Day 3-

In the Belladonna Bus, which now reeks of olives and warm yoghurt-today’s breakfast-god we really didn’t pack very well did we? Totally forgot spoons too, so had to learn to eat yoghurt with straws, made all the more complex as it was one with cereal bits in-took us about half an hour! Maybe it should be made into a new Olympic sport!

Went over the Severn Bridge, was amazing. We felt like two dolls in a lego car in comparison to this vast feat of engineering.  Cardiff was pretty grey, rainy and wintery on arrival at the Travelodge. Quick pizza and coffee-clearly the yoghurt and olives weren’t filling enough. Change into gig clothes. Weirdly we both ended up looking like a punked up Donna Summer-foxy playsuits and big hair-looked great but defiantly not practical for carrying drum kits upstairs-STAIRS-why oh why do venues always involve loads of stairs!!!

Venue was very cute and played our socks off with a band who seemed like the local version of Stereophonics!!

Managed to get completely lost in the 3 mile trip from the venue to the hotel-man, hate driving in cities. What’s with all the one way streets, roadwork’s and crazy taxi drivers. Also our flippin’ sat nav chose this point in the proceedings to ‘lose its signal’ which basically meant it totally froze up and wouldn’t speak to us anymore-fabulous!

Eventually after about seven three point turns, some laughter and tears, we found the by now mythical Travelodge- for a moment we both thought it was a mirage. We were so goosed, we went straight to bed with cups of green tea and some out of date Mr Kipling strawberry slices-yum! Our mum’s would be so proud.

Day 4-

Said goodbye to Wales, once we’d re-discovered the van keys that Sarah had left in the hotel room-it’s a miracle we’ve made it this far.  More warm yoghurt and olives- Bonanza!

Immersed our ears in old Chemical Brother’s albums as we headed back over the bridge (‘Where Do I Begin’), was kinda out there- thought the van was going to take off. The beats kept us awake for the drive over to Worthing, where we were greeted by an amazing meal- thanks auntie. Alfie their pet dog took an instant liking to Claire-think they’re going to be new best friends. No gig tonight so time for a stroll down the beautiful sea front, little fishing boats, pebbled beach, fairylit prom and Corona’s on the pier.

Day 5-

This morning we got a phone call saying we were going to getting an album review in the NME and Rocksound today! After a nervous half an hour while we waited for it to be confirmed, tummies doing turnovers, we rushed to WHSmiths to see the reviews. 6/10 and a fab write up in the NME, 7/10 and an ace write up in Rocksound. We’re buzzing and texting everyone we know. The NME did make the most bizarre comparison we think we’ve ever had- Chas and Dave!! Not sure where that came from, but we’ve decided to adopt them as our pet names. So from now on it’s Chas Wilson and Dave Smith (apparently that’s also the dude from Slade with the mad fringe, so totally suits Claire!)

So, getting ready for the gig and hitting the road for Brighton. Took a different route than the one the sat nav’s given us to try and avoid traffic, so it’s now in a huff with us.  And then we’re here at the ‘hip n happening’ Brighton. We like the spooky ghost pier. Tonight it’s The Hope, quite a funky little place, lovely staff; great sound guy (always helps).

Unfortunately, the draw back was that it turned out to be one of the hottest places on earth. It was like playing a gig in an oven- a really freakin’ hot, hot, hot oven, maybe even a fryer.

We both looked like someone had thrown buckets of water (well smelly, sweaty water-mmm yummy) over us by the time we came off stage.

A small but friendly audience were in and the night took a bizarre twist when the headline band- Captain Bovine and the Justice Force 5, took to the stage in full on super hero get up. The oddest part of the set was a battle between good and evil was acted out by two of the members, whilst the rest of the band played a kind of punky but melodramatic instrumental. Can this week get any stranger?

Drove back to Worthing after the gig munching on dairy milk and worrying that we hadn’t read our emails for the last few days, exhausted resolved ourselves to a late night computer session when we got back to uncles house.

Day 6-

Wow, would we really be back in our own beds tonight? We can’t really get our heads round that one yet. How do bands tour all the time? My god, reckon we would entirely forget who we are or where we would be meant to be playing next. So mammoth car journey from Worthing to Doncaster, only one pee stop! Blimey, cross legs time, focus on the road, focus ON THE ROAD! More cars than we’ve seen in an eon, flippin three lanes down to one for no apparent reason whatsoever.

Eventually arrive at The Leopard in Doncaster; well that’s what the sat nav was telling us, it was actually Doncaster bus station. Think it must still be in a mood with us.  Anyway, eventually arrive at The Leopard, Doncaster

Weird old place with its roots firmly stuck in the good ol’days of heavy rock’n’roll, dark and dirty. We got the distinct impression that the idea of women playing instruments was actually an alien concept for a lot of the people there-always a good start-ahem!

We did the job and played our hearts out especially for the lovely peeps that had popped down from Darlington to surprise us!  The owner of the place was lovely and had made us our dinner and provided us with all the real ale we could drink. Was a little odd though, he seemed more interested in the fact that we were women who drank beer ‘a rare breed’ apparently than he was in the set we had just performed.

We have no recollection of the journey home-good job neither of us was driving then really. Hazy images of arriving back in dark Darlington, and our little mini tour adventure was over. A roller coaster week of new places and faces and learning the invaluable lesson to never take yoghurt and olives on tour ever again!

Until next time, big tired licks Bellas xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx