THE TAKING CHASE / OVERTHROW TOUR OF A FEW TOWNS – JUNE 2009
For the last 3 years, we’ve gone on tour in England and played to literally dozens of people. Being in a band from Scotland that work full time jobs makes it extremely hard to play gigs out of Scotland as the drive down South can be epic long, so we try every year to get away and play places we don’t regularly play…………there’s only so many times you can play Edinburgh and Dundee!! The plan for 2009 was to go on a 9 date tour with the band Overthrow from Guildford – www.myspace.com/overthrowrock , this however proved incredibly hard to organise. Maybe it’s that we’re not very good bands or that no one puts on gigs anymore, but getting 9 gigs sorted out failed! We’ve never used a booking agent for any of our tour’s, it’s always been a joint effort between the bands involved, Catch it Kebabs the first time and Fights and Fires last year. However, never again, I know it’s not very punk, but we need a booking agent to get this shit sorted out for us, its way too stressful. Anyway, 9 gigs never got booked, but 6 did, so it wasn’t too bad after all. Plus it worked out okay as the 3 day off’s were in a row, so we weren’t stranded in some random town with no place to stay and no money.
Day 1 – Dundee
This place is like a second home to us now, we’ve played Dundee loads, unfortunately some of the turn out’s have been quite questionable, Dundonians hate going out it seems, however, this was totally different. We almost didn’t make it to the gig though (Craig taking a wrong turn out of Edinburgh heading to Stirling? Nuff said). The Balcony Bar is a tiny tiny venue, but I like that, it looks busy when 4 people are there. There must’ve been about 50 people at this gig though, so you couldn’t even move!! We played pretty gash to be honest, but a few people enjoyed it, getting compared to King Crimson and Rush was a tad strange, I didn’t think we were that prog, maybe we are? The other bands playing were The Hostiles, The Hijacks and Overthrow. It was awesome seeing the Hijacks again (even though Amy wasn’t playing as she was at Take That), but Overthrow were the band of the night, holy muthatrucka these guy’s are good!! I’m so glad that we did this wee tour with them as it’s an absolute pleasure watching them every night, we could play all the time with them if I had it my way. Dundee seemed to love them too as they went down an absolute storm, even playing an encore – rock n’roll!! Anyway, it was a great gig (despite us being pish) and Deeker and Baz are absolute legends for doing the show! We finished the night driving back to Edinburgh via the Clark’s 24 Hour Bakery!! YES WIN WIN WIN SCOOBY SNACK AS FOOK!!
Day 2 – Edinburgh
Hometown show! We were organising this gig ourselves, and I’m not really a big fan of organising gigs these days, recent experience has shown that turnout’s have been pretty low, so it’s a bit of a gamble putting on show’s, but I like to make the effort when it’s bands I really like that we’re helping out. We had a pretty varied line-up for this one, and wasn’t too sure that it’d work out. Taking Chase, Matthew Reynolds, Overthrow and Dry The River – 2 rock bands and 2 acoustic folk bands – will it work? The gig was at Henry’s and I love Henry’s, definitely my favourite venue in Edinburgh. Pretty small with a capacity of about 100, but it’s brutally loud for the size; you will definitely leave with part of your hearing gone! Anyway, the bands – Dry The River is an acoustic folk outfit from London, Pete is the main man but Matt helps out with backing vocals and percussion. Not that many people were in venue to see Pete, but it’s safe to say that those who turned up late missed the best band of the night; I was totally surprised how good it was. Hopefully if he comes back up to Edinburgh it will be busier. Check out www.myspace.com/drytherivermusic now! It got a little bit busier by the time Overthrow were on and it filled up nicely when Matt was on. Matt Reynolds used to sing in the band Howards Alias who played Edinburgh about a million times (thanks to us), so it was great to have him play a solo set (despite there being no Howards Alias songs, disappointing) and it was quite fitting that it was exactly 5 years since we first put Howards Alias on in Edinburgh at the Mercat – were you there?? We headlined the gig coz we’re total rock stars! I enjoyed that gig so much, it was nice having people sing our songs back to us and have a dance, it’s very much appreciated when we see people acknowledging the songs we’ve written, and it looks like we’ve done something right! So, it’s safe to say that the varied line up worked a treat – good stuff!! After the gig, Overthrow went back to Lee’s for a sleep before their epic drive back to Guildford, while the rest of us went to Lou’s party and got totally wrecked till the early hours of Sunday morning – hangover was not nice the next day!
Day 3/4/5 - Edinburgh
Yep we had no gigs on these dates, oh well! Me and Craig went to see the band Black President at Bannermans though. Pretty radge! They play fast rock n’roll punk and have Dave from Lagwagon and Charlie from Goldfinger in the band! I think it’s safe to see we’ll never see either of those bands in Bannermans ever, so it was good to see them in front of about 25 people on a Monday night in Edinburgh!
Day 6 – Worcester
Ah Worcester, it’s the only place we’ve played on all 3 of our tours, it must be something in the sauce! Anyway, before we got to Worcester we did something very special. We’ve always said we were going to do it, but finally this year we did and went to ALTON TOWERS!!!!! Holy trouser cow AMAZING!!!! I don’t want to go on about it too much coz it’ll make Ali even more jealous (long story short – Ali wasn’t driving with us in the van during the tour as he got back surgery a couple of weeks before the tour, so for comfort reasons was driving himself about in his monster truck, but the truck was getting serviced on the day of Alton Towers so he missed out!! HAHAHA). We went on Nemisis, Air, Oblivion, Hex and the River Rapids – there for 7 hours and only went on 5 rides, who cares anyway, plus we came away with some bitchin’ sun burn! It was SO hot!!!! I love Alton Towers, let’s do it again sometime! Oh yeah we played a gig that day too! The venue is called Evolution and it’s banging! Plus we got to re-unite with the mighty Fights & Fires which was amazing! After the gig we got steaming at some place called the Cellar Bar which was top! I drank lots of beer that tasted exactly like Corona but also had a shot of tequila in it, thanks for introducing that to my Phil. After the pub closed I somehow got lost from the crowd and thought I’d have to sleep on the streets of Worcester, but I was rescued then we headed to Chateau Jacko and got a good nights sleep in Jacko’s living room! Nice one!!
Day 7 – Guildford
We got up fairly early on Thursday morning, said our farewells to Jacko then headed off to Guildford. I got to live the life of luxury in the monster truck rather than the van, which was nice! We got to Guildford in the early afternoon, parked up and loaded in then had a wander about. This is a really nice town with quite a lot beautiful ladies to watch too (look don’t touch though – we’re good boyo’s!!!). We found an amazing milkshake parlour that sold ANY milkshake you wanted – name any sweet, fruit, cereal and they’ll have it. I had a Double Decker which was lovely and went down an absolute treat since it was such a hot day! Lee then bought a Frisbee so we found a park and played some sport, we’re sporty as fuck!! After our exercise we went to the venue for sound check. It’s a place called the Star Inn and apparently the Stranglers played their first ever gig there (The Stranglers also recorded their first ever demo where we recorded our EP too I think, spooky). Anyway, this venue was BRUTALLY HOT!! Shouldn’t complain though, nice weather is something we don’t regularly see, so it’s a great change (last year’s tour it rained the WHOLE time)! The gig was ace, despite the heat, we went down pretty damn well considering we’ve never played in Guildford before, plus the other bands were ace, particularly Darko and of course Overthrow (who were playing their hometown gig of the tour!). Also it was nice to see a couple of familiar faces, Lank from the JB Conspiracy and Sam from Over and Out. What else happened on Thursday the 25th of June 2009? Oh yeah the King of Pop kicked the bucket! Someone came into the venue when we were packing up saying they heard a rumour that Michael Jackson was dead, and what do you know? It was true, Michael Jackson was dead!! It kinda over shadows the death of Farah Fawcett, but she was only in Charlies Angels and didn’t invent the moon walk! Where were you when Michael Jackson died? We ended the night at Mike from Overthrow’s flat which he shares with Lank from the JBC and Freddie who did the sound for the gig. Watched some Sky News reports on Michael Jackson then went to sleep.
Day 8 – Alton
Holy hell it’s hot! I woke up in a puddle of sweat! It’s like we’re in a foreign country or something! I think that the hot humid weather and smokey flat totally messed up my throat though as it was really sore! Dammit, I’ve had bother with my throat before on tour, so this was a tad annoying. After a nice afternoon in Guildford we headed to Alton for Friday’s gig at the Lounge Bar (aka the Community Centre). We had really high hopes for this gig as we heard loads of good things about the place, plus the line-up was amazing, Attack, us, Over and Out, Overthrow and Advantage (ex Grown At Home), so it was destined to be the best gig of the tour yes?? Erm…..no!! First of all, Ali locks his key’s in his car and has to get the RAC to the rescue (this is the 2nd time Ali’s done this – the first being in Cambridge in 2007 with Catch it Kebabs), so doors were at 7pm and about 3 people paid to get in, so Attack played to the bands and 3 people, we were on next and played to the bands and 3 people, Over and Out came on and played to the bands and 3 people, Overthrow totally killed it in front of the bands and 3 other people then Advantage played to 3 people! I feel so sorry for the promoter as she had a crap day as it was, so this made it even worse as she obviously had costs to cover. We’ve been in the same position and lost out too. I wish we had a contract for this gig though as we walked away with no money while one of the bands (who did have a contract) went away with a nice little bundle of cash – I’m not going to go any further into this, coz it’ll probably cause an internet ruckus, but 4 out of town bands played this gig and only one got paid – not nice – share the wealth!! Anyway, we’re not bitter, we’re going to a party!! It was Sam from Over and Out’s birthday so we went back to Guildford and got steaming!! Awesome!! Listened to the new RX Bandits album and didn’t get much sleep – success!!
Day 9 – Bridgend
After a couple of hours sleep, we got up, showered then headed off the country known as Wales! We’ve never played Wales before so this was going to be fun. The weather was still brutally hot, but we battled on. I travelled in the monster truck again, woop! On the way to Wales from Guildford it becomes strikingly obvious that the South of England is the place to be, all of the theme parks are in close vicinity to one another – Thorpe Park, Chessington and Lego Land are all there, I think I might move to Englandshire! The drive was quite long, should’ve been about 2 and a half hours, but it took much longer as there was mega traffic near Cardiff, oh and what’s with the price of the toll’s to get across that bridge? It cost nearly £11 for Vangelina and £6 for the monster truck – crazy money grabbing Welsh folk!! Anyway, finally made it Bridgend, parked up loaded in and left Ali to sleep in the truck while I went on the search for some water, god bless Poundland and their cheapness! The gig was at a venue called Hobo’s which is right bang in the centre of Bridgend and it was promoted by the awesome guy’s in Question the Mark. These guy’s know how to look after bands, they gave us some awesome food, paid us hard cash and gave us a place to stay – legends! The gig was pretty good, it was rammed when Question the Mark came on, but when we came on EVERYBODY apart from the guy’s in Overthrow, Above Them and a couple of punters went to the bar next door, gutted!! Obviously we can’t expect everybody to stay and watch us, no one will have heard of us before, but it would’ve been nice to play to more people. In all fairness though, we didn’t play our best, my throat was SO sore I could hardly sing and Ali was the same, so our bitchin’ harmonies were no where to be found – not the best way to finish off the tour. It got a bit busier when Overthrow played and same for Above Them (who were amazing by the way, so glad I finally got to see them as I’d heard so much good stuff about them). Anyway, that was it – the tour was over! We said our final emotional goodbyes to the Overthrow boy’s and watched them drive off into the distance! All of us apart from Mikey and Ryan (Mikey’s wee brother) then headed off into town for some food. We went to the worst kebab place ever, the chicken kebab was more like a dirty dog on soggy peta bread, rotten! What a waste of money. At least Mikey was having fun though. Craig lent him some dosh to get reaking and he made the most of it and danced like a Trojan to Bon Jovi. We were all totally knacked by this point and finally got to go to the Question the Mark flat for some rest. I was definitely not in a party mood, so ended up sleeping in the van (it was actually the best sleep I had whole tour though). We woke up on Sunday morning, went to Greggs (yep a Greggs open on a Sunday) then started the long long drive back to Edinburgh – 8 hours later (with a near death pensioner service station incident and one Wimpy purchase inbetween) we were home!
The End
Like I said at the start, the tour didn’t really go as planned (6 gigs in 9 days) but it was still amazing! We had the best weather every day, got see Overthrow play again and again, went to Alton Towers and got to party with my best friends every night – good times! We’ve toured down South 3 times now and the gigs have never been amazingly busy, but I love playing gigs, even if it is to the other bands, so getting the chance to play to a handful of new faces every night is great coz maybe they’ll remember us and maybe come and see us again. We can only hope! Plus next time I’m gonna make sure that someone else books the tour for us……….maybe we can go abroad next year? Please!!
Thanks for reading!
Kevin