Friends,

The blogging continues. This week, Jonathan T Ravn steps up to the bar.

Enjoy,

Tre

Dear Readers of the rock and roll variety, Thank for your continued reading support and for those who couldn't make any of this trip, this is dedicated to you. Let me just start by saying we had a great a few days and that I'm going to share a little bit of my crazy experience on the road and some good old fashioned stage 'Tom Foolery'.

Section 1 ~ The main Bit

We spent 3 days together this time round, which in the eyes of the hours is brilliant. We all live so far away from each other that practice time is sometimes the only time we get to hang out. We were all staying down in ICC Studios in Eastbourne and locked out studio 2 for two days. Instantly it felt so good to be back in the place where so much creativity had started. And if you look closely in the album sleeves of our record you will see that some of the magic was recorded here. So in a nutshell ~ it felt like we were home.

We practiced with all of our normal stage gear from our studio in Harpenden so it felt right from the start. Playing to each other in the round we concentrated on bringing in a few new tunes into the set and also tried rearranging the order to bring a new feel here and there. It was a great time and we all pulled together to work on vocal parts and even some more synth sounds and effects. Tim and Steve have a particular interest so when I was away they huddled round the tiny keys and invented new sounds.

Back on the road on Sunday we headed for London Astoria and even with leaving in plenty of time arrived incredibly late! The main problem was that there were other people in London also driving, and I'm sure if there wasn't we wouldn't have been so late to sound check. The real reason was a bus that was on fire on the bridge separating the north and south side of London, so police were diverting traffic in circles to keep us all amused.

Once we arrived everything went into full swing and the venue staff were brilliant. There were several guys who helped us load in and out and picked up two things at once that we normally carry between two and we were instantly loaded in! After meeting our manager who was in charge of all things stage related we relaxed for an hour and promptly sound checked. We managed to do it in about 25 minutes which is ground breaking when you think how much there was to do.

After a great show from the Gentlemen we stormed the stage and kicked out the jams, with our new polished set and good vibes from our monitor engineer. Tre had some incredible vocal sing outs and nearly brought Tori to tears, just ask her, and with smiles on our faces, we worshiped like we knew best. God was all over that venue and in a place that normally has so much darkness it was amazing to bring in some light and see a real impact on the people around us.

Driving home I realized again where God has been calling us: places where His presence usually isn't felt. Looking back over the years Tre and I still say our favorite gigs have been the ones where we play to a bunch of people who don't know God and in a place where the words 'Jesus Christ' are only used as a put down. I can't wait to be out again, it always feels too long but God has a plan and I've got a van, so all is good. Pray for us as we take a week off to spend time with our families, and don't forget to keep looking on the engageHIV/AIDS site for updates on what we're doing on there.

Until next time, Jonny

P.s. Due to a crazy schedule i didn't take any video footage so I've written up my days in a time line for you to enjoy. Please feel free to invent your own video in your head as you skim through it ☺ But incase any of you are sad there is a special video that will be going up in the next seven days, of our time together in Northern Island. Bye!


Section 2 ~ Organised chaos: Jonny's days on the road.

Thursday
5.30am Get up and pick up Tom and drive to Onehundredhours Studio.
7:00am Load van of all show gear and half of the studio including kitchen sink.
8:30am Drive back to Watford drop off Tom and head to Gatwick airport.
10:30am Tre arrives and has also been up since 5. Continue down south in Van.
1:00pm Arrive at ICC Studio in Eastbourne, unload van and set up for practice till fingers and throats are sore.
8:30pm eat some dinner.
9:10pm Get on train and travel back to Watford.
12:45am Get into bed and sleep.

Friday
6:00am Get up again and go to work in the Coffee House.
2:45pm Due to missing all breaks leave work 45mins early and run to station.
3:10pm Get on delayed train, thank you British Rail, and barely make connection to Eastbourne.
5:30pm Practice again with much urgency, but also with Tori as she also had just flown in.
9:00pm Finish practice and have a lovely dinner Mary prepared.
10:00pm Onehundredhours meeting which was very honest and fruitful.
11:30pm Pack up studio
1:30am Sleep

Sataday
9:00am I get a lie in hooray! Sort out Artist's Flat at the studio and load the van.
10:50am Leave 10 mins early and head into London
1:00pm Stuck in traffic and search for nearest loo.
2:00pm Drive past burnt London bus on bridge, which explains why we we're stuck at 1pm, haven't see so much traffic in London in ages.
3:00pm Make it London Astoria but fail to find the one way road behind to the loading bay and drive round London some more.
3:38pm Tre drives wrong way down one way street
3:40pm Unload the Van.
5:30pm Sound Check.
7:10pm Bring Huge wave of Rock.
9:00pm Load van and head to Stansted airport to drop off Tre and Tori
1:00am Unload van in Studio.
1:30am Sleep.

Sunday
Sleep...hurrah!!