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Day 14 - 23 (We got lazy)

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Sorry if you’ve been waiting for some more updates but we just didn’t have time or access to the internet. We didn’t take that much footage of the final dates so we just made one big video for the last part of the tour.

DAY 13 - Aberdeen

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After a pretty late night in Edinburgh, in which myself and Rich ended up sleeping in the van again, we arrived around 5ish.This was due to the fact that we drove to Dunfermline first to get Mule’s guitar head repaired. The guy at the Sound Control was proper safe and said he’d fix it and have it ready for the next day. Quite a long drive but it was well scenic. Loads of hills and sheep and stuff.

On arrival at the venue, we were met by Nathan (possibly the soundest person on this green earth, but all will be explained) who was originally going to be putting the gig on but had to drop out and get another promoter to do the show. He then preceeded to give us two beer tokens each which meant we all had a few pints of Heineken, but the he had to leave to go to a class. Then our actual promoter turned up. She was pretty safe but was unaware of some of things a two touring bands would need, like food. So she went across the road and picked us up some sandwich which were ok but didn’t really hit the spot so myself, Rich and Wiz went out to find somewhere we could pick up an Aberdeen Angus Pie, which you would think would be quite easy being in Aberdeen…Not so. We settle for kebab and chips.

The turn out was lookin a bit shakey as the night went on, but we did have a dressing room with a shower so that was cool. Later we found out, our beer rider was actually the two beers we had been given on arrival. A little down heartened and sober we went on after a band from Edinburgh called Sekta Rouge and Meet Me in St Louis. If you get chance give them a search on the old myspace. We played really well and as it turned out the crowd were wicked.

Nathan return from his class and we mentioned that we had only had those two beers on arrival, to which he arranged for us to have unlimited drinks at the bar. Following that (complete obliterated, i might add) the assistant manager of the venue, Rachel, said we could all crash at hers and we all went back and watched some youtube videos. (If you get chance, check out the Kersal Massive.)

So that’s about it. Thanks shit loads to Nathan, Rachel and her boyfriend, and the two drunk locals who bought all of us a few shots of Sambucca.

Thom

x

Day 12 - Edinburgh

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My first time in Scotland!

Edinburgh is such a beautiful place and the drive up was amazing, the gig was pretty terrible as the stage was soaking wet and nobody turned up. Mule’s amp broke even though it wasn’t in use which put a bit of a downer on the whole evening. Thanks to Jim for putting us up and the guards at Edinburgh Castle for not shooting us at 4am.

Rich

Day 11 - Sunderland

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Sunderland . . . it’s by the sea! We had a day off in Leeds which we spent with Matty Wall and Jenny Orton which was lovely, thanks to them for putting us up and feeding us.

Sunderland was pretty bloody windy. We saw 3 overturned lorries on the way up which meant they closed a massive section of the A1, it should have took 1:45 but instead ended up taking 4 hours! We stopped off at a petrol station only to find that this special lorry driver had forgotton how tall his trailer was.

Thanks to Iain and Carly for putting the gig on, good turn out and Spy vs Spy were wicked. Now to the fun part, after the gig we stayed and drank a few beers which started off quite harmless and ended up with me taped to metal post with my pants down, see below . . .

After this Ben my fellow ginger brother decided that it would be a good idea to go and get tripple vodkas and apple juice from this club over the road. I manged to drink a few and Ben must have had 5 before setting out to another club which was full of middle aged women. Peckett joined us for this stage of the evening which ended up with us on a stage doing the YMCA. Everybody regrouped at the travelodge which got a bit messy and ended up with 3 policemen screaming at us to tidy up the mess we made and get out of the room at 7am. If anybody from the Sunderland Police is reading this you’re all pricks, they were stupidly stern and very unfair considering we co-operated with every they asked us to do and none of it was our fault. After kicking us out they decided that they should probably arrest someone to meet their dickhead quota so they basically selected two members of the group and put them in the back of the Van, mention no names but it wasn’t any of the band.

Iain had to pay travelodge £75 but I stole a towel and Peckett got a pillow, travelodge 1, blakfish 2.

Day 10 - Leeds

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After two days off we set off to the capital of cool that is Leeds with MMISL all back in working order. Our good friend Matty Wall from Dirty Otter put on the gig and cooked us all a curry when we arrived. Pennines opened and were amazing, kind of like Ghosts and Vodka but I don’t really like to compare bands. Check them out yourself http://www.myspace.com/pennines its well worth 5 minutes of your time.  The gig was excellent and more people turned up than we could fit in the room, I think they need to invest in a fan or something as a 100 people in a basement can get a little sweaty.

We had a day off after the gig which was needed even though we’d only done one gig.  We watched that new film No Country For Old Men which in my opinion was pretty crap, some dude finds some money, some other dudes want it back and everybody dies and doesn’t get the money, I was so depressed I had to get drunk with Matty and talk about jobs untill 5am.

Another good gig and the start of loads in a row,

Rich

Day 9 - Nottingham

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Day 9 in the blakfish house and Thom Peckett is still gay. We arrived at Nottingham to find the biggest rider of the tour so far, 48 cans, 9 hundred pizzas, pasta, quiche the bloody lot! Unfortunately MMISL couldn’t play so we got our mates Shapes to play as they were in the area, always good to see thoses guys and they played amazingly well especially as it was the seccond gig of the day for them, check them out http://www.myspace.com/weareshapes The sound was wicked I can’t remember the engineers name but thanks to him and Kelly for orgainsing the night.

We went back to some friends from Sutton’s house who now live in Nottingham where we nearly lost Wiza after he ate a bombay badboy. I clearly won at poker but nobody else thought so and Wiz was woken up at 6 in the morning by a pimp shouting at some prostitues threating to kill them which is always a laugh.

Again some form of video to follow.

Rich

Day 8 - Cheltenham

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Really sorry about the delay in getting these posts up, our camera just won’t work so you’ll just have to read with your mind, we’ll repost the videos when we’ve sorted them out.

Cheltenham was the last date with Tubelord which was quite emotional, we had a brilliant time with them as I’ve said before so check them out because I said so. The Venue gave us two jugs of everything on tap which was strangley nice considering it technically should have been thrown away. Needless to say it got a bit messy but we still managed to pull it off. Thanks for Joe for letting us all stop at his house, thanks to Dave for letting us cut his hair around a bowl and everyone who came down and partied with us. There will be a Tubelord cover sang by everyone up soon when I’ve worked out what the hell is wrong with them.

Sorry about the quality of this post I’m very hungover which will explained later on.

Rich x x x

Day 7 - Southampton

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Sorry about the lateness of this next instalment we’ve been having a few issues with the video camera.

After the Ashford gig we travelled back to Croydon and stopped at Lewis’ house. The next day we took a brief trip to get myself some new clothes after 7 years of wearing the same pair of jeans then set off for Southampton. It was good to see a lot of familiar faces, Joe and Campbell played some acoustic sets followed by Caesura who were amazing, it sounds like I just write it to be nice but check them out and you’ll believe me, http://www.myspace.com/caesuraband.

Big thanks to Jo and Jimmy of Sotones for putting the gig on, the Caesura guys for putting us up especially Rob, the sound man, Ollie from Moneytree for his entertainment and the dude I always used to see walking around Sutton Coldfield who I finally spoke to.

Video . . .

Day 6 - Ashford

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If you’re wondering where Ashford is it’s in Kent, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The venue was above an American diner which was slightly strange and involved loads of stairs which is always good when you have to bring everything in. Saria opened up and they were a really good band, they were followed by our good friends Tubelord who were excelent as always, it sounds like I always say it but it still needs to be mentioned. MMISL played next which was good because I personally got to have a good listen to them as we’re normally packing up a drum kit, the bar man turned them off half way through the set which sucked major balls, there was one sad couple downstairs eating a crusty burger which somehow justified cutting all the power. After a breif argument with the guy they finished the set which was personally one of the best times I’ve seen them. We played ok to end the gig but we were all pretty tired from the night before.

A big thanks to the promoter and soundman for that night, they really knew what they were on about it was just a shame that some of the audience were just there to get pissed and compare haircuts. Another thanks to the guy who offered to put us up even though he had a GCSE exam the next morning. Sorry the video is a bit crap but we didn’t have much footage.

I’m back dating these posts its 4am at the moment in Southampton so expect the next part up tomorrow sometime,

Night everyone,

Rich x

Day 5 - Brighton

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Brighton was an awesome show. Tubelord and Meet Me in St Louis get better every time. We thought it was an excellent show as well. Very hot and very sweaty. Thanks a shed load to Reidy for letting us crash at his house. There is a lot of footage of Wiz drunk out of his mind, but he wouldn’t let me put the worst bits in because his Dad is keeping up to date on these blogs so, if you ask us nicely we may show you that stuff. Off the record you must understand. Enjoy!

Thom