On The Road

We are on the road somewhere in the French countryside travelling back to Paris, with Sasufi and the Dharma Bums, after our show last night in Nantes.
Its only 8:30 am and we have been driving for 2 hours. The car is well and truly packed and it’s my turn to squish into the non-seat in between the equipment. My back is nicely cramped, my left leg has got pins and needles in it and I have no way of shaking it out.

Inside the car has gone quiet, looking at the angle at which everybody’s heads are crooked I’d say all but Nick C.(who is driving) has passed out. I’m watching Damian fight hard to keep his head on top of his shoulders. It keeps falling sharply to one side then quickly bobs straight back up again. Holds straight for about 6 seconds then falls right off again. He’s been in this battle for about half an hour now!
Outside the sun is finally beginning to burn through the grey mist and shine on the old stone farm houses that are spotted across the hills and every now and then we pass by a small dense village with a huge church spire at their centre.Each building and city I see holds so much history. It’s something so foreign to back home. I love it.
I’m still pretty hazy after only having had 2 and half hours sleep. So I haven’t had a chance to think about the show last night.

From my fuzzy memory tho I feel like it was one of our best gigs so far.There was such a great energy in the room that couldn’t be quashed even by my terrible attempt at speaking French.
I was very moved to hear the audience singing along in their French accents to Broken Bones and again to At Worlds End after they called for us to play it for the 2nd time. I did feel a little strange at playing a song twice in one set but it was definitely worth it to watch them shout along to the chorus.
I really hope that it won’t be too long till we are back in Nantes. Hopefully for a little longer next time…

XX
N.M

**Check out some more photos from Nantes.

Through the storm

I’m feeling somewhat fuzzy this morning…. But hell I’m over the moon that we got through our first concert, even tho every unseen hand tried to stop us from performing last night!!! In the end it was brilliant!!

The boys arrived in Paris sometime last week for rehearsals. It was great to see them stumble through the gates at Gare Du Nord. Exhausted but running on the reserve energy of a new country and the knowledge that we were now beginning our first European tour. For the past week we have been rehearsing, wondering the streets, eating copious amounts croissants and baguettes and taking in the sites.

The rehearsals have been solid and a lot of fun. We are finding new places to explore on songs from the Album and also beginning to experiment with some new ideas.

We finished up our last rehearsal on Wednesday and went back home to pack up our various belongings and get ready to head out in the morning for our first London Concert.

We met up at Gare Du Nord at 11:30 Thursday morning raring to go. I was runn

ing a little late (or as I like to say right on time) and so as I arrived we headed straight to the departure gate (completely unaware of the storm that was brewing overhead). As we approached the gate I said to Damian “I can’t believe we’re going to London!”….

Cut to – Damian and Nick C being ushered away by customs and Arnaud (our French Bassist) and I standing at the check in counter a little stunned and missing half of Blackchords.

We got through the gate and found the boys, sans passports and Tickets. Not entirely sure what was going on except for the fact that there was a problem and our train was about to leave any second Arnaud and I decided we should probably go on without Damian and Nick C.

We spent the next 4 odd hours once we arrived in London waiting on the phone listening to hold music, trying to get through to various embassy’s.

By 7:30pm and having been unable to find a single soul that was able to help us out we decided that they should give it another crack and try and get on another train….

Cut to… Damian and Nick C. being given a little card by customs politely letting them know that they were being detained searched and finger printed…. Awesome!!

Anyways to make a long story a little less long… By the morning of our first London concert we had half a band stuck in another country and were freaking out that they weren’t going to make it. Luckily we had Mark (our London manager) to save the day. He was able to get some help to sort out the Visas by 4pm(1 hour before sound check) So now the boys were sprinting back to Gare Du Nord to get the train across…. It was about this time we were able to have half a second of celebrating before receiving some news that there had been another problem and we didn’t have a guitar amp or drum kit for the show…. I couldn’t believe it I felt like someone really wanted to make us work hard for this show.

The problem of the lack of equipment was sorted out by the generosity of the ban

ds that were to be supporting us at the show. Now we were back on track again and making our way to The Good Ship…. We received a call from Nick C. to let us know that they were sitting on a train and would arrive at 8pm. Unfortunately he had just had his wallet stolen so it still wasn’t completely stress free!

8pm came and the boys made it to the Good Ship. None of us could believe that we were actually there we had made it through to the show. We were ready to play.

Just as we got on stage to play there was the final (little) twist of the knife. The input on my guitar had decided to fall out so instead of getting up and playing straight away we had to quickly try and get it put back together!! 5 minutes later we were good to go!!

It was a great feat for us to make it to that stage last night and it was a great first gig. We knew that this tour would be an experience and 1 gig in… It has been just that…

There was much celebratory drinking after the show and I am now in dire need of a coffee if I’m to make it through the day…..

So I’ll stop now.

Thanks for all who turned out last night to the show. We’ll see you soon

X

N.M.