We stayed in a crappy F1 'hotel' in Coventry last night and then had to get up early to drive to Dover to catch a ferry so we can drive to Holland. Today, as you can guess by the title we'll mostly be travelling.
2pm - Just got on the ferry, Dave has informed me he's going on the deck soon where he'll be staying for the remainder of the ferry journey due to seasickness and the others are currently in a bar (of course). I'm going to make the most of this journey to have some peace and quiet, which you just don't get when you're sharing the same space - in a van, dressing room, etc 24/7. So as the ferry gently sways I'm getting comfy and I will dig out my Harry Potter book on loan from a friend (cheers Rach!) and I'll write again soon.

Sunday 20th May - ZOETERMEER BOERDERIJ, HOLLAND

Should be good tonight, we've played in the Netherlands write a few times and have a lot of friends here, We've played this venue before, the staff are really nice they really go out of their way to look after us. Apparently they all work for free (except for the technical staff) because of the enjoyment of it, they're all really into live music and bands.
For me the onstage sound wasn't great but apparently we sounded amazing out front. It was a good, hot sweaty show and quite a lot of people in for us and it was cool to see people singing along to some of our tunes. Tonight we are getting a new sleeper bus which we're hiring for just over a week as there's a quite a few long overnight drives coming up on this tour and we're going to leave stinky van here, yay, so we're really excited. No F1 hotels or stinky van for the week!
12.30am... The new bus is here, its massive!!!

We only hired a 10 bunk one originally but the company had double booked us but decided to give us the larger bus to compensate, hell, we ain't complaining! Only Wiggy and Chris have slept in one of these sleeper buses before so it's a brand new experience for me, Dave, Pai and Emma.

Monday 21st May - BOCHUM ZECHE, GERMANY

After a bit of a bumpy ride we arrived at the venue at 1pm (we had stayed parked up at Zoetermeer most of the night). I only say it was bumpy cos I'm not used to sleeping in the bunk, its not too bad when the bus is stood still but takes a bit of getting used to on the move. Sunny day today, venue provided a fantastic breakfast buffet consisting of cereals, meats, cheeses, breads, cakes and chocolate...mmm...
It was a chilled load in and the crew are friendly. By the time we had soundchecked it was time to eat yet more food…. a variety of meat (of course including massive sausages and schnitzel as we are in Germany after all!), veges, salads, bread etc. It's really hot in here already and the gig is sold out tonight so it's going to be murderously hot onstage.
After the show...Played a great show, Dave sweated out about 2 litres of water, we've warned the Mission guys its going to be boiling onstage for them and Springy (Mish's drummer) already has dibs on Pai's electric fan for behind the drum kit. 1am...The Mission are getting a new bus tomorrow, apparently their other one has been taken away to get fixed.

Tuesday 22nd May - HERFORD CLUB X, GERMANY

I think everyone slept better last night on the bus. We arrived early in Herford so I went and got first dibs on the shower, Emma and Dave followed suit while Wiggy went and bought an inflatable helmet since everyone keeps banging their head in and around the bus, especially when you get out of your bunk! Think we'll all be fighting over it at some point!
It's bloody boiling today - really humid/hot! Dave and I got the promoter to give us a lift into the town centre to pick up a DV camcorder; our camcorder was old and only used Hi-8 tapes, which we were struggling to find in any shops so we've upgraded. Not sure where Pai's gone but last time I saw him he was leaving an off-license and was quite pleased at buying a bottle of Jim Beam for 12 Euros with Emma. Wiggy was funny before, he got woken up and literally rolled out of bed and started carrying our gear into the venue straight away when he was half asleep. Dave is currently sticking DRB stickers around the dressing room, Chris is in the bus probably ranting to himself about something, and Emma is setting up the merchandise. Quite a hard gig tonight, we weren't given much on the lighting front, I didn't have much light on my side of the stage (which I supposed saved me from getting mega sweaty). Recognised a few faces at the front from lat night's gig so despite it being a hard show it turned out well. We have to drive straight from the venue tonight getting a ferry from Puttgarden to Rodby in Denmark on route to Kopenhagen for our day off tomorrow.

Wednesday 23rd May - TRAVEL DAY

Woke up at 6am to find a rather pissed Chris and Wiggy (Wiggy much more than Chris though) who had been hammering the Jagermeister all night.
This made the ferry journey quite amusing - while me, Dave and Chris went to get coffee (Em and Pai stayed asleep on the bus for the duration of the ferry ride), Wiggy, who had brought onto the ferry bottles of beer and a lit cig, disappeared from sight and was running riot somewhere on the ferry. Chris eventually tracked him down on part of the deck that passengers weren't supposed to go on, where he started dancing... crazy sod!
Once we were off the ferry I went back to bed on the bus and we continued to Copenhagen. We picked Adam up from the airport when we arrived at Denmark's' capital - Adam had driven for us for the first 3 UK shows and then went back to work only to realise he'd rather be on the road with us so he flew out to meet us here, cool! Why not...there's room on the bus that's for sure! After that, Dave and I were dropped off at a hotel so Dave can have a bath and I can have a shower and we can escape the bus's air con for a bit. The Mission are in the same hotel, we've already bumped into Rich and George.
19.31pm - Just back from having a wonder about, we ended up in Tivoli gardens where there was an amusement park and I reverted back to being a 10 year old going on rides and buying candy floss!
Pai texted while we were out, him and the rest of the crew had decided to buy BBQ stuff and are having a BBQ on the beach tonight, and then they're going to build a fire.
Dave and I are going to find some food in a mo and then meet up with the Mission in a bar later on. They're driving overnight from midnight whereas our bus isn't leaving until 9.30am.

Thursday 24th May - GOTHENBURG TRADGARN, SWEDEN

Wiggy has a tour injury from being daft at the beach party last night; he burnt his hand on sand after they'd made a fire on the beach. He now has a blister that's so big it could have its own personality!
Dave and I didn't go to the beach party, we were in a bar with the Mission having drinks with the lads and watching Wayne's favourite team get defeated against AC Milan, (I'm personally not really a footy fan but I did cheer for Liverpool not that it did any good) oh dear the atmosphere on their bus may be a bit tense for a few days! No-one mention football!
We arrived at 1.30pm; the Tradgarn appears to be a big wooden building in the middle of nowhere.
Managed to see a bit of Swedish countryside on the journey into Sweden, it's very much like Finland (we played there in 2004) - plenty of quaint little farms surrounded by vast forests.
The gig was good though soundcheck had been a bit dodgy. The Mish's crew ended up soundchecking us (they were lifesavers)! During the Mission's set there a guy who tried to climb onstage but George) tour manager) literally threw him offstage. Our bus is staying parked up tonight and setting off for Stockholm at 6am so Wiggy, Pai and Adam have gone to find a rock bar down the road and since drinks are so expensive here I can't imagine they'll stay there long.

Friday 25th May - STOCKHOLM BERNS, SWEDEN

Woke up about 11am as the route was so bumpy I kept dreaming I was getting thrown out of a roller coaster, then waking up to find I was nearly getting thrown out of my bunk. The venue today is actually a luxury hotel ballroom.

We have a day room booked in the 5* hotel so we can have showers, wow it was a beautiful hotel room, If I had the money I'd fly back over here after the tour and stay here for a weekend, but I'm skint so I won't do that! The rider was nice…drinks, teas, coffee, beer, fresh fruit platter, crisps, nuts, and of course very continental - cheese and ham.
Went for a wander round the town for a couple of hours so that I can say I've seen a bit of Sweden. It was a lovely place, reminded me a bit of Nice in France, especially the harbour there and all the designer shops.
The show rocked, it was rammed and the crowd were well up for it. And at the end of the show I trashed one of the four mirror balls that were at the back of the stage. Nah, its not that rock n rock, it was actually an accident! Whoops! Overnight drive to Malmo tonight!

Saturday 26th May - MALMO KB, SWEDEN

Woke up at the venue, bumpy ride again last night. The venue looks very British, its smaller than most venues we've been in so far, reminds me of a previous Glasgow gig - don't know why, maybe its the layout or the fact they've pumped the whole room full of smoke to make the lights look good which everyone agrees is very hypocritical since the venue is a non-smoking venue. Anyway, the gig rocked, just come off stage and got collared by a very Manuel-sounding Swedish bloke (yes I'm aware Manuel was from Barcelona) but this guy really enjoyed the show and is proud that he bought the album. Thanks mate. It was pretty toasty onstage; even I worked up a sweat! We played well and the audience was very much an 'Empire Building' audience and Signals, as always, went down a storm! Today is Wayne's birthday so going to watch some more of their show especially as they've planned to all sing Happy Birthday to him during the set and bring him a birthday cake.
1.15am... We're parking up at the venue tonight and setting off to Odense in Denmark early morning - its only 2 and a half hours away. Pai, Adam and Wiggy are going checking out the club night at the venue, apparently its full of "blonde Swedish beauties" and the DJ is playing crappy Euro pop music but everyone's happy and dancing away!
4.30am - I'm going to bed now, Emma's already in her bunk, Chris and Dave are going to stay up for a bit and wait for the others to return.

Sunday 27th May - ODENSE RYTMEPOSTEN, DENMARK

Woke up already at the venue, which is surrounded by several train tracks, but that makes sense as this venue allegedly used to be a train station. The venue is pretty cool, though there's only one shower but I'm going to make sure I get in before the Mish's lot! The people here are very hospitable and we have a really cosy dressing room. I've not been able to move from this comfy leather sofa for over an hour (my suitcase containing this notepad and everything else I need is in reach so I don't have to move until I go for my shower!) Adam's just informed me that him and Wiggy ended up gate crashing some members-only nightclub near last night's venue by breaking in through a fire escape and then danced with loads of Swedish blondes until Dave had to phone them to tell them the bus was leaving and that must have been about 6am. Oh and Steve (Mish drummer) reckons we have the better dressing room cos theirs doesn't have a massive TV and DVD player. Yeah but theirs is much bigger with more booze and food in it!
We've got an overnight drive after the show tonight straight to Holland where we'll arrive around midday, pick up our stinky van again and say goodbye to this fabulous sleeper bus that we've called home for a week.

Monday 28th May - TRAVEL DAY

Noooooooooo! Just waved goodbye the double decker sleeper bus, it's a very sad day, everyone's proper bummed out having to squish back into our crappy van. And on top of that we have a very long drive to Paris today.
Arrived in Paris at 6pm, it appears we're staying in an F1 hotel on a very rum side of Paris, after struggling to park the van somewhere where it won't be easily broken into and trashed, I went for a wander about mainly to find a shop that sells Port as that's what I've been drinking recently (and I was successful, yay!) but I think I was pretty brave looking back, it was a very dodgy area and the less said about it the better!

Tuesday 29th May - PARIS LA LOCOMOTIVE, FRANCE

Wow, driving through Paris is like the wacky races, there's no lanes for traffic so it's a free-for-all, which makes roundabouts in particular quite fun! The venue is next to the Moulin Rouge and the local sites of the areas are bistro-type cafes, sex shops, guitar shops and lap dancing clubs. Seems pretty ideal place to play for most bands!
I believe some of the Mish's entourage spent 500 Euros in the club there, which bought them 3 drinks, and a lap dance each. Good on them! The show was really good, couldn't believe how ace the French audience were, they couldn't get enough, and they were well warmed up by the time the Mission went onstage, they also played one of the best shows of the tour, but they hadn't played France for 5 years! And considering how many times we drive though France playing shows in Holland and Germany and everywhere but France it was our first actually gig here and it was a brilliant one to do, despite earlier on nearly getting two parking tickets for being parked out side the venue.
Anyway, back to the F1 tonight and then we have to get up early and ferry over to Dover. Tomorrow's the last date we're doing with The Mission but let's make it a good one!

Wednesday 30th May - LONDON SHEPHERD'S BUSH EMPIRE

Doh! We've missed our ferry at Dunkirk, it was meant to be at 12 noon and we got here at 11.45 after fighting our way through loads of wacky races traffic and diversions, but it was too late to let us on, plus we had to register Adam as travelling with us as he obviously wasn't on the outbound journey. So now as we watch our ferry set off without us we've got to wait around for the 2pm departure.
Bugger and we were meant to get into London for 4pm for a radio interview at Total Rock!
So, we managed to get on the 2pm ferry and Dave phone our press agent to let them know we can't make the interview. Luckily they've sorted out a phone in interview that Dave will have to do as we travel into London. Traffic's terrible and we're going to get to the venue late and then we're going to be rushing our sound check and its all very stressful!!
Okay, so I've had a chance to chill for a bit, we got to the venue while Dave was still on the phone doing his interview which I think went well, the venue staff helped us load in really quick, we had to literally throw our stuff straight on the stage and sound check straight away at the same time as arguing with the venue about where we can set up our merch. Why is it every time we play a London venue, they're always a pain in the ass, they always want us to go onstage really early cos they all have curfews and they are all really fussy about where you can and cannot set your merch up and the dressing rooms are always miles away from the stage and the staff are such job's worths. This kid who was meant to be like security or something refused to let me go backstage cos I wasn't wearing my pass, after he'd seen me soundchecking minutes before. Was he that stupid or was he just being a pillock for the sake of it, I as very close to knocking him out and I'm not a violent person!
After the show...well everyone I've spoken to so far in the audience has been absolutely blown away with our performance, maybe the stress and chaos of today's antics made the difference or maybe we're just better than people remember us to be -who knows, but its turned out to be a really enjoyable night and all the comments people have been making about us have been wonderful and mean a lot to us. It's been an ace tour to do, I think we should all go party now, yes…lets!

TOUR SUMMARY

Well the Mission are off to play two shows in Tel Aviv, we won't be playing these shows with them, they aren't even taking their full crew let alone a support band but I'm sure it'll go well for them. They've been really cool with us and are mega nice people.
We've made a lot of new friends and had a great time, played some kickass shows and seen some cool towns.

Number of attempted parking tickets = 2
Number of times we had to show our passports abroad = 2
Number of near-death experiences on the German Autobahn = 0 surprisingly!
Number of near-death experiences on the UK motorways = 2
Totoal number of times we banged our heads in the sleeper bus = approx 140
We travelled through 7 countries and played 13 shows in 6 countries. Oh, Wiggy's blister healed fine eventually, but not before looking a bit grim...

but like I said he's alright now...




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This is Sarit's diary of the Spin Doctors tour - March 2005...

Tues 1st March - Swansea Patti Pavillion

First day of the tour... jesus, Swansea took forever to get to - about 5 and a half hours including service stops. Wow, we underestimated that and turned up nearly 2 hours late, and that's how not to give a good impression!

Spin Doctors seem cool - Aaron on drums, Mark on bass, Eric on guitar and Chris on vocals, Swansea Patti Pavillion was a nice venue and the people very welcoming. The Spin Doctors brought Leeks onstage with them since it was St David's Day - O...kay!

Oh, before I forget, we have a slightly different crew than usual - Jonny P on merch most of you will already know from Black Jackson and previous DRB shows, but we also have Rob Thomas on sound (both Spin Doctors and our sound), and John Taylor as tech. Also at the shows will be various film crew including the director and man resposible for the Spin Doctors' early videos, Rich.

Thurs 3rd March - Southampton The Brook

Another fucking long drive... we left Manchester at 7.30am and drove all day, although this time we arrived early. The show was alright, very high stage. It reminded me of one of the venues we played in Hollywood where you literally had to climb a ladder to get onstage. Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy this show as my eyes had an allergic reaction to all the smoke (very smokey venue!) and the after the show we had to drive about looking for a 24-hour Tesco so I could buy some eye drops. Then we finally got to the Travel Inn where we were staying that night to discover we had gone to the wrong one so after driving about 5 miles down the road we eventually got checked in and it was about 4am. Half an hour later (just closed my eyes to go to sleep), the fire alarm goes off, I so wanted to just stay in bed and burn cos I was so tired but everyone else was rushing down the corridors, so I went and joined a hundred or so cold, tired hotel guests out the front of the Travel Inn. So... half an hour, 2 fire engines and police later we were finally let back into the hotel. I think Pai and the guys were resposible since they were all chain-smoking in another room and there couldn't have been many other people up at 4.30 in the morning to set the alarm off. I was not impressed though they found it all rather amusing!

Fri 4th March - London Mean Fiddler

Today is the London show - we have a residency at this venue since it's the 3rd time in 5 months that we have played here. Everyone seems happy despite not having much sleep, Pai's still thoroughly impressed that they brought the fire engines out!

After the show...

Well, that couldn't have gone much worse! We did an interesting version of Dark Halo, we started the song and David's guitar had been knocked out of tune, he threw it back to the techs (Chris Lawler was working this show too) and carried on singing. Drums, bass and vocals sounded ace for the first half of Dark Halo, as we got to the middle of the song, John put Dave's guitar on him ready for the awesome guitar entrance just as the song picks up in the middle. Two seconds later, my bass amp blows (well, it didn't blow, it just quietly fizzled out). Chris and the monitor engineer frantically run on trying to sort it out. Still no bass, Dark Halo has now become guitar, drums and vocals. By the time we got the bass patched into a DI box the song had finished and despite all the chaos, the audience gave us a big, big cheer which was most appreciated! Of course, Spin Doctors film crew (they are filming a DVD docmuentary on the band and the UK tour) had the cameras pointing on us throughout all of this, but we kept going regardless and played a fucking brilliant set!

Sat 5th March - Sheffield Corporation

Passed two crashes on the M1 on the way to the gig, one of which involved a police range rover (ha!), no-one was seriously hurt though. The Corporation... big room, not quite enough people to fill it, was okay, we've played better and we've played worse. Don't think the Spin Doctors enjoyed this venue though.

Sun 6th March - Nottingham Rescue Rooms

We've been here with Hugh Cornwell and Living Colour and to be honest both times we didn't really enjoy it, but tonight the Rescue Rooms were totally alive. Spin Docs crew filmed Tinder with all five of their professional cameras and we really rocked all the way through. The crowd were happy, we were happy, the Spin Doctors were pretty happy. Graham the tour manager was impartial.

Tues 8th March - Milton Keynes, The Stables

Got here early, weird place. The building is set 100 yards off a main road in the countryside. It's a big theatre that's 30 years old but has only been a venue since the year 2000 - nicely designed, good facilities. It's apparently sold out so we're looking forward to it. Spin Doctors turned up, not sure what they made of the venue, although Eric (SD guitar player) seems positive and likes playing to sit-down audiences as it's a challenge! I personally find it weird having to play to an audience that is sat down in tiers looking down at us onstage, but it was a good show tonight, the audience were great and we had loads of positive feedback, which we like. Had a good chat with Mark White (SD bass player - and what a bass player!), he gave me a few pointers on bass. It's great working with such amazing artists, it's quite inspiring and really cool that these are such nice people (the industry can turn you into a complete arsehole if you let it). Dave is just happy cos he keeps buying rock compliations and Ska compilations at services to play before we sound check.

Thurs 10th March - Bilston Robin 2

So, we're in Bilston, near Wolverhampton. Been to this venue before with Hugh Cornwell but it's been done up and made bigger and better since then. Think it holds about 800 people (although so far the gig has only sold about 200 tickets) but the crowd are cool, they always are in Wolverhampton! Oh, I must mention, probably shouldn't but I will anyway, I fell off the stage in soundcheck (totally un-rock 'n roll as well). I was moving one of my monitors and because I was balanced on the edge of the stage I misjudged how heavy the monitors were, lost my footing and fell backwards off the stage (which I might add was about 5 foot high). I landed slapt on my back/neck (somehow managing to bang my hip, arm, knee and head at the same time). Despite having so many cameras on us all week from SD's film crew (and we had our own camcorder which Jonny was using to film the venue) when this happened, no-one - not one person - caught my fall on camera. Probably for the best. Good job I can laugh at stuff like this though cos it was pretty embarressing and my hip is fucking wrecking now.

... Just sat in the dressing room, behind the stage listening to the Spin Doctors play Two Princes. Love or hate 'em they are a good band, really amazing artists and I'm not sick of any of the songs yet!

Anyway, tomorrow is Manchester and I'm 99% sure that it will be a rockin' turnout and a kickass show. Pai has just pointed out that our dressing room rider isn't very good tonight as it consists of 4 bottles of sparking water and a random can of 7-Up. Good job I've been bringing my own Jamesons whiskey!

Fri 11th March - Manchester Academy

Yes, it's Manchester, we love playing home-town shows. The turnout is always good and we get to see loads of our friends again - thanks guys for turning out to see us, you know who you are... Rick, Katie, Mike, to name a few. I'll just point out when I woke up this morning I couldn't move because of my rather stupid fall yesterday, my back hurts in 4 different places, but the show goes on. The show was awesome, the audience were inspired and 'twas a hot 'n sweaty gig which is what we like. The Spin Doctors had a good show too, we did actually want to prove to them that the Manchester crowd was goina rock more than the London crowd, feel free to comment on that but I'm sure you'll all agree.

Saturday 11th March - Glasgow Renfrew Ferry

Set off at 10.30am to trek to Glasgow. Got there early, oh well. We've been here before supporting Hugh Cornwell so we knew what to expect. The Renfrew Ferry is literally a ferry that used to transport people across the River Clyde, now it just stays attached to the side of the river. Access to the ferry is by a gangplank or for load-in some rickety old metal steps which move when you step onto them and so makes the loading in very difficult. Tonight is the last gig that the Renfrew will play host to in this position on the Clyde. After tonight it is going to be refurbished, made into a restaurant during the day, still with live entertainment at night but it will be moved to the posh side of the river. Good on them!

Anyway, the staff and the audience seem up for a good night tonight. By the time we go onstage the tide has gone out and the boat is tilted quite badly to one side, seriously, everytime I put my eye pencil down on the dressing room table it rolled away and I was quite worried about jumping about onstage in case I lost my balance and fell on my arse. It would be pretty embarrassing yet at the same time very funny! Anyway, that didn't happen, the show was cool and Dave even managed to deal with feeling seasick! After an awkward load out - which I didn't actually take part in - we go back to the hotel.

Sunday 13th March - Leeds Cockpit

I didn't sleep more than 3 hours last night due to throat and ear infection. Everyone gets ill on tour, Rob (sound guy) has had something like glandular fever for most of this tour and I think everyone else has colds. Dave has done well so far, after having chest infection and then pneumonia on the last tour he seems quite well at the monent! However I can barely talk and I feel shit. Sound check runs late today, mainly our fault as we were stuck in traffic outside of Newcastle for about 2 hours!

Just finished playing, show seemed to go well. Unfortunately I could barely sing, think I managed Uneven, one chorus in Tinder, Circle and that was it. I'm not being unsociable but I've been in the dressing room since we came off stage, got a temperature, can't talk, throat burning. Pai and Dave have relayed some good comments though and it was good to know some of our friends and supporters showed up. Anyway, we have the next two days off.

Wednesday 16th March - Frome Cheese & Grain

Spent the past 2 days in bed, still can't talk very much and still feel shit but will get on with it. Never been to Frome before, we drove through Bath to get here which looked like a very nice and very interesting place to visit with all the Roman villas etc. Shame didn't get to see very much of it, like a bit of culture on the road. So, the Cheese & Grain... not what I expected, I thought it'd be like a pub venue with a name like that but its not. Its a HUGE barn-shaped building with a big stage. Just sound checked - it's going to be a difficult one tonight for both us and the Spin Doctors as the sound here is weird! You can hear the echo come off the back of the room so we're hearing all sorts onstage. Oh well, we'll make do. At least the dressing room smells of piss and there's no rider! The guy from the venue popped his head round the dressing room door and said, "There's a microwave there you can use and a fridge. If you need anything just let me know." Okay... so, a microwave with nothing to heat up and a fridge with nothing to put in it. Hey mister, how about a rider!?! After the show... we have to load up the van and be on the road by 1am tonight as we have an overnight drive to Holland and have to catch the ferry at Dover at 05.00.

Thursday 17th March - Breda Mezz Club, Holland

Oh my god, don't you just hate over night drives? Oh, forgot to mention since yesterday we have a new member of the team with us - Mike Vindice, our driver for the next few days. Right, got to the venue at 13.30, it would have been earlier but there were ferry delays and we ended up on the ferry at just after 06.30. The venue took ages to find, we had to stop and ask about five Dutch pedestrians but we got there. We especially liked the way one of said pedestrians described the venue as "a big blob"! He was right, well half of it looks like a normal building and the other half is shaped like a giant metal... blob. I can't describe it any other way! Inside is great - nice room, nice stage and the venue has obviously been very well acoustically designed. I imagine it'd be a good room to record in. Anyway, yeah so we got here at 13.30, loaded in the equipment and then some of us went to the hotel and slept for 2 hours before sound check. ('Some of us' being me and Dave, Mike of course went and slept through most of the rest of the day as we have another overnight drive after this show). Jonny, Pai, John and Rob all stayed up and set up the equipment. In all fairness they had all slept relatively more than Dave, Mike and myself as we had been awake since Frome in the front of the van while they all slept in the back, so we weren't just being lazy!

The show was really good, really enjoyed it, had a great onstage sound and out front was apparently ace too... thanks Rob! And the Dutch audience gave a warm reception to us as they always do, which is nice!

After the show... went back to hotel, had a shower and then we hit the road again for a 14-hour drive to Prague.

Friday 18th March - somewhere in Germany en route to Prague Archa Theatre Czech Rep

0600 hours - Had to drive through the night on a road system with cars speeding past at 120 miles an hour (when we can barely reach 70), no street lights and no cats eyes in the road. What a nightmare, we have already past one lorry that nearly went off the road (think the driver was falling asleep or something) but we were shitting ourselves since we were right behind it and when it swerved back onto the road the whole thing nearly toppled over which would have been devastating and we would have crashed! Anyway, sun is coming up and it's going to be a nice day - unfortunately, we have to spend most of it driving to Prague.

1800 hours - Got to the venue an hour ago (2 or 3 hours late... it was a really long drive!), we frantically loaded in and Spin Doctors are getting ready to sound check. Absolutely exhausted, at least I managed to get 30 mins sleep in the van, Mike (who was obviously driving) and Dave (who always stays awake in the van) didn't get any. The rest of the guys managed a couple of hours at least in the back of the van, but everyone is pretty damn tired. I've personally had 2 and a half hours sleep in the past 48 hours, or adding on my 4 hours sleep the night before Frome, 6 and a half hours sleep in the past 72 hours. Anyway, enough of that, it's all of part of being in a touring band - you eat badly, get sleep deprived, ill for the whole tour, nice.

After the show... bloody nightmare show, apparently we were good but the onstage sound was the worst ever! Incompetant monitor engineer, you tell him to take drum kit out of the front monitors, so instead he makes the drum kit louder AND adds guitar too. It was impossible to hear anything that we needed to hear on stage (i.e. the vocals), instead we ended up with a load of feedback swirling about on the stage while we're trying so hard to ignore it and just put on a really great last show of the Spin Doctors tour. I think it sounded okay out front, and it was pretty cool to see someone in the audience singing along to Tinder. It's great to play in a country we've never been to before and see someone singing along to one of our songs. That made it all worth while.

At the end of the Spin Doctors set they invited us onstage and we took a bow with them. We've really enjoyed opening the shows for them and they've been great to work with - brilliant artists and really nice people too. They said they hope we can gig with them again, we hope so too.

Saturday 19th March - Travel day

So good to get some sleep finally. Still feel shit but what you goina do! Rob is going to get a plane back from Prague, he's had enough of the van - don't blame him at all, in fact the other guys also have the option of flying back if they want. I'm tempted but will truck it with everyone else. It's a pity we didn't get to spend more time in Prague, seems interesting, we drove past some very cool gothic-looking churches. I kind of wanted to see Prague Castle but flights are cheap so may very well go back later in the year. So, we leave the Czech Republic and we're on our way home. The plan is to drive across Germany to France, stay in a hotel then ferry out from Calais tomorrow at lunchtime and drive back to Manchester. Ten minutes after border control coming out of Czech Rep, German police are in front of us with a lit-up sign on the car saying 'follow me'. They led us to a secluded estate off the motorway and then led to a rather dodgy looking warehouse that used to be a Used Parts warehouse. There, they explain that they have to X-ray the van and then it gets driven into the warehouse where 5 bored Germans officers search our bags and the van. It was only customs control doing a contraband search. An hour later and we're all clear so we get back on the road.

22.00 - We're still in Germany, this is taking forever and we're still over 7 hours aways from Calais, 4 hours away from the French border. Just stopped at services and the van wouldn't start up again so after bump starting it we realised that we were losing power to the lights. This is not good. Especially when there are no streetlights on the German motorway and no cats eyes. We decide to keep trucking and see what happens, but it's no good - lights are dimming. After pulling into a layby, out of habit Mike switched the engine off. Shit, goina have to bump-start it again. By this time, there's mutiny in the camp, the remaining crew blow up at us and have a rant. We can't help it, this is how tours run, even the bigger tours except bigger tours have more money to be able to afford vans that work, and days off in Prague, and of course more money. To be honest, everyone is tired, ill and they want to go home to their girlfriends and lives. More importantly though, we finally got the van started and set off again, ten minutes later we were seriously losing lights so we had to pull in at the nearest town.

00.45 - I am writing this sat on the steps of the St Margaretha Chruch in a (ghost) town called Grombach somewhere in Germany off Route 6. We have no power in the van battery. Mike is stressed though disguises it well. Dave, Jonny and John are all arguing amongst themselves, I am here and Pai is on the phone to the insurance company. And you thought this tour was over after Prague... yeah right, it ain't over til we're back in Manchester - preferably alive, if no-one kills each other. I blame tour madness, it sends people looney, I suppose its to be expected, the best part of three weeks trapped in a van with between 5 and 6 other people going from town to town, venue to venue, country to country. I personally wouldn't want it any other way, but that's just me.

Sunday 20th March - stranded in Germany

Here's what happened, the insurance company arranged a recovery guy to pick us up and take us to a hotel in Eppingen (20 minutes away from Grombach). We will stay here til Monday when the van can be worked on. The van is currently in a secure garage. Mike left this morning, taxi to Stuttgart airport and flew back to Manchester (he has to be back for his anniversary tomorrow). And then there were five!

The plan is now this... we have the rest of the day and night off in a random German town but at least it's a nice hotel, the van probably can't be repaired until later in the week and so the insurance company will arrange flights for us back to Manchester tomorrow and the van to be recovered by the insurance company when it is fixed. In case you are wondering, it was the alternator that was knackered!

Summary of Tour

Spin Doctors were great, the audience was very cool, some of the venues were... shall we say... interesting, but some of the venues were ace and the shows were cool, most of us got ill, all of us became sleep deprived, some of us became very aggressive.

Number of speeding fines abroad = 1
Number of random van searches = 1
Number of times we had to show our passports abroad = 6
Number of near-death experiences on the German Autobahn = 9

We travelled through 6 countries and played 13 shows in 3 countries.