JP in Texas

more SXSW

pic of JP at SXSW

The road home from SXSW 07

I'm sitting in the holiday inn hotel bar as i write this on my mac. Jonny is running things in the bar and has made best friends of all the locals and I mean good friends, he cracks the Bo selecta micheal jackass voice constantly and bizzarely the Texans love it. And that really is the story of the 2nd half of our Texan trip. We seem to make a bigger impression on people out on the town than at our shows, which leaves me puzzled cause aren't JP the best band in the world?
After our below par pefromance of the 1st show I was a little lost and we had to re-gather quickly as the next show was only hours away.
There wasn't anything particularly wrong with the first show it just had no edge, no spark, that sepcial thing that makes a band GREAT and that is what we've always been after, And although were guilty of doing some crap shows there's been moments when we were the greatest band in town and I wish that everyone could see us in our true light.
If they had been at the show at 4.15pm on friday 16 of March At Troubadour in AUSTIN TEXAS they and even you would've seen the greatest band in the world. I kid you not, I'm never happy at our shows, I'm always after the elixir if greatness and that day we drank a pint of it. The show was that good and I could breath a sigh of relief in the knowledge that my pursuit is not in vain, infact I feel we are more vital than ever, and I tell you, recently my faith has been questioned.
After the show we drove to get something to eat saw somewhere called 'Bone Daddies.' It was bbq and that's what matt and jonny wanted. We stepped inside and there were beautiful girls in shorts and showing plenty of cleavage. We pinched ourselves, we really did. Sean ordered the beer can chicken.....When it arrived it was a whole massive chicken violated with a beer can up its arse. I've got photo's, infact I've got plenty of photo's. They are all to follow.
The Saturday had an even earlier show for us, 2.15pm. As ever me and matt would relocate to the marriot to get ready. this was also where we parked our car (thankyou kathy) and wondered to the venue on the way out we bumped into Slash. It's always good to see my old mate and the king of many of matts moves and heart.
Again we deliverd at the show and it was good to see Pedro Ferreira at the show. I had seen him do the sound and carry Justin of the darkness at many of there early shows before their immense rise and fall.
We dropped the equipment back at the hotel and then headed back into town and the festivities of St.Patricks day commenced, boy were they messy. I couldn't walk, Sean could only mention the word crack, jonny was drinking from the cracks and matt was looking at the stars. I could tell you stories about that night, it will live with all of us for a long time as did the hang over.
The shows were good for us, they really made us think about what we do and what were trying to achieve, so much so that the UK shows will be better as a result. The albums finished, the live shows sorted (well insight) and we got our work cut out when were back (straight onto the artwork etc), I think things are good. Last year was tough but so far this year has been promising.
Speaking of promises, we promised a great 2nd album and we keep our promises.

The road to SXSW 07

Sunday 11 march saw us play our first show of 07 at the Borderline in London, just off the charing x road.
On the wednesday before we'd finally found out we were going to SXSW in Austin, Texas, so to have this show was more than handy. We'd practiced a set the couple of days before and were ready to go. So we thought.
After the first song, a nervous rendition of Heroes of Villains, we were all looking at each other, me telling matt to hurry up, 'he replied 'i don't start this 1'.... I looked down at the set list and Jonny's computer skills were lacking he'd missed a song out. So I called The Rebel (the original 2nd song) and away we went. This little error seemed to phase us though and our confidence was lacking in the next couple of songs.
So it was a gig of 2 halves, the 1st finding our stride. The 2nd having found it, marching the way we know best and now we were running I wanted to carry on playing for another 20 mins. We played a varied set of old and new songs.
The next day, monday, we mastered our album, it's loud.
If you liked our first, you will truely love this.
The next morning we all met at Victoria station and jumped on the Gatwick express to...... Gatwick Airport.
Once through customs Jonny and Sean had a drink in the pub and we boarded our flight.
Bizarrely the flight was empty (all the other flights going to texas were packed) and it was just us and Lily Allan and her crew on the plane.
Jonny and Sean proceeded to drink the plane dry (no exageration) and Matt slept. Jonny spilt so much wine down his top, then thought it would be wise to put white wine then soda water on it. This failed to remove the stain and turned his white shirt green, it was also wet!!! So he took it off, so there's jonny sittin on the plane topless with a blanket drapped over his shoulders like some budget superhero.
I did wonder what it would be like getting these 2 through US immigration, Seans eyes had totally gone (he looked boss eyed) and I knew Jonny was drunk cause he talks louder and louder and starts calling everyone 'darling.'
We got through fine.
Now to the next crisis, my credit card which the whole trip was going on was declined at the car hire place (which was shutting as we arrived), we then tried jonny's card 'declined', seans card 'declined'. It loos like our credit is shit.
Eventually we sorted the situation and got in our hire car in the middle of nowhere. We waved goodbye to the car people, who just shut the door after us and then turned on our gps. I had downloaded the maps of texas......however it read no signal.
Now we don't have a scooby where we are but it was Matt to the rescue. Being a wizard of all things electrical he realised that the gps couldn't see the texas map, we actually needed to tell the gps to shift maps. Eventually away we went, me driving on the right hand side of the road. Check me out.
So we find the hotel, now orries go to check in and the receptionist tells me my card was declined so the room was given away and tonight they're full up. This is 9pm US time and 2am ours. The word Shit sprang to mind. So we drove around houston looking for a place to stay.
you would've laughed when we eventuall got a place. There's the 4 of us asleep in a rown top and tales. The 4 of us like sardines in a bed.
The next day we went shopping for leads and stands in the houston guitar centre before driving to Austin.
This was proper teen horror flick. As we left Houston the sky infront of us was black, then the houses dissapeared and the corn fields appeared. 1 house on the horizon, then the sky's opened with the most horrendous downfall of rain. My visibility was about 10m for 2 hours, it was extremely dangerous. I could see the others holding on to their seats so tightly their hands were white. But we did without encountering any slashers, chainsaw maniacs, monsters, fall out people, jeepers creepers and big breasted college girls.
We checked into our 'long stay hotel' and headed into town. The adventures Jonny gets us in I just can't describe, but lets put it like this at 4am rather than trying to get a cab home like everyone else he be friends the gay van driver clearly off his face on drugs and gets us a lift with him. This guy was desperate for us to stop, lets grab a beer as he offered us drugs, keep your eyes on the road please. matt was seriously worried as the van had a silence of the lambs feel about it and the guy a serial killer manner (if there is such a thing). Still we made it.....just.
Now to to the first gig, we went to a music bbq in the morning and again everyone is british (this really is brits abroad, the UK music industry relocating for an all expenses jolly), white and 40ish. These are the people who are choosing your bands, playing what you want to hear on the radio etc.
Oh yeah the gig, it wouldn't be JP if we didn't go on late. We hit the stage just before 11.15pm and played a surreal show. We didn't feel part of anything, I don't think I struggled (although there was no monitoring so was very hard to sing) but i did feel alittle lost, when normally through JP's live set I discover my essence (i think???). But play we did. After I sat on the steps at the back and wondered, just wondered.

Th October tout part 4

The day off in London was great I went Yoga, wagamama's and cooked a late meal. But this isn't about days off it's about gigs.
And the next 1 was in Southampton. The traffic was horrendous on the way there but it was a late soundcheck/show so we did try and take on the M25 during rush hour.For our dinner we had cheese and ham panini's form a avending machine, Jazz even had chips. soon people will be redundant and machines will rule the world. Oh my god the Terminator is coming true.
I enjoyed the show, but it seemed the sound was very distorted. i suspect one of the speakers had broke, so there was extra crackle to our set. Again we had some help with BYY and this we like very much and although the sound wasn't great a lively performance was put in.
After we stopped for a kebab (my 1st on the whole tour) and as we walked back to the van Jazz proceeded to puke his all up, and puke and puke. This is a reason for boycotting kebabs.
It felt like my head had barely hit the pillow as we got up and set off from our travelodge to manchester, I was really tired.
When we got to manchester we found out we weren't on at 8.45 as advertised but 11pm, headlining the 3rd stage, which was downstairs and compared to the other 2 a bit rubbish. We wanted to be on earlier, we werre there at 5pm and with no sound check we had to sit in the van for 5 hours. The mood was lightened but hannah's 18th birthday and as we bumped into her every hour she was increasingly drunk, how drunk would she be next time??? At the end of the night becky and Laura had to carry her to their hotel and carry is no exaggeration.
As for the show, we were diabolical. We couldn't handle the pressure. ok the stage was way too small, the set up bad, the drum kit only had 1 leg but we were still bad. matt went down in Automatic Healer, our 2nd song that night and we then had no idea what we were playing and thats really the start of it. the energy and willingness to grind out a performance wasn't there. it was poor on everyone's part and very, very dissapointing. We really had reached some consistency on this tour and although I always require an edge it was nice to be able to take risks with the set as we had faith in each other to deliver every night. If you set a standard, you can never let it slip. i apologise to anyone who saw this shambles.
Another day off, in manchester, saw me catch up with my old friend, some of you may know him Matt marine, we've known each other since we were 5 and we did what we always do we went to the gym and had a fight, friendly of course, but brutal.
Jonny and Sean went to the local bowling alley and proceeded to drink and bowl.
They had a kids halloween party and when they asked someone to sing Micheal jacksons Thriller, jonny raced across the lanes grabed the mike and proceded to Bo Selecta the mike 'Shamone Motherfucker he-he' he screamed down the mike. The compare grabbed the mike back and it was time for them to go from the bowling alley. When security came after sean and Jonny as thgey were leaving they couldn't work out what was happening, however they were so drunk they'd left with their bowling shoes still on. When they came back to the hotel Sean declared his love for me and jonny even when standing still looked like he was on a ship at high seas.
The lsat show of the tour was at Liverpool and again another late 1, a mid-night show, a mid-night halloween show, with students. Loads of them pissed on £1 drink and mixer.
There wasn't another band so it was great to have all the stuff set up so we could just walk on stage and play and play we did. it was a great show and again we were joined for the BYY middle 8 by 2 friends, then 2 more, 2 more. there ended up over 20 people on the stage, drinks flying everywhere, but we kept it together, and without even being able to see another member of the band i shouted 'Jonny, I'll count you in1,2,3,4' we then burst into Olivers Army. it was great the kind of thing if we were the kooks or the view we'd be in NME declaring riot/stage invasion. But were not the cool, were just for real.
We carried on with the set and it was great, a genuine end of tour party to finish it off. We also had a great back stage area and many people who were on stage joined us. Just great in my book.
The drive home wasn't so great. we got back to mine at 7am unloaded the van and then I drove the van back to where it was hired from and job done.
Thanks tyo all those who came and saw.
rob JP

Th October tout part 3

As you can imagine I didn't feel so great the drive back to Inverness, but as Radiohead said "you do it to yourself you do and that's why it really hurts.' We checked back into the luxury of our £26 travelodge room and crashed for awhile. Matt was out like a light. I was dozing.....shit were going to be late. A quick drive across Inverness to the skate rink known as Downtown USA (we couldn't find it and when sean asked at the leisure centre for 'downtown usa' he got a funny look), we set up quickly and I expected my voice to be a wreck but it wasn't, suprisingly felt great. So without monitoring (the band before belw them up) I felt really comfortable singing and I think collectively we really enjoyed the show. Even though the room wasn't full the crowd was right in our face and this always leads to greater inter-action. we grabbed some chinese food and went back to the travelodge for some much needed sleep.
Again the drive to Aberdeen was really cool, less rural than the west of scotland but still flowing hills and blue skies. When I knocked on the door to the Tunnels venue the owner opened and I told him were johnny Panic and here to play tonight, no you're not he replied, yes we are, no you're not. This really did go on for 5 minutes proper panto style. But it turned out the venue really wasn't expecting us and had an acoustic night on. Frantic calls were made and the acoustic gig was moved to the room next door and a sound engineer called. Then the tour support band 'our lives' turned up and although we had heard of them, no 1 told us they were playing some shows with us. For us this was quite embarassing as we were caught on the back foot and we were never as welcoming as we should've been as we were imersed in the situation that the venue had returned all the advanced tickets sold under the mistaken belief we had cancelled.
The next calamity was Chris Sheldon was mixing The Rebel that day, he was doing an over night mix, which he would email to us then we'd talk to him about it before he goes back in the studio to print the mix in the morning. Now my email works 24/7 but the email never arrived boy was i panicking now, we'd worked hard to set up this situation and of all times my email was down (it turned out that stubbs had changed the server on that day, pure bad luck), so I was a real mess of worry. I couldn't even communicate with 'Our Lives'. The gig itself was pure escapism and I loved it even though we played to 20 people (i'm sure they check the forum as this is how they knew the gig was on). The reaction from all those people was great and really gave us a boost under the circumstances and a few of them commented that they thoguht it was cancelled as it was taken off the tunnels web site, what a bummer.
Never did get to hear the mix until it was too late, but thank god chris is a great mixer as it sounds great. i think Medi will be pleased and I can't wait for him to hear it. Hopefully it'll be the next single, i'll try and put it on myspace asap.
After a long drive after the gig we booked into a travelodge in the middle of nowhere again. the receptionist was a legend. She came up to our room and we got her pretty drunk, well jonny did, and we couldn't understand a word she said, such a broad scottish accent. we found out she'd already been sacked twice but her mums the manager. She honestly was hilarious and I hope we stop there again on our journies.
It's a long drive to Leeds and when the roads shut as well this leads to JP being very late and this we were. I hate being late and it really grates with me. Our lateness pushed the show back and further demonstrated our incompetence to our lives. the 1st band on that night My Exploding Heart were very good, very work man liek but i enjoyed their set, sound and songs.
Again I loved playing the show and was only a little dissapointed it got cut short cause of our lateness. When you;re stuck in a van it's such a pleasure to explode on the stage and I often think I'll be stuck in a van again soon so lets have it while you can.
We found a great chinese/kebab shop called Fortune Cookie it was great and the people really friendly. Students came in in their pyjama's and others wearing less, we loitered for obvious reasons.
A short drive to wakefield and our beloved Travelodge.
Back on the road and we had to drive past Northampton to Milton Keynes as we had to drop my exploded amp off to Marshall for repairs and it sits there as I write this now.
Northampton looked a grey town, ok it was raining but it seemed to be missing something. Sometimes I think these temporary buildings known as retail parks suck the life and heart out of the town and this is what it looks (and when i spoke toa couple of people) happened here. The town centre is now a collection of pound shops.
My voice was tired by this gig, it still performed but not quite to par, but the performance was brillant, I wanted to get off the stage and watch JP, as this is the kind of band I want to see. We played on and on and made up for the shorter set the night before.
We then got into the van and I put my foot down as we raced towards London, our beds and a day off at home.

The October Tour Part 2

After sweating for a couple of days and coughing my guts up we headed to Exeter and the Cavern, a town and venue JP have never visited before. It looked a great town and I really liked the venue now the only thing I had to get firing was me.
After hearing students sing ‘Exeter boys we are here shag your women and drink your beer’ I suggested to Jonny he move there, he could lead the chorus aloud.
I was below par for the gig and though I tried the voice wasn’t what it should be.
After the show we had a quite a drive to Cardiff as we were staying with our great friend John Lazelle, who has a wicked flat in the centre of Cardiff. We got there at 2am waking John who had to be up at 6am ,so sorry John . the next day was a day off and a day for all of us to head to Holland and Barrett for our vitamins. I manged to spend £40 closely followed by Sean whose supply of Beechams flu powder had become legendry. The day off was really needed to recover for a proper performance and it was topped off by a trip to a curry house in the docks.
The Cardiif barfly is a bitch of a venue, a hard load-in and out and the sound on stage is a killer, as a singer you’re singing blind (if that makes sense). As a result we put more performance into our performance and I thought we had a real go.
After the show John and his pal headed out and the band headed back to the flat. Once at the flat Jonny had the great idea that we get dressed in John Lazelle’s outrageous shirts (hence the photo) and find him at the club, we thought this was great and hurridly got ready and ran out the flat to the pub, looking like pricks!
However, there was no sign of John in the pub, so we headed to the next club he ews rumoured to be in. After some dodgy directions we were back where we started when I heard someone say ‘Aren’t you in Johnny Panic?’. Now this was a decision to I miss the chance of fame or risk humilation that were all in these dodgy shirts. Fame got to me, but I explained away the shirts. It was really good to hear that these people liked the gig and the band and added to our strides as we made our way to lazzelle’s location. Which was a dodgy 80’s club. John turned round to me and said ‘I’ve got that shirt’, then looked at the others with puzzlement before declaring ‘you bastards.’
Bruce Springsteen came on and we all danced.
A lot of vitamins were consumed the next morning and a few repairs to our burnt out equipment. Then we headed off across the Seven to Bristol. We turned up to find we were on later than expected, again and the rider was out of date Budwieser. Bristol was an emotional night as we all hoped that jenny Panic would hold out in her struggle against Lukemia, however, that wasn’t to be, jenny missed the gig by only a few days. I hope that she would of enjoyed our performance and continued her belief in JP. She will be greatly missed but never forgotten..
We were at Johns for one last night and after the gig we played poker into the medium-sized hours and got up very late for the last gig in the ‘welsh’ leg of the tour Newport. We got a bit lost on the way there, it wasn’t my fault, honest. The last gig was pretty quiet and we took it in a very relaxed fashion. This can sometime lead to the best JP shows as we play the songs for ourselves and the element of performance still comes out, but it comes out in a very natural fashion and then you can see the true band.
We now had the task of a long drive to Newcastle………..is it over yet?
Now Newcastle had a great sound check, all sounded great, nice stage, great sound engineer. What could go wrong?
Well my amp blowing up as we hit the first note of the actual show. I was guitar less playing the songs, it was weird and you could feel an anxiety in the band that we weren’t comfortable with it even though we were surviving. Jazz, gtr tech, In the meantime had raced down 5 flights of stairs to get the spare amp out of the van. By the guitar solo in warn you I was back in action and this is when the gig really started. As a result we played on over our usual set as compensation to our gracious audience was in order.
A quick trip to Middlesbrough after the gig for our Travelodge we were starving, we heard there was a Tesco Extra 5 miles down the road so we were running round there like delirious kids. I spent a fortune again and bought a Bruce Springsteen cd/dvd, the seegar sessions and the killers, sams town.
The Middlesbrough gig the next day was in a strange venue above a pub, Liberties, strange cause it really was a function room. But it isn’t the venue that makes the show, it’s the band the people and I can confirm they were good, very good.
I’d seen green day several times before the Milton Keynes shows last summer, but the shows, which we were very nearly first on, were amazing and have affected my thoughts on live shows. The bit where they get 3 members of the audience up on stage to play Operation Ivy they’ve done for over 10 years, same trick no-matter what tour.
It’s always been my hope that we wouldn’t sing ‘I know you know they ain’t got a fucking clue’ during burn your youth, that would be the audiences job. Now after the green day I wished we could get to the size where I coulp pluck 2 people out of the audience to sing on Matt and Seans mike, however, we both know this hasn’t happened so a performance trick I’ve always wanted to use to take the show to the next level has never surfaced. In Middlesbrough I turned round and seans mike had seen a hostile take over and the words of I know you know were not of JP but the audience, hooray. I’d like this to continue but it can’t always be the same people, for it to be effective it always has to be new people so that the success of the words is spreading, so if you haven’t done it and we play it, the stage is yours.
The next day was a travelling day and the journey was to Scotland and a beautiful area called Kinross. The journey was really cool with a fantastic carvery on the way and beautiful scenery. We arrived at our destination early evening and I went off to find the internet while the others went to the local pub, and boy was it a locals place. More like a front room than a pub. Sean was no-where to be found, he had come down with the flu/cold virus hitting us all and was to spend the next 36 hours in bed.

We got ourselves together and headed to Fort William the following day and although we’d been in Scotland for 2 days this was to be our first Scottish date. We easily found the venue and had to cross a wooden bridge in our van to get there, this seemed wrong to us as it looked like it would collapse at the weight of our van filled with the 5 of us, all our equipment and matt’s hair products. It held, just. But we had to cross it 3 more times and each time we became increasing nervous, our luck couldn’t last.

At the show I was pretty uninspiring, weighed down by fish n chips and was only towards the end I really picked up the mantle and went for it. After we had a chat with some of the locals and a couple of older punks who told me where I’d stolen, I mean borrowed, all the songs from. For the 1000 time I told them that automatic healer is nothing like police message in a bottle, I ask you now listen to the 2 songs, the gtr riffs are very, very different. I would argue that it’s more Joe Satriani than Andy Sumner. Now this night was shit, we were staying at a hostel that was literally at the base of Ben Nevis (no Travelodge in this town) we couldn’t find it for ages as it was a up[ the smallest and windiest of lanes that looked like it went straight up Britain’s highest peak.
We turned up at 2am and all the back packers were asleep, we were pissing ourselves at the place and the situation. After much tom foolery that reminded me of being in the cubs we tried to settle down in our bunks (see the picture) we were all quiet then we heard Seans phone ring and the sound cut through the silence, ‘Warning I am stood next to a wanker’ everyone pissed themselves under the covers as the walkers tried to sleep. All settled down but then Sean got in gear and snored the house down so I went into the van to try and sleep in there, it was cold and very dirty, uncomfortable. I don’t recommend it.
The next day I was tired, I think we all were, Jonny had been up at 9 drinking tea and as we stood at the base of a beautiful mountaining we could do nothing but wish for our beds back in sunny London. Instead a drive to the very north west of Scotland was on the cards. What a drive, it was beautiful we stopped at Loch Ness and saw many other completely stunning sights. It really made an impression on me and I’d like to return with a car and a young lady to explore this beautiful setting.
Ullapool is a very small town, so small there is no venue to play. We were playing in the local fish and chip restaurant (very good food they gave us). Again we were in a hostel but this 1 had a carpet and other nice things you don’t associate with camping.
We were about to be very work-man-like with the gig until we started to play, when we did we transformed into Queen, majestically parading the restaurant.
I had a great time and even with no monitors could hear the vocals loud and clear. The audience was mixed, a varied bunch but as we finished each song they cheered and clapped loudly, very hospitable indeed.
After the gig we went to a party that really was in the middle of nowhere, a barn on the outskirts of Ullapool. It’s alright, none of us were killed, texas chain saw massacre style. It was good while it lasted, I got soooo drunk you can’t imagine and was the only time that I did all tour, but when I do I get wasted on not much as well I must confess. When I eventually found my way to the hostel at 7am (thanks to seeing sean on the mobile in the street) I could hardly stand and I entertained Matt by falling over and colliding things well try to explain what adventures I’d been on. Eventually the Duracell in this bunny faded.

The October Tour Part 1

Your humble droog narrator is sitting here with a dry cough, spots, 5kg reduction in weight and a croak of a voice such is the efforts he and his fellow droogs have given to you our avid listener/reader.
The first show was the Subverse show at the camden underworld. A show we've played before and was a great success, however, being the headline band can be a curse and it's a theme of this tour as we went on very late. There were 5 bands on the bill and people were leaving as we made our way to the stage, for us this is real dissapointing as we know we were in a different league to the other bands and more importantly had something positive to communicate to this key youth auidence.
I didn't think it was a bad start performance wise, just a missed opportunity.
Cambridge was next and a welcome return to the portland arms.
It doesn't really have any monitoring and is the greatest sound but it is a sweat box or was. They'd installed air conditioning and no matter how hard we played the JP sweat didn't arrive and that's vital to our show. I really enjoyed this show and was a pretty good performance again, getting better.
Next stop Birmingham Barfly, a place i've always wanted to play. Support band Templeton pek we played with on our last trip to b'ham at the barfly. We've now played most the key venues in b'ham. I liked the gig although my vocals were a little weak as the monitoring wasn't hitting me hard enough. The crowd were great and we missed a good opportunity as there was definate need for an encore but by the time Jonny was ready to go out people were starting to leave. I reallly flet we could've made that gig great if we'd played 1 more.
After our usual travelodge sleep, they rule, we were down in the town of Brighton. The scene of a messy stagg do jonny and I were on only a couple of weeks before.
The upstairs of the venue was like an old living area in the pub. The gig was listed as JP on at 10 but when we looked at the stage times we were on at 11.15, this was rubbish we and the people who'd come to see us had ages to wait. So i took a bath, I cleaned this old rusty thing out and had a bath, after I felt ge=reat, so great I had a 330ml can of cobra beer, so as the show started I was rocking.
Now there were few people there but I didn't care I was rocking.
I loved the show, I thought we were collectively great and again Matt's equipment hadn't blown up, this is a real result for us.
After I drove to west london to our next travelodge.
Leciester Charlotte is a venue we've plyed before and unlike other towns ort venues people always come straight to the front and again this was the case and as a result the small crowd interacted with us and led to a greater spirit in the show.
For all these gigs so far we'd had our guitar tech Jazz, he's new, he touches dolphins. But for the next 2 shows he was leaving us on our own......
Tonbridge wells forum we were supporting Zebrahead, we were told to be there for 5, we were and waited, 2 hours later zebrahead turned up. there tour manager had demoted us to 1st on but this wsn't in our contract, we were billed as amin support. Now seeing as this show was sold out and the audience having trouble getting in the door the 1st band would go on to a room filling with people rather than full.
Your humble narrator wasn't having this, a deals a deal, so words were exchanged with the TM who was rude and I could've beaten up at any time UFC style ( i have an obsession with UFC) but I remained professional and we got the slot.
The gig itself was a riot and the sound probably terrible but the sweat and amazing energy from the crowd made it worthwhile, the zebrahead fans and the people of tonbridge wells know how to have it. But 'Minge' I ask you, is this really want punk rock has become?
The load out was so tough and packing away in the dark and freezing cold was tough and this is where the sickness Jazz left us set in.
The sugarmill was the scene of a great JP show before and was to be again. great sound, great stage, great and large audience to see the spectacle that is and was JP. All i can say is I never wanted the show to end, I could quite happily be there now still singing.
The drive home however, without Matt, who went to manchester, was awful. A massive delay on the M1 meant we sat there in the van for 2 hours without moving, we'd hoped to get in at 2am, we got in gone 4am.
Sunday was our 1st day off after 7 gigs straight and I went thai boxing training, by the evening I wasn't feeling so good but I still got up the next morning to go boxing. On my return it hit me, a 24 hour fever struck me. Chris Sheldon, mixer of the new 2nd album came round and matt had to talk with him as I laid sweating on the couch and it is for this reason that this tour diary was delayed.

wave and wheelies

so my photo's are a bit touristy but that's what it was like.
A genuinely beautiful town and landscape that was so clean i wanted to lick the floor in joy.
Which brings me to my rant, tonight i'm supposed to be going to watch the footie england vs sweden, but i find it hard to watch it with other people, especially as this wave of national pride crashes over them. At the end of the match when the pub is chanting en-ger-land, en-ger-land (they can't even say it right england is the land of the engle's, there's no ger in it) I'd like to say come on guys lets hit the streets and pick up litter. This to me is nationalism taking pride where you live and looking after it. So i always question people's commitment to their country and as a result i usually end up being punched in the nose!
Back to the gig, so the wave and wheels is different to the other festivals we play as it doesn't eveolve around music. The natural wave of the river provides all the surf for competitiors in the land locked switzerland and the ramps set up for the skateboarders and bmxer's allow them to compete with tricks etc. This went on throughout the day and the drinking and music started at night.
The organisers looked afetr us very well so when we eventually hit the stage at 1am we were fired up on a dinner of fajita's and 20 bottles of powerade. As a result it was the longest set we've ever done (70mins).
Minority of 1
free winona
warn you
chemical girlfiend
the rebel
you're a fool
shut up
i live for
coming up roses
kkk took my baby away (sung by matt)
heroes of villians
automatic healer
gone
burn your youth

we played ok, but we need a tour to be really sharp. We actually started drinking at 3am (not before the gigs boys and girls) and even though i only had 2 drinks i was hammered, a 5 minute walk home to the hotel took 30mins and probably about 3 miles as i refused to walk in a straight line.
Everything went pretty smoothly and we enjoyed ourselves and hope to be out there more over the summer.

waves and wheels

lots happening

so much has been happening, all behind the scenes.
Firstly we wanted to add a different vocal dimension to a song called I know that I know I just can't remember so, thanks to sean, we enlisted the help of the cherrybombers, who kindly came and sang on the pre-chorus and chorus na's. There vocals have really helped the dynamic of the song and were itching to put the finishing touches to it.
We've been looking at all the songs closely and have made changes to most songs.
There looks like a songle on the horizon but at the minute i'm reluctant to say something.
Well just in-case JP and medi enlisted the mixing skills of Chris Sheldon who mixed 2 of JP's all time favourite song, everlong by foo fighters and screamager by Therapy? And he lived up to his reputation, i'm going to put the mix of i live for on myspace. he mixed another song but that shall remain a mystery at the minute......
Were very close to finishing the album and if it wasn't for us having to got out and get more cash to finish it, it'd be done.
Soon, very soon.
rob.x
p.s. the dog is axl and jonny's best friend. he's the resident italian greyhound at kore studio