Lee's Diary

Sat 30th Sept - Cheese & Grain - Frome

So we left our hotel to head for Frome ( happy birthday to me… ), came off the motorway at the Glastonbury exit and seeing as it was lunchtime, I suggested finding a local boozer for a birthday nosebag. As soon as we came off the slip road we saw a sign for “The Puritan Arms”, strangely enough at Puritan. My god what a fantastic pub, we had the local lamb shank except for Carl, as he had the Glastonbury lamb instead - bloody awkward drummers!. We followed this fine fayre with a desert - I had the lemon cheesecake. One thing that stopped the gaff having 10 out of 10 was that you’d think that with the pub being in Somerset, they’d have some scrumpy - they didn’t….never mind. We passed through Glastonbury and it wasn’t far then to Frome, stocked up the rider at Sainsburys, and arrived at the venue.

Frome is a market town and any event ( like a gig etc ) brought out the inhabitants for a good old knees-up. The venue is basically the cattle market/ indoor market and is a really good size too - it reminded me like Bob’s Country Bunker from the Blues Brothers!

Joe did his sound-check, and as we were setting our gear up, something very funny happened, I’ll explain…

Mark, Joe’s bass player ( a jolly good chap too ) has a book “how to play blues bass”, which was for sale at the merchandise area. Now in this book is a D.V.D to accompany the various chapter points ( any musoes will know the script ). I think it was recorded about 20 years ago because he looked a lot younger on the D.V.D!!, anyway, the guys in Joe’s band played a practical joke on him.

Behind the stage was a massive screen and D.V.D player connected to it so the venue could project music videos, football etc. so the guys put on Marks D.V.D and paused it at a point when mark was pulling a cheesy face and they went to call him in from the tour bus where he was taking a kip.

Now Mark is about 6 foot 4 and the door where he came in from was designed for an Oompaa Lumpa, so as soon as he appeared SMACK!!! He whacked the door and fell back clutching his head!! Now we were momentarily pissing ourselves ( cos it’s an English thing to do, it’s like someone tripping up over the pavement!! )

To be honest, it needed stitches, so we felt pretty bad for laughing, but he saw the funny side to it and played the gig with a great big plaster on his forehead!! Anyone who was there now knows why he had a plaster on his head!!

It was a great gig and the crowd were really friendly, I even had my birthday cards on my amp and afterwards people came up to my wishing me many happy returns which made the occasion extra special for me. Since it was my birthday, I brought from home a bottle of Glenmorangie - 15 years old, which the two bands shared in the dressing room after the gig - I told everyone that I was saving it for a special occasion and couldn’t think of a better bunch of guys to share this fine malt with me.

We loaded up and went to our hotel looking forward to Cardiff the following day.

Sun 1st Oct - The Point - Cardiff.

We left our hotel and off we went so sunny South Wales. We travelled across the Severn Bridge - a first for me, and checked into our hotel which, to our surprise was only about 15 minutes from the gig!!

It was my first time in Cardiff and I wish I had more time to look around the place but business first.

We arrived at the Point, and to our surprise, we discovered that the venue is a converted church!!! Unusual!!. Went to find something to eat - I suggested the pub opposite the venue as they were serving Sunday lunch, but the guys got a whiff of curry so that was the end of that! We found a buffet serving a mixture of Chinese/Indian food which was shite, which prompted the lads to fire up with “we should have gone to that pub!!!!” cheeky bastards!!

We went back to the pub for a drink only to find Joe and crew sat down eating a three course Sunday dinner!! How’s that for rubbing it in, eh?!!

Got into the venue and brought our gear in. the P.A. guys from the venue were playing Crosby, Stills & Nash through the house system so that was good.

We found our dressing room which was up in the steeple!!!, and the place itself was a great place - all the stained glass was still there and all the arches were too - we still swore though!! Sorry God!.

Did our set and went down really well, and there was a guy from Blues Matters magazine who was keen for us to keep in touch with him for an interview - keep an eye on the website for more details on that one. There was also a guy there who took some really good photos and sent them to us - I think there are a couple on our MySpace site.

Strange thing happened when we were mingling a the merchandise area at the end - a guy - who was three sheets to the wind, got out a load of money and bought about 7 T-Shirts!!, and kept handing us wedges of cash ( which we didn’t accept obviously - but we did sell him the shirts and a load of C.Ds ) it was only after he had gone that I found out off Michael that he thought we were Joe Bonamassa’s band!!! Funny tale!!. It was a day off the next day and Joe asked us what we were doing with it.

As the next gig is in Birkenhead, they were travelling up there overnight to spend their day off wandering around Liverpool, so we arranged to meet them at their hotel in the evening for us all to go out for a meal together.

The only problem with that was that we were staying in Cardiff overnight, so the next day we went back up north to Bury ( where Bryan, our tour manager lives ) had a quick wash and a splash of Brut, and raced over to Liverpool to meet up with the guys. We went for an awful curry at Albert Dock - if you know the area then you’ll know which one it is. Again Joe put his hand in his pocket ( most grateful dude!! ) And a good time was had by all. It was really good spending quality time with the guys without the pressure of a gig situation and we learnt a lot from the guys about the business ( after all, nobody knows everything ). Went back to our respective abodes for a good sleep to get ready for the next gig in Birkenhead. Tues 3rd Oct - Pacific Road - Birkenhead. Arrived at venue - very strange place, looked like a bus depot!! So we found where we were going and you had to make your way through the busses to get to the dressing rooms and stage. The bonus was that you could park right up to the back of stage so getting gear in & out was relatively easier than it had been!

Everyone seemed to be a bit under the weather - especially myself. Aaron ( Bogie’s drum tech and a good chap ) was feeling the same. I think this was the effect of a multitude of sins : too much booze, too little sleep, not enough food, not enough vitamins and too much adrenalin!!

It turned out that Joe was a bit of an old hat at dealing with this kinda stuff ( well, he has been touring since he was born!! ), and provided me with enough medicine to see me through the night!!

The venue sold some good food - Hot-Pot which was most welcome. At this point during the tour I said to the lads we should get more filming/photo’s done!! So after this point we all seemed to take alot more footage.

Although the crowd were plentiful and very responsive, I couldn’t get into my stride, probably cos I was feeling ill!! There was a few hecklers ( not just through our set but Joe’s also ), I’ve noticed that in the North-West, the punters tend to drink more ( even more than Glasgow!! ), so they are more vocal and opiniated.

Still got drunk though!, and off we went home to look forward to our next gig in South Shields. Now we were starting to tire - it’s hard work this touring lark - every night’s Saturday night, but eventually you have to wake up to a Sunday!.

Wed 3rd Oct - The Customs House - South Shields.

Now I was really looking forward to this one - a seated theatre - a first for the band.

The virus that I mentioned previously had developed into a right stinker and the throat was burning like hell. We arrived at the venue and we weren’t disappointed!

It was obviously an old shipping building ( hence the name ), and had undergone an impressive face-lift - it was a great place, with what we discovered was also the best dressing room to date!

Set the gear up and I had a chat with Joe’s bass player, Mark, who had played in these sort of venues for years and told me to keep the back line down as much as possible in order for the acoustics to come through, because it was designed in the days when the artiste had to perform without the use of amplification, plus, to our surprise the P.A wasn’t designed for rock bands either!!

We sound-checked and really had to keep stage levels down as much as possible - it was going to be a strange one this!! We had no reason to worry as the gig turned out to be another success. It was very strange to play to a seated audience - a great learning curve for all.

After the show, we had one gig left ( boo-hoo ) , before the tour ended, and Joe told us that there was a gig in Blackpool on the next day. We weren’t down for doing this one because it was a different promoter, but he asked if we would like to do it - but of course we would!!!! So, it was agreed a bonus gig!!! Off we went back home to revel in this good news…………….but, as we discovered………….if only we could have known!!!

Thurs 5th Oct - Central Working Mens Club - Blackpool.

We arrived in Blackpool and the weather was dreadful…….relentlessly pouring down with rain - what a bad omen!! The venue turned out to be a double of the Phoenix Club complete with a revolving glitter-ball and for the entrance to the stage - the gates of Graceland!!

To be fair, we always go out of our way to put on a pro show, its just that some venues are better than others, that’s all. Through-out the night, Joe’s crew found the place a real eye-opener and we had a good laugh about it though and everyone’s spirits were lifted. It turns out that they have similar places in America - can you imagine what they’re like!!

At the end of the gig, we went next door ( the lounge ) with both bands, and to our surprise, there was an Elvis impersonator pub-singing his way through the usual set that they always sing. The place was wall-to-wall full of pensioners!! Carl was in his element!! We found this event quite ironic, and had to see the funny side!!

Well, the next gig was to be our last night of the tour, and we were determined to go out with a bang.

We all went home, sad, in a way, knowing that we had a major come-down to contend with when we got back to normal. Can you imagine going back to work after this mad mad trip?!!!

Sat 7th Oct - The Boom Boom Club - Sutton.

After another treck down to London, we arrived at Sutton, which we found was Terry & June country!!

The venue was part of Sutton United Football Club, and there was a game playing as we arrived. We unloaded our gear and Joe & crew arrived. There was a different atmosphere than normal - I think everyone were getting ready for home and having a rest.

The stage was very cramped and there wasn’t much head-room either - in fact, Mark ( Joe’s bass player ) had about an inch to spare before his head went through the ceiling!!

I was still not getting any better with my virus, but the adrenalin kept me going plus a few Screwdrivers plied to the band by Joe’s crew throughout the night certainly helped to keep the old pecker up!!! It was a very emotional night, we had a great, great time. After the gig, in the dressing room, I’m afraid to say that I got very emotional.

I always am during these occasions - I’m a good drunk I think!!!

I wasn’t the only person in Stone Sole River who made a tit of themselves though - Carl & Michael were very drunk and, in fact, Michael fell over a couple of times and Carl licked my head!! ( don’t worry, it was the one on top of my neck!! ).

Ended up boozing on the journey home - Carl, Michael & Stuart demolished a bottle of Jack Daniels on the way back to the hotel, and I had the pleasure of putting Carl to bed after he was about to throw-up in the bath!!, why do pissed-up people do that when there is a perfectly good toilet next to them?!!

We all agreed that we had had the time of our lives, and we would love to do this again. It was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life, and both bands and crew made it very special for me, along with the support from the crowd - you guys were absolutely fantastic.

Well, that’s it for me - my fingers hurt!!

Once again thank you to all who played their part in this strange but wonderful part of my life - if I never get the chance to do this again ( which I sincerely hope that I do!! ), then I shall keep these memories with me throughout the rest of my life.

Keep the faith, and bollocks to the lot of you!!!

Lee.