Homeward bound...

Leeds.was an amazing end to what has been a fantastic week.or so of shows. We did it, we had a crazy idea and we made it happen. I'm laying in my bunk now as the bus takes us ever nearer to the point where we say goodbye and go our separate ways. There will be tears, no doubt about it, we have grown close over the past few days and  will be sad to see things end but we will do this again, nobody knows how to stop, or wants to.

We are family, we are united in our love of music, and we will plan another adventure when we get our breathe back.

Martin

Final day.

Were in Leeds, the initial panic of leaving a vital piece of kit in London has passed and thanks to a network of friends we've hopefully fixed the problem.

It's the last day of the tour today, we're shuffling around the bus packing so we can be ready tomorrow, it's a bit subdued at the moment as we prepare to bring the tour to a close, but everyone is looking forward to going out with a bang tonight. This one will be special.

London

For some of us this felt like a homecoming, for a few it was a welcome return, for others the first time in what for me (Martin) is the greatest city in the world.

A great show with a lot of old friends, some of whom had travelled a long way to see us do our thing. Overnight we're travelling to Leeds, a lot of the 'Family' are making the same trip, it's like getting two great gigs for the price of one.

I love this life. I will miss it when life has to return to "normal" and we have to stop moving, but for now there is one show left and we'll be in Leeds tomorrow for the end of tour party. It's going to be emotional..

It's Saturday, it must be London

Grey skies, a temperture drop of about 10 degrees Celsius and bad roads. We're back in the UK then.

It's grim, it's cold, it looks like it might get wet but it's home for some of us and we're looking forward to the first of the two UK shows in London tonight. There's still a few tickets left for the Electrowerkz show, doors are at 7pm and each band are playing full sets.

We're driving through London as I write this pointing out landmarks while others are slowly rising one by one from their bunks. Another day, another show.

Thank you Lille!

We're on our way back to the UK now after a great night in Lille, a last minute show that turned out to be one of the best. Huge thanks to Stephanie and Pierre for going out of their way to make this happen. We'll be back.. these mainland  shows have been so much fun, meeting old friends and making new ones.

So now we're heading to Calais to catch the ferry and play our next show in London. Luckily we have Ade after losing him earlier and finding him trapped in the hold on the bus after the doors closed on him!

Two shows left to go. If you're coming along please bring cash for merch so we can afford to do this again. We promised people we would and we'd hate to let them down.

Leaving Frankfurt

Another great show over and we're on our way to Lille. Tonight we were at Das Bett in Frankfurt where we once again experienced the fantastic European hospitality that we've got used to. Being back in the UK will be hard but we have one more show on the mainland to go before that happens.

Looking forward to playing a small cellar bar in Lille and meeting the people that run the night there. This one looks like it'll be fun.

In other news life on a bus in a small bunk is.not as hard as you'd think, I think I could do this for longer. Maybe that's to do with the company I'm keeping, as traveling and working alongside some great friends makes it seem as though time has flown by too fast, and when someone asked me tonight how many shows were left it was sad to say only three.

We'll make them count!.

Oooooh ooh Vienna...

What a fun night, two floors down to a cellar bar so not so great for load in and out but still a lot of fun. Met a lot of great people tonight and we're now sitting on the bus waiting for 2am when we can drive off, a delay caused by the drivers restrictions on working hours. 

When he sets off we have a ten hour drive to Frankfurt, if you ever hire a bus from Silvergray then ask for Colin, the man is a legend.

See you in Frankfurt!

The end of a day off...

A day off in Prague started with all those things we'd been waiting for. Showers.

Life on a bus is fun but every few days it's nice to get off it, use a proper toilet, have a shave and shower. We checked in, freshened up and met up in the evening for wander down to the old town. Prague is a beautiful city and somewhere I'd wanted to get back to, so it was good to see a little more of it this time.

Right now we're finishing the night with a nightcap in an outside bar watching the world go by. Tomorrow we head to Vienna for show number 4, and the first in a 5 day run. It'll be odd, after a day away from the bus I finally feel like I've stopped moving even when standing still only to start again. I'm kind of looking forward to it...

Good morning... Czech Republic

Awake. The roads have got smaller over night and the scenery surrounding them much nicer, we're in the Czech Republic about an hour from Prague

Leaving on a tour bus...

A day and a bit in Hamburg and we've left a great show behind us and more new friends. First show I've been to where an artist was drawing what the music meant to her while the bands were playing. We bought three pieces of her work tonight, stunning interpretations.. a great night thanks to a wonderful couple, Thorsten amd Devi.

We're on our way to Prague now, a ten hour drive with a day off at the end of it. Everything has fallen into place tonight, the bands are working great together and that family bonding thing has happened. I'm typing this while a bunch of us are sitting in the upstairs lounge of the bus telling stories of how the bands formed, how they met, how we all met each other and what led us here to this point in time. You can't buy memories like this..

Hamburg

Met up with tonight's promoters last night and took a stroll through St Pauli and The Reeperbahn to a Korean restaurant for some of the most amazing food.. we briefly lost Pete on a train as the doors closed and he went up to the next stop and back, and ended back at the hotel bar we booked for this first of two days off we have. Overall though it's going pretty smoothly.

A fairly early night in a bed that's not moving and the ground is starting to feel like it's not moving all the time, life on a bus feels like it does when you get off a long haul flight and it takes a while to settle. Having a shower is something to treasure.

Tonight we play Logo in Hamburg, then load the bus and drive overnight to Prague, an eight hour drive to another day off before we do five shows in a row. Life is good...