Again, its not day 14 at all more like day 28 so I must have missed some gigs somewhere? We spent the day in Newcastle sitting in a parking space and a 3 story HSBC trying to pay various amounts of money into my account. I can’t wait to explain to the Inland Revenue why I keep depositing random sums of chash, cheque and euro. We then embarked on our journey to Scotland up the very windy A1.

We had the night free from gigs which was personally welcomed so I could wash, eat etc. The lovely guys from Sector Rouge put us up for the night and we even got invited to yet another party on the night which I dragged myself down to with another trusty bottle of scrumpy cider, the night ended up with myself and Stu from Sector Rouge trying to explain the universe at 5am, I think we did work it out but then forgot when we woke up.

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Just realised that it’s not really day 13 because we’ve been on tour since the 8th, it’s more like gig 13 and it feels like we’ve done way more than that.  It was the first time we’d played Newcastle so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  The venue was in the gay quarter which was quite fitting for us.  I wasn’t hoping for much as it seemed really quiet for the first two bands but people slowly trickled in by the time we played.  Considering we were all so tired from the night before and the early start for the ferry we played pretty well and seemed to go down ok.  Tubelord were amazing, Joe jumped on a table and nearly killed the girl sitting down at it, she wasn’t too impressed. 

We managed to invite ourselves to yet another party after being taken to ASDA in what seemed like the fastest Ford Focus on the planet.  Had a really good time and met some wicked people as we listened to the Tubelord live acoustic set in London even thought they were sat next to me in Newcastle.  After a few beers and 2 litres of strong scrumpy cider I woke up in the van upsidedown with a sleeping bag on my head, you know its been a good night.

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We stayed an extra few days at Lewis’ house, I’m not sure if he was expecting that but the place was amazing so we just decided we we’re moving in.  We managed to get some drums recorded at Owen’s studio “The Hive” for a demo version of a track that will be on the album.  After all the problems with my computer I have accepted that may iMac’s are the way forward. 

On the Monday night we were invited to play at a house party at this bungalow in the middle of nowhere.  The place was incredible, loads of rooms and a full gig set up in the lounge.  I’ll sum the sets up as much as I can remember them, I got to see Martian’s  band Crowd Control for the first time which was amazing, go check them out I’ll put a link up they’ll melt your faces off.  Tubelord were brilliant as ever, I sang along to every single song making up my own words as usual and Wiza decided to start hitting Dave’s ride cymbal out of time to give it that Jazz touch. 

Kirk and Mule learning some ethical DIY values, next is an idiots guide to being a vegetarian.

Our set started with Mule falling into the kit before we had even began a song.  It was incredible none of us could stand up properly and we didn’t manage to play a whole song all the way through.  The end of 2nd ended up with me and Wiz doing some funk things as Mule and Peckett had disappeared somewhere and Dave and Joe Tubelord singing along.  We played completely crap but it was incredible.  Owen’s other band Kid Blunt played last and it was absolutely incredible.

The last supper!

I woke up in the van the next day and made our way back to Lewis’ house to say our goodbyes, Peckett and some of the others had already got a taxi back the night before where the taxi driver stopped in the middle of a duel carriageway to give directions to a college, only in Ireland!  I have to say now a massive thanks to Crazy Mick who won’t stop throwing money at people, Princess Lewis Jackson for having us, Mark for putting the gig on, Owen for the use of his studio, Ushi for letting Wiz have a go in his Subaru and being hilarious and everyone else who invaded the house for those few days.
We had a massive good bye dinner then set off back to Dublin to stay with the MacNamara’s as our ferry was at 8:05 in the morning.  I got them to pose for a picture which was nice of them,

Have a look at http://www.myspace.com/heatherswhatsyourdamage, I think it’s probably the best thing I’ve heard possibly ever.
Ok I have to admit that I’m currently sat on the ferry back to Wales and because it takes 3 hours I thought I could catch up on the blogs, so if it all seems a bit rushed it’s because it is.  Everyone has woken up now but to start with all 7 of them were asleep and I was playing Command and Conquer 3 in the corner.  I’ll miss Ireland but I think we’re back in 3 weeks so it won’t be too bad!
Newcastle next, bring on the 5 hour drive! 

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Everyone woke up hungover in bed with other people apart from me as I’d locked myself in the master bedroom, en-suite I may add.  At best it’s a 4 hour drive to Cork but if you decide that you’re going to ignore the satnav and not take the motorway it takes more like 5 and a half.  When I say the motorway I mean “THE” motorway, they only have one and it’s not really finished yet, I think they’re all in England working on ours. 
Cork was amazing last time so we had high hopes for the gig that night.  We arrived after getting a bit lost to yet more food, a big thank you to Mitch and Dave who had put us on both times.  I had to lie down in the van after dinner as my body had adapted to lager and crisps only.  We played with Jezery which was their first gig in 7 months so we kind of hoped that a few people would turn up but I didn’t expect the whole place to be packed over capacity!  We played second which was a bit messy but everyone seemed to go crazy for it, even pulled Captain Burns out of the bag which we haven’t done for a while.  Tubelord played 10 songs or something crazy like that, Kirk says it was the best gig they’ve ever done and I’m sure the boys thought the same too.  Big up to cork x
We then packed the van up, I say packed threw some stuff in and I decided to leave loads of things at the venue.  The van had to be bump started as we’d left the inside lights on for the whole night but amazingly it started straight away!  We had a go sleeping at Jimmy from Jezery’s house but everyone was in party mode playing ping pong in the kitchen where we were trying to sleep.  I decided to go a stop in the Van but on the way I met Allen and Steph who were on the way back to her house around the corner.  In true Richard Lee style I managed to get a few beers out of them and another double bed to myself, everyone was well impressed with me the next day.

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We woke up and headed down to Wicklow, I say down but I don’t really know Ireland that well.  Mark from Enemies (check them out now, stop reading this rubbish) was putting the gig on in a skate park Limp Bizkit style! We had vegetable stir fry with sweet and sour source on rice which was amazing before heading down to the park.  It was cool to play in the day for a change in a small room which was really intimate.  I showed some of the locals what to do on a few of the ramps, you know how it is.  Mule then initiated a party at Lewis’ house which was incredible!  All of the Enemies boys came back and much fun was had having a few shandies and light banter.  Apparently in the other room there was naked beer wrestling going on, iron man competitions etc, but I’m far to civilised to partake in any of those activities. 

From the top left: Naomi, Kirk, Joe

Aimee, Sean, Dave, Wiz, Mick

Sam and Martain

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Some idiot booked the ferry for 14:30 thinking it would only take a couple of hours to get to Holyhead, but I was wrong it actually takes about 4 and the check in was at 13:30.  We dragged ourselves up at 9am as if we had real jobs to do and drove up the good old M5/M6 combo then across to Holyhead.  I have to say that I love Ireland and couldn’t wait to see all their generous potato eating faces again!  Sean Tubelord isn’t a very good traveller so he was delighted to hear that the ferry crossing only takes 20 minutes, unfortunately for him we’re all bastards and it actually takes 3 hours. 

A boat like the one we went on, but not because we were on it.

 
We arrived at 17:30 without a spot of sea sickness, although Sean did go to the toilet a few times so I’m not too sure he wasn’t sick.  We made our way to Naomi’s house to eat food cooked by her and Aimee; it’s not too bad being looked after by Irish women.  (I fixed the TV at her house the widescreen setting from the digibox was set to 4:3 and not 16:9)
We were playing Eamonn Dorans that night which is a wicked venue so decided to go into Dublin early to look at how expensive everything is, only £12 for 8 cans of Heineken!  It is an amazing city; people didn’t even bat and eyelid to us cooking our Irish stew out the back of the van in the middle of the road.  We were greeted by the new manager Mark who is probably the best manager of anything that needs to be managed in the world.  We managed to swop him some merch for a crate of beer and explained to me why Guinness tastes better in Ireland than back home, I didn’t really care how it tasted I got two pints for free thanks to crazy Mick and Barry.  The gig was a little rushed but it was always going to be a bit of a struggle on a 5 band bill but it all worked out in the end.  We stopped at Naomi’s again where I trod in dog poo in my socks, I recommend it to anyone. 

Eamon Dorans, no more needs to be said

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Newport!  The second Welsh gig for Blakfish in our history and by the turn out you’d know.  Tubelord played to us first and then we played to them, I think there we’re 3 or 4 other people in the “crowd” but despite that we all really enjoyed it.  Wiz played drums at the end of a Tubelord song and we played the whole of Gold.  We met some straight gangster’s outside who were from Solihull originally so they loved it when they found out we were from Sutton Coldfield, I nearly got Dave beaten up by one of them for a laugh, if I ever get any trouble in Newport they’ve got my back, but I don’t have their numbers so I’m not sure how that works out.

Check it out, in case you couldn’t guess it’s the Stereophonics with old drummer Stuart Cable, rock and/or roll.  Only £15.

Oh yea was good to finally meet Dan Le Man from My Favourite Porn Star.  I had been trying to arrange gigs with him for ages but was always met with the welsh curse.  We then travelled back to Cheltenham to try and cut down on the drive to Ireland the next day.

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We had two days off after Weymouth which I was planning on spending some time alone to relax.  This plan was ruined by Dave and Joe who stopped at mine both nights, nothing quite like waking up with the drummer from Tubelord every morning.  Oh yea and I got roped into sorting out www.asktubelord.com, if anyone wants any sites hosting let me know, £2 a month.
***When using satellite navigation always check the postcode you’re putting in is correct or you’ll end up in a field 45 minutes away from your destination.***
Chelt-en-ham, I really like the town and was glad to be back at the 2 pigs to be welcomed by the guys from Still Bust, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them out of that place.   The manager (insert name here) did us the usual “Shit Mix” which is the first few pints out of every single tap poured into one jug, not the best tasting thing but it does the job.  Kev from BSM showed his face which was nice, didn’t even buy me a beer and we’re making him thousands!  We stopped at Joe’s new Uni house where I fixed the toilet and wireless internet, managed to get myself 30 metres of network cable too!

 Joe’s Birthday Celebrations!

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The sea, the sea!!!  As you can expect from us Birmingham folk it is always amazing to see water that isn’t canals filled with dead dogs and shopping trolleys.  Again we had a few issues with 3.5t van and narrow roads but we got there in the end.  We were met by the promoter Andy who said “Park the van in here and leave it over night, there are rooms upstairs, food in a bit and you can drink at the bar all night.  Oh and we’ll get you sound checked now so you can get down the beach” How amazing is that, parking is always difficult to come by.  I’ll sum the rest of the day up with this picture.

Wiz, Dave, Peckett and myself in the sea.  Kirk was with us but he got out to take the picture and be gay.

Gig was brilliant again, I almost felt guilty that every gig so far had been amazing and people turned up.  We played with Second smile again who stayed up with us all night messing about, Minator Explode who were excellent, and I really enjoyed their smash hit “Over the Moon” (bit of an in joke there) and Dance Party who were beardtastc.    When I get chance I’ll stick some videos up nothing like a good montage. 

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 Meat Pie Promotions, what a wicked name!  Check this out I’d never seen anyone promote a gig in a pie costume before.  Again a really good gig, we spent part of the day having a picnic in the car park of some council flats which was great until some crack head mess came over and tried to steal some Strongbow, gotta live up to your social stereotypes!  We played with Venice Ahoy who to quote Joe Tubelord “Had god awful sound, it was like they were playing in the belly of T-Rex?”  We managed to get hold of a demo which is wicked though so check them out!  Also we played with our label mates Secondsmile who got their eventually after my excellent directions “Look out for the big red van”.  I actually got to watch them this time; we’ve played with them a couple of times but something has always happened which meant I’ve missed them.  Check them out if you haven’t already, check everyone out I mention because I’m always right.  www.google.com type it in yourself.

Thanks to Luke for letting us invade his house, I just wish I had actually bothered to sleep!  We all owe the swear box thousands of pounds, I should have kept to sexism it was well cheap only 20p a pop.  Get back in that kitchen!

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