The worst day our band has ever had. Ever.

We bailed on a show for the first time ever at the weekend. To make things worse, it was the last date with Crazy Arm on our UK tour together. I was beyond gutted. We all were.

Our London show the day before was a difficult show for us, we spend a cold half an hour jump starting Crazy Arms van which had died and the PA had some problems which pushed the show back and meant that the vocals were a struggle to hear. Only one monitor worked so we had to switch positions at the last minute after setting up and the soundguy was hassling us to get going. Not a great start. I want to say a huge thanks to Dave McManus for organising the show though, his Everything Sucks nights are always busy and always well promoted, but for me, the show just lacked something on my part. I wasn't happy after the show and after the nightmare load-out where we can to carry our shit for about 400 meters on icy paths across multiple journeys to where we managed to park the van didn't help. I just wanted to go home and start again the next day. I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to Crazy Arm who were heading to Plymouth after the show. The next morning I felt much better, a little easier about the night before and ready to play hard and round the year off on a good note.

In 3 hours we travelled from East London to West London. Fifteen miles. The motorways were jammed, snow was falling hard, cars were slipping all over the place and it seemed impossible to make it to Plymouth in time considering Crazy Arm took seven hours to get home the night before and this was on clear roads with minimal ice. We call up the train company and ask about possible trains and PJ cracks up in the van after being told that it would cost four-hundred-and-thirty-pounds-and-eight-pence with a four-person super saver deal. No chance. We hadn't moved more than 500 meters in the last hour and it seemed dangerous and impossible. It took a further three and a half hours to get home and we had to spend another 45 minutes digging the van out after dropping Joe home on the way. The van had slipped against the curb and we had to use wood, boiling water and direct pushing on the side of the cab to get it free. We google mapped our journey - 30 miles in the best part of seven hours. We checked how long it would take to walk that distance - four and a half hours. Once I got home I felt delirious. No way to spend the day. No way to end a tour. No way to end the year.


I want to say a massive thanks to Crazy Arm for asking us to come out on this tour with them, they are probably the best band in the country and watching them every night was incredible - they play tighter and harder than pretty much anyone I have ever watched and they are the very best dudes. Their new single Ambertown is out now, its classic Crazy Arm and mega-banging. A huge sorry for bailing on the show. I promise we did everything we thought possible. Thanks to everyone who put us on, put us up and PJ for cooking most days. This tour has definitely been an education and we are all keen to get started next year once everyone is home from Christmas and New Year and finish up this record.