Finally I get a break from heavy metal hell and take something a little different away on the road. Ladies and Gentlemen; welcome to the wonderful world of
The Young Knives.
October 7th: Meeting Up
The starting point for this tour is Oxford, where all the band live. It makes a pleasant change from London, where I was yesterday in the rain. Gettting wet outside, and all sweaty on the underground … not nice.
Also a nice change is our meeting point: Instead of a grotty rehersal room somewhere in London, we’re in a secret, undisclosable location near Oxford … and it’s a farm. The peace and quiet when we turn off the bus engine is a little disturbing. I’m used to having the noise of a city in my ears all the time.
We’re parked up here for the night with everyone ready to make an early start in the morning. It’s actually a really nice night … amazing bright red sunset followed by a huge full moon, no orange glow of light pollution to spoil it.
It’s Chris, our bus driver’s, birthday so we have cake! He gets all embarrased about the fact that people he’d never met before a few hours ago are all singing happy birthday to him. Bless
So, all loaded up, a nice curry and a few beers and it’s off to bed. Sleeping on the bus while it’s not moving and there’s no noise outside is strange. I’m not sure I’d get used to it. I like being rocked to sleep by the motorway.
October 8th: Southampton University Student Union
First day, as usual, is a bit chaotic. Apart from the usual backline, we’re carrying some lights; makes it all look pretty. Today is the day we iron out all the bugs.
I leave the crew guys to get on with moving things around and running cables everywhere, and start running through some press stuff with the band. We’ve got interviews every day on this tour as the band are making a bit of a name for themselves. Just stuff at the venue today, but we’ve got a few radio station things to do along the tour, acoustic sessions and stuff. Best not to have any on the first day though, and just let everyone get into the swing of things.
Any regular readers of these tour diaries will remember that I killed my digital camera on my last trip. I still haven’t got around to getting a replacement yet, so no pics for the time being. Sorry.
