We’ve had loads of people wondering and asking how the tour went back in May with Enter Shikari, so I thought I’d write up the highlights of what we got up to in a blog for anybody else who’s interested! Ready..? Here goes...
Day 1:
So, we kicked off the tour by arriving slightly late in Weston-Super-Mare (Rock Gardens) after a heavy night out in Brighton.There was already a queue down the road as we pulled in so we rushed around to set up and sound check. The show was great and went pretty smoothly apart from the drum monitor blowing up in my face mid-song. Shikari literally brought the roof down… security were going crazy trying to put it back up! After the show we hung around upstairs chilling out with the ES and Don Broco boys, in what turned out to be a strip club. We swung on the pole a little, lap dances were given… I won’t mention any names. I left feeling pretty tanked managing to leave my bag which contained my entire life in the bar. Brilliant.
Day 2:
We had to wake up pretty early as sound check was at 11am. Horrible. We scrambled down to the venue (Concorde2) and found our new merch had been delivered, great news! Then, to make things even better, Rob (ES) had found my bag the night before, in the bar I’d left it in. My life was complete again. We had a few drinks before we went on-stage and played one of the best shows we’ve ever played. I can easily say it was the most fun we’ve ever had playing a show, we can’t thank you guys enough for that! We managed to shift a shit-load of tshirts and demos thanks to our friends helping out. Enter Shikari went on and the kids went bat-shit crazy! So much so, that the amount sweat floating around the room managed to break equipment and cameras and even managed to set off the fire alarm during their set. We chilled out in Brighton for the day after that and had a FAT Nando’s and watched some more Great Escape acts that evening with mates.
Day 3:
After a long and messy night out, I managed to worm my way back to the van knowing full well we had to leave for the next show in Falmouth, Cornwall at 10am. I got a few hours kip on our mission across the country, leaving Alex to drive half of it bored out of his brains. Sorry Alex! Finally…8 long hours later, we arrive. Happy to see Don Broco again! The venue was awesome and the stage was huge, we were excited but both completely drained. We put on a cracking show and the crowd seemed to love it, cheers guys! After playing, we watched the other bands we hung out by the merch with Nicola (Shikari merch-girl) and the Broco boys. At the end of the show, the merch table was swamped with kids trying to get shirts and CD’s! We completely sold out of demos and met some really cool people. Both utterly shattered, we skipped going out with the bands tonight, we couldn’t manage the drive to the next venue either… so we ended up crashing out in a quiet little village… somewhere in Bridgwater!? Done.
Day 4:
Today was our day off and after talking things out with an old, angry local resident who thought we were the postman, we set off to visit our good friend Jim in Bristol to regenerate. We chilled out for the day watching films (Step Brothers), washed our clothes, caught up with emails and things and beamed the Playstation (FIFA 2001). Jim took us to a place called Yo-Yo Burger, where they serve weird shit like alligator, ostrich and even kangaroo burgers. I stuck safely to my 100% beef burger, thanks.
Day 5:
We decided to kidnap Jim and take him on tour with us for the remaining dates, and we left for Coventry (Kasbah)! We got to there early, and wandered around a bit. The venue was amazing. The first thing I clocked as I walked in was the enormous fucking chandelier hanging from the ceiling! Amazing. We hung out backstage chatting with the owner ‘Dee’ who was literally one of the nicest people we’ve ever met, what a hero. I had a shower at the venue… because I could. The show went down a storm, a few pits opened up (not that we could see anything as the light were busy blinding us) and the screams were deafening, so I’m assuming it went well! Jim used his charms and managed to do us proud selling more merch. We drove on after hanging out a bit, stopped in a lay-by and Barman-Jim opened the bar. Cheers Jim!
Day 6:
Another day off to chill out before the next three shows, we were trying to find things to do to keep us occupied, so we drove around Wrexham (Wales) until the most amazing sign caught our eyes… ‘WATERWORLD’. Realizing they wouldn’t let us in the pool in our boxers we went swim-short shopping. Sports Direct had a sale on… so we obviously went there and bought matching shorts. Waterworld was as good as it sounds... hot tub thingy, flumes, rapids… we pretty much stayed in there all day. We then found an ASDA and bought some bargain booze for the night and decided to buy a cheap film to watch in the van. I was pretty set on Cool Runnings for three pounds, Alex got his way and bought Evan Almighty for a pound less, much to our disappointment. Awful film!
Day 7:
We woke up in need of a shower and WaterWorld was far too good an idea to pass up. We drove straight there, hungover, and relaxxxed in the Jacuzzi for a few hours. Burned a whole bunch of new demo’s and trekked to the venue (Central Station). We found ‘Wolf’ our road guy there and hung out in the café downstairs rinsing the free WiFi. The venue was cool, slightly smaller than the other shows. We all had a fair few test tube apple shots and went on. The show was amazing. The atmosphere was awesome and the reaction was crazy… everyone was so rammed in. Don Broco played an awesome set after us, followed by an EPIC set by Enter Shikari. We were all pretty rendered, dancing at the back of the venue. Afterwards we hung out in a little park around the corner, trying to play football in the dark. Brilliant night… except the rider getting stolen. That was pretty gash.
Day 8:
We drove onwards up to Liverpool and got showered and cleaned up at Wolf’s friends’ dad’s place. His name was Will Ward. A TRUE legend. We got filled up at a ‘three pounds fifty’ carvery. The best meal we’d eaten all week! We got to the Barfly and hung out with everyone before the gig. It was an over 18’s show tonight so we opened the show. The reaction was better than expected, although the crowd wasn’t as enthusiastic as the previous shows on the tour. We met some pretty cool people though. Afterwards, Rou and Rob (Shikari) were dj-ing upstairs. Everybody got pretty mental in the club, great times were had with all the bands together. Eventually we left and everyone went partying in their separate ways, different clubs/Travelodge rooms (where some kid ended up literally shitting himself) etc. Wolf, however, managed to throw up all over himself and all over the van… and finally pass out. Fantastic. Alex and I made it back to the van about 6am.
Day 9:
I woke up to the sound of hundreds of people talking. Wondering what it was in my groggy state I fall out of the van’s slide door in front of a huge queue of Shikari fans waiting to get inside the venue. I’d completely forgotten we had a day-time show at the Barfly again, for the under 18’s. Managed to get myself inside and found Alex, Wolf and Jim. When it came to our set the crowd was going nuts. The venue was completely rammed wall to wall and it was one of the best shows on the tour, we had a lot of fun playing! We rested by the merch desk afterwards to catch our breath and hung around outside chatting with people. Finally the tour was over for us, so we said our goodbyes to everyone and trundled back home to our friends’ 21st rave party in Essex... which ended the tour perfectly!
So that’s the low-down on the best week of our lives. There’s a few people we can’t thank enough… I’ll do a few here;
Enter Shikari, Keith Reynolds and the whole team, new pals - Don Broco, the promoters for all the shows, Jim for letting us abuse his house and for trekking around with us, Wolf for being Wolf, Ben for doing a great job selling merch, Henry for letting us crash, everyone who watched us/bought merch/chatted with us and lastly everyone that came to the shows to purely see us… you guys really blew us away. You will not be forgotton. Thanks!
Raj xx