Madchester

At some point earlier in the year, Andrew Cream, guitarist in The Ruined and promoter under the name Last Lung asked us to play a show with his band in Manchester. Manchester is about 4 hours and 200 miles from London and driving there and back in a night is a nightmare. We did it once and said "never again". Its also terribly expensive in Petrol in a way that the show will never be able to cover. I took the show and figured I'd at least get one show between London and Manchester on the way up and one on the way back to minimise driving and petrol costs. But then Calvinball went and asked us to tour with them and Onsind just a few days later and so all my attention went on booking up a tour with them and the Manchester show just sort of sat there like the last Dog in the pound, just kind of patiently waiting for some attention.

That attention didn't come and so the drive to and from Manchester in one night was looking more likely. On the Saturday I had to go back to Didcot to see my family, and Josh knocked off the first 70 miles or so and went to Peterborough to watch Neil Sutherland and Friends play the Xoo bar. Sounded like a good gig. The day of the show I had to jump on a train to London, to get a train to Peterborough and meet Josh and Keiran (our unofficial roadie/merch girl/hype man) and drive to Manchester. Well, it all went ok on the train, despite destroying my wallet so the train company score 1 point for the well timed trains, but they lose 5 points for a 100 mile journey costing almost £50 (and I hold them responsible for the muffin, see below)

The gig was pretty well attended, very fucking loud and a pretty mixed bill of punk, ska and horror punk(!). I broke only my second string during a set and realised that the backup guitar I bought a year ago, that I have never used live, is completely useless as it won't stay in tune or sound good. Anyone want to buy a used Epi Les Paul? No? Well the set ended on a low point, which was a shame because the rest of it was really good and really fun to play. Nothing like ending on a bad note (literally). The Ruined played last and were awesome.

Come 11pm, it was time to hit up the Motorway and drive home, and it was only at this point that the terrible logistics of our gig planning were becoming obvious. We ended up bombing out at Keirans house at 2.30am and finishing off the journey home at 8am the following morning to get to work in time. Josh said he couldn't focus on the road or signs for about 40 minutes before we gave up. It's times like this that I realise how much DIY punk relies heavily on friends, luck and hard work. Who wants to drive 8 hours in a day and finish at almost 3am? Who wants to be at a venue for 5 hours, only to play for 30 minutes? Who wants a bunch of people staying over after shows and leaving to the next town and leaving you with their mess? Well, we don't always want to, but we'll do it if we have to. Thanks again Kieran - people like you (and your parents) help keep people like us going. See you next time!