Never Enough Notes e-zine // reviews + interviews + music

Friday 14th May 2010
We arrived in Brighton a day before the gig in order to break up the travelling. Our hotel was three miles up the coast in a place called Hove. An elegant hotel with sea views called Best Western. That evening Craig and Stu went for a curry, the rest of our group and I waited in a nearby pub. Matt and the new tech got deep into a conversation about the thickness of drum skins, I had to order more drinks before I keeled over, dizzy with boredom. We finished the night in the only bar open late in the whole of Hove. For some reason the bar was only equipped with one toilet between the 60 or 70 punters. Not wanting to queue, we left for the hotel with smiles on our faces and kebabs in our hands in preparation for the gig the next day.

Saturday 15th May 2010
When we woke it was a glorious day, so Craig and I walked the three miles into Brighton and back. Just for exercise’s sake. The sunshine and the ocean have a way of putting a bounce in your stride, and it was shaping up to be a good day.
We arrived at the gig about 2pm and proceeded to load the gear in to the venue. Getting the equipment into Coalition is no easy feat. It involves stopping the traffic on the main promenade, carrying the heavy equipment down a set of steps through hundreds of casual sun worshippers trying to enjoy their ice creams, then another 20ft to the venue door.
After soundcheck we had an acoustic session for Levi’s. The acoustic session only really involved Craig, but a rumour was circling that they were handing out free jeans and cold beer. Naturally we all wanted to show Craig our support. The acoustic session went really well and we managed to score a pair of jeans each. Stu left his jeans inside the pub whilst he went outside to smoke, when he returned they were gone. He spiralled into a 20 minute rant, which I’d summarise as: “thieving bastards”.

Back at the venue we enjoyed the support bands and drank a few beers. The gig was a success. It was really hot, and really sweaty, always a good sign. We upset our booking agent by not playing “A Warning Sign” as he had requested earlier in the night.
After load out half of us headed out in search of more fun, and the other half headed back to the hotel. The hotel porter could see we were the kind of customers that could be trusted to drink after hours and said he would keep serving us for as long as we could keep paying. We had a few steady beers. About an hour and a half in we were joined by another guest at the hotel. He was blind drunk and slurring his words but friendly. He told us he was a business man and he had lost €400,000 at a casino in France. He told us he had spent it on champagne and girls. He said it was a lot of money to lose but he’d had a “fucking good time”. It’s all swings, and sometimes roundabouts.

Sunday 16th May 2010
We set out on the hour and a half journey to Portsmouth when the hotel threw us out, which was about 12pm. We were all starving, I was awake in time but had made the conscience informed decision to miss breakfast. I had sampled the horror that particular cooked breakfast could bring to the digestive system the previous day. It was Sunday and we wanted a roast dinner. It’s important when on tour to grab any home comforts with both hands. We went to a pub near the venue, and the food was good. I realised that we’d been in this bar before. On our last visit to Portsmouth the owner had given us a lock in, and kept feeding us Sambucca. I remember hiding shots of Sambucca behind plant pots, as there was no way I could stomach my fifth shot of that sickly sweet syrup in a row.
After dinner it was still too early to soundcheck so we checked into the hotel. The hotel again was near the waterfront, this time just around the corner from one of the embarkation points for the D-Day Landings. We had an hour to spare so Stu and Matt took in a quick round of Crazy Golf which was next to the hotel. Stu won, but later Matt beat him at Time Crisis.

Sound checks are boring. Fact. It’s a lot of waiting around for other people to do their job, so you can eventually do yours. The best you can hope for is that everyone else is efficient enough to do things speedily. Thankfully at The Wedgewood Rooms the engineers are very good, so waiting was kept to a minimum. Stu found some badminton rackets at the venue, and we had a quick game to pass the time whilst we were waiting.
Again we had a great gig. There were a few technical hitches. It’s seems to be happening a lot lately, so we are due a good run soon. Generally the crowd never notice technical issues, but to us it sticks out like a sore thumb. The crowd were enthusiastic and seemed to have a good time, and that really is the whole point.
DS
MAY 2010