Hello everyone, my name is Graham Smith and I work with ASIWYFA, you may remember me from posts from their European tour earlier this Summer.

Tomorrow we all re-group again, pile everything into our sexy new red bus and hit the road for what should be a very interesting few months of touring.

Throughout the coming months their will be blog entries 2 or 3 times a week and a short video once a week. Everyone will be helping to write these entires and compile the videos.

The first proper blog entry will come later this week and will include information about the music and clothing which will be available on the upcoming tour.

Don't forget you can follow us on twitter for more up to date news and nonsense - http://twitter.com/ASIWYFA_band

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We are very keen for fans of ASIWYFA to get more involved with blogging. If you have any questions for the band, get in touch and we will do our best to answer them through these blogs. It could be questions about their equipment, upcoming releases, plans for the future or anything else you would like to know. 

If you photograph or film the band on the upcoming dates and are ok with your material being used on these blogs then please send youtube links or photos to the below address.

We also welcome any ideas you may have regarding the written or video blogs, please feel free to get in contact at anytime.

The email address for the above material is asiwyfablog@hotmail.com

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* Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/andsoiwatchyoufromafar

* Blog - http://asiwyfa.blogspot.com/

* Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/And-So-I-Watch-You-From-Afar/25571011322

* Twitter - http://twitter.com/ASIWYFA_band

* YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/asiwyfa

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The first leg of the tour will consist of UK / Irish dates :

17th September : Cavern, Exeter

19th : Southsea Festival, Portsmouth

21st : Barfly, London

22nd : Marquee, Norwich

23rd : The Cellar, Oxford

24th : Barfly, Cardiff

25th : The Masque, Liverpool

26th : The Flaper, Birmingham

27th : The Corporation, Sheffield

28th : Fibbers, York

29th : Moho Live, Manchester

30th : Fat Sams, Dundee

1st October : Tunnels, Aberdeen

2nd : The Twisted Wheel, Glasgow

3rd : GRV w/ Sabrepulse, Edinburgh

4th : TBC

7th : The Mad Ferrit, Preston

8th : WHQ, Newcastle

11th : Whelans, Dublin

See ya on the road!

Thursday 25th June started off a lot more peaceful and relaxed than previous mornings. The venue we played the night before in Hamburg had provided us with accommodation in the form of a small but comfortable apartment nearby. Having a proper bed, shower and the knowledge that we did not have the usual mammoth journey ahead of us meant everyone had a comfortable night and in the morning and we all felt at ease. We sat outside a nearby coffee shop for a while, watching the world pass by, chatting over the previous nights gig before we once again boarded the van and hit the road for the final date of the tour in Berlin.

After such an amazing tour it was a shame that the final date did not have the same impact. This was for no particular fault of anyone, rather just several small points (such as the band playing very early whilst most of the crowd were still outside) resulted in a good solid show but not a breathtaking one. If this had of happened at the beginning or middle of the tour then it would have been brushed over, but when it is the final night it is difficult not to dwell on it slightly.

Still, with job done we packed up and heading for a nearby hostel for a few hours sleep before we started another epic journey - driving from Berlin to Belfast without stopping.

This could have been another very arduous drive but we got lucky. The band we had been supporting (Clutch) left early in the morning to fly back to America, meaning their very swish double decker sleeper bus was empty for the journey back to England. We had made friends with the bus driver earlier on the tour and he very kindly offered us entry onto the bus for the journey back, where we could eat and drink whatever supplies Clutch had left behind.

We came up with the plan of taking it in turns to drive the van behind the bus, stopping every few hours to swap driver. Having the space to stretch out, drink a beer, watch a film, get some sleep or just stare out the window was quite literally heaven. 

Sadly we left the bus behind at Calais and once again crammed into our van (which seemed even less glamorous after the past 10 hours on the moving hotel), went through the Channel Tunnel and then made the final journey through England and Wales, trip on the ferry and drive up Ireland to finally arrive home in Belfast. Happy, tired, battered, proud but mostly excited about the prospect of future European tours we headed home, another tour completed.

In 12 days we drove approximately 2500 miles, across 9 different countries, playing to and meeting many many new people along the way. Our eternal gratitude goes out to anyone who came to see us play and enjoyed the shows even half as much as we did. Thank you and we will see you again very soon!

The drive from Luxembourg to Cologne should have been quite an easy journey but alas our beloved van decided to throw a little temper tantrum and produce more problems, namely being for a while we could not travel faster than 30mph. Finally the problem appeared to fix itself (for now anyway) and we were back to full speed and arrived in beautiful sunny Cologne only a little later than planned. Another incredibly attentive audience and again the band were flooded with praise after the show. As with most places in the world, an appreciative audience usually means drinks being thrust into your hands from all directions. Luckily the venue had given us accomodation for the night and so we could indulge, some of us perhaps a little too much, in a few beers and mingling with the locals and I am certain we made quite a few new fans / friends. 

After quite a restless night we hit the road again on our way to Hamberg. Despite getting decent sleep after the Luxembourg show, general tour fatigue had begun to kick in by now. 

We love touring. It is a lot of fun and when things go right it can be massively fulfilling for everyone involved. But it can also be very hard work. Long hours, little sleep, the being away from family, friends and partners and various other factors can sometimes build up and leave people, even if only for a few hours, mentally and physically fatigued. A few more van problems, a navagation issue and several other small issues left us all a little irritable by the time we hit Hamburg. This was a dip in the tour. Their was no massive argument but everyone just got a little quiet and the fun and camaraderie disappeared for a few hours. But, for every dip, their must be a peak.

The peak was the show. The band played possibly the best performance of the tour, blasting through their set with more agression than ever before. This was exactly what was needed. After the gig everyone was back to hugging each other with smiles on our faces. Happiness had been restored and we headed out into the warm Hamburg night for a few beers to celebrate surviving another day on tour.

Follow us on twitter : http://twitter.com/ASIWYFA_BAND

We all agree that Luxembourg is a beautiful country but I suppose it always helps when you arrive in blazing sunshine and get a friendly greeting at the venue. With a  backstage area almost as caverous as the actual main hall, we were very well looked after with delicious hot food and all the snacks and drinks any band could ever want. 

The first time in a new country is always a little weird for a band, as you never know how the crowd will react. From a performance point of view the band played great, but we were all unsure if the crowd actually enjoyed it as it was mostly polite applause between songs rather than the usual whoops and shouts. Our uncertainty was very much quashed after the gig when our merch table was besieged by new fans who piled praise upon the band and left laden heavy with CDs and shirts. Some incredible things were said to the band and I know they were very touched by the praise. Luxembourg we now officially love you and will make sure to come back again very soon, that is a promise.

After the gig we went camping. Yes, camping. In tents. Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll was swapped for a nice hot cup of tea and snuggling into sleeping bags on a sedate campsite. This was a very wise decision and we awoke refreshed and fully rested (or as rested as you can ever be on tour - approx 5 hours sleep) and were back in the van on our way to Cologne in Germany!

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Austria, we apologse and thank you in equal measures. We arrived at the Nova Rock festival site on the Saturday morning. We were not playing until the Sunday. Their was free drink backstage. A LOT of free drink. Can you guess what happened next?

Well, we made an impression, that is for certain. They will not forget us in a hurry, that is a definite. I would write about what actually happened (involving Chris Cornell, Kaiser Cheifs, Fred Durst etc), but I will leave it to your imagination.

Luckily, it appears the Austrians are lovely people and we were forgiven for our (many many) sins and treated so kindly all weekend. The actual gig on the Sunday was well atteneded and although it was marred by some slight technical hitches it seemed to go well. 

Next stop Luxembourg!

On Thursday we piled back into the van and drove up North to Leeds for the next date of the tour. Playing to a crowd of about 400 people it seemed like the ideal time to say something from the stage...some of you may have read about the racial attacks back in our home of Northern Ireland. This is something which disgusted us all (and 99.9% of people who live in Northern Ireland) and effected us quite a bit as we had several people ask us about it throughout the day. During the set Tony made a short but passionate statement about these events which was very well received, before launching into a particulrily verocious version  of "Clench Fists, Grit Teeth....GO!". 

For a few days prior to this gig we were debating what to do about the following few days. Thursday was Leeds in England and the next gig was on Sunday on the far east side of Austria, on the border with Hungary. We could either drive a few hours a day and get accomodation each night or attempt something very silly - driving straight from Leeds to Austria without stopping. We chose the second option.

26 hours. 26 hours in the van. We got out 3 times. For 5 minutes at a time. For fuel and toilets. Apart from that it was 26 hours. 26 hours in the van. 26 hours. That is quite a lot of hours to be in a van. 26 hours. Does it sound like much? It is. 26 hours is a lot. I (Graham Smith, crew) have discovered one thing - ASIWYFA make some of my favorite music of the past few years but they listen to UTTER SHIT music 99% of the time. 26 hours. That is a lot of shit music.

We also discovered that our otherwise perfect van has developed a small but quite annoying problem. It likes to be pushed before it starts up. In heavy rain, somewhere in West Germany when you have not slept for a long time this small problem can be quite irritating. 

After a lot of driving and a lot of bad music we finally made it to Nova Rock festival in Austria at about 11pm on the Friday night. Unfortunately, as this was the time Metallica were taking to the stage (and we were not due to play until the Sunday) we were finding it difficult to get our passes and so the decision was taken to park up in a nearby car park and deal with it in the morning. And so we bedded down for a cosy night in the van, earplugs firmly in place for the non-snorers amongst us. 

The following morning we came across a slight problem - apparently in Austria they do not like 6 smelly Northern Irish boys sleeping in a van together and the police decided to fine us quite a hefty amount which was made all the more troublesome as they did not speak a word of our language and vice-versa. An hour later it was all sorted and we headed for the festival, this time to be given passes and more importantly Access All Areas which basically means free drink whilst mingling with famous people....a recipe for disaster? Only time will tell.

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Hello and welcome to our tour blog. My name is Graham Smith, I work as a photographer and a few other things in the big bad music industry and have been doing stuff with ASIWYFA for a year or so. I will be on the road with the band for the next week and a half whilst we tour with Clutch and do a festival date in Austria and will be blogging as much as possible. Expect photos and video clips to come soon.

We all met up early yesterday afternoon in Belfast for the usual task of squeezing as much gear, merch and sleeping bags into our rather lovely van before heading down to Dublin for a quick meeting and then a ferry across to Holyhead in Wales. Arriving at about midnight we set off on a 4 hour drive to Leicester, with spirits high and the excitement building about the tour - and then Rory got a phonecall and things took a turn for the worse.

It turned out that our soundman for the tour Andy, who we were supposed to meet at Leicester, had went to a party and got a little too exuberant and decided to jump off the roof of the house (as you do at 3am at any party) which ended in him in a bloody messy heap on the ground. Details are sketchy but it looks like broken ribs, stitches in the head and most worrying of all three broken vertebrae. 

So, as you can imagine, Andy will not be joining us for the tour which is a huge disappointment to everyone. Andy, if you are reading this, we wish you a very speedy recovery and we will hopefully be on the road together soon. Take care and maybe leave the stunts to Jackass next time ;)

We were supposed to be staying with Andy last night but because of what happened we ended up parking up at the side of a quiet street and all 6 of us (myself, the band and Brian the tour manager) sleeping in a rather hot cramped van. Pure and utter glamour all the way. I feel sorry for the neighbours in the morning when they were greeted with the sight of us tumbling out of various corners of the van.

We are currently sat in a bar in Leicester where they have lovingly given us free tea and showers whilst we collect our thoughts before hitting the road to Portsmouth for the first date of the tour! 

Follow us on twitter : http://twitter.com/ASIWYFA_BAND