day 1 - oxford academy, sat 10th jan - "brom hasn't crossed ben yet"

we managed to leave liverpool 'bang on time' and at 11am (by which i mean nearly 12) we hit the road. the van is COLD. no one could feel their feet yesterday and i thought i'd lost them but it turns out they're still there. which is good 'cos i needed them to play. we got there first and met up with the other bands later on - everyone is really cool which is awesome. turns out liam WATO has family in liverpool. he knows the bow & arrow pub in huyton, which is cool with us. the show was really fun, and the venue was pretty huge. oxford kids are crazy, and we love them. the other bands put on a sweet show and the kids go insane for WATO. everyone likes to party! we've showed everybody our granny racing game and everyone seems up for it. we are (and i quote) the "hottest band" on the tour. not our words, but we can't disagree with the locals. karl's cousin chloe (legend) put us up for the night in high wycombe and we met up with young guns in a pub called the antelope which was like the cantina on tattooine in star wars. plenty of freaks. so we felt right at home. we briefly danced to killswitch engage down on the dancefloor before leaving when metallica came on. we're not big fans. bristol is only 100 miles away...

day 2 - bristol academy, sunday 11th jan - "get your rest for laser quest"

first thing we learned today was that sometimes people let you down. our host for the night (no names mentioned) bailed on us and left us high and dry. but enter becks. hero (heroine?) that is putting us up for more than one night. with that important aspect covered and in the bag we were happily on the way to bristol. bristol is a very pretty place, even when it rains. the staff at the venue are some of the nicest ever and the show benefited from having a fuck load of kids in a smaller but just as nice venue. our first circle pit of the tour broke out and we took that as a good sign. bristol kids seem to be just as crazy as oxford kids. is this true? YG killed the floor with wall-to-wall mosh frenzy and were as tight as ever. WATO tore the place apart, the kids go insane for them every night and it's hard not to see why. the whole thing is shaping up nicely...

day 3 - abbertillery dolls house, monday 12th jan - "hello albuquerque!"

abbertillery is somewhere in the mountains. that's pretty much the only thing i learned in the first half of today. the show was originally supposed to be at the ebbw vale institute but got moved about 4 days ago to this small hilly place. these kind of places are so nice because there's nothing like them anywhere near liverpool, so it's a bit of a change in culture for us. pablo and co brought their own PA in which took a little while to get set up but everything got sorted after a few hours and normal service was resumed. tonight was a bit more intimate but just as fun. there was a slightly nuisance rogue light which pretty much destroyed my retinas during most of our set but it was nice and energetic all the same. later in the night i managed to catch about half a pint of beer with my face thanks to some of the WATO floor rock antics, but as i always say, it isn't a tour unless you've got a beer soaked shirt and dirty shoes. or something like that. the night is a work in progress as we're back in becks' chilling with a few beers and some lovely boys. ME and WATO in one room with some alcohol. tomorrow is a day off. luckily.

day 4 - day off in cardiff, tuesday 13th jan - "excuse me, do you rent floor driers?"

after the previous night's shenanigans, i was glad we had a day off. i'm still sore. but it was jokes. our lovely host / tour guide becky showed us round the coolest shops in cardiff and karl and brom did synchronised press-ups on a moving topshop escalator. ben bought some beautiful shoes, and me and sexy mike got ourselves some new girl's jeans. it's official, you're not really a man until you're wearing girl pants. later on in the night half of us ventured down to a clubnight called 'hammertime' at cardiff barfly and the rest of us stayed in and watched series 2 of alan partridge. good night no matter which way you slice it. sleep time came at about 5am once again. 5 hours per night is the official allotted amount of sleep for tour, any more and you're just not rock and roll. back to storming stages tomorrow. we're looking forward to seeing if the white rabbit is a magic venue with a giant top hat inside.

day 5 - plymouth white rabbit, wednesday 14th jan - "repeat these 2 words!"

the journey to plymouth was quite a long one but thankfully our heroic driving team has done us proud so far and today was no exception. we enjoyed a full on nu-metal megamix in the van, highlights of which included limp bizkit, korn, disturbed and the one and only static-x. the white rabbit is inside a bus terminus, underneath a flyover. this doesn't sound too promising to the casual reader but the place is actually wicked. we managed to nurse or at least play through our aches and pains and the show was really good. unfortunately we've managed to acquire a rather large crack in one of the guitars but luckily we have spares and we battled on relentlessly. we were glad to be staying about 5 mins drive from the venue and got some much needed rest. exeter tomorrow.

day 6 - exeter cavern, thursday 15th jan - "karl ate all the cheese"

we'dnever been to exeter before. for some reason i thought it was near the east coast but it turns out i was completely wrong. so it's really cool when you get to a place you didn't even have any idea about before and you sell a few shirts before you even play. surreal but i like it, megacool. what isn't cool however is venues that turn people away who have had tickets for months before the gig just because they can't prove they're 16. we met some lovely people in exeter, everyone is so nice on this tour, we're very happy about this! the show was really fun even though we encountered our fair share of technical difficulties. the crowd seemed to love shouting the word "BRUTAL!" quite a lot which i also found quite interesting. props to the kid who sneaked in, took some photos and got thrown out immediately. much respect. after the show we had a 3 hour pop singalong in the van to our legendary friend helen's house. it is a mansion. there is a swimming pool. and a maid. best. day. ever. so far...

day 7 - birmingham academy, friday 16th jan - "sexy mike vs. the one-way system"

ever since me and brom have both injured ourselves this week we've been using deep heat spray to ease our pain. it's good but everything smells of a football team's changing room and it's the first thing i can smell in the morning. we headed out to birmingham academy, which is a wicked venue and arrived to find the biggest dressing room we've ever had so far i think. we only got 9 beers, but we managed. the venue is HUGE. but it was almost sold out! good times indeed. our best show of the tour so far i think. we blasted out 'bananaphone' as our stage intro and because the stage was fairly spacious everybody jumped around, a lot. young guns conjured up a wall of death and plenty of circle pits and WATO killed it as usual. afterwards we all headed to a place called 'sub side' and danced the night away before heading back to the mansion and not sleeping until 7am. helen is a legend, but her cooking killed me off.

day 8 - high wycombe blues loft, saturday 17th jan - "russell, you're making me gay!"

we headed off from birmingham thinking that we had about 130 miles to drive. having put the postcode in the satnav we realised that it was more like 75 and that made our day. there's nothing like realising you've got a lot more time than you thought you had. it's like travelling back in time. brilliant. got to the venue and had some troubles with parking but we conquered it in the end. wycombe kids are really nice. every show has been brilliant so far, we've met some wicked people and couldn't be more chuffed about it. probably the hottest stage i've ever been on, but i love the sweatbox shows. sadly we cracked yet another guitar. we're having a nightmare with gear so far but we're battling on. you can't stop the tour train, it's a juggernaut. like the jubbernaut. we were in YGs hometown and they inspired the usual wall of death which looks awesome on my home video. equally as awesome was the carnage at the front during WATO's set, including kids falling over the stage and dan climbing up into the roof fixings. youtube won't know what's hit it.

day 9 - milton keynes pitz club, sunday 18th jan - "hide the shower gel"

we woke up in karl's cousin chloe's house for the second time on this tour and we were very appreciative. we worked out our sleeping arrangements much better this time and everybody managed to get a decent spot. we went for another, but much quieter drink down at the antelope (or "the 'lope" as we've now affectionately come to know it) and it was as star wars as ever (see day 1). we headed off for MK and quickly found ourselves a bit lost but after getting back on track we found the venue. milton keynes is a mass of roundabouts. i've never seen so many and the satnav almost couldn't handle it! the pitz must be an ironic name because the place is fantastic. the biggest stage of the tour i think, complete with drum riser which we used to full effect between soundcheck and doors opening by having a drum-off between tom WATO and yours truly. videos to follow. ben YG did jump in with some samba snare drum wizadry but almost had a fatal fall off the back of the fairly high stage. almost dangerous, but brilliant in it's own way. i love that guy. our changing room was actually a football changing room as the venue doubles as a sports centre, and behind the stage we found a wrestling ring. no kidding. ME! vs. WATO once again. i think we know who owned the ring. our set was really fun, karl managed to get right on top of the massive PA and i broke nearly all of my sticks during the first 3 songs. nasty. but once again, MK kids are lovely. afterwards the usual antics kicked off, with us locking tom in the back of their van and jack trying to scrooge us on the (free) beers. but really, thanks boys. lucy, melissa, charlie, ben and lanky ben very kindly hosted us for the night and were very trusting of us scouse boys. we haven't met one person who isn't amazing so far on this tour. we're so stoked for stoke tomorrow.

day 10 - stoke sugarmill, monday 19th jan - "the safe word is whimpy"

after almost getting stuck in the mud in MK before we moved an inch, we finally hit the motorway with enough time to make a stop and visit wimpy. after much deliberation about the way wimpy should be spelled we decided that it was indeed the real deal and headed in for a bite. i enjoyed a pretty wicked bean burger and brom rode thomas the tank for 50p. video to follow. fletch also spent about 9 quid in subway before we got back on track to stoke. we LOVE stoke. the kids there are generally insane and we managed to incite a rather interesting pop-punk circle pit. the stage is so easy to go nuts on that i think it was probably the most fun show we've played to date. we headed back home to our own beds for one night as we were only 45 miles from home and liverpool would put us just over an hour from leeds for the next show. norm hazed sean pretty good by 'stealing' his passport, phone and cashcard. we'll get him back yet... we also found out we'd been confirmed for one more day of the tour in liverpool on friday. superb!

day 11 - leeds cockpit, tuesday 20th jan - "wall of death. talk to me..."

feeling refreshed from the rare night back in our own beds, we shot off to leeds for the penultimate day of tour and the most exciting aftershow we could wish for, namely slamdunk. the cockpit is a wicked venue and after another gruelling afternoon of perusing the local shops we headed back for soundcheck and more cd making. we've sold out of cds on almost every night so far which is unbelievable, but wicked. the show was really fun, with karl instigating our first ever wall of death (try youtube if you aren't sure what that entails) and scaling the PA once again. YG pulled my favourite antic of tour by replacing WATO's intro with a 'slightly edited' version of the usual. good work boys, well executed. i hadn't heard the 'teletubbies' theme for years. our enthusiasm for slamdunk wasn't without cause - probably the best rock night i've been too in... ever, i think. if you're ever in leeds on a tuesday, check it out for sure. the only downside was losing my camera but thankfully my housemate si had travelled over for the night and had his epic camera on hand to document the night before we messily staggered to the extremely nearby travelodge. but the less said about that the better... one more day left in liverpool on friday, which also happens to be alfie's birthday. i'm sure there are a few more surprises left in store...

day 12 - liverpool O2 academy, friday 23rd january - "indecent exposure?"

the last day of tour is one of those weird days emotion-wise. sad because it's the last day, but awesome because we get to go out with a bang at home, and on alfie's birthday no less! soundchecks ran late so we got to do about half a song which didn't make for the best on stage sound of the tour but it was really fun all the same. i forgot how fun it is playing at home sometimes. the crowd was one of the best i've ever seen at a liverpool gig, they really showed the WATO boys what us scousers are made of, good work guys. it was our first show with deaf havana and the urgency and both bands were absolutely wicked. top guys, ace bands. the crowds on the second half of the tour are in for some more amazing nights. alfie's birthday mayhem kicked off halfway through WATO's set with a stage invasion including party poppers, a total mess of cake destruction and resulted in alfie playing in nothing but a sparkly thong for 3 or 4 songs. the ladies in the crowd seemed to enjoy that a lot. and why not? all in the name of good fun! the show ended with many stagedives, even from tom who thrust his sticks in my hand and left me to play the last chorus of 'nothing good...' while he surfed over some heads. i'll miss these boys a lot! after the show everyone piled to the krazyhouse for a lot of floor stamping and generally being a nuisance to anybody around us. it was our last night! it was very much allowed. everybody said their goodbyes and we drank far too many shots. roll on the next tour...