Day Five (23/09/08 – Tues): Gig – The White Rabbit, Plymouth – With Afgrund(SWE), Sylvester Staline(FRA) & A Den Of Robbers(BEL)
I woke up on the couch in Ant's front room around 10AM, we’re fed breakfast and sit around smoking in the garden for a bit before saying goodbye and making our way to Plymouth. On the way outta town we stop to investigate a World War 2 memorabilia shop with a dubious sign for ‘Nazi Items Wanted’ outside, inside however there seemed to be no evidence of anything corrupt and the owners seemed petrified by the sight of a group of unwashed punks and metallers picking up the antique rifles and pointing them at one another. Across the road we find another shop with a sign ‘Jesus Loves You’ hand painted outside, a light hearted fun poking photo opportunity if ever I saw one – We quickly jump at the chance:
WW2 Memorabilia Shop, Portsmouth / Jesus Loves You (Mitch, Andy, Aaron, Andy G and hand(?), Portsmouth
Back in the van we begin travelling on the motorway but are then later forced to change to little country roads, everyone’s pretty stunned when unexpectedly we almost get wiped out by a lorry going round a really tight corner and the van becomes eerily quiet the rest of the way to Plymouth.
The venue itself, The White Rabbit, is actually in the middle of the bus station complex (Famous as a punk club and from where the band ‘The Bus Station Loonies’ apparently took their name) and with the help of the sat–nav we find it pretty easily though getting near it with the van proves trickier as we’re not allowed access till after 7PM or so. We meet the promoters, a Polish couple, Martin (Who runs Nothing Positive records and is really, really tall) and his girlfriend Anna who welcome us with a crate of beer and some Polish cuisine (Cabbage Goulash), which tastes great but inevitably wreaks havoc on my booze weakened guts later in the evening.
During load in we have to pass through a large shutter door which is half way down sitting just below head height, not paying attention to what I’m doing at the time I walk straight into it and create a large crashing noise which reverberates around the entire bus station and almost knock myself unconscious in the process too – Nice one Mitch!!!
We meet the other bands we’re playing with tonight in the backstage area, A Den Of Robbers from Belgium and Sylvester Staline from France, both of whom are touring the UK this week and were supposed to play at Blastonbury, though due to time constraints only ADOR actually did, they turn out to be nice guys who’re well up for partying away the last night of their tour. Nicholas from Bones Brigade records is also there on tour with SS and has a great grind/PV/crust distro with him which we each visit and ogle over at various points during the night.
Doors open and time passes by, tonight’s turnout is very quiet (The first grind gig in Plymouth for quite some time we’re informed). When the first band begin it becomes clear this will be more of a party for the bands playing and promoters type of gig, thankfully one for which we’re paid and treated exceedingly well. The White Rabbit is quite a large club with a big PA system and so all the band’s sound spot on, I manage to catch each of the other bands sets and am particularly impressed with A Den Of Robbers who play some brutal power violence grind similar in sound to Crossed Out/Spazz/MITB. We play after them and it goes great, everyone manages to hear each other clearly through the monster PA and the other bands are awesome too, tonight is a really fun evening despite the low numbers attending.
Afterwards we head to a friend of Martin’s house where we’re sleeping and everyone rushes in/stays in the van claiming sleeping spots before me, Roddy or Aaron even know what’s happened. As a result we get to sleep in the tent tonight on a spot of grass in the car park outside, which is actually pretty good fun, despite it being freezing and 5 metres away from a train line which is in frequent use, we drink cider and smoke cigarettes on the kerb until we’re ready to sleep then all crawl in together for the night!
Day Six (24/09/08 – Wed): Gig – The Junction, Bristol– With Afgrund(SWE), Jesus Bruiser(ENG) and Atomck(WAL)
We leave early for the journey to Bristol stopping at Sainsbury’s for breakfast on the way out of town, I travel in Bazz’s car which with its CD player, leather seats and lack of other bodies makes a comfortable change from the van.
After breakfast we travel to Buckfast Abbey, the home of ‘Buckfast’ Tonic Wine (Urban dictionary definition below for those readers unfamiliar with the stuff: A fortified wine invented by the monks of Buckfast Abbey in Devonshire, England. The main area of consumption however is concentrated in central and western Scotland. Also known as 'Tonic Wine'. The word 'tonic', however, "does not imply health giving or medicinal properties. In fact, the high caffeine & mineral content generally gives the consumer an unparalleled ability to start fights”) not far out of Plymouth to do some sightseeing.
As we pull up Bazz snaps the hand break on his car, which we’ll now go without for the rest of the tour. The monastery itself is a pleasant peaceful place with big grounds and an awesome little herb garden, where Bazz and I sit and chill out for a bit. Disappointingly there seemed no evidence of Buckfast production (Bar the bottles in the gift shop) or drunk monks to be seen. Some photos are taken as we lounge around outdoors in the surprisingly warm weather for an hour or so and then get back into our various forms of transportation and hit the road again:
Ablach/Afgrund @ Buckfast Abbey, Buckfast / Al–B and Bazz catch some rays / Caz touches the stones, Avesbury
The Bazz mobile gets to Bristol mid afternoon and Aaron, Al B and I get out to explore Bristol for a bit while Bazz goes to visit some relatives of his there. We end up in a cobbled market place, visiting some stalls and then, yeah you guessed it – Go to the pub. We sit out in the beer garden section of a bar I’ve since forgotten the name of and watch passers by going about their business in the market place.
Once finished our drinks we walk some more and stumble across ‘The Apple’, an old two tiered Dutch barge at Bristol’s harbour which has been converted into a cider pub! We sample the establishment’s goods and are most satisfied by the quick hitting effects produced.
After a while we start to feel hungry and decide to head across town to tonight’s venue – The Junction, a DIY punk bar which I’ve played once before with Filthpact and had a great time doing so (Although I did accidentally split our guitarist Ben’s forehead open with a microphone but that’s another story...). Upon arrival we’re told by a member of staff that the promoter, Angie, is about to be barred from doing future gigs there as she hasn’t being doing the best of jobs and they’re fed up with her reckless attitude. We then realise we didn’t see any posters for the gig in our walk about town earlier and mild panic begins to set in.
At this point the others appear and we discover they’ve enjoyed the afternoon visiting some standing stones at Avebury en route. We load in the gear from the van parked outside where there seems to be a stream of undesirable characters walking past eyeballing our equipment. Then a good friend of mine and another Aberdeen ex pat – Donny soon arrives and we go to sit in the beer garden for a catch up.
Members of a band we’ve met in the past who and are playing tonight, Jesus Bruiser, also arrive shortly after as does Martin from Gurkha and Kunal Superfi and I speak some with them. The promoter Angie arrives around 7PM introduces herself and feeds us some pasta and vegetable pasties.
Later the first band Atomck from Wales begin and are 2 piece grind (Guitar and vocals with a drum machine) they’re pretty brutal considering their lack of members but the place is really dead with perhaps 8 people watching including the bar staff and I can’t help but feel a little bad for them. Next up is the aforementioned Jesus Bruiser (Whose sticker I noticed on the kitchen set of TV show ‘Shameless’ recently – Bizarre) who play Anarcho crust with 2 singers (Male and Female), there’s now about 12 people watching and they seem sober ;–) , tight and together.
We take to the stage and play ok, my throat by now after 6 days of screaming, smoking and drinking is fucked – I’m hoarse as hell and really struggle with the few lower parts I do in the set. Despite this we get a decent reception from the small crowd there.
Afgrund then go on and like a well oiled machine grind the place into oblivion...
After the gig Angie comes up and throws a money box on the table in front of me, proclaiming ‘that’s all we’ve made’ then instantly disappears off to the other side of the bar. Upon opening the box I discover around £40 inside, which is a lot less than the money we need each day to cover the costs (Flights, transport, promotion and driver – Approximately £160 per day) of having these two bands on tour, costs which had been clearly explained to all the promoters well in advance and whilst I accepted we’d occasionally have to dip into our own pockets for this tour to happen I begin to feel we’ve been a little cheated here.
That aside we had an amazing time after the gig, Matty the drummer from Jesus Bruiser who lives and works in the Junction let some of us stay in his flat above the venue and gave us and some close friends a lock in till we couldn’t drink anymore and on the stroke of midnight we began celebrating Aarons birthday (More tales from that tomorrow). Bazz and Afgrund went to stay with his relatives and by all accounts had a grand time too watching films and getting incredibly stoned.
Day Seven (25/09/08 – Thurs): Gig – Harry’s Bar, Stoke–on–Trent – With Afgrund(SWE) and From The Last Sky(ENG)
Arrrgh – My head hurts! After six days on the road this is the first serious hangover I’ve encountered. We’re woken around 8AM by Rod who needs to move the van as the parking meters outside start charging soon. Despite heavy (Selfish) protest I eventually get up and help load out the backline which is no easy task in this post–alcoholocaustic and sleep deprived state of physical and mental torture. Before leaving Bristol we go to a nearby joke shop and buy some orange hair spray, which is then applied outside the shop by several of us in honour of Aaron turning 26 today. Caz returns to the van with the more expensive but way more tour practical option of a ginger wig!
Whilst reversing out of the parking place next to the joke shop Rod accidentally bangs the van’s tow bar off a brand new looking Audi parked behind cracking its grill. An onlooker nearby comes over and decides it’s his business to get involved mentioning the words ‘Insurance’ and ‘Witness’. Luckily we manage to talk down the situation and he leaves, we then hastily make our escape northwards.
After about an hour of driving we decide to take a break and head off the motorway at the next possible exit. We turn onto a small B road not really too sure where we’re going but faithful that should we get lost the sat–nav will guide us to our inputted destination of Stoke–on–Trent regardless. Ten minutes later we drive into a quiet little village, Tewkesbury, stopping at a supermarket for supplies.
Along with other food based items Rod purchases some whisky and a small bottle of strong lager for Aaron, the whisky is opened outside in the car park ‘For breakfast’ and this begins a long day of heavy drinking for our red haired birthday boy. We move the van to the car park of a nearby abbey and doss around/sleep for a couple of hours in the grounds there whilst Rod gets on with some course work he needs completed before returning to college in Skye on Monday. Bored and beginning to feel a bit mingin’ Aaron, Caz and I go and ask the caravan park next door if it’s possible to use their showers, they take one look at me and my faux orange hair and quickly bark out a response of ‘Residents only’!
At 2PM–ish we round everyone up and set off for Stoke–on–Trent again, more specifically Alex from Krupskaya’s house. We get there around 5PM and Aaron is wrecked from the all the whisky and beer he’s drank so far today. Afgrund and Bazz arrive and wish Aaron happy birthday, their gift: corpse paint – Which is immediately applied for optimal hell raising! Alex feeds us some vegan curry which is pretty tasty, Aaron then disappears...
We find him a few minutes later lurking in the next door neighbour’s garden and quickly bundle him back into the van, as we set off towards the venue I notice a cop car travelling up the street in the direction of said neighbour’s house, the words ‘Close Call’ spring to mind!
Do not disturb – Ablach @ Matty’s Room, Bristol 8AM / The Birthday Boy!
Upon arrival at tonight’s venue ‘Harry’s Bar’ it’s explained we are to play in the function suite upstairs. We get up there and it’s an odd shaped room, which by the looks of things used to be two rooms since knocked into one with tall mirrors mounted all the way along the back wall. We load in and a local band ‘After The Last Sky’ are also there setting up. Rod and I disappear off for a wonder and find a nearby supermarket where more corpse paint is bought, Halloween is coming up and that shit is on sale everywhere!
Back at the venue ATLS are playing and the place is dead with only two punters having paid in so far – Both of whom I recognise as members of local punk band ‘Kismet HC’ which Filthpact shared a bill or two with in the past. We’re on next and play for ourselves tonight, trying to have a laugh and make the best of another ridiculously quiet gig. Panu from Afgrund joins us on guitar for us Unchallenged Hate freeing Aaron for some standalone vocal duties. He jumps and runs around the place screaming like a demon on amphetamines, moments later the song comes to an end climaxing with Aaron being cream pie’d (Shaving foam on a paper plate) onstage by the cheeky Mr Ploppy Pants himself(Aka Rod).
Afterwards Afgrund come onstage wearing only boxer shorts and the cowboy hats from London, there’s sadly still just 2 paying punters here tonight to witness such a display. A few of us in the tour party decide to follow suit and various items of clothing are quickly discarded, they play a ferociously good set and we dance like idiots doing human pyramids, skipping ropes and leapfrogs across the dance floor throughout.
As we begin to load out Alex comes my way asking to discuss money. He explains he can only pay us £40 for tonight, this coupled with the shitty turnout and a suspected lack of local promotion leaves me feeling seriously disappointed by someone I, and others in Ablach, have helped out in the past with his own band and had trusted would do a far better job. We get into a lengthy debate about it all, though no resolve is found. We return to Alex’s where we’re sleeping and everyone’s pissed off at tonight’s state of affairs, pretty soon after arrival I head upstairs to sleep where I find Rod already tucked in. We stay up for a while discussing the evenings events and whatnot then crash out for a good long sleep.
SOT Disclaimer (22/03/09): I appreciate the things Alex did do right for us in Stoke–on–Trent, providing nice food and a clean warm place to stay – Don’t get me wrong. But on the whole feel his actions/behaviour as the gig’s ‘Promoter’ that night, really sucked...
Day Eight (26/09/08 – Fri): Gig – Royal Park Cellars, Leeds – With Afgrund(SWE), Joe Pesci(ENG), The Magpyes(ENG) and RETH(ENG)
We get up just before lunchtime and head to a nearby supermarket to pick up some supplies – Food and booze! I’m travelling in the van today with Al B, Rod, Aaron and the three of Afgrund. En route to Leeds we partake in a spontaneous ‘Back of the van’ drinking session, relieving the frustrations of the night before. Before long we end up shirtless, rowdy and stuck in a traffic jam. Fellow road users instantly become a source of entertainment at this point and we pass the time amusing ourselves (And hopefully some of them too) with a variety of light hearted heckles, hand/body gestures, food based projectiles and other drunken capers.
As we reach the outskirts of Leeds we decide we can no longer hold our bladders and pile out of the van en masse at the first available set of traffic lights. Relief is found thanks to a nearby bush and afterwards so is the van, another 100 yards down the road by now though – We run!
We get to the venue ‘Royal Park Cellars’, a large pub slap in the middle of LS6 (An area where every punk/hardcore/crust/grind/metal head in Leeds seems to live, along with a shitload of students too), and to our delight find out the gig will take place in a dark little basement they have there – A real sweat, grime and dirt kinda place and the perfect setting for performing our particular style of music tonight.
I meet the promoter Steve, who turns out to be a nice guy and offers us some extra cash as he can’t supply us with food tonight. We take the cash and use it to offset some of the previous nights losses then eat more of the supermarket food we bought earlier for dinner.
Quite a lot of the Leeds crust crew appear at the gig, there’s also a load of long haired metallers/grind freaks and for us it seems to be the perfect crowd mix. By the time we play there’s already been 3 bands on, 2 of which I saw bits of: RETH and The Magpyes who were both wicked. I unfortunately miss Joe Pesci, not being aware that they were onstage whilst I hang out in the van speaking shite, d’oh. We play well and get a really good response from the busy crowd. Royal Park Cellars is looking set to be the best venue/gig of the tour so far!
After our set I meet Paul the bassist from RETH, who also runs Raw Nerve Promotions, and after years of email correspondence/networking it’s nice to finally put a face to the name, we chat for a bit and he too seems to be having a great night. Unfortunately this is all about to soon change as the evening takes a turn for the worse...
Euro pop party kids in LS6: Rod, Enrico, Andy and ??? / Al–B and Dingo reunite and knock out a power ballad or two together!
Afgrund appear onstage and the place is rammed, the minute they begin the crowd erupts into a wild moshpit frenzy and I quickly take out my video camera keen to document it all. I initially film from the back of the room and as the second or third song starts I move to the front for some close up footage of the band, the song finishes minutes later and I glance round behind me to find the venue unexpectedly deserted.
I return to the merch table at the back of the room deeply confused and ask Aaron what the hell happened? He informs me one of the crust crew took a dislike to Paul’s aggressive style of dancing and in retaliation smashed a glass bottle off his forehead (Go figure :S), then they and everyone else in the room disappeared out the fire exit. At this point Leeds takes the mantle of ‘Most Mental Gig’ on the tour – Though it’s far from the worst (See: Day Seven – Stoke–on–trent)! Afgrund hammer through the rest of their set and some of the crowd do slowly come back to watch. However the energy, atmosphere and momentum of the whole night now seems sadly lost. I later speak with the drummer from RETH (Smith) to be told Paul was cut by the broken glass and bleeding but should be ok – Gnarley!
Afterwards we head to our friend Mr (John) Evans house, handily situated just around the corner from RPC and where we’ll spend the night. He stays with two other punks/friends: Luke, author of ‘Water into Beer’ fanzine and Dingo the bassist from ‘War All the Time’, upon arrival the night begins to look up once again
We visit a nearby ‘Tesco Express’ for what is to be the final post gig booze run of the tour, it’s 1AM on a Friday night and the place is total chaos. We grab some drinks then return to Johns where we encounter 30 or so people who weren’t there before and a party in full swing throughout various rooms in the house, this is fine though as we’re all pretty up for partying hard tonight! I sit in the front room for a few hours drinking beer, smoking and chatting with Stu (Joe Pesci), Luke and Rod while the others rock out upstairs getting their groove on to a selection of Euro pop records. Later I go to bed and the party is still going strong, as I drift off I hear Calum our drummer screaming from downstairs ‘IS THIS A TEST? IS THIS A TEST?’ at the others, I smile and think to myself: Yes mate – It is, oh indeed it is!
Day Nine (27/09/08 – Sat): Gig – Henry's Bar, Edinburgh – With Afgrund(SWE) and Kaddish(SCO).
I wake up for the last day of the tour feeling tired, ill, hung–over and in general pretty burnt out! Guess the last 8 days have been pretty gruelling for my body in terms of alcohol/cigarette consumption vs. sleep deprivation and I’m now somewhat regrettably feeling the effects.
That said would I change the way I’ve spent the last 8 days if given the chance? Perhaps party a little less? Get a few more early nights? Would I fuck.....! This tour was always meant to be short and sweet, yet epically heavy on the senses, and one thing it’s definitely been is that!!!
Rod (The hero that he is) kicks our arses and gets us all up, going, and out into the street. We thank our hosts and head in the direction of Edinburgh. It’s 9AM, we’ve got roughly 6 hours of driving ahead and the majority of us (Excluding Rod and Bazz who’ve remained respectably sober(Ish!) all tour due to driving commitments) are still feeling like shit from the night before. I’m travelling by car with Bazz, Al–B and Enrico today and am thankful for this as it’s quieter, comfier and faster...
Not much happens throughout the journey, I remember arguing heavily with an equally broken Al–B about whether or not to pick him up a bottle of water whilst stopped at a petrol station. Guess that sounds like a really stupid thing for two close friends to fight over, huh? It was; but at the time we were both still tired/hung–over, fed up of travelling and pissed off it was the last day of tour and with all these factors in play it felt, natural.
We arrive in Edinburgh around 4PM at ‘The House of Crust’ and meet Colin who is busy cooking our dinner with assistance from a lovely young Irish lass, who I find out later is Paul from Afterbirth’s new girlfriend and whose name I’ve sadly since forgotten. The others appear shortly afterwards with the van and we’re treated to the usual vegetarian feast I’ve come to know and love from playing gigs here! After eating we go to the venue and set up the gear, it really starts to sink in that this is the last night of the tour and everyone seems a little quieter than usual. Our friends ‘Kaddish’ arrive and I hear their tales of a recently completed successful jaunt around Europe.
Doors open and ‘Henry’s Bar’ fills up with a decent sized crowd, especially considering tonight is an early gig (7PM start/10PM finish), there are a lot of familiar faces I haven’t seen in a while and it feels good to be back in Auld Reekie.
Kaddish play and are a great start to the night, they’re a band who consistently improve each time I see them – About once a year if I’m lucky and tonight they demonstrate themselves well ahead of any UK contemporaries in the DIY screamo/hc genre.
We then get onstage and give it our all one last time. It’s a good ‘un, there’s people dancing/having fun/cheering and from what I remember there may well have even been human pyramids too! Afgrund play shortly afterwards and are warmly welcomed by the Edinburgh crowd here tonight digging their multinational (members home countries: Italy, Finland and Sweden) übergrind!
The evening comes to an end and we all pile outside for a final tour photo with the van:
Afgrund/Ablach/xshirleythegrindbitchx & Friends, Edinburgh / The unholy d(R)iver (Mk2) enjoying a snack (Deep fried rat) at the wheel!
We then leave and drop off Afgrund at a friend’s house where they’ll be staying the night before flying back to Sweden tomorrow, say our goodbyes to these Vikings from Hell, drop Colin back at HOC, thank him for the solid as ever gig/ace food and get on the long road back to Aberdoom! It takes another 3 hours to get home and it was a bit of a hell ride with Rod and I being the only ones managing to (Barely) stay awake! After dropping the van and various bodies off at different locations throughout the Granite City we crawl into my flat around 3AM and being the rock and roll stars we are after a week on the road, head straight to bed – The End!!!
Endnote(25/03/09): This (Ridiculously lengthy?) article was put off for far too long (Life unfortunately gets in the way) then rushed to meet a deadline. It may not read that great and may also have errors in its punctuation/spelling/grammar/tenses. I hope it gives a fair representation of the nine days two bands and friends spent having a blast on the road together. Full respect to Rod and Bazz for all the driving they did on this tour and also to Rod again for being so patient with my tardy writing process. Thanks to Afgrund for being up for a laugh/showing us how it’s done each night and anyone else who deserves it...
Check out/contact/poke fun at Ablach and Afgrund on Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/ablach / http://www.myspace.com/avgrund
Email Ablach: ablachgrind(at)hotmail.co.uk