Hung over we head south to Southampton where Max recalls his old stomping ground. Set up is slow but eventually we get there and have a fun night. We drink with the promoter and are especially happy when he brings out the rum. That eases and fragile bodies but no doubt guarantees more fragile bodies the next day.
I feel worse than ever when I wake up but nothing a good fry up can’t handle. Then we wait. Wait and wait for the aforementioned promoter to turn up and let us in so that we can load up again. Max sets up his office near the bins and we discuss potential tracks for the forthcoming album.
Eventually he arrives and we start to load – shit – another casualty – the flagon is down and cracked in half.
Bugger. Oh well – its not the first and I doubt it’ll be the last. The hunt for a new one ends in failure so in the next gig in Cheltenham (possibly one of the poshest areas we’ve ever played) we decide to gaffa tape a bottle of rum and hand that out instead. It’s a tricky gig as the sound is not the greatest. We’re tired and tomorrow is Vans Warped Tour UK. We hit the road and land in our Travelodge at 3am for the evening and I fall asleep to the sound of someone doing 360°s in the car park. Nice.
We are in bed for no longer than 4 hours and then its time to hit the road. Everyone looks shattered and most admit they are ill. One more gig to go. What will the Vans Warped Tour UK entail? We can barely imagine. Really looking forward to playing in Alexandra Palace though. We sort out our stuff, set up a merch table, which is about a mile away form where we’re playing, and then we meet Dan, a lad who is videoing us for the day and then head over to the pub with a journalist who is writing a biography. Finally our time on stage is upon us. It’s a fun gig and great to see some familiar faces amongst a relatively unfamiliar crowd. After that we bump into a few of the Flogging Molly crew.
Its great to catch up and we hang around for the gig later on, which is lots of fun! I forget about my injury and get into the think of it with the rest of the crowd. I hear about one of my favourite acts form the previous week has crazily climbed the rigging on the main stage and jumped off. Disaster as one girl has her arm broken and another lad hurt. Fortunately no one else was. Then after a few more drinks its time to head home. Tour complete!!!
folk and roll. What a life!
folk and roll. What a life!