able to say.

Anyway safe to say we set ourselves a new rule that night 'Be more pushy with promoters and don't settle for any old gig'. I think that's pretty reasonable.

This evening we're staying at Joe's girlfriend's house. Her name is Bek and along with her housemate Katie have made us very welcome. We made pancakes and then got a real bed. Awesome. So thank you Bek and Katie, your hospitality was extremely appreciated.

This pictures today are of (left to right) Dave, Joe, Alex, Paul and Rich in an Islington pub called The Nags Head (I pretty much only chose it because I love Only Fools and Horses), Dave making pancakes and a photo I took of the guys that I quite liked. No other real reason. So don't ask. You schmuck.

15/02/2010 - First date of tour!

And we so were off, with fire in our bellies and (as Joe so nicely put it) "hope in our hearts" we ventured out on our first proper UK tour in about a year and we were about as excited as a fat kid with burger hands.

Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty short jaunt across our fair isles (4 shows spread around the south, midlands and the north) but beggars can't be choosers! And until we're doing 3 month stints across the US I probably won't sniff at 4 dates across the UK!

The first show was in Birmingham at Subside Bar in city centre. It's a weird venue, because to tell the truth, it's not really a proper venue. It's more of a bar that supports the Academies and puts on smaller local and out of town acts. That being said they're always free shows and that's always cool.

We played with some local screamo/metalcore bands and they were all really nice guys, which always makes a massive difference. The show was fun but I don't think we'll be playing there again, not having a sound man isn't that cool...

That night we were put up by a very old school friend of mine Katy Dyer. It was very last minute and very appreciated. So thank you Katy.

All in all not a bad first night, although let's hope Subside don't ask about the kicking Joe gave one of their sofas mid-set...

(The photo is of our tour manager Paul on the way to Brum, I like embarrassing him with photos like this).

14/2/2010

Apart from feeling hungover today I had a lovely meal with Emma at a restaurant called Loch Fynne in Winchester. We ate copious amounts of fish (as it was a fish restaurant) and also a lot of mashed potato.

(It wasn't a mashed potato restaurant).

13/2/10

Today was a big day. Today I saw
my very good friend Neill Luffman and today we watched the first three episodes of the new (and final) season of Lost. Lost is a big part of our lives and the feelings we feel for this show are deep and true.

And as you can see the way we watch this show has got completely out of hand. Nevertheless we got what we expected; mystery, confusion, more confusion and pretty much the same show we've always loved. Awesome.

After that we got very drunk and put a turban on my head. This picture is proof.

12/2/10

Work in the morning so settled for a night of 30 Rock and Modern Family. Oh and Emma popped over.

Excited for tour tour tour on Monday.