Poole The Lighthouse, Poole (I presume)

Last time we were here it was my 40th but on this outing it's Matt's. Also his Dad's who'd come down from Swansea with Claire is wife. 

Build up was largely done with a half the cast and crew on a account of Haze not putting fuel in the mini bus he was driving. By all accounts he had to walk to a petrol station to get fuel. 

Little was said on their arrival but I did wonder if this had still been the case if it was our van that had run out of fuel through the same circumstances. 

DEFINTELY NOT!!!

Never the less the show was build up in more or less the same time as if they'd been here from the off. 

I met up with the clan Angelow in the furthest pub away from the theatre. Fucking seemed like it anyway. Which wasn't a bad thing as en route I passed a card shop which spurred me to buy Matt a card and a couple of bits. Namely a wind proof lighter for all the times he does t smoke (Claire Angelow) and a small bright as fuck mag lite. 

I got about hundred yards away then realised it was also Chris, his dad's birthday too whom I've known since I was 14 and even played in a several bands with over the years. As I recall, this would have been the first time I've bought him a card. If not, the last time was in 1990. 

I'm a great friend. 

In the words of David Brent, "El Vino did flow" Well Desperados beer at least. 

Back at the theatre it was meeting held as usual. Capt Dan made a point of bringing up the van running out of fuel debacle which did make a certain Dr Haze somewhat uncomfortable, naturally!

It was a pretty well sold show and it went without incident. Though as we were a little pissed, don't think we played to our usual standard which had been set so far on this tour. Chris and Claire thought it was good so perhaps I'm being a little critical. Still it was Matt's birthday so fuck it. 

That was Poole. 

Crawley The Hawth!

Its been a few days since the first gig and we are already a week in. Normally I would miss posting a few days then would rack my brains as to what happened on those missed days. But now, I'm just gonna skip it and fast forward to tonight's show. I simply cannot think of what happened on those shows other than the basics. But rest assure they all went like this:

Woke at travelodge, drive to theatre, build up, had something to eat, chilled out, had the meeting to discuss changes in the show or mistakes on the last one, ROCKED THE FUCK OUTTA THE PLACE, pull down, travel to travelodge and then bed. 

We did a have day off after the third show and it was also my birthday. What did we all do in celebration? FUCK ALL!!! 

What a thoughtful and caring bunch they are. Da and Matt even bought me a Zimmer frame, because that's really funny because it's a joke about me getting old. It IS funny, isn't it? 

They also got me chocolate cake, which made up for the poor quality joke. 

Thanks guys! 

An old fat bloke eating chocolate cake. Sorta, well a lot, like me! 

So Crawley today then. Or as Haze called it, "creepy" Crawley. 

I was only here in October with The Osmonds, not quite the same show, but the get in and build up was as fast. 

I did plan to have a mosey on around the town or the area but weather being as wank as it was, I only braved the outside to find a Tesco and stock up on cereal for the morning and a bunch of things for dinner. 

That amounted to a shit load of rabbit food and chicken. With some fruit and nuts. 

(Fucking riveting read this init?) 

After the meeting Clayton and I tried to make sense of the spare desk. In the case that there would be a problem with the main one, plugging this one in and getting to go would be impossible without setting it up prior. And knowing how these things tend to happen, it wouldn't be in the day or soundcheck, but the show meaning a lightening fast turn around is absolutely paramount. 

Anyway, we are slighty closer to achieving this. The thing we are stuck on is loading a scene from the main desk into the secondary desk so they have exactly the same show. But oddly, the secondary isn't recognising the the saved scenes on the memory stick. 

Why is this an issue, surely it's a case of swapping the connections and turning the power on right? Well, here's the main desk we use. 

And here's the spare

See what I mean?

Anyway, it's a work in progress and something I intend fully to have nailed very soon. I plan to call the manufacturer on Monday and get some sense. 

The show went well, I personality played a good one as did the band. 

Pull down and a short drive to the travelodge and it was vodka o'clock. 

Brighton, some theatre of some sort, first show back after Christmas and New Year.

Happy Fucking New Year Ya Bastards! 

Yep, just over 3 weeks have passed since the last show in the Lyric, Christmas and New Years came and went largely uneventful thanks to the shite weather. If not for that I'd probably have made more of an effort to go out and you know, do that thing people do at Christmas? Have fun, yeah that!! 

I did have a blast over the new year though to be honest. Not only did I make the monstrous track up north to see Alan and Michaela (two folk I had played in a band with for a whole in 2010) get married but spent nye at my old mate Dan Ashby where I played drums a bit, saw in new year and got royally wasted playing Halo and Grand Theft Auto until 6:00 am. That's how I roll! 

So with all that done, it was time to get back to work and the tour. 

To limit the fuck about with getting the Angelow's, myself and all our shit up to the gig and not having to cart my car about for a few days at my own expense, I decided that if would be better to hire a van one way. So that's what I did! 

We had to leave Swansea at 6:00 as I planned to meet Andy Higgins to sell him a Mac I had lying around. He was off on a ship and so this was the only window. 

The Angelow's were okay with it thankfully. 

As soon as we left Swansea, their arses started to erupt like mount fucking Ettna. 

Da went to sleep pretty fast. Not sure it was due to being tired or the pungent gasses that were emitting from either of their arses. But he was out like a baby. 

Da, after leaving Swansea and all the shitting commenced. Sort of. 

After a few hours, meeting Andy and exchanging the mac for a "Gregory" he he puts it, it was off to Bright-on. 

We got there a little early but I fucked about with getting somewhere to park up the van so we can offload all our shit. 

I got told off by the guy who owed a shop next the the stage door. I only put an empty can of relentless on his pile of rubbish and he came storming out of his shop of bollocks to explain to me that this was HIS PILE of rubbish for recycling and I should take the empty can into the theatre and use THEIR bin. 

What a cunt! I mean, what a thing to have a grizzle at! I really felt like opening up a can of welsh abuse on his most probably lonely, no friends, bitter fucking arse. 

But instead I bottled it and just did as he asked. He's still a cunt though. 

That shop keeper at his Christmas party, most probably. 

After all the hellos and happy New Years etc it was back to building the show as if the break didn't happen. 

And it didn't, before we used to get it down to 2 hours. After 3.5 we were still building. But as we had a meeting and rehearsal at 4:00, it didn't give me much chance, or any at all to get some lunch after building. So I didn't. I plowed through it all the way to sound check. 

The reasons for the rehearsal is there's some personnel changes from last year. Namely no Sergei and one Mambulu less. But in his stead we have a chap that's loaned to us from Gerry Cottle's Circus. An ENGLISH aerialist by the name of Mikey. Why make a point of saying he's English? Well because in all the years of working with Circus 99% are non English. Russian, Chinese, African tend to be the mainstays. 

Probably because they work for fuck all and only require a place to live and a visa, I don't know. 

Anyway, Mikey is very good. But we needed to rehearse him into the show. 

After about an hour or so it was soundcheck time. No hassles with feedback and monitors not working though Da's was cracking. 

A certain amount of not giving a fuck about that was held on my behalf. I did actually look for the replacement but as they'd all been put back on the tuck I told him to just suck it up and shut his cunt. 

Actually, I just asked him to turn it down a little. He did and we got through the show okay. 

The band payed fine! A felt a certain fire in my own playing which had not been there prior to Christmas. I can't say why but I wasn't questioning it. 

Tabitha, who stood in for the injured Kirsty last year, made a visit and hung about for most of the rehearsal. She also came to the show. I'd loved to have spent some time with her hut I generally was on the go from the minute I arrived so I didn't manage. Hopefully I will next week. 

Er, I think I've covered the Brighton show adequately so I'll end this entry here. More to follow. Oh a lot more to follow. 

As long as I give a shit enough to keep this bloc up. I mean, who actually reads this shit anyway? I ask ya!!!!