chrisg's Tour Diary

On Saturday, we thought we only had one more show to go, as our Birmingham show had been cancelled. The plan was to spend the next two days in London, head to Chelmsford for our last show, and then to Heathrow to catch our plane. Adrienne had scored some cheap rooms on priceline for us, so on Monday morning, I woke from my very own bed and headed down to the hotel's gym. If only I had known it would be my first England star-sighting, I would have bothered to comb my hair or something. But as I am walking from a treadmill over to another machine, who should pass me in this small hotel gym but Liam Gallagher of Oasis. He retreated to a corner treadmill, hoodie up, and started jogging. Never knowing what to say in situations like that, and having been more in the Blur camp when i was growing up, I didn't say anything. Adrienne walks in, and I point out my star find. Then she tells me that the Birmingham show is back on. What?! See, the show had been canceled because Sam, the club's sound engineer and one of the members of Blakfish, had fallen 40 feet out of a window. As I learned later, he had been trapped in his band's lock-out studio, and tried to climb out from the window. Thankfully, he is okay save a broken pelvis and some tendon damage, but it meant that the show was off. Or so we thought.

We still have a day in London, so we take in the beautiful British Museum, and walk a little around Knightsbridge in South Kensington. Tried to get to Camden, but couldn't make it up there before we were expected at Sheetal and Jonathan's for dinner. The London underground, while very inclusive in its coverage of the city, is incredibly slow and expensive.

We returned some borrowed gear to our friend George, and then all of us, George included, head to Crouch End for a delicious dinner. After a nightcap at Chats, the hotel bar, we retire.

We had ditched our rental van since we thought we only had one more show to play. But now that we're headed up to Birmingham, we need some new wheels. So the next morning, Dan and I wake up early to get out to Heathrow and pick up a new van. The train ride takes about an hour, then it takes another hour or so for this lurching shuttle bus to get us from Terminal 1 all the way to the rental place. But we are rewarded with a much more passenger-oriented van than the one we'd previously rented, so we feel like we're riding in luxury all the way North.

In Birmingham, we meet up with Kirk, the show's promoter. He has put together a nice little spread for us, and so we munch as the other bands begin to arrive. The crowd is a fun one, and pretty boisterous for a Tuesday night. Although Blakfish isn't playing, several of its members appear in other bands of the evening. Me and Adrienne watch in horror as the singer from Watch that Horse Fly gets electrocuted by his microphone. We've had this happen plenty before, and it's not pleasant. Kids Margherita put on an awesome and vicious show of such metal standards as "Roadway to Heaven". They've got the looks that kill. Elmira Landmine also turn in a great performance, and then we took the stage. Thankfully, the microphones had decided to stop shocking people. It was a very loud, but very fun set. Birmingham gets a bad rap in other areas of England, particularly the south, but we've had a lot of fun in our evening here.

After the show, we head back to Kirk's place. He's studying photography at university, and when we get back to his room he starts setting up a tripod. We end up taking photos of each of us screaming into his camera. He has graciously offered to put us up, even though there's barely space in his room. Tetris skills enable us to find a way for all to stretch out their legs and go to sleep to the sounds of Kirk's ipod.