September 2nd - Edinburgh (Bannermans) w/ Crashdown
We only sorted this gig a few days ago and as we arrived in Edinburgh Crashdown turned up at the venue. They weren't originally on the bill but they asked the promoter if they could play and he said yes. Bonus! They decided they were going to do this a lot and just turn up at other people's gigs and ask to play. The gig wasn't hugely memorable and afterwards Owen and Dean (band friend, roadie and general idiot) went to a Scream bar with some of Crashdown and others stayed in the van. Dean really got "down with the sickness". They came back ruined xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx relaxing xxxxxxxxxxxxxx and went to bed.
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September 3rd - Dundee (Westport Bar) w/ Crashdown
James and Dean bit the bullet today and washed their hair in a public toilet. James couldn't quite manage to rinse the shampoo on his own so needed assistance from Dean. At that point an angry Scottish man entered saying, "You're not fucking washing your hair in here are you?" Giggling ensued. Paul (Crashdown) gave Dean a xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, which was very nice of him. The gig was ok but we still seem to be warming up and aren't quite 'match fit' so to speak. After the gig we all went to a house party. They're was a garage full of alcohol and the only instruction was to not drink the Becks. Many beers, vodka, scotch, wine and cava followed. Good times. Dean tried 'Bullshitting' some wood but to no avail. Wood 1 Dean's foot 0. However, 'This is Bullshit' had now taken off and was being used un-sparingly by all party members. Dean threw up but was very angry with himself, and I quote: "I shouldn't be throwing up, I never throw up." James had his first booze fuelled serious chat of the tour and we agreed that Crashdown were going to play the Manchester date with us so we woke Ben L (manager) up to inform him of this news. He was sleeping in some girl's boudoir and Ben was playing with a snake.
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September 4th - Aberdeen (Tunnels) w/ Crashdown
First big hangover day! Dean went to A and E after realizing he couldn't walk on his foot but the x-ray revealed no breakages so Dean just limped around for the next few days. We played well tonight! Owen said: "I'm glad we played well tonight otherwise I think James might have killed himself!" After the gig we loaded up Mandy (our van) and Owen, Ben L and Pete (Crashdown) got on the back of Mandy as Ben set off. Ben accelerated and Pete panicked and jumped off at about 30mph. Needless to say he didn't remain on his feet but was lucky to escape with only minor scrapes and without breaking his face. We went to our favorite Scream bar and drank through the hangovers. Afterwards we went to Steve (Dave from Crashdown's brother) and Cathy's (Dave from Crashdown's sister) house and slept there.
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September 5th - Day Off
Ben L spent the day on the Internet at Steve and Cathy's house so was happy. Everyone else just sat around doing very little and watching Peep Show. Owen cooked everyone some Meatballs for dinner, which were pretty good! We went out at about 9 to Dave's (Crashdown) pub. A friendly man bought us some shots. "Shouldn't have drunk that Vodka." Owen and Ben L bailed early and went home (to the van). Everyone else went to our favorite Scream bar. Drinking and dancing aplenty and they played 'Don't stop me now' after James and Dave asked a girl that worked there to request it from the DJ. Good times. Afterwards we went to the same girls flat. More Vodka was consumed and Ben's drink of the night was bottle after bottle of wine. James and Dean spent the majority of the night arguing with someone about football and Ben lost his sight. We all left at about 5am (except Dave who returned the following morning!) . xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (the song 6/4 at this point changed its name to 'Dean almost got an ASBO in Aberdeen'). We may have accidentally xxxxxxxxx. James charged at Dean with a plant and drove it into his chest. Dean yelped and James replied "Its only a plant Dean" to which Dean replied "Yeh, but it's got a steal rod in it." In his rage he pushed Ben over. We walked all the way back to Steve and Cathy's which was a fucking long way, stopping at the best bakery in the world on the way! Cathy arrived home to Owen pissing out of the van on her drive, hilarity ensued.
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September 6th - Inverness (Hootananny's - Mad Hatters)
We said our emotional farewells to Crashdown and headed up to the Highlands. We had a curry in Weatherspoons which was distinctly average and then bought some Vodka which we snook into the venue. Steve and Jenny (Steve's friend and general friend of Crashdown) turned up, legends! There was a silent fight at the gig. 2 men had hold of each other's throats but made no noise. The gig went well and afterwards we drank our Vodka on the comfiest seats in the world upstairs at the venue until we were thrown out. We went to a Tesco car park and had few more drinks in Mandy with Steve and Jenny. A security guard approached the Van a collective "We're in a band" was shouted out of the van at him. He was very friendly and after a little chat left us to go to sleep. Steve and Jenny slept in their car next to Mandy.
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class=MsoNormal style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" September 7th - Glasgow (Cathouse)
The drive from Inverness was very picturesque, however, James and Dean slept the entire way and missed the whole thing. We arrived at the Cathouse about 2 hours early so we dropped our equipment off and then were thrown out by an angry Glaswegian. Our dressing room at the venue had a shower, which was pretty awesome! The sound and the gig tonight were incredible. Dean kissed a girl because xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Her xxx was unknown. She xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx but we all doubt that. A club night in the venue followed. Ben L worked his charms on a lady for the majority of the night but was angry to discover at the end of the night that she lived with her parents. Dean xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with a girl he met and everyone got pretty pissed. 'Into Oblivion' was the last song of the night to much excitement and a singing phone call to Rhys James Beard (Owen's brother) was of course 'a given'. We got kebabs on the way back to the van and had a picnic in the car park.
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September 8th - Day Off
We spent the day driving around in Mandy trying to find somewhere to get an Internet connection. This failed. Bad times. A girl that came to the gig the previous day had invited us to a party so we decided to drive to her house. We got there pretty early and so sat in the van for a while peering out of the window and driving slowly up and down side streets. We eventually went into the house and drank some beers with the birthday girl - Natalie, and her friends but set off at about midnight to Hogwarts. We arrived at about 3am and went to look at the castle. Ben and Ben L scaled the castle walls and went for a look around. James and Dean were going to wait around and scare them but couldn't be arsed. Eventually at 6am in the morning Ben L and Ben finally made it back to the van. Ben came back with grazes after having to climb through barbed wire after the security light came on and then we slept in the car park outside the castle.
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September 9th - Middlesbrough (Liberties)
In the morning Owen, Ben L and Dean went into the castle officially while Ben and James slept in the van. Dean and Owen had a duel on the castle grounds, which Ben L filmed. Their general behaviour around the castle offended and upset many parents taking their kids around, especially when Dean took over the childrens activity area and became furious when a 7 year old beat him in a sword fight. They all returned to the van with wands. We then set off to Middlesbrough and arrived at the venue to a female crack addict sat outside the venue shouting at us. She was very scary. Owen and Dean completely lost their dignity and washed their hair and body's in McDonalds. The staff watched them very closely and were a tad confused. The gig was pretty damn good and afterwards we went out to a Scream bar with a few people we met. A treat of a girl stole Owen's hat and refused to give it him back. We had to set off to Sheffield that night and were forbidden from partying. James and Dean and Owen to a certain extent were angry.
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September 10th - Sheffield (Corporation)
Gig - bad. Party - good. We showered at a service station and Ben L did his Internet stuff. We've never played Sheffield before and the gig was pretty quiet. However, a club night in the venue followed and Mandy was parked and locked in the smoking area of the club. Firstly, a guy from the gig xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx that was pretty damn awesome and then the promoter brought us a bottle of Vodka to the van. Mandy had many visitors that night and was a big hit. One particular female who was found earlier in the night stumbling around the venue groping every male in sight, somehow made her way into Mandy. She took a seat next to Ben L. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. She then threw up what can only be described as shit on Ben L's shoulder, and so was removed from Mandy.Two girls xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx in the club and a guy bought James and Dean several double JD and Cokes. They then danced like arrogant pricks inside while everyone else partied it up in Mandy. A girl slept in the van with xxxxx. In the morning James asked, "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?" to which xxxxx replied, "Yeh, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx."
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September 11th - Day Off
Today we all went home and washed our clothes and slept. The tour finished today for Dean. He walks with a limp, he now xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, he smells really bad, he looks like shit, he owes the band £105 but he has got a wand. Whilst at home Ben received a visit from the police. On September 8th Mandy was reported as a suspicious vehicle. If you go and re-read what happened on September 8th you can see why she was reported! This is not the first time by any means that this has happened!
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September 12th - York (The Junction) w/ Offsyde
As usual we arrived unfashionably early to the gig and so we went for a wander for an hour around York. We got asked for a fight by some young scally xxxxx on bikes and got sore feet. Tonight was pretty awesome and was a fun night. However, Ben's amp wouldn't turn on so were hoping its just a fuse that has blown. We played with Offsyde for the first time and they're a pretty damn good young band. Our favourite sound guy Andy did the sound for us tonight and we asked him if he'd do the sound and record our Manchester gig for us. He agreed to do it and said he didn't want paying. Awesome guy! After the gig we went to Tesco and overcharged Ben L on his reduced 5p sandwiches. It took far too long to rectify this problem. We then parked outside a sixth form college and watched our first DVD of the tour in Mandy.
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September 13th - Leeds (Josephs Well)
Really bad day! We parked up at the venue then walked into the center of Leeds, which took us ages. We then lapped the entire center of Leeds about 12 times and eventually found a shop to buy Ben some new fuses for his amp. We then walked back to Mandy.&NBSP; < SPAN>By this time we were all exhausted. A few of our friends from home came down to this gig, which was pretty cool. We discovered that Ben will need to put in a new fuse now pretty much every time he turns his amp on. Brilliant. When we started playing there was about 4 people in the room but everyone came back in so it was cool! Afterwards we went back to our friend's house (James B and Leanne) and drank some beers and Ben L and James sat on myspace till about 4am.
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September 14th - Doncaster (Vintage Rock Bar)
We showered this morning, which was pretty nice. When we got to Doncaster we drove round like idiots for about an hour because we couldn't find the venue. We decided that Doncaster was home to a lot of pretty girls. Tonight's gig was cool although the power cut off just as we were about to go into 'God Gave Rock and Roll to You' at the end! Shit happens. Ben L fornicated with a very drunk girl but then she went home. We attempted to go out in Donny but you needed shoes to get in everywhere so we just got shit loads of food instead and then went to sleep in Mandy.
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September 15th - Day Off
We went to a service station and spent about 6 hours on Myspace. Ben said, "This is the worst day of my life". He sat in a chair all day and counted the number of times he could see the word coffee. We then drove down to Welling and realized it was pretty pointless being there 24 hours early so we drove back to a service station so we could shower the next day. We then watched our second DVD of the tour in Mandy.
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September 16th - Welling (Infernos) w/ One Day Elliot, AntiKid and The Startover
In the morning we drove to a retail park and found according to Ben L 'the best place in the world'. It was a Borders book shop with a Starbucks upstairs which not only had an Internet connection but it was a full strength signal internet connection! We only got on the bill for this gig a few days ago so we went on first but was really cool. A pretty decent crowd was there too and all awesome bands so was a really good night. Ben L treated us all to some cans of Tennents Super so we kept sneaking out of the venue with empty pint glasses and filling them up with our cans. Shit, that stuff's strong! We drove back to 'our' retail park and James and Owen played some PES then we all went to bed pretty pissed after about 3 cans each.
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September 17th - Day Off
We spent the majority of the day at Borders on the Internet. Owen ran Mandy's battery flat today playing Playstation, which has been a long time coming. He then asked the police who were parked across the road if they'd jump-start it for us but they didn't because apparently we could sue them if they fucked up our engine. However, a man parked in the car park agreed to help us. Nice man. We met up with Paul (One Day Elliot) on the 17th and went for a few drinks in Maidstone with him and a few of his mates. Maidstone's pretty quiet on a Monday night but shockingly Ben was a shit load more pissed that anyone else. Ben and James made some friends in a pub and Ben hugged one of the male ones a lot and told him how he loved him. He then xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx off another one of them. When Ben and James left the pub they got a bit lost looking for Mandy so Ben L came to find them wearing no pants. We successfully made it back to the van and slept in the town center.
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September 18th - Day Off
The following morning we discovered that Tuesday night was a student night in Maidstone. We returned to Borders but with the intention of going back to Maidstone in the evening. Ben bought an Optimus Prime mask today for £30, which is absolutely brilliant. We found out today that tomorrow's gig is being postponed due to all the support bands pulling out! That means we will have had 3 days off at Borders. Good times! In the evening we again showered at the nearby service station then headed into Maidstone. Vodka, Jack Daniels and many beers were prior purchased and subsequently downed in a car park in the center of town. We then went to Sauce Bar and met up with Paul again and the drinks were pretty cheap which is always a bonus. Owen got thrown out for not being able to walk and fell over on his way back to the van severely damaging his wrist, which isn't great news for a drummer. Ben acquired a blonde Bon Jovi style wig and had a brief encounter with a female and Ben L bought a girl a drink on the promise that she would xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. She did. James helped a struggling man open his fly at the urinal. The man was confused. On the way back to Mandy Ben had a xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and Ben and Ben L xxxxx some xxxxxxx signs. The police pulled up and they got done. Ben L explained to the police how they were from Manchester and the Police explained that xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx signs is illegal in Manchester too.
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September 19th - Day Off
Really bad hangover day! We drove back from Maidstone to Borders after xxxxxxxxxxx all our shit from Mandy in the car park we slept in. Ben drove Owen to A and E to get his wrist looked at. It was a 5 minute drive but for some reason took them an hour and a half to get there. Ben L and James again spent the day in Borders on the Internet. James thinks he had a minor heart attack today, weird hangover. Ben was probably the most hungover he's ever been today and only said about 8 words all day. Owen returned from the hospital with a wrist support. No breakages but at this moment we are unaware if he can play drums. We 'acquired' a warehouse box from Next for our merch. We stayed at our retail park again at night but just had a quiet night in the van while Ben L sat in a car park doing his internet stuff.
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September 20th - Leicester (The Shed)
A 10.30 wake up call and service station showers for all. Ben didn't have any shower gel so he just rubbed himself quite hard. We made our way to leicester and upon arrival went to a launderette so Ben L could wash his clothes. He had to be taught how as apparently he'd never done this before. He learnt also that you can't wash whites and coulours together so rather than pay for 2 wash loads he thought it would be more cost effective to throw his whites in the bin. Ben's still reading his book so hasn't really spoke in about 72 hours now and when spoken to takes at least 5 minutes before he responds. We think he may have gone head mental. Owen decided that due to his wrist injury he would attempt to play the drums tonight using only one arm. We got through it though, so all is well! Another quiet night tonight, everyone retired to a serivce station for another night in Mandy.
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September 21st - Rushden (The Attic)
We set off in the morning on the relatively short drive to Rushden. Owen logged on to our MySpace on his phone to find a message off the promoter explaining that tonights venue had closed down and so the gig was cancelled. Fantastic. So, another day off! We've had a fair few of them this week. So, with a day off we thought what else could we do other than go back to our retail park in Essex and spend the day in Borders. Such a crazy life we lead. For dinner we bought about 4 reduced chickens from Tesco and ate them in the van. Classy. At night time we went back to our service station and had a shower. Ben L found that he could access the Internet here too. More joy. Ben and Ben L had a game of giant chess at the service station while James spent a few hours on the Internet. Ben bought a bouncy ball which would amuse him for the next 18 hours or so. He named it Paul Ball. Afterwards we watched Armageddon till 5am in Mandy. Cool?
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September 22nd - Gravesend (Cascade Skate Park) w/ One Day Elliot and Fluid Lines
This was an outside day show festival thing so we set off at about lunch time and arrived around 1pm. While playing with Ben's bouncy ball Owen threw it on a roof. It didn't come back. Ben was sad. We played at about 3, the sound wasn't great but was still fun! James then decided to drink Vodka for the rest of the day. At night we decided to go see One Day Elliot play in Gravesend so set off to there gig at around 7. By this time the Vodka had run out so James fell asleep for about 10 minutes on the way to the gig. He awoke sober and hungover. Bad times. We had a pool tournament at the venue. MirrorView vs One Day Elliot. We won! Ha! The gig was cool and afterwards we said our goodbyes and agreed we would come to Paul's 27 pub crawl birthday next May! We headed towards London and slept at Clapham Common. We always sleep there when we're in London because it's the only place with relatively cheap parking. We tried convincing Ben L to xxxx on Clapham Common because he was desperate. We failed.
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September 23rd - London (Camden Barfly) w/ Not Your Hero, Area 15 and Nothing Can Prove It
We had to be at the venue today for 10am because it was a day show. This felt ridiculously early and sound checking at this time was not fun. We went to Morrisons for breakfast and ate some sausages in the car park. The doors were at 12 so we sat around watchin the other bands all day. James took part in a psychology test and discovered his short term memory is pretty appaling. We went on stage at about 4.30. We didn't know what it was going to be like, it felt a bit weird playing in a venue like this during the day but it was really fun. Ben H (he engineered/ produced our album) and Kim (his girlfriend, singer in Touchstone and guest vocalist on one of our tracks) arrived mid way through our second song and were greated from the stage with, "Nice of you to turn up Ben." After the gig we went for a few beers with Ben H and Kim in Camden and later on went to Kirsty's (merch girl from Bournemouth we met a couple of years ago who now lives in London) flat, except Owen who went to stay in a travel lodge with Keeley (his girlfriend) who had travelled down that day. We picked up some vodka and beers on the way and Ben and James decided they were going to make a concept album. The album would be classic songs re-worded so that they were all about Mandy. The four best ones we came up with were Wanking in Mandy (Walking in Memphis - we don't know who sung this originally), Knockin' on Mandy's Door (Knockin' on Heavens Door - Bob Dylan), Van out of Hell (Bat out of Hell - Meatloaf) and Van in an Elevator (Love in an Elevator - Aerosmith). Upon arrival at Kirsty's we drank some more and worked on our lyrics and sung them out when we had a new idea waking up Kirsty's flatmates. We watched some DVD's including series 1 of Peep Show. Ben slept on the couch while James stayed in the van. Ben L stayed in xxxxxxxxxxxx, but xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Until xxxxxxxxxxx.
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September 24th - Day Off
Ben woke up xxxxx and thought the best way to spend the day would be to get some xxxx. By the time we left Kirsty's flat, however, he had xxxxxxx up and no longer thought this was a good idea. Ben and James drove to Owen's travel lodge trying their hardest to avoid the congestion zone which costs £10 to enter. They succeeded! However, Owen's travel lodge was about 2 metres inside the congestion zone so all their efforts had been pointless. We parked Mandy up and then Ben and James walked about 10 minutes up the road to McDonalds. They ate and then headed back to the travel lodge. After about half an hour of walking they realised it was likely they'd gone the wrong way. Two hours later they were still aimlessly wandering around after having walked to Islington and then nearly to Camden so they decided to phone Owen and he looked at a map and directed them back. They still went wrong a few times but eventually made it back after having walked about 10 miles. At night we played some drinking games in Owen and Keeley's room. Keeley fell off the bed and then proceeded to vomit. Ben, James and Ben L slept in Mandy but moved her out of the car park at about 2am and drove her back to Clapham Common in order to avoid the morning congestion charges.
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September 25th - Day Off
We woke up about lunch time and made our way into central London, leaving Mandy parked at Clapham Common. We aimlessly walked around doing very little then Ben bought a life size inflatable Dxxxx which was the last one left apparently. We headed up to Camden so we could wander round the markets. Ben L got excited by the amount of xxxx on sale and its price. We all then decided to sit in Starbucks for a couple of hours. Ben read Kerrang from cover to cover and looked out of a window and James learnt about everyone famous that has ever lived in Camden and that he apparently looks quite a bit like Charles Dickins and that World War I began on Ben's birthday. Keeley missed her coach back to Manchester because she read the departure time wrong, so her and Owen went to stay at Kirsty's while the others went back to Mandy. We ran the battery flat again so flagged down a man to help us jump start her. We had a few beers and watched a DVD.
Next update will be.. hmm our laptop broke on tour so we cant access the update yet or write anymore.. we will try and sort it!! x