UK TOUR Nov-Dec 2006

28th November 2006
We were all coasting this tour exhaustion by now, waking up in the morning was emotionally and physically punishing. My body was crying out for more sleep that morning but the alarm spoke the truth, it was time to get up. I made my way to the meeting point and we set off for cardiff and the first show of our headline uk tour. I think we'd all forgotten what it was we were actually doing and about halfway through the journey i suddenly realised that the next 9 gigs were probably going to be damn fun. The Point in Cardiff is an old church, quite large but re-furbished inside so its generally lost a lot of its churchly charm. Our support band tiny dancers turned up with lots of equipment. Their tour manager was Neil who we'd met when he was tour managing editors. They had some very nice merchandise that was apparently hand sewn by the singer's girlfriend. As their merchandise had a production team of one this meant that there was only one scarf and although it was a very nice scarf and i could afford it, i didn't want to take it away from a more deserving, scarf wearing tiny dancers fan who'd appreciate it on more levels than i would.
We took the time after sound-check to go and have some supper with seth riddle at his favourite italian restaurant. The walls were adorned with photos of seth and his cerys as it was here that they'd had their wedding reception. It was good to see him and the food was satisfying. You can always trust a good meal to remind you how exhausted you are and shortly after the meal i started to wilt. "One thing for it" i said to myself (another sign of fatigue; insanity) and decided to drink through it as they say. A few pints of guinness later and we were on stage. Not a massive turn out but those present seemed to enjoy themselves. Tom's new game of throwing a pineapple into the audience backfired slightly when the girl he threw it to must of taken her eye off the fruit and it delivered a substantial whack to her upper left leg. I don't think we're insured for fruit related injuries to fans, if you're reading we are sorry and hope bruising was minimal..... please don't sue.
There was no hotel booked that evening, it was another night at sea.. well four hours or so across the irish sea from fishguard to rosslare. I cant really remember much about it but it was quite rough and i resisted going to bed as long as possible to drink stella in the restaurant with tom and matt instead. The next thing i remember was waking up in the van being told we had a radio interview at 10 am. It was a tough call but eamon and i went and did the interview for phantom fm straining to act normally. "Fuck you look tired" said the dj when she came out of the studio to greet us. It went quite well really and i was even sharp enough to stop her from playing Porcupine or Pineapple because of the swearing. We hopped back in the van and checked into our hotel. Eamon and I did another interview, he drank wine i drank two strong coffees. There was a distinct lack of cohesion in our thought patterns, we'd end up rabbeting at him about stuff that bore no relation to the questions and he just said "erm" a lot. From there we walked back to our hotel and slept uneasily for a few hours.
It was quite a small venue we were playing in Dublin but we knew it'd be a good show. I watched all of tiny dancers' set that night and thought they were pretty good despite only just fitting on the stage, their sound man steve did a good job. Our set was a ripper, people were digging it, singing along and bopping up and down. We left the stage and some guy just climbed on stage and followed us into our dressing room. At first i thought he was a mate of someone else in the band until he started falling about the place completely drunk. The promoter came back and removed him, it was a shame as he'd obviously just had a really good time and overlooked the situation. I felt a bit bad afterwards as our t-shirt selection couldn't cater for a man who was of the extra large variety and id neglected to order any of his size. Next time mate, i promise. By now we were truly knackered and had to retire to our hotel for some sleep despite the place turning into a massive club and filling up with dublin's young and careless.
It was off to Belfast come the morning and after a slight delay caused by some problems with the one way system, we were off. Tonight's show was at queen's university union. My grandfather went to queens but i don't think the union was there in his time. We were playing a late show as part of a club night so in effect, we were (as i like to say) the entertainment, which means not everyone is necessarily there to see the band; it could get nasty. By the time we went on everyone was hammered and up for it and there was definitely a brakes contingent who were more than excited. During disco party a girl fell down and seemed to get her head wedged between the stage and the left side of the p.a. Tom and I glanced bizarrely at each other as we watched her friend yank her out from where she was stuck. I asked her if she was ok once the song was through and she seemed to be fine although obviously very pissed.
That night we stayed in another b'n'b. Andy is very particular at making sure our accommodation is cheap and cheerful and as little like a travelodge as possible. Lets just say every night is interesting. On checking in to this particular place Andy requested if it was possible to lengthen the end of breakfast from 9 to 9:30. "Do you want to stay here or not?" was the response he got. It didn't matter as we had to be up early to get the ferry back over to the mainland.
We'd heard there were only 7 tickets left for the king tuts's Glasgow show and by the time we'd driven the picturesque drive up from stranraer it was sold out. A sold out show at tut's is a thing of beauty, they even give you a bottle of whisky as a prize. I was already pretty chuffed to be home and this time i had a bit of time to do the right thing and take my long suffering girlfriend out for dinner to make up for not actually being home, ever, at all. The food they lay on at tuts is great, don't get me wrong but we wanted a bit of privacy so went to a nice fish restaurant just down the road and had a splendid time. The gig itself was lush, there was this big american guy going nuts right down the front and the whole place was rammed and dripping. Big thanks to Le Reno Amps for supporting us again, love those guys. Some woman went up to eamon afterwards and said one thing; "Lesbianism!". What she meant we'll never know. The inner exhaustion was starting to really build up now, you can put it off and try and ignore it but its always there making you weird. Once your duties are fulfilled for an evening there's little you can do to stop yourself flopping into a heap on the floor but at least i was at home in my own bed, for a change.
We were up and off to Leeds the next day. We had not played in Leeds for a while so it was no surprise that the gig had sold out and had been upgraded to the larger room of the cockpit next door. Our soundcheck was a bit shitty that day. Something was set up wrong with the pa, like the thing wasn't running on full power or something, it sounded toss and the in house engineers seemed too incompetent to fix it and didn't really give a shit. One of them had stupid spiky hair and kept saying "Id better ring Sean". I gave in to the fact that it was most likely going to be a bit of a shitter and that we'd just had to get through it the way it was but it turned out alright and the place was heaving, again. Im not used to doing headline shows where you can see several hundred people in the audience. The front row were quite chatty and kept offering their hands for high fives. I obliged a couple of times but realised that it probably looked a bit shit from the back. We had some japanese dudes down that day filming for a program for mtv2 japan showcasing rough trade bands. I hope we get to go out there next year, maybe australia too. After the show we were laid to waste again, just shattered and we all just wanted to go to bed. That nights b'nb was one of the freakiest. Me and eamon's room had a toilet in the corner and a shower next to it, separated from the beds with a frosted glass panel. It was also opposite a brothel which Andy unfortunately mistook for a late night bar with embarrassing repercussions.
It was a short dash over to Manchester the next morning. I made the mistake of having a nap on the way which totally screwed my brain for the rest of the day. My body desperately wanted to shut down and go into what i call 'repair mode'. Id never played the roadhouse before and id heard some bad things about it but it seemed like quite a cool little gig. As i was leaving after sound-check to go to the pub a guy was enquiring with an employee as to whether there were any tickets left. It was sold out and he looked really disappointed so i put him on our guest list, that was my good deed of the day. The gig was really good that night, packed out again and bloody hot. We did a good trade in t-shirts that night too and pretty much sold out of stock.
We drove down to birmingham the next day for what would be i think the 4th time we've played the bar academy. When we arrived we saw that on the sign outside it said Monday: Breaks. This was annoying so we had it changed to the correct spelling pronto and then all went our separate ways to do a bit of shopping. There were a few CD's i wanted but i was disappointed on a whole with the major chain's selection in birmingham. Borders in particular had gone quite down hill from what i remembered. I suppose the proximity to christmas forces them to fill their racks with guaranteed sales, compilations and snow patrol for 3 quid. Shopping centers really are dangerous things and before long i found myself in John Lewis gazing in wonderment at all the nice things i could buy. Luckily chris phoned me and told me to come to the pub where he and eamon were drinking winter ale. A quick half and then it was time for sound-check. The bar academy is quite small and there is no dressing room or backstage area to speak of so our rider was flung down on a fusbal table which we stood behind at the back of the room. Stuffy commented that it looked like we were presenting a student cookery program. It was a pleasure to welcome stuffy/the fuses as second support to the tour. Id never seen them and they were very good. Not too many people there when they started but it slowly filled up. Tiny Dancers played and looked a bit cramped again, then it was our turn. It always feels like you are playing to the front row at the bar academy as the stage is pretty much on the same level as the audience and there's only about ten foot of width to it. We had fun though and the gig was a bit different, lots of improvising and spontaneous stuff. Afterwards we chatted to lots of people as well as the tiny dancers who had been given a box of wine as an apology for not being allowed back into the venue by the security after they'd had dinner. On leaving birmingham we listened to scritti politi's cupid and psyche 85 album which really pissed everyone off except for me then we drove into darkness for miles before reaching our destination at a strange country club somewhere near stoke on trent. The room was huge and very warm with flowery decor and a trouser press. I was confused and delirious, i had to sleep but first i watched some telly to wind down and discovered that whichever fuck wrote the new lil' chris single has shamelessly ripped it off the buzzcocks and should definitely be hung.
I was still annoyed about this come the morning and hadn't risen in time to make breakfast which was apparently very good, but it was the last day of 8 gigs in a row and that was something to be proud of. To London we drove and we were there in no time. As usual all our phones started buzzing with the late guest-list requests but as tonight's show was another sell out there was little we could do. The venue at kings college is on the the top floor of the union and is positioned at a convenient bend in the river allowing a spectacular panoramic view. Our dressing room was all the way down in the basement so getting from there to the gig took repeated lift journeys. The room had a big table and many comfy yet serious looking chairs around it. In the corner was a white board with various slogans like "knowledge=power" written on it and questions like 'what do you want?' and 'how are you going to get there?'. This was encouraging thinking for our london show. After sound-check Eamon, Sam, Chris and I went out for some food. After a bit of wandering we found a sushi place on high Holborn. I was feeling adventurous and ordered some sea urchin which arrived looking like the faeces of a very ill dog. With this in mind i just couldn't stomach it and had to leave it uneaten. The gig was just starting to fill again for stuffy and the fuses who sounded even better than the night before. There were many people to greet and talk to, people who work for us and who we work for interested to see how we're getting along. Like the growth of hair, its hard to notice if your band is getting better. I think you'd know if you were getting worse but playing the songs night after night really tightens you up to a point where you don't really have to think about it. Its no accident that London shows are booked at the end of tours for this very reason. It seemed to be a mixture of people who loved our first album and those that had recently gotten into our new album in attendance that night. You could spot them apart quite easily. Good to see a bit of a moshpit down the front, unfortunately the pineapple made it back onto the stage and my hands got all sticky with its juices.
After two days off we finished the tour at Brighton's Pavillion Theatre. Brakes had never played this place although id played there with every other band i've ever been in. Id also seen a lot of shows at the theatre whilst growing up in brighton, everyone from silver sun to god speed you black emperor. I was feeling a bit tender that day as being back in brighton had awoken the party monster in me and the previous night had been spent drinking far too much vodka with old friends. We were a bit disappointed that the promoter hadn't hired in a p.a that was going to be loud enough for us and the audience. Subsequently sound-check was a bit chaotic. Eamon and Tom then rushed over to resident records for an acoustic in-store. There were about 40 people there, I stood outside breathing in as much cool air as i could. I could see eamon and tom through the window performing but couldn't hear them. Instead there was a gypsy man singing tender love ballads whilst gently plucking a guitar. That was my soundtrack to their gig, it was all quite surreal in my delicate state. I walked back to the venue in time to catch the vile imbeciles, our first band on. The band is the new project of ex 80's matchbox guitarist and my old flat mate Andy Huxley. They were awesome and i was glad they played although Andy had convinced himself that everyone was going to hate it which pissed me off. The place slowly filled up, friends and family arrived, Stuffy played and the audience were very quiet. I was in one of those "I cant do it!!" kind of moods by the time we were due on stage, of course i actually could and i did and it was all good. Much reveling was had afterwards. Some of us relocated to the gloucester club for more drinking and shouting in each others ears and when it was late enough to pretend that its early enough for breakfast, we did just that. The food is awful at the market diner but the experience of being there is great, so many different kinds of people, mostly drunk but all eating fried food. For me thats where the tour ended, with double servings of black pudding and too many chips.
A Merry Yule to you all, thanks to everyone who came to see us over the last few months, see ya'll next year.