October 21st: Cardiff Barfly
Ah, Wales. South Wales to be precise. A vitual warzone on a Saturday night as people flock down from the valleys to drink gallons of lager and pass out in puddles of their own piss.
But that’s later. There’s stuff to do before we can start talking about the gig.
We’ve got more radio to do today, BBC Wales infact, and at 11am … whose stupid idea was that? Oh wait … it was mine. We try to get radio stuff in early so it doesn’t interfere with soundchecks and other press in the afternoon. The BBC peeps are all very nice and welcoming, cups of tea all ready for us when we arrive.
At the BBC
The fact that the young lady who’s the producer for the show we’re recording for has rather large … assets … and a low cut top on, and keeps leaning forward in the control booth to talk to us in the studio on her microphone, is not distracting in the slightest. No. Not at all.
Anyway, back at the venue there’s really not much to talk about. It’s a Barfly gig, it’s tiny, and it’s sold out.
The only thing worth talking about during the entire show was ‘House’ as we’re now calling him, trying to get all rock star and stepping up on top of his monitor, which promptly over balanced and tossed him into the pit, along with his bass guitar and the montior itself. After a quick “oh my god, is he OK?” thought, and on realising he hadn’t done himself any injury, all we could do was laugh.
Welcome To Wales!
So, gig over. Once I’d managed to move the drunk who was throwing up all over the side of the bus to a safe enough distance for us to pull away, I got everyone onboard the bus for the long drive up to Glasgow. Nine hours on the bus, taking into account the bus speed limiter and all sorts of regulations on when Chris, our Driver, has to take breaks and for how long. Still … I’ll wake up back in Glasgow, which is nice.
October 22nd: Glasgow Barfly
Tonight’s gig is a special show for MTV2 as part of the
Gonzo on Tour series.
Instead of the usual two or three pm load ins, today we’ve got to get all the gear in at 11am, give the camera guys time to do their thing. They seem to have so many people, lots of whom are pretending to be in charge and not really doing very much. There’s lots of sitting about waiting for them to make their minds up.
In the afternoon I take the guys to do an instore DJ thing at TopShop, which is a bit of a joke. Then, for MTV, we do a sort of a makeover thing, dressing the guys up in much trendier clothes than they’re used to. All quite funny.
DJ Henry D, trying to work out how the mixer works 
“Look at the pretty colours. They’ve got stuff that isn’t tweed!” 
It’s a bit of a hectic day all around, but nothing really eventful other than the dressing up.
The gig is an absolute stormer, everyone’s right into it. We finish the show and get back to the dressing room (if you can call it that in the Barfly) to find the guys from The View, who were first on today, have totally demolished their own rider … and all of ours, so the last job of the day for me is to persuade the Barfly to give us more beer, which of course they do.
As I’m rounding everyone up to put them on the bus, the last thing I see is the security ejecting one of the guys from The View out the club, kicking and screaming as he goes …
