Having just come back from the Download Festival doing a spot of moonlighting for Total Rock Radio as an interviewer it was nice to be on the other side of the microphone and playing a few shows myself this month with both Syteria and Girlschool.
We seeem to have been up and down to Scotland a few times too in the short time we’ve been gigging together, playing clubs and festivals gaining new friends along the way.
We started at Bannermans in Edinburgh, a favourite venue of ours to play. it’s the 2nd time we’ve played there in a year now and we are going back there again in November. It’s run by the lovely Cristian Kimmet who also plays in Warrior Soul so understands bands needs on the road, regardless of that he still put us up in the haunted flat above the club…or so they say…
We had a great gig and caught up with a few friends afterwards. I decided seeing as though there was a gig the next day I’d get some sleep and there’s only so much lime and soda you can drink anyway, boring zzz. The other band were staying in one of the other rooms and along with Robbie the sound engineer and also member of the Exploited had decided to have a party in the main room which was all very well but there was no door, so I may as well have been in there trying to sleep on the sofa next to them. Julia, Keira and Pablo had hit a club nearby and about 4am I heard them coming in, the next thing I saw was Julia hovering over Keira holding her hair back whilst Keira was very ahem gracefully puking into a bucket…good to see things haven’t changed that much in rock ‘n’ roll..ah the good old days eh? not!
Wildfire is a relatively new up and coming festival in Biggar, Scotland run by Dave Ritchie. There was a great atmosphere as soon as we arrived and a little sunshine too, which is always good at a festival. We were on the main stage in the afternoon ready to warm up the crowds for Toseland and O/D Saxon later that night.
Dutch Michaels our friend and now manager met us there and he’d already sorted out the accomodation and food situation for us. All the bands were sat together to eat in Wiston Lodge, which was a beatiful and a great place for bands to crash out and party with several rooms comprising of 3 or 4 bunk beds in each…not that anyone slept much, as someone had taken the opportunity to crank up the karaoke machine and we’re singing along badly to a Saxon song…or so Brian from O/D Saxon informed us later that night on stage…the poor things in that band were in the room next door at the time trying to get some rest.
The gig went really well and we’d seen a couple of young girls who’d been walking around with inflatable guitars all day, so we grabbed them and brought them on stage with us for ‘When I Get Out Of High School’
It seem as though they had more perfomances than any other band that weekend as they joined several bands on stage. They should join the PRS they’d be loaded…lol
We then travelled back to stay at Dave Ritchies home, he’d told us that he had several sofas, but we weren’t quite expecting what we saw once we arrived an hour later having got a little lost, though thankfully this weekend I wasn’t driving, we had our lovely Chris Holt and a comfortable van to do it all in, not the Syteria Mobile that is my little Citroen Xsara. We got to the house and almost turned back as we thought we’d walked into ‘Sofa World!’ (other furniture shops are available)…Keira almost broke the world record as she sprinted in her high heels towards the biggest, comfiest looking sofa there but me and Julia gave a knowing nod as we headed around the corner to find 2 other nice sofas which weren’t in ear shot of the 3 men with us, ‘sofa’ so good (boom boom 😉 ) as we knew they would be snoring and Keira was placed right in the middle…hah! Not that we got too much sleep anyway again but that’s rock ‘n’ roll on a budget isn’t it?
Next day we headed back to the lodge, grabbed Breakfast with the bands for a catch up then off to Manchester’s Star and Garter, a pub I’d never played before but would definitely go back to. The steps weren’t so appealing though. After a lovely gluten free pizza thanks to Stu Taylor who runs the gigs there once a month, he keeps the prices low and ends the gigs early enough so people can get the last train home and being opposite the station that’s always good and it ensures a decent turn out each time. A quick catch up with friends and a drive back to Sheffield and then finally home to Leeds for some sleep.
Almost over for June and with 1 gig left in June and 1 the first day of July, we’ll leave that until the next time… to be continued.
