Tour Diary
Well lets see, so far we've played Geleen, Amsterdam & Groningen in Holland, Munich in Germany, Besancon, Nancy & Paris in France so we've got a few miles under our belts now. Geleen was a bit boring but the gig was OK, all we did was buy sun glasses at the market and wait for the Fun Lovin Criminals (FLC) to arrive as we had left a day earlier, they had been playing on TFI Friday. It was on the way there that we discovered our driver was not so keen on breaking any land speed records, a pattern that has stuck with us unfortunately.

The next day it was into Amsterdam, much more like it! Amsterdam is our kind of city, the gig was a little strange though, it was in a dissused gas container that is massive, the ceiling looks like a spaceship from Independance day is landing on you. After the gig we all went back to the hotel and then to a bar around the corner for some proper tour drinking with FLC and other Amsterdam locals, a good time was had by all. Groningen was a good gig also, we enjoyed ourselves there but everyone was a little tired from the previous night's festivities so we all retired to the hotel.

The next day we left FLC, they had to go back to England but somehow only made it as far as Amsterdam again! They eventually went back to Britain the day after. We drove from Groningen in the north of Holland as far as Wurzburg in Germany, that took all day including a two hour stationary period on the autobahn, very boring, especially as when it finally moves you can't see any reason why you stopped in the first place. After an overnight stop we drove the remaining 300 km to Munich. It was a nice sunny day when we arrived and we kicked a football about for a while whilst doing interviews & photos.

The gig was great, the support band The Lovebugs who are Swiss went down quite well also. The venue was full and the crowd were jumping around everywhere, just like being in the states again, a morale booster. We actually did our first encore, we don't do them normally as we think they're a bit pompous but we didn't really have a choice, they wouldn't let us leave the stage. A lengthy bout of drinking ensued in celebration (and partly because we had to drive to France overnight and needed to drink ourselves to sleep!) which ended with Toddy boring everyone stupid on a number of subjects close to his heart, well mostly how much he loves Harry our tour manager and would like to take him home to look after him when he's not on the road. Harry gracefully declined the offer.

Besancon is quite a nice town, situated on the loop of a river it had lots of nice squares with Cafes round them very relaxing, we had the best meal of the tour on the first night there. Dave, Jonny, Toddy, Tim & Russell and The Log (Road Crew) had a lovely meal in a small castle turret, served up by girls dressed in medievil costumes. Delicious.

During the day Jonny, The Log and I went out for a quick gin & tonic and ended up at a bar run by the leader of the local chapter of the Hell's Angels. They proved to be a good laugh, Jonny bought a watch off them and they bought us these drinks called Delirium Tremens. Now these evil brews are from Belgium and weigh in at a hefty 9 percent alcohol, I advise anyone who ever comes into contact with things to avoid them at all costs, they are no good for you at all.

The gig itself proved to be a bit of a problem. FLC's flight from London was cancelled and the next one didn't leave until 9.30 which meant they could only get to to the gig by about 11.30 at the earliest. We went on late and played quite well but FLC didn't make it until twelve and they couldn't play as the police would have shut the gig down. they were well pissed off.

The next day we moved onto and played Nancy, Jonny & I both suffered nasty bowel troubles and blamed the Hell's Angel beer. The gig was good, FLC were superb, I think that tends to happen when you have to cancel a gig and it's not your fault, you tend to play twice as hard the next night. The town itself is quite old, our hotel was in a huge square with the town hall and some brasseries.

Now we're in Paris, we played at the Bataclan last night. It was a good gig for both bands and now we're enjoying a good day off before travelling to Toulouse on the train tomorrow. Jonny and Toddy's girlfriends have joined us for a couple of days, we didn't tell Toddy his girlfriend was coming and he jumped out of his skin when he saw her in the bar when we arrived. She'd had to ring him the day before from Paris and pretend to be in London so he didn't suspect.

And that's it for now, I'll send some photos with the next bulletin, the camera is full of stupid stuff.