Stormships and tramsheds - November 09
Birkenhead show
The band entering the Birkenhead venue
Glasgow view
Nick, Gary & Rob in the Ferry, Glasgow
The whirlwind tour continues... days off feel like a thing of the past!
I've crash landed on a four poster bed in a hotel on the outskirts of Birkenhead, the former home turf of the young Cynthia Lennon, having just pounded away at the Pacific Arts Centre in front of one of Liverpool/Birkenhead's liveliest crowds. The gig houses one of the most unusual backstage areas, as the photo shows. We were overlooked by those eerie trams, sentinels of a bygone era. Our tour bus barely missed being hit by one of them earlier this evening just outside the venue or perhaps it was another runaway ghost tram trying to find its way home. It seemed to appear out of nowhere. When you've done as many gigs back to back as we have you'll start dreaming with open eyes too...
Forgive me if I continue in flashback whilst events are freshest in my mind. Scotland was brave as ever, particularly on the Ferry in typhoon weather. We thought the wind and rain might well loose the ship from its moorings and set her afloat again. Mechanical Bride started the heaving place, lurching and listing dangerously to port as the hulk came alive in true nightmare strobe fashion. The band stomped, pouted and pounded from within whilst the elements hammered down outside as if demanding to be let in... "I’m sorry pal you can't come in without a stage paaaaa..." several security guards bodies washed away, later to be found at Aberdeen infirmary... the brave few just trying to do their job in brutal conditions, much like the band and crew trying to check into our hotel with flying luggage, closely resembling the scene where Dorothy's house is blown away in the Wizard of Oz. As the boat literally rocked, a great night was celebrated in one of Glasgow's most enduring institutions.
Rewind three nights the flashback continues back to the Robin in Wolverhampton. From this gig onwards audiences sounded like choirs, singing along to Every Day, Firth of Fifth and many other old faves. A great feeling, as if everyone was in the same band singing along.
It's a fine line between a gig, a singsong, a guitar fest and a night out with two blonds! These guys manage to do it with some considerable style. Me? I love every minute. Roll on the Salford Lowry...
November 21st 2009
Birkenhead show
