A little later than scheduled... but here's my tour diary summarised greatly but there ya go... some people have been ommited and incidents missed out in order to avoid prosecution, fines and blackmail scenarios
Day 1
HUll THe Feral Ball
This was our first show and a headline appearance by ourselves. Meet up was at Neils in Wolverhampton where we joined the splitter that would be our home for nearly a week .. We got to Neils about 1 and met up with Ex Drummer Andy Wright who was teching and doing merch for us on this tour and also Eddie Marsh who is doing live keys for us again when it doesn't conflict with his own band Gripshift. Ed played keys for us back in 2004 and it was great having him back in the fold. Under the technical mastery of Neil (ahem) we loaded the splitter up and thank god we didn't get weighed at any point... we managed a miracle getting 7 blokes and all our gear into that van plus beer, water etc
We got to Hull in decent time and found the hotel and quickly bumped into Glyn and Stig who were promoting the show. These guys are top blokes and it's so refreshing to deal with promoters that love metal and want to ensure that the bands playing their show are all happy... great attitude to have and ensures that we will always be happy to play shows for these guys...
Other bands on the bill were Ravenage, Talamasca, Face of Scars and Heat Ray and everyone seemed friendly and got on well which was nice.
The Dorchester was bloody hot... after a slight delay sorting out our intro we went on and jesus.. i thought i'd need oxygen after 4 songs... lol the enthusiasm we got back from the crowd though kept me going and it was a very cool start to the tour.. .we encored with War of Angels and finished to chants of more.. but i was straight off to the bar in order to avoid collapse.. we then hung around drinking and chatting and refreshed a lot of friendships with our Northern brothers and sisters which was great and one of the benefits of actually staying at the same place we played (genius idea )
Set List
Fear is not Enough
Mirror Shroud
Collision of Destinies
Anger of the Ancients
Trojan Transmission
Dark Season
Seeds of Betrayal
Our Last Hope
Long Live the New Flesh
War of Angels (encore)
Longest show of the tour... 50 Mins (due to headlining)
Stig, Sean and Glyn Crowd shot Hull
Intense rating 9/10
Day 2
Newcastle Academy 2 with Blitzkrieg and Minotaur
The trip from Hull to Newcastle didnt' take us too long though Tom Tom quickly got confused by the road system as did we
We found the hotel and found there was no car park that could take our splitter... We met up with Ken (Blitzkrieg) near the Academy and quickly found a solution..
We met the promoter Junie from Flathill Promotions who showed us around the venue and to our dressing room etc.. and she was lovely and and absolute gem... Load in was a bit of a bitch .. on double yellows and then all the gear in and then using a small lift to get all the gear up the top floor... but heh.. it's all rock n roll
Soundcheck was tricky as we had limited floor space using our drums in front of the Kriegs kit.. Ed balanced on a couple of flight cases whilst playing keys, he obviously loves living on the edge.. and during the show managed b/v's too ..
The show went really well, a decent crowd and some great feedback from them meant we had a blast... we warmed them up nicely for the hometown lads that was for sure. We got changed and grabbed some beers and headed up to catch the end of the Krieg's set .. they were on fire and this would have been great for a last show of the tour .. Minotaur seemed a nice bunch of lads too and if they stick at it they'll do well ..
Load out went smooth and we were entertained by a local students night that meant loads (and i mean loads) of scantily clad young ladies all paraded by extremely drunk.... we will definitely be coming back to Newcastle
30 min Set (all Blitzkrieg shows)
Fear is Not Enough
Collision of Destinies
Trojan Transmission
Our Last Hope
Dark Season
War of Angels
Ed living on the edge Dave and Ed in perfect harmony
Intense Rating 9.5/10 (Gets extra 1/2 mark for totty)
Day 3
Ivory Blacks Glasgow
A very scenic drive from Newcastle to Hull...
After checking in at our hotels we headed off to the venue to meet up with the Krieg ... with a warning by the club owner to be careful when loading out to watch out for the methodone users
err we loaded in to the club, said hi to the krieg guys and the promoter Owen (good guy) ... plus the other 2 bands on the night... Attica Rage and 15 Times Dead..
After we were loaded in and soundchecked etc.. it was time for Pizza and Beers with Blitkrieg backstage (cheers boys), had a bit of a chat and got ready for the show...
Ivory Blacks is a cool club layout wise.. the sound wasn't great though but you can't have everything. Monday night was always going to be a little iffy and though the crowd was reasonable it was a shame a few more people didn't make the effort. That said those who did come down were bloody loud and we had a real blast and made some new friends.
We watched the Kriegs set whilst downing a few beers (common theme by now) and had a laugh with some of the locals... major funny point of the evening was Lyns having a go at Dave for standing at the bar drinking and not with us... she was really having a go and Dave didn't realise for ages meanwhile the rest of us were falling on the floor crying...excellent
We enjoyed our first ever visit to Scotland and we WILL be back...
Backstage
Lyns with Dave lol
INTENSE Rating 8.5 (extra 1/2 point for the entertainment from Lyns)
Day 4
Mansfield Town Mill
The reason why the Krieg and us decided to do this show was as a stop
gap and to break the journey from Glasgow to London.
That was the only purpose it served apart from giving both bands another dress rehearsal and me met some very cool people on the night too.
The first support band got the hump and buggered off because the krieg wouldn't let them use their back line well boo hoo boys.. you only live 5 mins away... they also killed Dave's head for the night (fortunately we had a spare and were able to repair Dave's head too) the next band played their set and did a decent job..
This was the worst turn out of the tour but we did our thing and the Krieg did a bit of a comedy set which was great fun.. the few that WERE there seemed to enjoyed it and we had time to have a chat and thank them for coming...
No backstage area, didn't get to meet the promoter...but the sound was surprising good.
Sean and Brian (Blitzkrieg)
INTENSE rating 2
Day 5
London Camden Underworld
Not too bad a journey down to Wembley to our hotel and then onto the venue...
We hadn't played the Underworld for quite a while and were keen for another show there plus for the southerners in the band we had a few people coming ...so the pressure was on.
Load in went well both the Krieg and ourselves had started working together with load ins and outs and it made the job easier..and it seems that drummers always do the packing (what's that about lol)
We had a bit more room tonight and a really good sound lady and monitor guy.. "i've got a radio mic..." " No problem", " I've got inner ears" .. "great how what do want in them" it was a real pleasure .
A respectable crowd turned up especially considering it was the 2nd leg of the champions league semi final, this also meant i had to focus on the job at hand too..
We were really fired up for onstage and felt we did a good job.. we got a great crowd reaction and sold a shit load of merch which was nice... soon as our set was over it was out to say hi to the people that we knew ...and with the tight curfew there wasn't a lot of time for social stuff unfortunately.
After the show we headed back to the hotel.. and met the Krieg in the bar, our friend Dirk flew over from Germany for the show and he loved it being in the bar with both bands... many a drink was had from the bar till it closed and then we were onto the Stella vending machine (i kid you not) and finally at 4.30 (ish it's a bit hazy now) Ed, me, Ken and Phil from the Krieg as the last men standing decided to call it a night... Ed ended up on the floor in my room as he couldn't remember what room he was in (Classic)
We headed out from the hotel at 8.30am .. and of course we were all in fine form... ahem... London Rocked !!
Load in Underworld
On Stage
INTENSE rating 9.5
Day 6
Leeds Rios (last day of the tour with Blitzkrieg)
A bit of a trip up to Leeds.. and we stopped off first at our hotel near Wakefield and checked in and chilled for a bit.. before making our way to the venue.
Upon arriving at the venue all looked dead so Ed and i went to explore the town center and hand any flyers out to potentially interested people...
Maybe when we only handed 1 flyer out should we have had a bit of a feeling about tonight. We had high hopes for Leeds and know a few people up there and generally Leeds and the surrounding area is a metal place but Thursdays possibly aren't the night to come to town.
We loaded in and were really happy about the venue.. it's very cool, we'd played the old Bradford Rios but never here before. In fact the new Rios is a great club, great stage and great facilities for bands. Unfortunately the turnout, especially in a large club didn't really meet our expectations.. once again those that did turn out were loud and made themselves known etc which was cool.
After the night was over, the Krieg and ourselves headed to a bar over the road which had a fine selection of beers including belgian and dutch beers... we had an end of show few drinks and then parted company.....with Krieg going home and us back to our hotel.
Rios Poster The Stage
End of tour Photo
INTENSE Rating 7
Next morning was all about heading back to Wolverhampton and then to our homes for a couple of days before playing Weston on the Sunday.
Thanks to-
Andy for working f**king hard mate, cheers! Ed for bringing a new dimension to our sound and adding to the chaos...
The cool promoters; Glyn, Styg, Junie and her hubby, Owen, Sharon and Factory Management.
Neil for handling the driving all week and controlling the load in/out (As well as drumming his nuts off for us every night)
All the motorway service stations we stopped at and for fried breakfasts...
Travel Lodge (although i really don't want to see another one for a while) great customer service though... even to a metal band...
Subway (and it's nearly healthy)
Smoothies..
Err Beer...
Dirk for being mental enough to Fly over from Germany...
Beki and Charlie for driving to Leeds to see us, especially as Charlie had to give up her motorway virginity...
All our friends who turned out to show their support, many respects especially in such a busy week.. all those that couldn't make it for various reasons we'll see you next time...
Also a big thanks to all the new friends we made this time round...
The friendly support bands on the tour.. You know who you are lol
But most of all, we'd like to thank Ken and the boys of the Krieg for having us on the tour and being throughly nice guys to work and drink with..
Cheers !!!!!!!!!!!!
More photos on our myspace page and my myspace page also
Day 1
HUll THe Feral Ball
This was our first show and a headline appearance by ourselves. Meet up was at Neils in Wolverhampton where we joined the splitter that would be our home for nearly a week .. We got to Neils about 1 and met up with Ex Drummer Andy Wright who was teching and doing merch for us on this tour and also Eddie Marsh who is doing live keys for us again when it doesn't conflict with his own band Gripshift. Ed played keys for us back in 2004 and it was great having him back in the fold. Under the technical mastery of Neil (ahem) we loaded the splitter up and thank god we didn't get weighed at any point... we managed a miracle getting 7 blokes and all our gear into that van plus beer, water etc
We got to Hull in decent time and found the hotel and quickly bumped into Glyn and Stig who were promoting the show. These guys are top blokes and it's so refreshing to deal with promoters that love metal and want to ensure that the bands playing their show are all happy... great attitude to have and ensures that we will always be happy to play shows for these guys...
Other bands on the bill were Ravenage, Talamasca, Face of Scars and Heat Ray and everyone seemed friendly and got on well which was nice.
The Dorchester was bloody hot... after a slight delay sorting out our intro we went on and jesus.. i thought i'd need oxygen after 4 songs... lol the enthusiasm we got back from the crowd though kept me going and it was a very cool start to the tour.. .we encored with War of Angels and finished to chants of more.. but i was straight off to the bar
in order to avoid collapse.. we then hung around drinking and chatting and refreshed a lot of friendships with our Northern brothers and sisters which was great and one of the benefits of actually staying at the same place we played (genius idea ) Set List
Fear is not Enough
Mirror Shroud
Collision of Destinies
Anger of the Ancients
Trojan Transmission
Dark Season
Seeds of Betrayal
Our Last Hope
Long Live the New Flesh
War of Angels (encore)
Longest show of the tour... 50 Mins (due to headlining)
Stig, Sean and Glyn Crowd shot Hull
Intense rating 9/10
Day 2
Newcastle Academy 2 with Blitzkrieg and Minotaur
The trip from Hull to Newcastle didnt' take us too long though Tom Tom quickly got confused by the road system as did we
We found the hotel and found there was no car park that could take our splitter... We met up with Ken (Blitzkrieg) near the Academy and quickly found a solution..
We met the promoter Junie from Flathill Promotions who showed us around the venue and to our dressing room etc.. and she was lovely and and absolute gem... Load in was a bit of a bitch .. on double yellows and then all the gear in and then using a small lift to get all the gear up the top floor... but heh.. it's all rock n roll
Soundcheck was tricky as we had limited floor space using our drums in front of the Kriegs kit.. Ed balanced on a couple of flight cases whilst playing keys, he obviously loves living on the edge.. and during the show managed b/v's too ..
The show went really well, a decent crowd and some great feedback from them meant we had a blast... we warmed them up nicely for the hometown lads that was for sure. We got changed and grabbed some beers and headed up to catch the end of the Krieg's set .. they were on fire and this would have been great for a last show of the tour .. Minotaur seemed a nice bunch of lads too and if they stick at it they'll do well ..
Load out went smooth and we were entertained by a local students night that meant loads (and i mean loads) of scantily clad young ladies all paraded by extremely drunk.... we will definitely be coming back to Newcastle
30 min Set (all Blitzkrieg shows)
Fear is Not Enough
Collision of Destinies
Trojan Transmission
Our Last Hope
Dark Season
War of Angels
Ed living on the edge Dave and Ed in perfect harmony
Intense Rating 9.5/10 (Gets extra 1/2 mark for totty)
Day 3
Ivory Blacks Glasgow
A very scenic drive from Newcastle to Hull...
After checking in at our hotels we headed off to the venue to meet up with the Krieg ... with a warning by the club owner to be careful when loading out to watch out for the methodone users
err we loaded in to the club, said hi to the krieg guys and the promoter Owen (good guy) ... plus the other 2 bands on the night... Attica Rage and 15 Times Dead.. After we were loaded in and soundchecked etc.. it was time for Pizza and Beers with Blitkrieg backstage (cheers boys), had a bit of a chat and got ready for the show...
Ivory Blacks is a cool club layout wise.. the sound wasn't great though but you can't have everything. Monday night was always going to be a little iffy and though the crowd was reasonable it was a shame a few more people didn't make the effort. That said those who did come down were bloody loud and we had a real blast and made some new friends.
We watched the Kriegs set whilst downing a few beers (common theme by now) and had a laugh with some of the locals... major funny point of the evening was Lyns having a go at Dave for standing at the bar drinking and not with us... she was really having a go and Dave didn't realise for ages meanwhile the rest of us were falling on the floor crying...excellent
We enjoyed our first ever visit to Scotland and we WILL be back...
Backstage
Lyns with Dave lol
INTENSE Rating 8.5 (extra 1/2 point for the entertainment from Lyns)
Day 4
Mansfield Town Mill
The reason why the Krieg and us decided to do this show was as a stop
gap and to break the journey from Glasgow to London.
That was the only purpose it served apart from giving both bands another dress rehearsal and me met some very cool people on the night too.
The first support band got the hump and buggered off because the krieg wouldn't let them use their back line well boo hoo boys.. you only live 5 mins away... they also killed Dave's head for the night (fortunately we had a spare and were able to repair Dave's head too) the next band played their set and did a decent job..
This was the worst turn out of the tour but we did our thing and the Krieg did a bit of a comedy set which was great fun.. the few that WERE there seemed to enjoyed it and we had time to have a chat and thank them for coming...
No backstage area, didn't get to meet the promoter...but the sound was surprising good.
Sean and Brian (Blitzkrieg)
INTENSE rating 2
Day 5
London Camden Underworld
Not too bad a journey down to Wembley to our hotel and then onto the venue...
We hadn't played the Underworld for quite a while and were keen for another show there plus for the southerners in the band we had a few people coming ...so the pressure was on.
Load in went well both the Krieg and ourselves had started working together with load ins and outs and it made the job easier..and it seems that drummers always do the packing (what's that about lol)
We had a bit more room tonight and a really good sound lady and monitor guy.. "i've got a radio mic..." " No problem", " I've got inner ears" .. "great how what do want in them" it was a real pleasure .
A respectable crowd turned up especially considering it was the 2nd leg of the champions league semi final, this also meant i had to focus on the job at hand too..
We were really fired up for onstage and felt we did a good job.. we got a great crowd reaction and sold a shit load of merch which was nice... soon as our set was over it was out to say hi to the people that we knew ...and with the tight curfew there wasn't a lot of time for social stuff unfortunately.
After the show we headed back to the hotel.. and met the Krieg in the bar, our friend Dirk flew over from Germany for the show and he loved it being in the bar with both bands... many a drink was had from the bar till it closed and then we were onto the Stella vending machine (i kid you not) and finally at 4.30 (ish it's a bit hazy now) Ed, me, Ken and Phil from the Krieg as the last men standing decided to call it a night... Ed ended up on the floor in my room as he couldn't remember what room he was in (Classic)
We headed out from the hotel at 8.30am .. and of course we were all in fine form... ahem... London Rocked !!
Load in Underworld
On Stage
INTENSE rating 9.5
Day 6
Leeds Rios (last day of the tour with Blitzkrieg)
A bit of a trip up to Leeds.. and we stopped off first at our hotel near Wakefield and checked in and chilled for a bit.. before making our way to the venue.
Upon arriving at the venue all looked dead so Ed and i went to explore the town center and hand any flyers out to potentially interested people...
Maybe when we only handed 1 flyer out should we have had a bit of a feeling about tonight. We had high hopes for Leeds and know a few people up there and generally Leeds and the surrounding area is a metal place but Thursdays possibly aren't the night to come to town.
We loaded in and were really happy about the venue.. it's very cool, we'd played the old Bradford Rios but never here before. In fact the new Rios is a great club, great stage and great facilities for bands. Unfortunately the turnout, especially in a large club didn't really meet our expectations.. once again those that did turn out were loud and made themselves known etc which was cool.
After the night was over, the Krieg and ourselves headed to a bar over the road which had a fine selection of beers including belgian and dutch beers... we had an end of show few drinks and then parted company.....with Krieg going home and us back to our hotel.
Rios Poster The Stage
End of tour Photo
INTENSE Rating 7
Next morning was all about heading back to Wolverhampton and then to our homes for a couple of days before playing Weston on the Sunday.
Thanks to-
Andy for working f**king hard mate, cheers! Ed for bringing a new dimension to our sound and adding to the chaos...
The cool promoters; Glyn, Styg, Junie and her hubby, Owen, Sharon and Factory Management.
Neil for handling the driving all week and controlling the load in/out (As well as drumming his nuts off for us every night)
All the motorway service stations we stopped at and for fried breakfasts...
Travel Lodge (although i really don't want to see another one for a while) great customer service though... even to a metal band...
Subway (and it's nearly healthy)
Smoothies..
Err Beer...
Dirk for being mental enough to Fly over from Germany...
Beki and Charlie for driving to Leeds to see us, especially as Charlie had to give up her motorway virginity...
All our friends who turned out to show their support, many respects especially in such a busy week.. all those that couldn't make it for various reasons we'll see you next time...
Also a big thanks to all the new friends we made this time round...
The friendly support bands on the tour.. You know who you are lol
But most of all, we'd like to thank Ken and the boys of the Krieg for having us on the tour and being throughly nice guys to work and drink with..
Cheers !!!!!!!!!!!!
More photos on our myspace page and my myspace page also
