So, with my lowdown on the latter half of the European tour still languishing somewhere in the dusty channels of my decrepit hard-drive back in Edinburgh, it appears we have hit the road again... Tuesday night saw us at The Duchess in York, a town famed for it's minster and Viking Centre (a feature which it shares with Largs, helping make Dave feel right at home). It is of course also reknowned for that fantastic confection, the York Fruit.

We were playing with support from locals Stop Motion and the Leeds-based Tigers That Talked, and it was a good night all in all regardless of a pretty meagre attendance (indeed, the town had all the bustle of a rainy Sunday morning in Edinburgh, ie. deserted, so no surprises). That night we headed to Doncaster, Travelodging it (infinitely more comfortable than their European counterparts), and had no great rush to get up in the morning so everyone caught up on some sleep Wednesday morning. It was a reasonably quick drive to Liverpool, where we were playing in the Masque Theatre. We didn't know any of the details for the day so when we rounded the corner and discovered that the Masque Theatre was in fact a cunningly disguised Barfly, scene of a pretty miserable day last time we were here, it raised a few chuckles. We parked up and went for a coffee, Kas receiving a phone call from the promoter to let us know that the gig was still on and that we were to load in at three, to which the reply was, "That's great, we're sitting outside anyway". About ten minutes later the heavens opened and we typically had to load in in a deluge. It turns out that the Masque has put some effort into improving the venue since it was a Barfly, although we were playing the only stage we haven't already done there, the tiny podium in "Ink" which is off the downstairs bar. With some careful arrangement we managed to get everyone on the stage, I was on a raised corner surrounded by stacks of amps with just my head sticking out and no monitor which was a bit like sitting in a washing machine. There were a dozen bands on the three stages and the place was buzzing. We didn't start until near midnight, and it was a good banging set which was surprisingly fun after our reservations of the afternoon.

We stayed in Stafford last night and are currently sitting backstage at the Bush Hall in London, having had a greasy tea of chicken burger and chips. Fun times! Bristol tomorrow. Over and out.

BR xxx