Been home a week now, really busy with work. Been to Wales and the Cotswolds this week but home now.
We booked my flight to Belgrade today where I'm joining the band for the next phase of the life go's on tour, looking forward to it already!
Got rehearsal with my band http://www.myspace.com/suspectdevicepunks on Monday, can't wait to try the new guitar out!
This is what this next phase of the tour looks like!
May 8 2009
7:00P
FAKTORIA D’ARTS ~ TERRASA ~ SPAIN
TERRAZA NEAR BARCELONA, Barcelona
May 9 2009
1:00P
NOVI SAD ~ TRG SLOBOB ~ SERBIA
NOVI SAD
May 11 2009
8:00P
ARENA ~ VIENNA ~ AUSTRIA
VIENNA
May 12 2009
7:00P
JAKO ARENA ~ GUESTS OF DIE TOTEN HOSEN
BAMBERG~GERMANY
May 13 2009
7:00P
DREILANDER HALLER ~ GUESTS OF DIE TOTEN HOSEN
PASSAU ~ GERMANY
May 14 2009
7:00P
FUTERUM ~ CHZECH REPUBLIC
PRAGUE
May 15 2009
7:00P
STADTHALLE ~ GUESTS OF DIE TOTEN HOSEN
ROSTOCK ~ GERMANY
May 16 2009
7:00P
SEIDENSTICKER HALLE ~ GUESTS OF DIE TOTEN HOSEN
BIELEFELD ~ GERMANY
May 17 2009
8:00P
SEIDENSTICKER HALLE ~ GUESTS OF DIE TOTEN HOSEN
BIELEFELD ~ GERMANY
May 19 2009
7:00P
ROCKHAL ~ GUESTS OF DIE TOTEN HOSEN
ESCH ALZETTE ~ LUXEMBOURG
May 20 2009
7:00P
BACKSTAGE
MUNICH ~ GERMANY
May 21 2009
8:00P
ESTRAGON
BOLOGNA ~ ITALY
May 22 2009
2:00P
MONSTER PUNK FEST
FREIBURG ~ GERMANY
May 23 2009
8:00P
ZAKK
DUSSELDORF ~ GERMANY
May 24 2009
7:00P
HOF TER LO
ANTWERP ~ BELGIUM
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Flight home & tour summary
Said our goodbye's at Grandma's house, it was a little sad we had all been through so much together the last three weeks. Huge thanks to Grandma if you read this, don't know how you put up with us all!
Can't wait to get back with the family now, some normallity for a while.
The four of us hit the bar at the aiport and prepared for the flight with some Corona's and crisp's. Flight took off on time, I immiediatly fell a sleep but woke to the sound of Hoggy shouting excitedly to me, "DAVE! DAVE!, they have London Pride!" I awoke and the air hostess had heard Hog and passed me what she said were the last 2 tinny's on the plane, "you gotta find me more" I said, and proceeded to be very nice to her, she said she would do what she could for me, this was a great start to the flight, I tucked into my beer, it was fantastic, proper beer again after all the shitty american lager I have been putting up with (sorry to any American's reading this, don't wanna offend but you gotta admit you beer is horse piss!)
The hostess reapeared, "I nicked you 2 more from business class"
"Oh thanks so much I could kiss you" I said
She then lent down and kissed me... on the lips! and then disappeared. A ripple of laughter went along our seat row! The service on BA has got better these day's hasn't it Dave!
Several hours into the flight had to divert to Goose bay in Newfoundland due to a passenger having a heart attack, this was a major inconvenience and we inconsideratly discussed other ways of getting rid of this pesky ill passenger, "well there probaly gonna die anyway just chuck 'em out" or "ain't they got no bloody parachutes"
Goose bay looked like the artic with snow piled several feet high each side of the runway, they got the faulty person off but then announced the wings on our jumbo had frozen so we had another long delay whilst they de-iced.
Eventually got home at 19:00 several hours late!
When I was asked and committed to do these three weeks I genuinely didn't know how it would turn out, wether I would enjoy it or how I would get on living closely with a set of people that I didn't know that well, it was a risk but hey, only a three week risk, the potential return was high too, on offer was one of the greatest adventures of my life!
It's hard work on the road, I am glad I have the blog so I can remember some detail from the tour, also the blog will make people understand just how hard touring is. In the past three weeks we have flown very nearly 30,000 miles and driven a bunch more in the bus!
The image of a touring rock band is highly innaccurate, the reallity is, hard work, sleep deprivation, dodgy food and sometimes substandard accomodation.
Most of us go on a trip, get home and rest for a few days before going on another.
imagine touring as a load of trips all glued together, it's quite shocking to fly back from somewhere, go home and get on the tour bus straight off to the next venue without even a night in your own bed, you would then gig and get to hotel about 4am. THIS IS HARD WORK!
Tour illness's are common as is a 'tour cough' when you get a group of peolpe living and working together, moving from country to country illness is almost a given!
And sleep... Sleep is something you have to get when you can, ignore an opportunity to sleep at your peril, get it whenever you can, on the bus, the plane, where ever!
Inspite of all this, there are of course good time's it's like being on a working holiday with a bunch of your mates. I would not have done this with many bands, the Adicts are special, they were part of my youth, my first punk gig, they are a truly great band.
After gigs I would hear people talking, "that's the best punk gig I have ever been too!" was a common one, the manager of the Hard rock hotel told us. "that's the best gig we have ever had" now that is high praise indeed. Irrespective of tiredness or health problems the stage performance is always full on, very energetic and polished, they bollock each other during the set if anyone is considered to be not putting enough effort in. After 30 years together you can only admire that. Pete has had a lot of serious health problems as well as the stomach problems we aquired in Caracas (now renamed crackarse), I don't know how he performed some night's, I couldn't have done it.
During the trip I got on well with everyone, they are a great bunch of guys who I know consider to be friends.
This trip has been everything I hoped for, apart from Argentina (which was a blur, I had no energy left and could barely function) it has been the adventure that I had hoped for, , of course there are ups and downs with life on the road but on the whole frikkin' brilliant!
This has been a fantastic life experience and I hope through the blog others have been able to get a taste of what life on the road with a great rock band is really like.
The tour resumes on
May 8th 2009 in SPAIN and then goes to
SERBIA, AUSTRIA, GERMANY, CHZECH REPUBLIC, LUXEMBOURG, ITALY & BELGIUM
So keep checking back for blog entries/updates, sure we'll be having some more great adventures, will be adding more stuff this week. Am also adding pictures to some of the older posts.
P.S.
This Blog is not a contact point for the band, any correspondance should go to the http://www.myspace.com/adicts
Can't wait to get back with the family now, some normallity for a while.
The four of us hit the bar at the aiport and prepared for the flight with some Corona's and crisp's. Flight took off on time, I immiediatly fell a sleep but woke to the sound of Hoggy shouting excitedly to me, "DAVE! DAVE!, they have London Pride!" I awoke and the air hostess had heard Hog and passed me what she said were the last 2 tinny's on the plane, "you gotta find me more" I said, and proceeded to be very nice to her, she said she would do what she could for me, this was a great start to the flight, I tucked into my beer, it was fantastic, proper beer again after all the shitty american lager I have been putting up with (sorry to any American's reading this, don't wanna offend but you gotta admit you beer is horse piss!)
The hostess reapeared, "I nicked you 2 more from business class"
"Oh thanks so much I could kiss you" I said
She then lent down and kissed me... on the lips! and then disappeared. A ripple of laughter went along our seat row! The service on BA has got better these day's hasn't it Dave!
Several hours into the flight had to divert to Goose bay in Newfoundland due to a passenger having a heart attack, this was a major inconvenience and we inconsideratly discussed other ways of getting rid of this pesky ill passenger, "well there probaly gonna die anyway just chuck 'em out" or "ain't they got no bloody parachutes"
Goose bay looked like the artic with snow piled several feet high each side of the runway, they got the faulty person off but then announced the wings on our jumbo had frozen so we had another long delay whilst they de-iced.
Eventually got home at 19:00 several hours late!
When I was asked and committed to do these three weeks I genuinely didn't know how it would turn out, wether I would enjoy it or how I would get on living closely with a set of people that I didn't know that well, it was a risk but hey, only a three week risk, the potential return was high too, on offer was one of the greatest adventures of my life!
It's hard work on the road, I am glad I have the blog so I can remember some detail from the tour, also the blog will make people understand just how hard touring is. In the past three weeks we have flown very nearly 30,000 miles and driven a bunch more in the bus!
The image of a touring rock band is highly innaccurate, the reallity is, hard work, sleep deprivation, dodgy food and sometimes substandard accomodation.
Most of us go on a trip, get home and rest for a few days before going on another.
imagine touring as a load of trips all glued together, it's quite shocking to fly back from somewhere, go home and get on the tour bus straight off to the next venue without even a night in your own bed, you would then gig and get to hotel about 4am. THIS IS HARD WORK!
Tour illness's are common as is a 'tour cough' when you get a group of peolpe living and working together, moving from country to country illness is almost a given!
And sleep... Sleep is something you have to get when you can, ignore an opportunity to sleep at your peril, get it whenever you can, on the bus, the plane, where ever!
Inspite of all this, there are of course good time's it's like being on a working holiday with a bunch of your mates. I would not have done this with many bands, the Adicts are special, they were part of my youth, my first punk gig, they are a truly great band.
After gigs I would hear people talking, "that's the best punk gig I have ever been too!" was a common one, the manager of the Hard rock hotel told us. "that's the best gig we have ever had" now that is high praise indeed. Irrespective of tiredness or health problems the stage performance is always full on, very energetic and polished, they bollock each other during the set if anyone is considered to be not putting enough effort in. After 30 years together you can only admire that. Pete has had a lot of serious health problems as well as the stomach problems we aquired in Caracas (now renamed crackarse), I don't know how he performed some night's, I couldn't have done it.
During the trip I got on well with everyone, they are a great bunch of guys who I know consider to be friends.
This trip has been everything I hoped for, apart from Argentina (which was a blur, I had no energy left and could barely function) it has been the adventure that I had hoped for, , of course there are ups and downs with life on the road but on the whole frikkin' brilliant!
This has been a fantastic life experience and I hope through the blog others have been able to get a taste of what life on the road with a great rock band is really like.
The tour resumes on
May 8th 2009 in SPAIN and then goes to
SERBIA, AUSTRIA, GERMANY, CHZECH REPUBLIC, LUXEMBOURG, ITALY & BELGIUM
So keep checking back for blog entries/updates, sure we'll be having some more great adventures, will be adding more stuff this week. Am also adding pictures to some of the older posts.
P.S.
This Blog is not a contact point for the band, any correspondance should go to the http://www.myspace.com/adicts
P.P.S
If any one hasn't seen this band live DO IT!
Monday, 6 April 2009
Well it's all over
Click the pics to enlarge them!
been away a while so Hoggy was in need of some female company, Scruff willingly obliged!
Thats it the final gig of this phase of the Life go's on tour, I am gonna be filling in some missing details and last two gigs so check back, here's some fantastic pic's courtesy of Pete/cfoproductions, click to enlarge them!
Fly home tonight, gotta get some sleep now, will add a load more stuff tomorrow, with my thought's and summary.
Sunday, 5 April 2009
in the desert
Apparently the largest thermometer in the world!
Joshua trees in the desert
Joshua trees in the desertTraffic's bad, thought i'd play witht the laptop and got it connected to the internet from the bus, were gonna be late to the venue so no sound check for us.
Driving through the mojave desert, just been past Death valley and a place strangley called zzyzx, (that is not a typo)
We stopped for lunch and the heat was incredible, the desert each side of the road is covered in Joshua tree's.
Driving through the mojave desert, just been past Death valley and a place strangley called zzyzx, (that is not a typo)
We stopped for lunch and the heat was incredible, the desert each side of the road is covered in Joshua tree's.
Leaving Vegas
No time this morning will do a big blog update tomorrow with details of the vegas gig etc.
Got a 6 hour drive now to the final gig at the riverside. Later!
Got a 6 hour drive now to the final gig at the riverside. Later!
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Hard Rock Hotel
Hotel Pool
Hotel pool
View from my bedroom window!Well were here in Vegas, my first time here, it's amazing, venue is all setup and we have sound checked. We have just eaten in the hotel staff canteen which was fine, there appear to be some women working for the hotel that don't understand how to dress, they have both skirts and knickers on but inspite of that you can still see most of both buttocks. Corse i'm not interested and haven't even looked once.
Walked into a wall earlier!
Anyway were off for a drink or 3, then some roulette, then showtime at 23:00
Walked into a wall earlier!
Anyway were off for a drink or 3, then some roulette, then showtime at 23:00
Sat 4th 11:30 AM
I'm glad big Ron was with us at this one, he kep't turning round and grinning at me and saying " why ain't no one invading my side?"
We got up at 08:00, it had snowed in the night and there was snow everywhere. Pete and I got a shuttle bus 1.5 hours to Reno airport and then flew to LA on a little prop plane, what a result getting the little plane, it flew low across the mountains, the views were incredible, on arrival at LA we hiried a car which took frikkin' ages to do and then drove 1.5 hours to Palmdale.
The palmdale venue was in effect a 500 capacity youth club, with a bloody great (and really good) PA system installed.
Pete and I sat around with not too much to do till the tour bus and trailer turned up, we then loaded in and sound checked. After 4 support bands it was 23:00 and time for the Adicts.
This was the wildest gig yet, they were literally swinging off the chandeliers, I thought some was gonna get hurt/electrocuted. Security battled continuously aroung monkey but it was OK, the kids were great really.
The stage setup was good, nice powerfull sidefills and I could here everything better than usual, Pete is using a Bognor amp and cab at the moment it's awesome as it must be said is Pete's guitaring! The whole band played great I thought, I guess they feed of the audiences and play better, I can understand that. The place was rammed and the toilets provided were nothing like sufficient, when we were breaking down at the end of the night we could here the venue staff trying to clean them, they were laughing and running out gagging, "Oh, no, I don't beleive it! I heard one of them say. None of this bothered us of course, we already had our own toilet in a local hedge!
The palmdale venue was in effect a 500 capacity youth club, with a bloody great (and really good) PA system installed.
Pete and I sat around with not too much to do till the tour bus and trailer turned up, we then loaded in and sound checked. After 4 support bands it was 23:00 and time for the Adicts.
This was the wildest gig yet, they were literally swinging off the chandeliers, I thought some was gonna get hurt/electrocuted. Security battled continuously aroung monkey but it was OK, the kids were great really.
The stage setup was good, nice powerfull sidefills and I could here everything better than usual, Pete is using a Bognor amp and cab at the moment it's awesome as it must be said is Pete's guitaring! The whole band played great I thought, I guess they feed of the audiences and play better, I can understand that. The place was rammed and the toilets provided were nothing like sufficient, when we were breaking down at the end of the night we could here the venue staff trying to clean them, they were laughing and running out gagging, "Oh, no, I don't beleive it! I heard one of them say. None of this bothered us of course, we already had our own toilet in a local hedge!
We left the venue and drove into the night, most of us cat napping, dunno what time we eventually stopped at 04:20 and checked into a days inn. I have just got up it's Midday, we have a couple of hours left to drive to Vegas and tonight we are staying in the hard rock hotel, so should be a great day today.
Friday, 3 April 2009
Lake Tahoe Gig Cancelled!
We got up this morning and all assembled at the bus for the drive from Reno to Lake Tahoe, everyone's in good spirits and apart from Pete we are mostly in good health now. We drove for about 2 hours across the mountains, the scenery was simply breath taking, beautiful valleys and snow topped mountains, you gotta see it to understand what a fantastic part of the world this is!
arrived at the hotelo MontBleu and all got settled in our rooms before meeting for lunch in the restuarant. After lunck we chilled and at 17:45 headed off to the venue in the bus.
On arrival at the venue it was immeidiately apparent that it wasn't a suitable place to stage an Adicts gig, we asked them to go and get some wood and stuff and modify the stage a little but they coyuldn't so the promoter had no choice but pull out of the gig on the grounds that the stage was dangerous, it was a shame the band were gutted but there was no choice.
I was glad that decision was made, it was gonna be a security nightmare.
so we reloaded the van and headed back to the hotel.
We all met in Hoggy's room and attacked the rider before going downstairs into the casino, for a good 3 hours the Adicts crew had it's own roullette table.
It was great fun and some of us actually won money includiung me!
We all felt really sorry for Beth the promoter who up till this point had doing a great job.
Beth, it will all work out in the end mate and thanks for looking after us!
arrived at the hotelo MontBleu and all got settled in our rooms before meeting for lunch in the restuarant. After lunck we chilled and at 17:45 headed off to the venue in the bus.
On arrival at the venue it was immeidiately apparent that it wasn't a suitable place to stage an Adicts gig, we asked them to go and get some wood and stuff and modify the stage a little but they coyuldn't so the promoter had no choice but pull out of the gig on the grounds that the stage was dangerous, it was a shame the band were gutted but there was no choice.
I was glad that decision was made, it was gonna be a security nightmare.
so we reloaded the van and headed back to the hotel.
We all met in Hoggy's room and attacked the rider before going downstairs into the casino, for a good 3 hours the Adicts crew had it's own roullette table.
It was great fun and some of us actually won money includiung me!
We all felt really sorry for Beth the promoter who up till this point had doing a great job.
Beth, it will all work out in the end mate and thanks for looking after us!
Thursday, 2 April 2009
03:23 Thursday Reno
Collapsed stage
HotelHad the most fantastic meal last night, slept like a log then we left LAX at 13:00 and flew to Reno, (Reno is the poor mans Las Vegas)
Hotel is very flash, it's also a casino, it's got pools Jacuzzi's etc. incredible view from my 14th floor room!
Anyway we went to the venue (Vixen's) at about 17:00 and sound checked, band went on at 23:00. Good sell out show though the audience was the wildest yet, half way through the gig a young lady in the audience decided to lift her top up and make everyone smile, a little later the centre of the stage collapsed which made the rest of the show tricky!
Monkey Brazilian TV interview
after the second Brazil show Monk did the following interview in the dressing room.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ3mKo6frps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g_EjudwzWA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ3mKo6frps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g_EjudwzWA
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