Oct 16th – BBC 6 Music Live Session With Marc Riley – Manchester
We’ve had a few days off and everyone is nice and relaxed.
Now it’s time to get back on the bus and start doing it all over again …
First job is to head for the BBC in Manchester. We’re in the studio to do a live session with Marc Riley on his show on BBC 6 Music.
We get loaded in and set up in the studio, then with nothing to do for a while it’s off the the BBC canteen. I can tell you that all the jokes about the food in BBC canteens are right. Bad rubber sandwiches and weak coffee. Still, it is cheap.
It’ll come as no surprise to anyone who’s ever worked with journalists the the BBC has its own bar, which is, of course, quite busy. Maybe later, but no beer for us for now.
The session goes really well, there’s some really good banter between Marc Riley and the band. We do three songs then pack up and head out into the night.
I’ve managed to persuade the Academy in Manchester to let us park the bus there. It means we can have power and reasonably secure parking, always an advantage.
We get round to the parking space to find another bus. Amy Winehouse is playing tonight. I start to get a bit jealous as she’s got an amazing brand new bus, all shiny.
Turns out that her driver is and old frind of mine, Charlie. I’ve had him drive me on tours before. He invites me on to have a look at the bus, which just makes me even more pissed off. Apparently it is BRAND new. Only two weeks since it came out the factory, still has that ‘new bus’ smell … not polluted by years of sweat and stinky feet. It’s amazing inside, nice and spacious, all the best toys and gadgets. The cost, on the road, of something like this is about £500k when it’s all been kitted out. Still, at that price it means it coosts almost three times as much per day to hire as the bus we have. No way I could have got that in my budget and get it past the record company.
I steal some of Amy’s cider from the massive fridge on her bus and head back to mine, feeling slightly dejected. I’m glad none of the band saw how good her bus was or they’d be wanting one themselves.
Oct 17th – Transgressive Records Party – The Warehouse Project – Manchester
Today is one of those days where, when you pull up outside the venue, your soul fills with a sense of dread. It literally IS an old warehouse. I jump off the bus and have a quick look around, which just makes things worse. It’s a big metal box with a stage at one end. It’s gonna sound horrible in here tonight.
As the day progresses, from my point of view, it’s a pain. Organisation is not high up the list of priorities today, though Tom, the stage manager, is doing a great job of keeping control of everything as much as he can.
Transgressive ‘team’ photo
The show it’self goes quite well, it’s a big old room and the people are moving about quite well.
I have a bit of a ‘discussion’ with one of the photographers. He’s convinced that someone gave him permission to shoot anything he wants, from anywhere he wants. As far as I’m concerned he gets the standard three songs to shoot from the pit and certainly doesn’t get to walk about onstage, which is where I removed him from. At the end of the day he can get as pissy as he wants, but I have the final say, so he’s gonna lose this argument.
I’ve had a bit of a stressful day, and decide to have a few drinks at the end of the night. Everyone thinks this is hilarious as I’m usually the one keeping everyone else in line. After a nice long rant about everyone that had pissed me off today I finally crawl into bed.
Oct 18th – Transgressive Records Party – Sheffield – The Plug
Todays gonna be another clusterfuck of a day, just too many bands. At least the venue is much nicer than the one last night, it’s a proper club.
There’s no real tales from today. I get a haircut in the afternoon, shave it right back down to stubble. That’s about the most exciting thing that happens. Of course there’s the usual stress, shouting, confusion, etc that goes with one of these multi-band things, but nothing really out of the ordinary or worth talking about.
Oct 19th – Transgressive Records Party – Leeds University Union
There are two words that strike the fear into me when I’m doing gigs. ‘Council’ and ‘students’. Both are usually a disaster waiting to happen.
The thing with students is there’s usually loads of them on the crew, but not that many of them have the slightest idea what they’re doing. Technically today is a pain, but it’s nothing we cant work through.
Again, there’s nothing really to say today. It passed without major highs or lows.
There was the crazy girl at the end of the night who kept trying to get on the bus, offering all sorts of sexual favours, but she was actually mad, and pissed, so no one wanted anything to do with her.
Job done, fed and watered, it’s off to Europe we go.
