It took us about 6 hours to drive to London. We’d managed to blag a lend of a van from our friends Marie and Greg from The Brilliant Things for the tour. A mother load of backroads later we got to London.   

Got to Sheen at around 1 or 2am where we would be staying whilst we were in London. Its a quiet enough area near Richmond in South West part of London. Everywhere there seems to close pretty early except for JJ’s Kebab shop. Possibly home to some of the ‘worst tasting takeaway’ in the whole of London according to Pepper. Wont be rushing back there again. Crappy…..
 
Wednesday 12th May
First gig of the Tour. Never easy going. We were playing in a place called ‘The Underbelly’ which is on Hoxton Square in Shorditch, London. Its a nice small quiet area which is sort of hidden away. It wasnt the greatest show we had ever done. All of the new toys I got for this Tour seemed to work. More of a warm up show tonight. ’Nuff said.
 
Friday 14th May
We arrived in Brighton at about 11am for our 3:30 show as part of The Great Escape Festival. We were playing as part of Angela Dorgan’s FMC Irish showcase at the Prince Albert Venue. It was an early start for this one as we were driving down from London and we were hit the road by 7 or 8 that morning. Yes, I did nearly lose our manager on the way as we took an unexpected turn towards Gatwick Airport at one point losing him in a sea of similar-looking cars on the A25. Quick stop for a couple of cans of R’ Bull and then back on it. I was dissapointed when I heard that Conor O’Briens Villagers had to pull out of the gig that day and we were further saddened when we heard that it was due to a death in the family. ‘Slowdive’ was dedicated to him.
 
After soundcheck we had a stroll around Brighton. Pretty impressive. Loads of little record stores, vintage clothing shops and bars. We stayed down around the beach melting in the sun until we were due to go on stage. Got back to the Prince Albert about 20 mins before we were due to play. Rammed with a lot of people. You couldnt get in the door of the place. We thought the gig went really well until afterwards when we heard that there were a few problems with the sound. Something like that is out of your hands pretty much the moment you step on to the stage. Shit happens. The crowd at the Prince Albert were brilliant. It was a weird one as it was our first time playing in Brighton but they were great. They loved it, were really into it and we really enjoyed playing our songs to them.     
 
After the show we decided to go back to London instead of hanging around Brighton. Rocky and me went to get the van to load up the gear. Disaster! When we got to the van we saw that the side passenger window was smashed in.
It looked like some little fucker had thrown a rock through the window and legged it. Nothing was taken. If only I could have got my hands on him. We got the window fixed that evening as we could nt leave it parked outside on the street overnight with a gaping hole on the side. 
 
Saturday 15th May 
Back down to Brighton to play our second date tonight at The Great Escape. we played in the ’Life’ venue which was great cus behind the stage was a winding staircase that led on to the beach and you could see out on to the water. After soundcheck was finished we stayed around outside the venue. Again the place was rammed and the crowd were great. I heard aferwards that just before going on stage there was a power cut. No sound, no lights,..nothing. But Mick managed to pull it together just as we got started. Nice work.  Brighton is a place we’ll look forward to playing again soon. A sweaty one this one. I could make out a few Irish accents at the front of the stage as we began our set. Tom from Gomez was there tonight. Had’nt seen him since last November when we supported them in Dublin. He said he was worn out from his sons birthday party earlier that day. The man is a complete genius and it was great to see him again. En route back to London I learned the lesson of never placing someone in charge of the sat nav when they’re clearly intoxicated.  
 
Thursday 20th May
Our final date of the Tour. The Flowerpot Venue. Kentish Town Road. Close to Camden Town in London. Tonight was probably my favourite night. Once again venue was packed by the time we got up to play. It really feels like things are moving forward after nights like this. The people seemed to be mad ferr-it. The weather was beautiful and it was lovely to see some familiar faces during and after the gig that we hadnt seen in a while. Set highlight for a lot of people tonight seemed to be ’The Movement’. Sweaty-sweaty show. Got back to Sheen at around 2:30am. Left for Dublin the following morning around 10am.

 

Big thank you to everyone who came to the shows and to all the people involved who looked after us so well on Tour(too many to mention).

 

 

Richie Chakra