So Tim, back from the tour then?

Yeah.

Glad to be back to normality?

No, not really.

Did it all go to plan?

I thought it went better than to plan, I didn't have any expectations before the tour, mainly I was thinking that I would be happy to play well at the gigs and hopefully a few people would enjoy it.

And did they?

Yeah, I think we made a good first impression, some of the venues had a larger attendance than others, but I was pleased that in every venue we had at least a few people after our set talking to us and buying a CD, signing the mailing list.

What was your favorite band on the tour and why?

I think it was Afterspark who played at the first gig in Southampton. Just two performed, Cate and Adam, playing bass, piano, guitar and vocals. Really delicate sound and very talented musicians. They had traveled up from Brighton even though Adam had got a needle stuck in his eye and had been at Hospital. Cate give me their album after the gig, a full album with lovely artwork, all packaged well, and I gave her one of our 4 track EPs, in a plastic sleeve which made me feel like I'd got the better deal! Afterspark mspace.

Any more who you liked?

Funny you should ask that because there is? how did you know ?

Because I am you.

Ah. Yes I also liked Dandy Byron and AloneMe at Newcastle, Ben McGarvey and Tom White at Manchester, Resigned in London, and The Deltons also in Southampton, Stateless and Ali Whitton in Leeds.

What was your best gig over the few weeks?

Leeds ! It was the 'if Carlsberg did gigs' gig for me. Great venue, well organised, playing with good bands, excellent sound, loadsa people, and we played a belter !! … and we got paid too!

And what are your plans with the band now?

Taking a few weeks out to make some money, then when al gets back from the Forward Russia Tour we will practice for a charity gig we are doing in Auntie Annies on the 26th of May. I'd like to keep writing songs and get some more recordings, and would be great to get some higher profile gigs too.

Thanks for your time Tim

No probs, anytime.

Then we headed to the travelodge but we were too early and they wanted to charge us for being early, so we sat in the car for 45mins. Once into the room I felt so tired I couldnít move and had a nice hours disco nap. But at the end of the disco nap I didnít want to wake up to go to Dundee, then the worst thing happened I heard Chris Martinís voice which made me want to vomit and punch someone in the face. So it then took awhile to come round and go to the gig. And I was grumpy and in a bad mood.

Got to the pit of Dundee for a gig at the Voodoo Lounge, which looked deceiving from the outside, I mean it looked good and was beside the Uni. Once inside I was wrong it was weird and the girl organising it thought that us needing a PA meant we needed a personal assistant. And obviously a desk meant a table. Anyway they went away and got us a PA and then they fed us. And we had free booze. Which made me feel a bit better about this pit of depression place. Dundee looks as if it got shut down a year ago, when I asked the barmaid for half of bitter she said they donít sell draft anymore as they donít have any customers.

So there we go, I amused myself playing cluedo on the games machine. Not wanting to ask the bar for my note changing as I gathered they wouldnít have any money behind there. We soundchecked then football came on, we went for a drive. When we got back we played cluedo then we played about 930pm. It was weird the 6 people in the bar didnít even watch us. They sat round the corner so we played to ummmm no-one. Very odd. Wait a moment we played to the video recorder and we played well. In between songs Al was playing the intro of ëpoor grey squirrelí, then after ëoutsiderí which went really well we put the entire ëpoor grey squirrelí on while I quickly packed the drum kit away as I didnít want to spend any longer in this bar. ëYouíre A Faceí summed up that gig quite nicely. Free food and booze was the only reason of the gig.

Back at the hotel we unloaded the gear, the scary lady on reception scared me so I hid in the room and drank coffee. Then we played Top Of The Pops board game. I did quite badly, as I donít know enough answers about rapping or girl/boy bands. Al won.
Yeah forgot to say one of todays highlights was going in a chairty shop and buying a windmill, a ëMy Life Storyí cd and Top of the Pops board game all for £2.50.
Ace.

Roll on Edinburgh.

Over and out Pop fans.

Set was…

Broken Face
You Give
Empty City
Cant Have Everything
Know Your Enemies
She
Out On My Own
Give Me Time
Outsider

(Poor Grey Squirrel courtesy of You're A Face)

Driving to our travel lodge near Falkirk after an eventful gig, listening to some weird music. Great to be in Scotland, been looking forward to this section of the tour. We ended up headlining the gig tonight in The Box, dunno why, it seems some bands aren't so willing to play last as they have to get buses or go feed the cat or something else lame. But we're pretty happy to headline, as long as some people stick around, but like I said most of the bands left, great support guys, thanks, we sit though your set and actually clap at your 'musical' attempts then when it comes to us, who have travelled across the water, you clear off, cheers.

As you know from reading our other blogs we have a small gas stove we're using for cooking, but what you do not know is it has a tendency to leak sometimes, seems to be now but we're not far from the hotel so as long as there is no sparks, we should be fine.

We had a pretty long drive and after not playing last night, Birmingham fell though and we couldn't get another gig – we just went to an acoustic night in leeds, was pretty cool. Don't know about the other two but I'm felling pretty drained after the drive and over eating at Rachael's house, we got to the venue an hour early, loaded in and hung about for a while, got asked if we can headline, do our sound check then go to Wetherspoons for some grub with Phil, Al's brother who's come to see us. I order some pasta and meatballs with no cheese, I know as I order it I will get cheese and I do, what is the big deal with cheese? I don't like it but the world seems set to make me eat it? but i wasn't the only one complaining as Al had to get his rabbit, ear and cow pie reheated, who knows what was in it.

Near our hotel now, its about 1.53 am, listening to the same artist but a nicer tune, Devastations, an Australian band. As we drive I can see a factory in the distance, tall buildings with lights, chimneys pumping out smoke against the bluely lit night sky.

We went back to the venue after eating, a good few in, got some water and a seat to watch the bands. First on seem ok, weird things happening with the vocals but seem to be making their noise in unison. Next have a female vocalist, OK I guess. Next are a four pice status quo band, enough said. We set up about 11 ish, broken face went a bit dodgy but still good, was going fine and then we had a guy called John wanting to come up and play mouth organ, " Why not sure? ". So we played 'know your enemies' featuring john on mouth organ. Was fun, sounded pretty good actually! Finished our set and had a gin? No free booze. why? We had a few buying CDs and then someone put on very loud music, so loud that everyone in the bar thought they had lost their voices and left. We went a few doors down to a bar called nice n sleazy. It was nice and the people were sleazy, we got some black and white russians and kinder eggs.

In the travel lodge now, tis a nice one, very red, cup of tea, make the bed, why do golfers wear silly trousers, sudoku, watch dvd, sleep.

Set list was

Broken Face
You Give
Empty City
Can't Have Everything
Know Your Enemies
She
Out On My Own
Give Me Time
Outsider

Just got news there that our Birmingham gig on Sunday has been cancelled, don't know why, but now we gotta do some last minute planning, we are off on Saturday so really wanted to play on Sunday and had been looking forward to Birmingham, although all I know of there is the NEC where gladiators came from that I used to watch, Wolf Man was my favorite.

Back to Night and Day, Doors were at nine and we were to play at 9.45, red bull time at 9.15. There was a decent crowd there, good enough for it being early and us being first on. We did a short set, seemed to race through the songs, all pretty rocky. Sound was really good on stage, best so far I think, very clear. Think my fav song was You Give, the second song, I think it's pretty different and love playing it. Out On My Own went well to, then onto Outsider, in which Rach dropped her drum stick at the section where we stop near the end, which was pretty handy as she'd time to get her other set, was funny though as I tried to grab the stick she had dropped and get it back to her, all this going on behind Alan's back. And that was us done, over very fast i thought. People seemed to like it and we sold a few CDs. I managed to get a video recording of the first few songs, I had propped the camera up on an old piano that was off the stage to the left, first time we had been able to do that.

Ben then played, really enjoyable and Tom then after, just him and his guitar but some of his own songs where very good, will be watching out for his album coming out. We got packed up, Al went to get the car, when he got back he told us he had gone and got a pizza, sneaky bastard. So we packed up, said our farewells and I headed to the pizza shop, just down the road. A 7", a chip and a drink for 3.50, you can't beat that with a big stick, that was actually the same price as it was for my bottle of beer in the bar, and a can of beer in the bar was 3.40, as in a can, an actual can !?? – not even poured into a glass to even slightly justify the extra 3 quid you were paying for it.

So off to Leeds again and to the big yellow body storage place to offload our gear, what a freaky place, especially after a few drinks. You'd have to be there to know, you know.

Tim

Click on the related link below to check out tom whites myspace

We loaded out of the Travelodge (a fairly difficult load up a floor then down a long ramp) and went to get some internet. For some reason our bt login wasnt working so we decided to try the few contacts we already had numbers for. Rachael phoned the first one and struck gold. The girl (who we later found to be called Jo) had contacts for a couple of nights and within an hour she had got us a slot at the cellar bar in Cambridge first on with three other bands.

This was a great result and before heading to Cambridge we raided the reduced section in Tesco in Thurrock and ate iced buns! We checked into the Travelodge in the centre of Cambridge and scammed some net from the Junction where I've been a few times with the Russians. Watched an exciting episode of neighbours in which I had no idea who was who or what was going on but it was funny then headed to the cellar bar in Cambridge.

When we arrived there seemed to be much confusion not for the first time on tour! There were loads of people milling about and nobody seemed to know what order anyone was on or what gear was being used. We got talking to a friendly bunch of lads called Federal Black 40 who leant us drums and bass amp and also said they wanted to play on before us.

Bizarrely it worked out that we were to go on second last but we were just happy to play anyway. Nobody got to soundcheck in the end and the first band went up. They seemed very young and all seemed to be wanting to be in different bands. The bassist was doing a lot of slap and being quite funky whilst the singer was moshing. The overall effect was quite odd but at the same time slightly infectious. They definitely showed good enthusiasm and sounded a bit different from your run of the mill band.

Federal Black 40 were next up and were really not my type of thing at the start. They seemed to have brought by far the biggest audience of the night and I was suddenly wishing we had played before them. The first song all seemed very self-indulgent heavy rock but after the 'epic' first song it did seem to get a lot better. There were tunes and songs without a load of heavy droning over the top. They were very tight and I enjoyed the middle part of the set.

We were next on and the majority of people stuck around which was good. Having not had a soundcheck our opener Broken Face wasnt really right for levels. As on the previous night though I suddenly got really into the set during 'You Give'. We'd opted for a rocky half hour set and four songs in I was pretty worn out! We'd been playing 'Give Me Time' third up the last few gigs but we dropped it for the shortened set and the first resting point came five songs in in 'Know Your Enemies'. I thought this went really well – best time on tour so far. It's always been one of Tim's favourites but tonight I enjoyed it best as well.

We'd been planning to play 'She' and 'Out On My Own' but the sound guy said we only had time for one more so we launched into 'Outsider' to end a very rocky set. It was well received and we even got paid despite only being a last minute addition which was nice! We were going to try and find a bar afterwards but there seemed to be nothing open in Cambridge and it brought back memories of an awful club I went to with some of the Russians one time!

Al

Setlist was…

Broken Face
You Give
Empty City
Can't Have Everything
Know Your Enemies
Outsider

One thing I've not mentioned yet is that rach was not with us at the point, the previous night she had stayed at Adams house in Portsmouth and was to be making her way to the venue but we had just had a call from her saying here train isn't running, her phone was dead and she was trying to get a bus to somewhere we had not heard of, then her phone had cut out. Al headed into the venue to do a recky while I minded the gear and texted rach to phone us from her pay phone if she managed to get her phone on again, al came back after a few mins and said it looked a nice bar and friendly guys in there. We off loaded the gear, upstairs! Met the guys in the bar, Tony Tony and Tony, two of them where called tony, can't remember the third name, sorry, then al got a call from rach and the plan was for him to go pick her up at liverpool st station, bout half an hour away. So he shot off and I chilled with the guys from Resigned, picking their brains for contacts.

Unfortunately not to many people were at the venue, was quite small but had a really nice stage and great equipment, sure 58 betas! Rach and al arrived and rach told us of her escalator experience, hopefully she'll write a blog about it! Tony got us in a Macy Dees for dinner, we'd not really eaten so that was cool. Resigned went on stage, really enjoyed their set, punk indie type music, great bunch of people too. We went on stage, played our headlining set, enjoyed it, I played a song out of the set order, but sure thats live! We got a pretty good response from people, sold a few CDs and as we were chilling out after, talking it over, 'Kate Moff'?? unexpectedly took up onto the stage with her acoustic guitar and played a few songs, she was a local girl who had a powerful voice, great stuff. Overall good night, and we are for certainly improving on our performance, I can see how bigger bands are so good, if you're doing this all the time you're bound to improve, it's all very possible and achievable !!

Tim

Setlist was…

Broken Face
You Give
Give Me Time
Can't Have Everything
Know Your Enemies
She
Empty City
Out On My Own
Outsider

The bar looked a cosy size and although there was not much in the way of PA I was feeling good about things. The girl there Debbie informed us that Afterspark the band on before us had had to pull out leaving just three bands which was a shame as we'd been looking forward to them.

The Deltons who had been plugging the gig loads on facebook turned up with a kick pedal for us and we were all set to soundcheck. The weird thing was nobody at the venue seemed to be wanting to do a soundcheck. I asked the girl who had let us in if we could soundcheck and if we could have another mic stand.

They only had one full mic stand and one with the head missing so we had to gaffer the second mic to the stand. She said to fire on with a soundcheck if we wished but offering no indication of anyone controlling the sound. We did a half-hearted soundcheck with Tim controlling the levels of the mics and keyboard. There were no monitors. We let the Deltons do the same and then the first band on Split Lip turned up.

There was no organisation at all really and the first band just carried on after they had their levels and played their set. They were dogged with technical problems and ended up using Tim's amp instead. They played nearly an hour of covers and then a few originals. Near the end of their set Afterspark turned up and feeling that nobody was really taking charge Rachael and I went up and greeted them.

The bassist had been to hospital with metal in his eye but they managed to make it all the way from Brighton. We saw no problem in letting them play between the Deltons and us as originally planned.

The Deltons were next up and sounded really good (they used all our amps and drums and was good to hear it all sounding nice!). The room suddenly filled up quite a bit and the vibe was energetic. The guys were great really supportive of us and their set was really well received.

Afterspark next up were mellow and brilliant. Everyone who had just been bopping to the Deltons hushed and watched the two-piece play some lovely songs. They definitely made some fans and it was well worth them coming down to play.

What happened next was quite bizarre. The lights came on and everyone started getting their coats on. I realised that the barman was only expecting three bands as he thought Afterspark had pulled out. I feared we'd not be playing but I went up to the bar where Tim was talking to him. I heard the end of the conversation which was the barman saying "ok let's get it on then!". Behind Tim was about 6 lads (The Deltons + friends) saying "They've come all the way from Belfast they have to play!". That was great support that without we may have had to pack our things and go. I think most people with their coats on took them off again and got another drink.

So finally we got on stage and Broken Face was only really a soundcheck I guess. To say we had no monitors I thought the sound onstage wasn't too bad and in the second song "You Give" I was getting really into it and I think the crowd were too. That was probably my favourite song of the set although Outsider went really well too. We were helped through the set by both Afterspark and the Deltons telling us how the levels were. We actually thought Afterspark were going to head back to Brighton before the end of the set but they stayed and watched it all which we were really chuffed about.

After the set we talked to Afterspark and The Deltons and our fans Adam, Niamh and Lisa. What I've failed to mention so far is that this was our first gig outside Belfast and it was so good to have those three familiar faces watching us too.

We loaded out grabbed some dirty food and Tim and I headed to the travelodge. Got a little lost thanks to the sat nav but in the end arrived and got a ground floor room with a fire escape nearby to load the gear into our room easily. About to set off to London now and also trying to sort out the mess in Cambridge tomorrow!

Al

Setlist was…

Broken Face
You Give
Give Me Time
Can't Have Everything
Know Your Enemies
She
Out On My Own
Empty City
Outsider

Freerider, first on were from Omagh and probably had to get back. I was surprised they managed to stay as long as they did. Seemed to be lovely guys and played tight classic rock. Not altogether my thing but nonetheless you could tell they were well practised and their following were really into the songs.

Cashier No.9 followed after quite a while in setting up. I really enjoyed their set and can see why they have received critical acclaim.

We came on quite a while after we were supposed to and the first few songs were great. I felt after a while that our amp levels were a bit too loud but we were playing fairly well and into the set. I thought Rach had a great gig and altogether I felt we'd done well after only a week of practising. Looking forward to playing every night and improving all the time.

Was great to have familiar faces watching us, Louise, Nicola, Kenny, Rene, Neassa, Elaine, Jude, Tony, Ian, Steeler and Mark but we'll have some familiar ones in Southampton on Saturday too – looking forward to seeing Niamh, Lisa and Adam. Next installment coming soon when we're on the road proper. Stay tuned!

Al

Setlist was…

Broken Face
You Give
Give Me Time
Can't Have Everything
Know Your Enemies
She
Out On My Own
Empty City
Outsider

Elbow
We Are Scientists
Biffy Clyro
I Was A Cub Scout
Declan O'Rourke
Imogen Heap

and

the new trash society compilation that we are featured on!

Also go and see Derren Brown live if you get chance

Al

It seems easy though to get detached from reality when you devote so much time to a band and the time off let us focus on other things – family and friends. And when you do that you can equally become detached from what you were trying to achieve before. It seems easier to get a 9-5 job than to actually chase your dreams. But we've come too far and want to progress further far more than take the easy option out. It does rely on other people supporting you and helping you out as well as ourselves. I think our new year's resolution is to work even harder but also accept any help that people want to offer.

We hope to announce some new gig dates and new recordings very soon and our first BBC radio play has also given us a bit of extra confidence to push on. Stay tuned!

Al