We all hit Enfield on Wednesday evening laden down with sleeping bags, guitars, food for the van and met each other for the first time. Emily Cartwright and Nenad Kostadinovski, drummer in the Black Poets, had answered our advert 'Rock'n'Roll Adventures" on Gumtree and were now sitting on Vas's sofa looking like they weren't sure if they'd done the right thing.
Over a cup of tea Vas showed Emily the different colours and sizes of T shirts, badges and albums and our homemade merch board while Vas's dog Muffy walked over all the new T shirts and Nenad scrutinised the tour itinery. We went nervously to bed.
Up bright and early and set off at snail's pace while Nenad worked out how to drive us on the left to the Channel Tunnel. A bit quiet until we got on the Tunnel and sat round the table in the back enjoying the new luxury of a splitter van and had a great picnic of wraps and hummus and peppers and vine leaves and olives which seemed to do the trick.
Emily read the map, played with her iphone satnav and directed Nenad to Bibelot in Dordrecht, Netherlands for the first soundcheck while we sat in the back doing nothing for the first time ever! The venue was bigger than we expected and we were treated well by the stage crew. Huge stage, dressing room and fridge full of lovely Dutch beers which we clunked out with in a bin bag at the end of the night.
Three quarters of the way through the hour set Ros's big muff pedal decided it had endured one stomp too many and packed in. The set ended well anyway and the small crowd wanted an encore but Ros too pissed off without Big Muff. Nenad and the venue crew did their best to fix it but no luck. We had to find one before the next gig in Germany. Emily's Merch stall looked amazing, she seemed to be a natural in setting up our merch board and attracting sales! Met Satan who wouldn't go away and insisted he was coming to get Vas at 3am and a DJ Swingie who had bought three of our albums and was buying more for friends as presents!
Slept well in good hotel then tried Dordrecht music shops to no avail. Emily looked up her iphone to research Big Muffs in Cologne and Vas spent an hour on the phone being put through to the lighting department of some shop only to end up shouting "A BIG MUFF!" in the middle of a nice quiet Dutch train station. We then drove to Cologne, ran through the streets and just made it to the biggest music shop we've ever seen before it closed. With the power of the Muff we then went to soundcheck at Sonic Ballroom.
Scream Tarts were great and we wondered if their crowd would like us. We played for an hour and then Antje asked us to do an encore. We'd played here before and though the crowd are slow to be won over but then very enthusiastic. They listen, expect you to work hard and afterwords tell you what they think. We were told it was like seeing The White Stripes for the first time!
Emily sold loads of our new T shirts, we signed albums, drank beers and talked to some very interesting people including a guy called Stephan who used to live in Glasgow and had a self portrait Polly Harvey had done in his passport which she apparently began by drawing her red nails.
After little sleep due to the late night partying in the venue downstairs we went downstairs to find Nenad had packed the van and we were ready to do some sight-seeing. Had fun at Cologne's awe-inspiring cathedral before getting in van for trip to Leffinge.
Emily soon took control at the Leffingeleuren Festival, got us our passes and found the catering area where the chef engaged us in conversation about walking in Scotland and the dreaded midgies! Had fab steak and wine and then had to get it together for the gig at 12.30pm. The venue was packed and hot. We played for an hour and were amazed at the response with people singing along to choruses of songs from the album and clapping along to guitar intros. Left the stage drenched in perspiration to the sound of "We want more" as we tried to find the towels and argued about what to play for an encore. We went back on and did the last song on the album followed by the first song in our set again. Then stumbled off for a drink or three while Nenad packed everything away!
We signed albums, Emily doing a bomb at the merch table. She had been buying drinks for people as we had so many drinks passes and then they bought our merch! DJs played next in the cafe and we felt we had all earned some relaxation so stayed for a dance. Emily and Nenad got up on the stage to dance and we chatted to the promoter. Next thing we knew Emily had disappeared. Looked for her everywhere then found her lying on her back in the van a bit worse for wear and trying to text us. Absolved Emily of tour manager duties and made our own way back to the hotel at 5am but Emily couldn't make it up to the rooms and said she'd stay the night in the van. Nenad gallantly slept in the van also to make sure she was OK. Up bright and breezy the next day they made it to breakfast in the hotel before us! Walked along beach at Ostend and had best cappucino ever on seafront. On to Rotterdam for the final gig at Watt.
Another huge venue, this time supporting Attack Attack. Steve from Amsterdam came to see us again and brought us big bottle of strong Dutch beer to make up for pinching our setlist at the Dordrecht gig. Bart from Moonlight Drive Concerts who's been booking us gigs for a few years came and met us for the first time. The set started with no out front sound in the PA, just the onstage sound, as the sound engineer was outside investigating some new strong weed at the time. The out front sound then appeared and it seemed to go down well apart from the Attack Attack girls at the front of the stage with their backs to us. If you don't like the music fuck off, don't just stand with your backs to the musicians. Ros made a point of going up to them and playing the riff from Bass Drum over their heads till they turned round. Fans from the Dordrecht gig had come again and cheered the intro to the new song "Feeling Lonely Now" which was nice.
Back to the hotel for last night and drive the next day to Channel Tunnel listening to Eagles Of Death Metal and Blondie's Hanging On The Telephone thinking they don't make em like that anymore! Nenad drove us safely back to Enfield where Muffy gave us a huge welcome. Huge thanks to Emily and Nenad for their adventurous spirit in answering our advert and coming on the road to work with us. Buffalo Bar two days later with no crew!