Day 30 - Derry/Londonderry
At Manchester airport I am frisked twice at security, maybe because I'm wearing Danny's large brown duffel coat to keep the baggage costs down. I'm not sure what to expect arriving in Belfast, but arrive at the Malone Hotel without incident.
One of my best mates is Irish and I lived with him for 3 years, so I should know the appropriate naming convention for the city in which we are playing tonight. I think Derry, but Charlie is calling it Londonderry and on the way there all the signs say Londonderry so I start doubting my knowledge and think I'm getting it confused with a brand of butter. So I start calling it Londonderry, then as we're almost there the road signs are all de-faced saying just 'derry'. Oh Dear, I sense an ill-formed faux pax on the horizon. The gig is well attended and the venue is lovely. I avoid hassle by simply asking who is "local" and "not local", I'd later find out that even the BBC have protocol for Derry. In the first instance it's 'Londonderry', in the second it's 'Derry' and after that it's refered to as 'the city'.
Day 31 & 32 - Belfast
For the few days in Belfast we are staying in an apartment thanks to Charlie - so we can do amazing things like use an oven or microwave. Charlie cooks an awesome steak, Kristina makes mashed potatoes, and I buy loads of ex-rental dvd's for 99p to watch, which is almost helpful. I meet up with Phil Topping who I've not seen in years and he takes me on a great tour of Belfast city taking in the town hall, the Crown Inn (where we meet some american tourists on a cruise) and the catherdral quarter. There is a church with a big metal spike instead of a tower. This is becuse some of Belfast is built on marshland, so anything really heavy sinks into the ground. Phil tells me Belfast is a new city in the last few years, and it certainly feels like a place on the up. Busy, pleasant and the venue we're in at the Waterfront Theatre is a big glass building with loads of venue spaces. We're in the studio which we've almost managed to fill on both nights playing there. Friday's gig is great, Saturdays is even better. Afterward, Phil and his mate take us on the drink around town, we hit a bar with a band playing, it is very loud and the drink is addlestones. I don't remember much after that, a top few days.
Day 25 - Aberystwyth
The final day of the Welsh trilogy takes us to Aberystwyth university, and possibly one of the most gorgeous views on the tour as we decended the steep incline of the A44 and the road - cut into a vally lined with trees opened up, to reveal the rooftops of the whole town in the distance, beyond which was the sea. At the time of day we entered the sun was low in the sky and reflected across the ocean throwing the rooftops into silhouette which was quite simply breathtaking. Then I crashed the car. No I didn't.
The University was pretty amazing too. Cream bright walls and Big glass windows looking out onto the sea made it feel like starfleet academy, full of new student in the 2nd week. The gig didn't disappoint either, great numbers and they all lapped it up - especially one lad who claimed to have 'everything' on his ipod. A great way to end the Welsh dates, certainly after Brecon. Did I mention I was repeatedly interupted by a kid with downs? I gave him the benefit of the doubt as he shouted out random words - while his friend/carer found more humour in his outbursts than my set. Bless Brecon. Finally got around to doing the interview with Charlie for SFX.
Day 26 - Guildford
Guildford isn't London, but I think of it as London. From the you-can't-park-anywhere attitude to the big haired posh woman who after 10 mins of driving round in the chock-a-block car park, stared at me, looked at the car and felt need to comment "That's an interesting piece of parking!". I looked at the car. It wasn't straight, but it was perfectly acceptable. Obviously she didn't know that I've spent the entire month driving and parking and driving and parking and driving and driving and parking and moving and driving and parking and parking. So I didn't mean to be too aggresive when I dug down deep into my thickest mackem sensibilities and spat out "AYE PET, IT'LL DEE!".
I got a ticket and decided to re-align the car, not because of anything she said, but out of pure dick-ishness. The second I got into the BMW and reversed a little, two cars appeared. "Oh good, Are you leaving?" quipped a fop from the window of his Audi. "No, I'm not.".
The gig went ok, quite quiet.
Day 27 - Lincoln
The Theatre Royal in Lincoln was a lovely old place, and the crew were very pleasant. I was knackered so did a lot of sleeping in the dressing room. Over the tour my sleeping pattern has become very irregular. (I've just written that as 'speeling pattern', which sounds a more accurate description.) Lots more sleep of the dreamy imaginary kind, where I think I've done something, or been somewhere when I haven't and vise versa. My phone internet has stopped working, which is interesting as I forked out for the 'unlimited' package. Turns out Virgin mobile's idea of 'unlimited' is 1GB, which sounds like a lot but isn't. One of the features of the phone as sold was the BBCiplayer application, so after two episodes of Merlin and one of Spooks it's all gone. Boo Hoo - I hate you virgin mobile. Oh no, I've fallen asleep with it turned on.
Another quiet gig, but I kick a good bit of energy into them.
A far too brief stop off at home beckons, then off to Ireland.
