After months of putting the dates together, working out the logistics (accommodation, travel etc), the three of us - Aidy (guitar, vocals), Dave (bass, vocals) and myself (percussion) hit the road for 7 UK dates, a tour to finally get us out there to cities we've never played before, to see places, to meet people, to get the hang of this whole 'being on the road' thing. Armed with a stack of CD's to sell (Aidy's 'Not Your Day' album), a mailing list and flyers, we worked hard on the PR side of things, we lived in each other's pockets for a week, toured in a slightly battered Peaguot 406, we drank far too much, and we made lots of new friends along the way. By the end of the run lessons were certainly learnt and there's a real sense that when we do this again it may be slightly smoother. But as a team - a trio - we never stopped bantering, pushing the tunes out there, and I feel that by a couple gigs in we were also proper tight. A pleasure to be cooped up in a crammed car, or a tiny hotel room, with two people who previously I'd only really known from gigs or occassional party, but throughout the week there was never a cross word or even an ounce of tension, which in itself is a miracle. And that's even when Aidy and Dave continually sang 'Boys On Tour' (to the tune of 'Girls On Film') throughout pretty much the whole run, I thought it would get annoying but the spirits remained high. We even created a new sitcom character called Routandhi, who will live a lot longer than this tour ever will. But of course it is about the music at the end of the day, and we played a bit of that...
GIG 1
Venue: The Horns, Watford
Date: 04/07/11
Audience: Minimal, but enthusiastic
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Guns, Miami Beach, God's Front Porch, Prettyish, Life In Monochrome, Down Like That, Edinburgh, Washing Machine
Notes: Arrived in Watford a fashionable 7 hours early, and after trying (and failing) to make additional contact with the local media, we advertised the gig in all the local music shops, found the venue, had a cheeky afternoon pint, and walked around the town. I'm not sure what to make of Watford - it's a friendly enough place, but very much a clone town, it might as well have just been Peterbororough. We then went over to Aidy's mate Tim's house, where we would be staying for the night. We rehearsed for a couple hours, working out the odd percussional arrangement, getting tight, as - although we've been playing as a trio for a while now, I've not really had a chance to rehearse with Aidy and Dave what with other gig committments recently. We also worked out a fairly generic set for the tour - basically the plan is to start and end with the same songs, but change things around a bit in the middle. Got a taxi to the venue, met up with my old mate Ade Bailey and had a couple pints with him, and we played a good but slightly loose set. A few teething problems, but nothing too obvious - it's the first night of the tour, it was always going to be like this. Also, going on stage with 6 pints inside us probably wasn't a good idea, but it's a learning curve. Small audience, but went down well, the promoter was a dude and we sold some CD's. Realising there was a strong football raport with our host, I then spent several hours chatting to Tim about the Spurs FA Cup Semi Final side of 1991, football is great for social boundaries. Woke up feeling slightly rough.
GIG 2
Venue: The Langtry, Norwich
Date: 05/07/11
Audience: Crammed in, wonderful
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Down Like That, Miami Beach, God's Front Porch, Life In Monochrome, Prettyish, Guns, Edinburgh, Washing Machine
Notes: Leaving Tim's house in good time, we made the short trip up the road to Norwich for our second gig. The Norwich media seemed much more helpful and were keen to help us, and we hit the town centre in good spirits. Norwich is a beautiful city - I feel it has a bad name because of Alan Patridge, but I could live in Norwich any time, I'm actually seriously thinking about it as a future option. It's so individual, the shops have identity, it's the right level of progression yet retaining it's roots, and yep - the women are very pretty. We had a couple pints, met up with one of Aidy's mates, and then walked our gear from our hotel to the venue, everything was so close, so easy, so friendly. Gig itself was a cracker, Amy's a good promoter, we had a lovely friendly audience in a small but welcoming venue, and any issues from the night before were discussed and as a result our performance was spot on. Met lots of nice people, felt happy. Small hotel room for the three of us to share, but for that sort of money couldn't really argue.
GIG 3
Venue: Milo, Leeds
Date: 06/07/11
Audience: Minimal, but really into it
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Polly, Prettyish, Not Your Day, Down Like That, Guns, Edinburgh, Washing Machine, God's Front Porch (encore)
Notes: Leaving Norwich in good time, complete with substantial fry up from the hotel, we moved up the country to Yorkshire. On the way up we stopped off at a tiny village called Coddington, and popped into the pub for a coffee and a rest. The only people in was the landlady and and old man, but they seem fascinated by the fact we were touring musicians. We ended up giving her a free CD, and then she asked us to sign it, and then we legged it before she put it on because we sensed it may not have been her kind of thing. We get a call saying that the Liverpool gig at the Cavern Club has been cancelled as the other two bands have pulled out, and they want to reschedule us for later in the year. Arriving in Leeds, we realised we were staying in the 'rough bit', with a hotel that was far from desirable and the bathroom smelt of chemicals. Still, with spirits high we walked into town - realising it was a fair bit of a walk and feeling slightly intimideted by the locals with their screaching cars and thuggish faces. The closer we got to Leeds centre though the more realised it's actually a really nice place, a big city but friendly enough, and that our first impressions may have just been because we were staying in one of the cheaper areas. We tried in vein to sort another gig in Liverpool aware that the Cavern gig for the day later had been pulled, but despite phone calls had little luck. Had a pint, it rained a bit, met some of Dave's friends, and decided to get a taxi back into town with our equipment as we didn't feel comfortable walking such a distance with expensive instruments. We're not snobs, far from it, but we felt slightly wary about where we were staying. Our venue, Milo, is a brilliant, vibrant venue in the city centre. We played in the upstairs room, our promoter for the evening - Kevin, is an enthusiastic and very organised chap who did well for us and we appreciated that. I liked the space a lot, perfect size for an acoustic trio, and downstairs there was a covers band playing. Some of Aidy's mates who now live in Leeds turned up and they were pretty much half the audience - it wasn't busy, but in such a small place it worked really well. We sold some CD's, got more names on the mailing list, got an encore, and played easily the best we have done up to that point. Dropped 'Miami Beach' from the set and replaced it with 'Polly', which I preffered from a percussion point of view. The other acts on the bill were fantastic, and then Kevin says that he's had a band drop out for the next day and as we were stuck for another gig for the tour what with the Liverpool gig being postponed he offered us the slot. We readily accepted, happy with that fact that we could play a second night at Milo in Leeds as we all felt very comfortable there, and we could also leave our equipment there over night locked up so we could hit the town afterwards. And we certainly did that...this was the really drunken night of the tour, Aidy's friends kept buying us drinks, we went to a pub where it was 'Whiskey Wednesday' and then moved onto a dark, but brilliant, rock club. Whilst there we seemed to drink what was endless Black Russians, and in between those other shots, we danced to the music of Warren Zevon, and some Britpop tunes, we bantered, we had a brilliant night out, Aidy was sick in the hotel garden and Dave tried to pull a lesbian. Got back at 3am, slightly relieved we didn't have to travel far the next day.
GIG 4
Venue: Milo, Leeds
Date: 07/07/11
Audience: Half-full, enthusiastic
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Down Like That, Guns, God's Front Porch, Edinburgh, Washing Machine
Notes: We all woke up with the worst hangovers you could possibly imagine and didn't make it downstairs in time for breakfast. Man from hotel was banging on our door at 10am to try and get us out, we were more than happy to leave and leave that part of the city, but that didn't stop us feeling really rough. We sat in Aidy's car motionless for a fair while, unable to really move, because of the amount to drink we had the night before. I was the only member of the band to not throw up, I am proud of this fact. We eventually drove in to Leeds centre, but having done all our promotion the day previously and not expecting a second day in Leeds we didn't have much to do at all apart from kill time for several hours and not spend too much money, so went to the cinema to watch that new Tom Hanks film. It's a load of rubbish, but I've never been more grateful for the opportunity to sit in a small dark room for a couple hours as my head recovers. Checked in at a much better hotel, okay - so it meant sharing a bed with Aidy as Dave nabbed the bunkbed above us, but it was clean, cheap and we didn't feel intimidated in any way. It was also close enough to walk to the venue so after an Italian meal we headed back to Milo, still feeling a touch on the rough side but really happy to be playing at a great venue for the second night in a row. The headliners were late so the gig was a touch delayed and our set was cut to 25 minutes, but we were moved up on the bill from the first night to second on which helped us have probably the biggest audience of the night. That audience were all neatrual, for the first time on the tour, but they were so in to what we were doing it was brilliant. After a slow start (possibly hangover induced) we played really well again, again possibly a rival for our best performance of the tour. Enjoyed the other bands a lot, and we're keen to get back to Leeds soon as despite our initial reservations, Aidy's sharp, sometimes brash sense of humour, has never seemed to work so well. For example, when asking the olbigatery "what you would you like, the clean version or the explicit version" before Washing Machine, someone shouted out "clean version" and Aidy told them to "fuck off, you're getting the explicit one" and everyone found that amusing - in some venues that wouldn't have worked, but I think we all know that.
GIG 5
Venue: The Royal George, London
Date: 08/07/11
Audience: Busy, partially ignoring us, but with warm applause after each song at least
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Guns, Down Like That, Not Your Day, God's Front Porch, Prettyish, Life In Monochrome, Miami Beach, Washing Machine, 22 (encore)
Notes: We cheated a little for this one, even though we're on tour and you're not supposed to come home, we realised that London is so close to Cambridgeshire it would be financially a rubbish move to try and stay over, so we left Leeds bright and early and drove back to our respective homes for a little rest. I say rest, it's a fair old trip, and by the time everyone was home, showered and got clean shirts it was time to get back on the train to continue the tour. If anything, all the rushing around left us with little time to rest and we might have been better just staying in the car and keeping up the momentum. Outside the venue there was a taxi exploding, which was a bit strange. This was the first time they've put on these live music nights at The Royal George, and the venue itself was downstairs from a lively, central pub. It was a small room but pretty busy, some people there actually for the gig, and a lot of passing trade as downstairs is also where the toilets are. It was a friendly show, but not our best at all, we had a couple small sound issues on stage which hampered our performance, and although these were fixed pretty quickly we never really hit top form, we just seemed slightly jaded. Saying that we went down very well from those who were watching, and word is that we sounded a lot better off stage than we did on it. We even got an encore, so played a new song for the tour, '22', which is a lively one, and I liked playing this very much. At the end of the gig, for no other reason apart from to entertain, Dave jumped off the stage and rolled around the floor with his bass in true rock fashion. Still not sure why, but it added a element of 'show' to it all. Was nice to know that even when we're not having our best day we could still go down well.
Notes: We cheated a little for this one, even though we're on tour and you're not supposed to come home, we realised that London is so close to Cambridgeshire it would be financially a rubbish move to try and stay over, so we left Leeds bright and early and drove back to our respective homes for a little rest. I say rest, it's a fair old trip, and by the time everyone was home, showered and got clean shirts it was time to get back on the train to continue the tour. If anything, all the rushing around left us with little time to rest and we might have been better just staying in the car and keeping up the momentum. Outside the venue there was a taxi exploding, which was a bit strange. This was the first time they've put on these live music nights at The Royal George, and the venue itself was downstairs from a lively, central pub. It was a small room but pretty busy, some people there actually for the gig, and a lot of passing trade as downstairs is also where the toilets are. It was a friendly show, but not our best at all, we had a couple small sound issues on stage which hampered our performance, and although these were fixed pretty quickly we never really hit top form, we just seemed slightly jaded. Saying that we went down very well from those who were watching, and word is that we sounded a lot better off stage than we did on it. We even got an encore, so played a new song for the tour, '22', which is a lively one, and I liked playing this very much. At the end of the gig, for no other reason apart from to entertain, Dave jumped off the stage and rolled around the floor with his bass in true rock fashion. Still not sure why, but it added a element of 'show' to it all. Was nice to know that even when we're not having our best day we could still go down well.
GIG 6
Venue: The Ambassador, Brighton
Date: 09/07/11
Audience: At best 9 people, sometimes between 4 and 5
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Guns, Down Like That, Not Your Day, Polly, 22, God's Front Porch, Race Car Drivers, Prettyish, Edinburgh, Washing Machine
Notes: We came into this one with a few doubts; it was our first gig in a venue that wasn't established as a place for live music. I like the Ambassador a lot - I've put on four Brighton Fringe shows there previously, and the owner Nick is a very nice chap. We arrived in good time, wondered around the seafront, and then set up. It's unconventional place, that dining room, and one point we were just thinking - what are we doing here? I felt a little sorry for our support act - Louise Hamilton from Flaming June, who travelled a fair distance to play in front of four people, but she still put everything into it and we enjoyed it at least. A few more people trickled in for the Aidy set, but it felt a little stop/start at times, that may have been something to do with the fact we were doing our own sound. But the nine or so people who did watch it seemed really up for enjoying our set, and by Washing Machine they were totally on our side. In fact, we celebrated by stretching the last chord for ages, going mental but enjoying elements of theatrics with it at the same time. I really hurt my thumb about half way through the gig - it suddenly seemed to go blue and started swealing up, and some of the set felt pretty painful, but I'm just grateful that's happened at the end, not begining, of the tour. The venue is run by lovely people, who also wished we had a bigger audience, but it was nowhere near the disaster we feared it could be. After realising we had accommodation issues, we tried desperately to find somewhere else to stay, and places were either unavailable or out of our budget. The idea of Dave driving Aidy's car would have been fine but we couldn't get insurance because their phonelines close after 5pm and I only have an automatic licence, so in the end Aidy didn't drink and we decided to drive home back to Cambridge after this one. Yeah, so we wanted a big night out in Brighton, perhaps that would have been keeping with the other nights of the tour, but getting back before 1am to Cambridge actually wasn't a bad move at the end of the day - saved a few quid, saved our livers, and it's actually rather nice to be waking up in your own bed after all the adventures.
GIG 7
Venue: The Cornerhouse, Cambridge
Date: 10/07/11
Audience: Half-full, positive
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Guns, God's Front Porch, Down Like That, Miami Beach, Edinburgh, Washing Machine
Notes: Having arrived back home late last night, it felt good to not be in a rush today. In fact, I slept for 10 hours to make up for the lack of sleep during the week, worked a bit on this blog, went to Tescos and forgot to write my newspaper column. Kind of felt like the tour ended yesterday as that was our last out of town date, but we went into this one well aware that the hometown gig would probably have the biggest audience there for us so we actually needed to be sharper than ever. With that in mind, we actually had another band rehearsal - despite the fact that we've just played six gigs in a row and were often pretty tight, but standards need to stay high and Aidy cooked us a nice roast. Not sure what to think of this one really, we perhaps should have ended the run of gigs last night, out of town, rather than playing in a place that we've played in a million times in front of the same bunch of friends. The problem is though was that it was a humid, rainy, Sunday evening so a lot of friends didn't even bother to make it - possibly because they thought 'I've seen Aidy do his thing times before' - not realising that we're actually back from the tour sharper than ever, a much better live band, all the gigging does actually help. But it was a good gig anyway - nice audience (mostly made up of Narrow Sound fans - the excellent headline band, plus friends Jack, Ken and Emily), more names to the mailing list, and we played a really solid, fiery set so we've ended this little tour on a positive note.
Throughout the run we've made lots of new friends, contacts, I've been called 'the happiest drummer' by countless people and been informed that I look 'a bit like Dave Grohl' on several occassions. We've gone down well everywhere, we drank too much, we'll probably do this all again very soon.
GIG 7
Venue: The Cornerhouse, Cambridge
Date: 10/07/11
Audience: Half-full, positive
Set: Make It Happen, Pain In My Heart, Guns, God's Front Porch, Down Like That, Miami Beach, Edinburgh, Washing Machine
Notes: Having arrived back home late last night, it felt good to not be in a rush today. In fact, I slept for 10 hours to make up for the lack of sleep during the week, worked a bit on this blog, went to Tescos and forgot to write my newspaper column. Kind of felt like the tour ended yesterday as that was our last out of town date, but we went into this one well aware that the hometown gig would probably have the biggest audience there for us so we actually needed to be sharper than ever. With that in mind, we actually had another band rehearsal - despite the fact that we've just played six gigs in a row and were often pretty tight, but standards need to stay high and Aidy cooked us a nice roast. Not sure what to think of this one really, we perhaps should have ended the run of gigs last night, out of town, rather than playing in a place that we've played in a million times in front of the same bunch of friends. The problem is though was that it was a humid, rainy, Sunday evening so a lot of friends didn't even bother to make it - possibly because they thought 'I've seen Aidy do his thing times before' - not realising that we're actually back from the tour sharper than ever, a much better live band, all the gigging does actually help. But it was a good gig anyway - nice audience (mostly made up of Narrow Sound fans - the excellent headline band, plus friends Jack, Ken and Emily), more names to the mailing list, and we played a really solid, fiery set so we've ended this little tour on a positive note.
Throughout the run we've made lots of new friends, contacts, I've been called 'the happiest drummer' by countless people and been informed that I look 'a bit like Dave Grohl' on several occassions. We've gone down well everywhere, we drank too much, we'll probably do this all again very soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment