First show of the tour we play with the Embers (also from Oakland) in a pub in South London, the two support bands dropped off the bill, but the Short Bus Window Lickers, a great band and our new friends, filled in. the gig was good and afterwards we bought a bunch of beer and went with the embers and M (who put on the gig) to M's flat. we get on the bus and head upstairs.

Immediately, these guys in the back of the bus (about as many as us but some were more involved than others) start yelling at Ron, calling him a big greasy fucker. Ron says fuck you and we confront them. Jesse tells one guy to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up. then they whip out vodka bottles filled with blue vodka. Dan thought they were plastic bottles at first, and laughed at them.

 my account may be a bit hazy, because it was one of those "it happened so fast" sort of things, but the punches and the bottles were flying. Jesse beat a guy with a 12 pack of tall cans, and punched a guy until his hand broke on the guys face. Steve from the embers held one of the guys down and got a nasty bottle smash to the forehead. Ron got punched in the eye pretty badly and had a golf ball type lump coming out of the side of his head that was later replaced by a bloated purple shiner.  I punched some guys until i had a bottle broken over the back of my head, got my arm cut open by a bottle, and took something to my eye that cut my eyelid almost all the way across. I figured I'd lost an eye but was grateful i had the other one. Dan suprisingly, didn't get hurt, and he was in the thick of it. the thugs ran bleeding down the street. Timm from the embers and M chased a couple of the guys, and the cops and ambulance arrived. A passenger on the bus that was on before us told us that when these guys got on the bus they surrounded him and punched him in the face.  I talked to the police, who were extremely civil and friendly, which put me in a great mood. the police taped off the area and took blood samples. the paramedics checked me out, but they couldn't stitch me up there, so i headed home on a later bus with M. damn! everybody else we've met  in england has been really nice, though.

Joe