Great day off in Norwich yesterday that made up for the comedown after Cardiff which we have all agreed was the worst venue weve played in this year. The crowd were fantastic but as a venue it was a serious let down.The sound was not anywhere where Shaun wanted it to be as he was forced to mix the out front from a position in the corner under the balcony at the back of the room. The room itself wasnt conducive to rock music as the top end was zinging and reflecting and mushing up the on stage sound.Shaun had to mix on head phones as he couldnt get any idea of the mix from where he was positioned. There were no smiles from any of the staff and the security were just downright miserable. I literally had a run in with one of them when I came round a corner on my way to soundcheck and crashed off a huge Irish guy coming the other way. I was too taken aback to say anything as we both quickly regained ourselves and he exited the room mumbling obscenities. No apologies. I tried to talk to him later and make a joke about it but none of the security staff seemed to have anything resembling a sense of humour and they just seemed to resent us being there. In fact that was the feeling we got from everyone involved with the venue. The Vietnamese manager was another character with a macho manner and rarely came out of his office which was accessed from our dressing cupboard. When he did so he meticulously locked the door as if he didnt trust us not to go rummaging in his domain and steal precious things. Through the small window in his door we could see what appeared to be a punch pad for practicing martial arts hanging on the wall. Altogether just a bad vibe all round. The long and short of it is that its an old cinema and hardly anything has been done in consideration of touring bands. Using the public toilets downstairs from the dressing room may be amusing to fans before a show sharing the urinal with the artists and hanging around in stage clothes outside the box we had to change in also raised a few smiles but it just added to the frustration. Emma, our promoters rep had gone out of her way to avoid the Tesco sandwiches ( probably after reading my posts) and had brought us bags of Christmas themed ingredients to make our own sandwiches. It was a shame as she was a bit embarrassed by the facilities as well and there was nowhere to lay out a table even if there was one. The tiny fridge ,once Id cleared out the rotting bags of salad left by a previous band and given it a wipe down just managed to hold the white wine. And there most of it stayed till after show when it was all quickly squirrelled way to the bus. On show time we all walked across the standing room balcony and down the stairs thronged with people to the small side of stage. At the encores we tripped off stage left to the other dressing box with its toilet and we had to wait there to come back on. The second encore we went stage right to the area the size of an elevator as if we didnt get one it would be a walk of shame back across the stage to the dressing room. The gig itself was our saviour and I personally had a lot of fun bantering with the audience who were receiving the routines and the cajoling for hecklers with bursts of laughter. We played well and there were enough curves to the set and the intros to make for an interesting night. It was definitely an audience that wanted to be entertained and it took me a little while to get their measure and switch them on. The High Wood was more emotional than it usually was as I saw Ann Davies and her son and daughter in the audience.Ann was married to an old dear friend of mine, Jon Davies, whod passed away before Feast was recorded.Id always wondered what he would have thought of it as he was ex Royal Artillery and wed shared many a moment discussing army and military history over our long years together. Seeing Ann in the crowd brought back a lot of memories and I admit to choking up quite a few times as certain lines took on even more significant meaning. Altogether a great show despite everything and we took a fantastic reaction with us off stage. We marched up the stairs through the crowd after Blind and a rousing Company shaking hands and being clapped on the shoulders Ive already mentioned the lack of showers in a previous post and after show no one could be bothered going to the guest house 20 minutes away. Warren our driver had said he could park the bus outside and we could go in one by one to wash but everyone just wanted to get on our way. Robin had asked to smoke a cigarette in the dressing room as hed seen that the smoke detector had been disabled with a plastic bag. No sooner had he sparked up when the Vietnamese manager came bursting out his office with a lecture on fines and criminality etc etc. A totally OTT reaction. I started to have a polite go at him about the venue but decided to just leave as he began to go on about intended improvements. I have never seen the band exit a venue so fast and within minutes of coming off stage we were all in the back lounge of the bus as the crew did a hasty load out. It was fine for the 3 piece acoustic gig on the Fishheads club tour but for a full touring electric band the Globe is way below par and Yatta has already told our promoter we wont play there ever again unless there are major changes. Its a crying shame that Cardiff, the capital city of Wales doesnt have a club venue that can properly deal with and has facilities for touring bands when there is obviously an audience that deserves and demands live music.The UK could learn a lot from venues across in mainland Europe as we are seriously behind the times over here and we need to invest in our ailing network of dwindling clubs. Norwich day off was a struggle to start with as the Travel lodge wouldnt let us check in until 3 in the afternoon. A late get up and a long sit on the bus parked up to reclaim hours at the venue before a long walk with luggage to the hotel. John Beck didnt check out the map in the downstairs lounge and ended up walking to another Travel lodge 45 minutes away! A quiet day before Tara and I bonded up and went out to Chiquitos Mexican restaurant around 5. We had bought tickets to see Interstellar at the Odeon i max cinema close to the gig and were now whiling away the time over mojitos, margaritas and steaks and sending out rallying calls to the band as had decided to go bowling before the movie. Only Angus decided to come with us and after few caiperinhas headed into the bowling alley. I hadnt bowled for years and Tara although a regular when she lived in Berlin was also way out of touch. Angus was a complete novice. Tara and I gradually got it together and managed to get balls down the alley rather than in the gutters but Angus struggled. I was way in the lead when out of nowhere Angus got the first strike of the day. Then unbelievably he followed it up and ended with 3 strikes in a row beating me by a couple of points! It was beginners luck incarnate! He quickly went back to gutter balling in the second game and I squeezed in the win leaving Tara in disappointed second place. It was great fun and the 3 of us headed into the movies with big smiles. Tara had bought the tickets and was taking her Dad to the pictures for the first time! Premier seats and loads of space which was just what we needed as it was a long, long movie that nearly lost me a couple of times as I tried to get to grips with the story line. I liked it but think I need to see it again to fully appreciate it. We all applauded the effort and the attempt in making a spectacular slab of film but felt that it was too demanding and somehow didnt quite hold together. It had been a long 3 hours and we left the cinema and headed back to the hotel as the winds were picking up. The congregation joined together in the hotel bar as band members came in from the night and the wine flowed before a visit to the kebab shop brought it all to a close and the doors opened on zed land as soon as I got back into my double bedded cell. I woke to a very cold Norwich and a cab to the bus with Tara and Robin as we couldnt be bothered with trailing all the way back along cobbled streets with our luggage. And so we enter the next run of 3 shows. News of a sold out London gig raised us today and Im looking forward to tonights gig in the Waterfront. It seems to be flying by now and Glasgow is getting closer every day!
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 17:18:00 +0000