Michael's Diary

A 2 hour drive to Bilston and the next gig, The Robin 2. We arrived around 4pm and had a look round the venue, a huge 800 capacity room and a massive stage, the biggest venue of the tour so far. Again the audience were great, and I do recall us laying down a really good set. By now the stages were getting bigger so we had more room to manoeuvre, I started using my full live rig with the talkbox for the solo in Tapestries which always seemed to grab peoples attention, a lot probably thinking "what the hell is that guy doing with that tube in his gob, short of breath?!" By now we'd settled into the most unorganised routine if that makes any sense, it was a great feeling and the band was on form, it was just a great environment to be around, everybody was enjoying themselves and having a good time which is what it's all about.

Moving on to Falmouth after another 5 hour drive it was again a huge venue. Our dressing room was bigger than some venues we've played! The weather for the time of year was very warm and sunny, kinda gave the place a real bright summery vibe. It was a full theatre sized stage, where now we began to feel we were rattling around a bit being just a 3 piece...(there's no pleasing some people eh?!). I seem to recall someone mentioning that Pete Townsend was supposed to be coming down to see the show, I don't know where this bit of info came about but everybody started getting quite excited... as it turned out there was no sign of Pete, if he had turned up he didn't come backstage so I doubt it, but it did make everyone pull there finger out on the off chance haha!

Exeter was the next night which stood out for me. It was the Phoenix arts centre, a very posh place with an art gallery and restaurant. I recall sitting outside on some decking with the band eating tapas and drinking some very nice red wine, tempranillo I think? By now we'd got a bit bored of just drinking beer every night so we moved onto 4/5 bottles of decent red procured from various supermarkets whilst in transit... of course we still washed it down with a crate of beer. After we'd sound checked Joe very kindly spent 20 minutes or so going through guitar rigs both his and mine, giving me a few pointers, it was an education to say the least, the guy really knows his stuff. He'd just bought a 57 reissue Fender Strat that afternoon which Dave had just set up for him, we had a play on it through both rigs a wonderful guitar which he carried on playing throughout the tour. There's a photo of this guitar session in the tour gallery. The gig itself was great, a really mixed crowd with a higher percentage of younger kids really getting into it. By now Lee's dad John had joined us for a few dates and was having a whale of a time. He'd been hanging out with the stage manager, who's name escapes me, right up in the top gallery, thick as thieves and twice as drunk haha. We were out by the merch stall as always at the end of the gig when these to stoner dudes come up to us and just burst out with "you guys have no right to rock that hard!!!" devil horns and all. A great compliment and a phrase that stuck with us throughout the rest of the tour.

Moving on the next day to Frome it was a special occasion as it was Lee's birthday. Whilst travelling to the gig we stopped just outside Glastonbury at a pub called The Puritan Arms. After our rather dodgy diet of naff service station food and Rustlers burgers, to actually sit down to a proper meal was great. I think I had lamb... all I can say is if you're ever in the area visit this place, fantastic! The venue itself was a huge converted cattle shed, about 800 capacity with a huge stage and possibly the smallest mixing desk we'd seen in venue so big. However the sound they got out of it was great. Really enjoyed that gig, great crowd and again a very mixed audience. I recall standing right out in the middle of the venue when Joe was playing and watching about half his set, this was a rarity in that there was always something that needed doing, sorting gear, speaking with various people, promoters, stage managers, sound guys etc. As it was Lee's birthday we all headed back stage after Joe's set and shared a very nice bottle of Glenmorangie. I recall Joe passing a few pics around of his baby... well I say baby, it was his guitar rig he uses in the states, twice the size of the rig he was using in Europe. Budda, Fuchs and Marshall amps through 4 2X12 cabs, plus a monster foot board. I think he was looking forward to getting home to it... guitar players eh!

Onto Cardiff and The Point. This was a really cool venue, a converted church. Still had all the stain glass windows etc, huge place. We arrived quite early and ventured round the corner for what we thought was an Indian restaurant, turned out to be an all you can eat Chinese that also did some Indian food, was neither one nor the other and not great. We ate and headed back over to the pub across the road where Joe and the crew were all sitting down to a proper Sunday lunch, I think we missed a trick there... Anyhow after a lengthy sound check we hung around the dressing room, sinking a few glasses of rioja before show time. We headed out to another sold out crowd, a great night, we played it hard n' heavy and had a whale of a time, great light rig, and great acoustics in the room, exactly what you'd expect in a church. It nearly was a religious experience! After Joe had finished his set we headed out to the merch stall as usual.

We made a lot of fans that night, including one guy who was a little drunk to say the least. He started going on about how much he enjoyed my playing which was really nice, but then kept on going and going. Have you ever seen Bonsai, the spoof gambling show and Mr Shaky Hands? Yeah this guy broke the record. He went on to say he'd got a copy of our album off this mate of his, and went on to say he loved the Led Zeppelin cover which is where a little confusion set in. I said we didn't do any covers on the album, he started getting a little aggressive "you calling me a liar" I'm like no man, I know Joe did a Led Zep cover on his album, so he replies "well who the F*@K are you?" We're the opening band... and with that he let go of my hand and walked off? Really quite amusing, but how he managed to get me and Joe mixed up, especially when not 10 minutes ago Joe had just finished a 2 hour set... go figure!

After Cardiff we had a day off and had arranged to meet Joe and the crew in Liverpool to go out for dinner in the evening. We met in the hotel bar for a few snifters before heading out to the Albert docks and what can be only described as the worst Indian restaurant I'd ever been to. We wanted to take the band to a really decent Indian, but us being Manchester lads weren't to up on good restaurants in Liverpool. The popadoms were like walkers crisps, mini little things, it was kind of a set menu, lamb with colours anyone? What the hell is that, cause it didn't actually tell you on the menu. Really fancied a nice chicken tikka karahi and mushroom rice, they didn't do it... what kind of place is this?! Although the decor was nice, and the wine, although £20 a bottle was good, the food was disappointing to say the least. However the company was great and we headed off to a bar for many more drinks. Joe was regailing us with stories of the road as Dave got everyone some weird kinda vodka to toast a very successful tour. Not a big vodka fan, but by now was 3 sheets to wind and up for it! We headed back to the hotel for a final drink in the bar and to finish off a great night.

Now this is where Dave and Aaron the last guys standing got a little rock n' roll. By 4am the bar was shut, so what do you do when you want a nice cold beer at that time in the morning? Well the guys headed out to the tour bus and found a few bottles of beer however they'd been near the heater and were warm, and who likes warm beer? Now here's a little trick of the road and you don't have to in a band to do this one, any hotel will suffice, on holiday etc. What you do is get your beer and place it into a waste paper bin, then you get a fire extinguisher preferably a CO2 one and let it off into the bin! Voila! Ice cold beer at 4am served right in your hotel room. Aaron and Dave video'd this little bit of fun then launched the extinguisher out the 3rd floor window! Dave by now had got the taste for it and was gonna follow it with the TV but that was getting a little too cliched!