This is indeed the sad sad news that after a short
tour of service, the Alpha Road gas guzzler (aka- 'the Boyle-Mobile', 'the
Ovum', 'the Bean' or simply 'the Prev') is now gone. After the feared but sadly necessary
MOT, it was deemed that her carbon emissions were too high. Repairs would have
been astranomically expensive (see what I did there? 
), so we had to say goodbye.
All in all it is a fitting end for an era gone. No one could ever take away that great
Easter, spent driving up and down the country, with everything you’d ever need
for a gig stacked in the boot, making music wherever we would go. We once even
got to that cliché state where we would open doors, and beer cans would immediately
fall out. Tim promptly did some cleaning...
Looking
ahead, Alpha Road are in the market for a new ‘Band Bus’ (anyone got anything?)
and like the passing away of the Ovum marked the end of Easter, so the birth of
Ovum 2 will mark the start of summer, a bit like the birth of Jesus, just less
epic. Imagine if historians started writing dates in terms of ‘after the birth
of the Ovum 2’. For example ‘Alpha Road World Tour, 8 BO2’, it could just
happen!
On
a more realistic note, all is now go for the summer. There’s a gig or two lined
up, with rumours of grand support slots being thrown around so watch this
space. Also, we’re back in the microphone shack, known to some as ‘the Animal
Farm’ in early July. Magic happens in that place, so it’s all very exciting!
This time we might even take some photos! I’ve always felt our MySpace profile
lacked one of those ‘recording’ photo albums. It’s seems like a rite of passage
for bands that we haven’t gone through, so there’s something to remedy.
I
think that concludes my rant. Oh! It’s my birthday today, and I get to spend it
revising for my 6 hours of exams for tomorrow! Exactly a year ago I was in a
right state, driving back to Cambridge from a gig in Oxford. I remember one
thing, that I turned 18 relieving myself against a tree, singing ‘Daisy’ in
full voice in the middle of quite a scenic, and also public, Oxford street. I
may not have such stories to tell about my 19th birthday, but I feel
that after the summer, all of the AR camp will have a tale or two to tell!
P xxx