Category: tour

Hey All –

We’re all back and in one piece, suffering a bit, but that’s to be expected. I know we fell way behind on our daily posts, and after the right bollocking our lighting engineer gave us one night (thank you, Kate!), we promise that we won’t disappear like we did last year.

We’ve got photos from the tour, some video, and plenty of stories and recollections. Plus, we’ve got news about upcoming dates for 2009 and beyond.

I’ll try to post more this evening after work, but please bear in mind that we’re all straight back at work and have to fit all this in between family, friends, pets, work, etc.

Most of all – THANK YOU!!!! The entire tour was a blast and we got to hang out with a lot of you, in fact quite a few of you multiple times. You’re the reason we’re doing this, and will continue to do so.

Helllooooo Portsmouth!

Long drive from Birmingham, lots of traffic, and it was hot as hades in the van. Regardless, we arrived and loaded in. They had great posters for the gig, an original version before they knew who the supports were, and a later version using artwork from the site. See for yourself, here’s the first one:

And the final version:

The gig? Fabulous, of course. Unfortunately we missed the first support band, Villiers Terrace. Good reports, though. You can check them out at their MySpace page.

Also playing were Good Time Charlies, who endeared themselves to me for life by making a comment that “this song sounds like Cat Butt” (obscure Seattle band reference – nice). Haven’t had a chance to listen to the CDs but live they were freakin’ great.

Our gig was really enjoyable – best stage sound thus far, and we were relaxed yet powerful, if I do say so myself.  Next stop: London!

Kate, who is doing lights for us this time around suggested we put our expected stage times on the site. Seems like a great idea, so here you go:

Portsmouth: 10PM

London: 9PM (I imagine this will slide to 9:15-9:30)

Hop Farm Festival: UPDATE: 12:10 PM – 12:55 PM – This is twenty minutes later than originally scheduled, and now we have a 45 minute set! Brilliant!

Nottingham: 9:30 PM

Manchester: 9PM (again… 9:15?)

Leeds: 9:15 PM

Newcastle: 9:15 PM

T in the Park: 12:10 – 12:40 PM – Another short set. Harumph.

Oxegen: 4:05 – 4:50 PM

Okay, no excuses! See you there!

One down, nine to go!

Things got off to a slightly embarassing start when we realized we had left Ciaran’s cymbals in London. Uh, yeah. Thankfully the support band, a delightfully young group called the Dukes Jetty offered theirs. Thanks, guys!

(Like mid-60s Merseybeat? You’ll love the Dukes Jetty. Vintage down to the cuban heels and Burns guitar.)

Our set went down well. I managed to re-start the Blue to Black loop instead of Catch a Fire, and at one point punched the ceiling really hard (ow), but other than that had a great time. We played a couple of special tracks that we haven’t played in a really, really LONG time, but that were requested by folks in the forum. I won’t tell you what they were – don’t want to spoilt the surprise for those of you coming to a show this week!

Off to Portsmouth now…