That Was The Week That Was...

A very varied week this one… 2 festivals, 4 club dates, and a live television appearance…

First off was a trip up to the wilds of Cumbria for a show at Whitehaven, way up on the northwest coast of England. I personally haven’t been here for many years, having last played here in another life nearly 20 years ago with Smalltown Heroes…and suffice it to say, it hasn’t changed one bit in that time as far as I can see. The people are still as hardy and friendly as ever, and the landscape is eye boggling in its beauty. We happen to drive into the festival site on as clear an English summers’ day as ever there was…the sun glinting off the sea, highlighting the contours of the rugged coastline in an otherworldly glow…blindingly blue sky with little wisps of cloud settling around the tops of the distant mountains…quite a nice setting for a gig then…

We take to the stage at 7.30, to the 5,000 capacity crowd in the little arena going absolutely nuts from the start…and after the first few bars of the first song, it’s apparent I’m in trouble. I’ve started using some new amps and one of the ones they send me decides it’s time to play funny buggers and fries an output valve…I know immediately that something’s not right and it takes nigh on the whole show to identify the problem properly in the heat of a noisy and sweaty show…the crowd don’t seem to mind though, and the signal going out front from me is still healthy enough in the P.A…despite sounding like George Formby to me in my ear monitors…and we pull it off…a tight punchy hour…the crowd absolutely roaring their approval as we leave the stage…and despite me feeling let down by the new gear, we’re all smiles as we pull away and head to Leeds and the nights’ hotel…

We’re playing live on French TV the following morning and taking part in the opening weekend celebrations for the Tour de France which is happening at York Racecourse this year. This particular engagement being relatively short notice it’s impossible to get a hotel anywhere in York, so we stay in Leeds and drive in at 7.00 the next morning for rehearsals…a bit bleary eyed I have to say, but in good spirits. As we approach York the traffic for this time on a Sunday morning is beginning to thicken very quickly, and we wonder if we’ll make the venue at all, despite leaving with time enough to spare…but once we actually get there its painless enough and we get to the crew bus where everyone is waiting just about dead on time. The boys have been on the go since 6 loading our gear and sound checking and as usual make it easy for us to just wander up and start some run throughs for camera angles and recording…

The whole thing goes as smoothly as live TV can and once we’re finished the 2 songs they want, JJ goes across to a small stage for a live interview to the folks tuning in across France, having their breakfasts and laughing at the English weather. Even as he’s doing it our crew are breaking the gear down, packing, loading, and are just about ready to go when he winds it up. They’re fucking marvellous our crew…no other way to say it… And of course they also know we’ve got a club show in Preston tonight…

The 53 Degrees is a great little place and there’s 1,000 people rammed into it as we go on at 9.00pm… We’ve rested up as much as we can during the day and after a good sound check, during which my amp troubles are sorted and are sounding crisp, we turn in what can only be described as a blinder…the crowd are right there with us from the off and we respond and play very well…it’s loud, hot and sweaty, and we’re dripping as we leave the stage…great show…
A big thanks to the scores of fans who waited around before and after the show too…there was some good craic there…and everybody enjoys that don’t they…

The next day we rise in decent time and make for St Albans. Dave and JJ are uncertain as to whether the band have ever played here before…we certainly haven’t in my time…and as we drive up to sound check I decide I’ll ask the crowd personally tonight…sometimes it’s the only way…they know everything… So ask them I do, and apparently we haven’t…although Dave’s still not 100% certain…

This is a great gig too…1,200 people have packed into it on a Monday night…and after 2 shows we’re tightening up nicely and play well again. Someone decides to throw beer at JJ and he halts proceedings by taking his bass off, getting down on his hands and knees, and wiping the stage himself with a towel…slowing the gig right down…fair play…he then decides to go wandering down to the front in a bid to seek out the culprit…me, Dave and Jim laugh at the thought of the berk cowering in the crowd with little streams of wee running down his black trouser legs and all over his D.M’s, as a glowering JJ tries to find him and administer a clip round the ear hole…very funny…


A bit of advice…don’t throw beer at this band/any band…but especially not this one…none of us take kindly to it and some of us can get punchy about it…one drop of beer into any of the equipment in the wrong place and the whole gig ends and everybody goes home…and you’re responsible you prick…

The mood lightens though when we get a lady out of the crowd who’d written asking for a picture with us to send her son out in New Zealand who’s a massive fan…”he says I’m not cool and I thought if I had a photo of myself with you lot he’d sharp change his mind” she’d said…I don’t think she bargained for us getting her onstage, facing the drums with her in the middle, all 4 of us, and with the crowd all waving behind us, getting the shot…courtesy of Big Al…She was lovely though, and clearly moved by the whole thing…nice…

Again there were lots of people waiting outside in the cold which was heartening, and after a good natter with as many as we can we depart…happy again…

It’s a relatively easy drive across to Reading the next day to play the Sub 89 club…a tiny venue of around 650 people which sold out very quickly so we’re told. It’s great to do gigs like this one every once in a while…the crowd are right in your face, the condensation runs down the walls, and we have puddles in our boots by the end…Around halfway through someone hands a piece of paper up to JJ which has the unbelievable legend Germany 5 Brazil 0 written on it…he shows it to the crowd and the looks of disbelief are very amusing…I can’t believe it and ask one of our boys who says it’s true…as the gig progresses we get updates and the final score unfolds just as we encore…

Oh and the gig was great too…there was some high spirits with a bit of crowd surfing and some poor girl at the front having her mouth smashed into the barrier a couple of times, she steadfastly refused to move…good for her…(I saw her later and there was no damage done)and some mile wide grins from people not used to being so close to a full throttle band really going for it…and it all adds to the atmosphere…a good old fashioned sweaty punk gig…

After a fairly routine day off in Hull, during which we had a meal in a place that was so unselfconsciously 70’s it almost defied belief, we sound checked at the City Hall the following afternoon. This isn’t a club but a lovely quirky old municipal building in the heart of the city that seems to be on the verge of crumbling at every turn. It’s got an amazing atrium at its heart which is bathed in bright sunlight with a huge glass dome looking down on marble pillars and floors…quite something…we do some photos there and gawp up at the sky and the surroundings. The hall is as you’d expect…high, wide and handsome, with huge reflective surfaces everywhere, and a massive balcony right the way around the top…


Thankfully though the PA is really good and Louie our front of house man isn’t anticipating too many problems…especially with just over 1,000 people coming out to see us on a gloomy grey Thursday night…the sound tightens up with so many bodies there to soften it and it’s a great show…a massive noise coming from the crowd in the echoing confines of the room…There are a lot of teenagers here too…and they know all the words, old and new…

After a lengthy drive up the east coast from Hull to Edinburgh we arrive at one of favourite haunts in Leith. When we’ve played T in the Park in the past we’ve always stayed here and as the gigs not until tomorrow lunchtime we take the time to relax after a busy week, have a nice meal, and a relatively early night. We leave the next day around 11 for the hours’ drive to Kinross and as has happened every time we’ve played here, it’s raining and already beginning to look muddy and broken up. We go on at 1.10 for an hour and have a great time…probably my favourite show in a week of corkers…

The first thing that strikes me is how young almost all of the crowd is…really young…there’s thousands of them all looking up with varying expressions, ranging from “wow” to ”I know most of the songs…was this them?” It’s great to see them warming to us song by song, until there’s a good 20,000 people there, drawn in by the sound and atmosphere…and when I go to thank them at the end the roar is deafening and we walk away smiling again…surprisingly sweaty for an outdoor gig…

A really satisfying end to a lovely week…and it puts us in great stead for the half dozen remaining festivals we’re doing before the season ends… A great week…too short, but great all the same…

Thanks to everyone who came and saw…we appreciate it…

Baz/ July 2014

TITP photo-Corinne Laver