More tour.

I didn’t even bother bringing my laptop on tour this time, after making zero effort last time to keep any kind of tour diary I had mentally written off any chance of keeping an accurate record of what happened whilst we were away this time. I wish I could commit to doing that, so many things that seem to be worth remembering get forgotten too quickly.

Things didn’t start for us the way I had hoped. Firstly, Rooftops guitarist, Jugs, found out shortly before tour that his dad was really sick and we weren’t sure whether he was going to stay at home or come out with us. Either way, the 10 days were going to be more difficult for him and us and we all felt terrible for him. He said he would do some of the dates and then see how it went and the route we were taking brought him close to home a few times and so we were prepared to do some de-touring to give him a little time at home.

A few days before we leave and there was more bad news for Rooftops – their records were stuck in Europe and wouldn’t likely arrive in time. They ended up rush-pressing 100 records at their expense which we had to pick up on the way to the first show, delaying us by hours in the north London traffic. Not a good start, but with records and Jugs now present in the van, things picked up really quickly.

All the shows we played were really fun and seemed to be well promoted, well attended and we were treated really well by everyone and on that front it was a hugely successful tour instead of the depressing money-consumer that things like this can often be. Jugs stuck around for the whole ten days and Rooftops gave some of the most intense, emotional performances I have ever seen any band do, particularly the final date in London which seemed to be a fitting end of the tour for them before Jugs got the train back home.

On a personal front, it was hugely satisfying to play every night with no real bad shows at all and to play a few new places we’ve never been before. Despite everyone slowly getting more tired and ill by the last few days, I think everyone would be happy to get back in and play more shows today. I want to say a massive thank-you to everyone who put us on, put us up, came to the shows and to Josh and Pook for doing all the driving, this has been an awesome 10 days for me.

More photos and shit soon, but heres a video of Rooftops at the Marquee in Norwich.

Dan

Rooftops, Norwich from emilou on Vimeo.