We're On Tour: Day 9 - Stratford Upon Avon

The final day of our tour I found out how to make the tour work - it was a roll of good look.

We set out in the morning, with the main objective of finding a pub to play in at night. The first pub we went into, asked for a gig and we were given one. At this point the realisation set in that we'd spent eight days not doing this, which is exactly how we should have been doing it.

Anyway, after landing a paid gig at the Old Tramway, we walked into Statford to enjoy the beautiful scenery. I stopped on the way to pick up some menus from a restraunt, and was rewarded with mulled wine for my trouble!

 Then, we stumbled across Shakespeare's old schoolroom - past the closing time! Still, the students running it let us in for a look around. So much luck!

The gig went swimmingly, really enjoyed it! Here's some pics:

After that, we left for home. Tour over. Nevertheless, I expect to be out here doing it again soon!

love,

Sam x :-)

We're On Tour! Day 8: Birmingham/Dudley - The Black Country Museum

OK, so here we have another day when not much music happened.

We spent most of the day going around the Black Country Museum. This is a gigantic sort of history theme park in Dudley, but so much cooler than that.

Basically, in the 70's a whole bunch of people got together and decided to try and save some of the history of their town that was being torn down around them. On this basis they began to dismantle and move threatened buildings brick by brick. The result is a little condensed town complete with Tramway, Canals, even a mine! You can go round the shops and buy things from people dressed up in period dress. Seriously, its amazing - even if your not into history!

After that we went to check out some pubs in Birmingham, and although we made a whole heap of contacts there, we only managed a little impromptu gig in a rather scary pub called the 'Crossed Guns'. Clue should have been in the name right? Anyway, despite our initial apprehensions we ended up making even more friends! They told us to check out the 'Bowl of Fingers'... in Hampstead - or was it the 'Bag of Nails'?

Two hours later we found the 'Beaufort Arms' who said they'd be very interested in booking us, so thank you Birmingham peeps!

We hit the road again, this time to Stratford upon Avon, in one last ditch attempt to blag some more paid work.

'Legging' inside Dudley's underground canal tunnels. Awesome fun!

 

Valves inside the radio repair shop

Till next time! xxx

We're On Tour! Day 7 - Skegness - almost sleeping in a bed!

This was a bit of a slow day - the night before I'd driven back from South Wales to Lincoln with Grace asleep on the seat next to me. We stayed in Lincoln the night, cleaned out the van (a right state at this point!) and headed out to Skegness. The Skeg gig was at Meany Bo-Beanies, a sort of Gangster themed bar, which was really cool, although right at the end of the season there weren't many people about. Even so, a lovely chap bought a CD and that bought us take-away in the next town - a luxury we really failed to do without for the trip.

The gig was great fun tho, and I got to play a bit of piano, so I was happy :-)

Oh, n checkout the light-up dance floor!

We headed off for Birmingham that same night, and slept there.

cyas peeps!

x

We're On Tour! Days 5 & 6 - Wales - Not doing much!

We've been a little bit Lazy. Distracted by the beauty of Wales, we didn't manage to find any gig venues! Still, we had a right laugh.

First we went to Llangollen and rode on the Heritage Railway there - I'm not gonna try and cling onto any last vestiges of coolness and mystique, I'll readily admit I love my trains. Grace loves her history and together we lapped up the beautiful scenery and period costume.

The train compartments were just like in 'A Hard Day's Night'. Ironically, some gentleman settled themselves in our compartment and began having very loud and boyish conversations while we ruthlessly admired the scenery. Eventually they struck up a conversation about the tour. They asked as where we were going next and we said maybe the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth. At this one of the bearded old men leant in and whispered 'Have you heard about April Jones?'. We shook our heads. 'You've not heard about the little girl who got MURDERED?' - at this moment we went into a long tunnel and the carriage went pitch black. 'Chopped 'er up 'e did and burnt 'er on the log burner! 'E denies it to this day, but they found bits of 'er all over 'is farm...'

At this point we reconsidered visiting Machynlleth.

 Nevertheless, later on we regrew a pair and made our way to Machynlleth and the Centre For Alternative Technology. Formed in the 70's in a disused quarry as a hippie co-operative, this was the place where many of the green technologies we now know were created.

Sadly, CAT is now a very different place. Although they do very good work educating people in green technology, it seems little research is now carried out there. It operates more like a university, with a CEO taking care of money, no longer does everyone get paid the same wage. Still, some of the stuff there was really cool, especially the water powered incline railway - based on a technology used in Victorian times. the whole place is powered with green technologies such as Solar Power, Wind, and water power, and one of the buildings had a garden roof. I was intensely proud of the solar powered lights in my van :-)

The Train at Llangollen - I swear I had this very one on my model railway!

In the 1950's coaches

Lookin' pretty

In my Glastonbury parker

the station

at the Centre for Alternative Technologies

an old wind turbine from the 1980's

In the round thing

Baaaaaaah Humbug

In an Abbey

 Have a good one y'all!

Sam x

We're On Tour! Day 4: Liverpool, Bakewell and the Peak District...

We woke up this morning both feeling thoroughly shattered, but set off on the road towards Liverpool.

On the way we stopped in Bakewell and forged more contacts for future gigs. In celebration we had an ice-cream – Bakewell is seriously nice.

We drove through the Peak District and found an amazing pub alone at the top of a mountain called the Cat and the Fiddle – maybe a place to play in the future! The view was incredibly stunning.

Arriving in Liverpool we managed to park a street away from the cavern club. Although we couldn't get on stage there, after a walk around the Albert Docks and the Liver Building we ended up wondering into one of the most incredible clubs I’ve ever been in. Great atmosphere, great people, a brilliantly kept secret – in which I played my first gig in Liverpool. My set went down really well and I made some amazing friends – I'll definitely be going back!

The same night we crossed the border into Wales. There we slept for another night of uncomfortable van sleep!

Bakewell - Tart Central

Bureaucracy's at work

Gorgeous Grace

Bird

De-stressing

Pretty Garden

Peak District

At the Cavern!

First Gig in Liverpool

In Wales tomorrow!

Till next time

Sam xxx

We're On Tour! Day 3: Robin Hood's Bay, Boggle Hole, Ravenscar and.... L4 Lincoln.

Kate & I Jamming. Blogger wont let me put this in chronological order :-)

 OK, so today's gig wasn't so off the beaten track for us, but L4 was still massive fun!

We were a bit worn out as we'd decided to go on a 4 mile walk from Robin Hood's Bay to Ravenscar. Then we realised that the walk, which had taken us two and a half hours to do, had left us with only an hour and a half to get back. I ran it, and drove round to Boggle Hole to pick up Grace. Then we drove solid from there to Lincoln to get back in time for L4.

L4 was wicked, but there was no rest for us! We headed off for Liverpool the same night and ended up staying somewhere near Worksop.

Inspirational Cat

Shunned by Inspirational Cat

Robin Hood's Bay

WWII Defence Post

Grace on top of WWII Defence Post

Doorway to post and sheep

Mike & I whistle jamming

I poke you tiny humanoid