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Newcastle 6th October 2010
Alarm goes off very early at 7.15am
straight out of bed to get Freya ready
for school because I have to meet Steve
and Jim at 9.00am. I'm dropping her off
at a school friends who will drop her at
school. Freya dropped off, I collect my
bag from home and head off to meet the
lads. It's pouring with rain and can I
find an umbrella? That will be a big
fat no! So out I go into a very wet
Ealing morning. I meet the boys and we
walk to South Ealing tube in the rain to
catch the train to Heathrow Terminal 5.
On the way Jim gets soaked by a passing
65 bus, we shouldn't laugh but we did.
We catch the tube and arrive at Terminal
5 right on time at 10.00 the flight is
11.40 so we've plenty of time.
We meet Merv and Adrian,
Jem
is going under his own steam, we go
through security without any grief and
decide a spot of breakfast would be in
order. During breakfast the weather has
cleared up a treat. Heathrow is bathed
with blue skies and sunshine, now that's
more like it. Breakfast over we begin
to head to the gate only to discover the
flight has been delayed by 30 minutes...
balls! The gate finally opens and we
board our British Airways flight to
Newcastle and we're off up to The Toon. Lordy we're being offered complimentary
drinks on board! I haven't had that on
a European flight for a very long
time. We land at Newcastle Airport,
collect the hire car and head towards
the city centre.
We find The Academy no problem, park up
and head into the venue. All the gear
is pretty much up and we soundcheck. I
meet up with my good friend Jick, and
Steve, Jim, Adrian myself and Jick head
out for a bite to eat at Pizza Hut.
Stuffed full of pizza it's back to the
venue and I have a shower and get ready
for the show.
The lights go down and we hear The Toon
roar. It's great to be back in Newcastle
and the Newcastle fans don't let us
down, the gig is sold out and
rammed. The audience are in wonderful
voice as usual and the gig passes
without any disasters. It's good to be
back. Before I leave the stage I say a
few words and get three massive cheers
in tribute to Steve Lee from Gottard who
had tragically died the day before, such
a waste.
As I came off stage I
realised
I was deaf in my right ear, not good,
during the show one of my in-ear monitor
earphones had come out and I saw that
the rubber grommet thingy was missing
and thought it had fallen on the floor. The penny dropped, could the missing
thingy be the cause of my deafness?
Adrian got a torch and discovered, to my
relief actually, said thingy nestling
deep in my ear. He went and got some
tweezers and tried to remove it but not
being an expert in Otolaryngology (look
it up like I did) he didn't want to
cause any more harm and aborted his
retrieval attempt mission. So it would
be a trip to A&E for me before we get to
the hotel. We get changed and head
upstairs for the Meet & Greet. I know
I've said it before but we really do
enjoy meeting you lovely people. Jim
spends most of the Meet & Greet defacing
peoples CDs etc. by writing daft
comments and justifying his
behaviour
by telling them "This will be worth a
fortune in a few years
'cos
I've done that". Poor deluded child.
We're staying in
Wetherby
tonight which is about an hour or so
away and I'm travelling with Richard our
soundman. We decide to try and find an
A&E on the way and discover there's one
in Darlington. Richard drops me off and
parks the car, luckily it doesn't seem
too busy, I give my details and take a
seat in the waiting area. It's not busy
but it's 2 hours before I'm finally
called and the offending object is
removed in 2 minutes. Ahh that's better
I can hear again in glorious stereo.
Back in the car and we finally get to
the hotel at 4.30am. Yawn!
Newcastle photos courtesy of:
Little Linda @ The Mayfair Mall Zine
Philip Bennett @ Philip Bennett
Photography
The MOH
Manchester 7th October 2010
We're meeting in the hotel reception at
11.00am. I make my way down still
feeling a little weary, I guess
yesterday ended up being quite a long
day. We stayed in a Days Inn and I have
to say for a budget hotel it's very good
indeed, I'm impressed. I don't know if
they're all the same but the one in
Wetherby is a goodie. We head off for
some breakfast in the nearby services
and I treat Richard to a coffee and cake
in Costa. With the normal services
rip-off prices two coffees and two cakes
end up being a few pennies short of a
tenner... disgusted of Ealing. I'm back
travelling with Richard and we set off
for Manchester and arrive without any
dramas. The rest of the boys are there
and the gear is going up. We can't make
any noise until after 5.00pm. I pass
the time by changing the drum heads on
my kit. We start soundchecking. The
guy on the monitors is great, it's
sounding really good onstage. Tickets
have gone well, tonight’s going to be a
goodie. Ant turns up with some friends
and we have a good chat. This will be
the first time he'll see us from out
front in the audience since we reformed
because every other time he's been
working filming etc. I have my shower
and get ready for the show, the white T
shirt tonight I think.
    
Steve Church comes down and says they're
ready for us. It's another packed house
and standing by the side of the stage it
becomes apparent it's going to be
decidedly hot up there. The lights go
down, we hear the cheer and the intro
tape starts... let's go... or not
unfortunately! We're all onstage but
Jim’s guitar amp isn't working. The
intro tape finishes, Jem hits a bass
note, still no guitar... Jim and the
crew are frantically trying to get to
the bottom of the problem. Poor old
Jim, this is exactly what you don't
need... The bass note drones on, Mr. O
goes to the mic and announces with a wry
smile "There's nothing like a big intro
is there... and this is nothing like
one!". Jim’s amp bursts into life and
goes quiet again... the bass note drones
on... "Great keyboard solo Jem" chips in
Steve with a smile.... Kerrang! and
after what seems at least a lifetime or
two Jim’s guitar is back and we finally
launch into Wildside. The audience are
well up for it and sing their hearts
out. It's still sounding great onstage,
the lights are good, so after the false
start its all systems go. A great gig!
Two out of two! Thank you Manchester!
Back in the dressing everyone is hacked
off with the debacle at the start, it
really does throw you and it takes a
while to settle down and get back into
the swing of things. Luckily the crowd
were with us which helped us settle
quicker. We get changed and head up for
the Meet and Greet, and, although due to
the venue curfew we’re pushed for time,
we have over 50 people waiting which is
great.
We’re staying in Chester tonight and
Richard has already left as he fancied a
curry and a few beers tonight especially
after having to sit around in A&E with
me the previous one. Go for it Rich.
On our journey I called him and he said
he’d found a curry house right by our
hotel. Speaking of journeys - after a
couple of beers too many young JK is
embarking on one himself. We arrived in
Chester and Jim and I head to The Bombay
Palace to join Richard. Richard was
just finishing his meal, we sat down and
ordered a couple of pints, Cobra I
think. It was about 12.45am, I wasn’t
really hungry at all so of course the
obvious thing to do was order a chicken
madras, pilau rice and a naan. Jim is,
in his own terminology “F***ing
leathered”, but continues necking the
pint in front of him whilst ordering a
chicken jalfrezi, mushroom pilau, naan
etc. He’s getting loud. Thankfully due
to the lateness of the hour the
restaurant is frequented by people
pretty much in the same state as him.
Steve and Adrian turn up, we order more
beers and they too succumb to curry
lust. Jim has now taken to calling us
all “Fat c**ts”. “Do you want another
beer you fat c**t”, “What time are we
leaving tomorrow you fat c**t” “Oi! Fat
c**t have you finished with that
curry?”. You get the sad, sordid
picture I’m sure, but in truth he was
hilarious. Jim announces “I’m going to
bed you fat f***ers”, stands up and
smacks his head against some decorative
object sticking out of the wall... “F***ing
hell” he shouts and leaves the
restaurant rubbing his head.
I meet a sorry looking,
greeny
kind of grey Jimmy K in town the
following afternoon and he tells me he
has no recollection of what happened
once we arrived in Chester but vaguely
remembers using the “C” word in a
restaurant a tad liberally the previous
evening and
apologises.
Merv told me later Jim had left his
suitcase in the middle of the road
outside the hotel and just headed
straight for the curry house. Bless!
Manchester Academy photos courtesy of
Ian Parry
Buckley 8th October
2010
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So we’re back at The Tivoli in Buckley!
I’m looking forward to it very much, we
had some great times there. Wow I never
thought we’d see the day.
Richard and I wake around 10.00am, get
ready and head into Chester in search of
Costa Coffee. It really is a lovely
town with some gorgeous architecture.
We find one in Smiths of all places,
settle down and while away a bit of time
with some idle chat. We both have kids
and most of the conversation revolves
around them. We head back to the hotel
and I get a call from Adrian that we’re
meeting in reception at 3.10pm. Richard
heads off to Buckley around 1.00pm.
We meet as arranged get in the car and
head off to The Tivoli. We pull up
outside The Tiv and it’s exactly the
same, now I’m not sure if this is a good
or a bad thing. We park up and head
inside - again nothing has really
changed we’re in a Buckley time warp.
The gear is nearly ready but we have a
digital out-front mixing desk which is
being
temperamental. Richard is his usual
calm self and lets the PA guy try and
get things sorted but after an hour
announces “I’m going to have to take
charge” which he does and everything is
soon working properly. Star man is our
Richard.
After the soundcheck I go and have a
shower at the venue. The Tiv has many
great attributes but a decent shower is
unfortunately not one of them. I go
from being boiled alive one second to
full scale hypothermia the next...
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The lights go down the intro tape bursts
into life, will Jim’s guitar work? The
answer to the question is a big fat yes
and we’re up and running. At Manchester
we had a fantastic monitor guy,
unfortunately tonight in Buckley we have
the complete opposite end of the
spectrum. We have the equivalent of an
untrained chimp. As we kick into
Wildside all the monitors are switched
off, muted. Monitors help us hear
things on stage so Steve is singing away
but not hearing a note. Bubbles
finally un-mutes them and we immediately
wish he’d mute them again, they sound
bloody awful, whistling and
squealing.
Bloody hell this is hard work. Merv and
Jim take it in turns to go and try and
sort them out. Finally they get them
sounding reasonable but our primate
friend on the monitor desk starts
fiddling and we go back to square one.
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Although the sound onstage is atrocious
the crowd are fantastic, as usual, and
help pull us through. We’ve added “The
Other Side Of Midnight” to the set for
tonight’s show and the other guys
attempt the “walk” in the breakdown, not
bad lads for a first attempt. We finish
and leave the stage, Jim decides to
offer our friend on the monitors some
career advice “Don’t give up your f***ing
day job you tw*t”. Very true sage-like
words JK. Monitors aside it’s three out
of three. We get ready for the Meet
and Greet and as there is no real curfew
we can have a good chat with people
tonight, cool. Only Adrian, Merv and
myself are staying over tonight so we
collect up the remaining rider and head
back to the hotel in Chester ,have a
couple of beers and hit the sack.
Three more shows under our belts all
with great attendances. Once again
thanks everyone for your continued love,
appreciation and support. We’re having a
blast and loving it too, here’s to many
more nights of the same (apart from the
Tivoli monitors and A&E).
Love, light and peace Pete. x
Buckley live photos courtesy of Jeff
Price
Tivoli photo by Steve Church
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