UK TOUR SUMMARY

31 gigs in 42 days, opening for a band with a 40 year history, 100 million in record sales, and one of the most fanatical collection of fans you will ever see – that was what was ahead of us as we flew into London Heathrow on November 9th, 2006. Of course we were excited at the prospect of playing before the legendary Status Quo at famous venues such as Wembley Arena, Manchester MEN, Birmingham NEC etc etc, but there was also some trepidation. After all, we are a very different band to Quo. We are a rootsy 3 piece band who leave lots of holes in our music – Quo are a full on rock and roll band, and without a doubt one of the greatest live acts we have ever seen.
But I’ve got to say, we were totally blown away with the audience reaction to our music. We could never in a million years expect to win over everyone in a Quo audience, and we didn’t. There were plenty of people who chose to stay out at the bar until we were finished, and we were totally cool with that. That’s their right and prerogative as paying customers. But we were a little scared at how such a passionate audience would treat us, and they were fantastic. If they didn’t like us, they were very polite. If they did like us, they were incredibly enthusiastic. And it got better as the tour progressed.

Anyway, this is meant to be a brief tour summary, so I’ll get on with it. First gig was in Cambridge – beautiful city – at the famous Cambridge Corn Exchange, which used to be, well, a corn exchange. It holds about 2000 standing only punters. We were shitting ourselves before this first gig. We played only fairly, but it was ok. I lost my guitar out of my in-ear monitors after2 songs which didn’t help, and that gave us a clue about what we needed to change on stage after a few gigs. JB and I were using Pods on stage, no amps. We did this to make ourselves very portable and easy to change over before Quo. But Pods just don’t cut it on big stages, they are fine in little pub type rooms, but they are hard work on big stages.

The next two nights were at the Regent Theatre in Ipswich. We played better to about 1800 people each night, but we still weren’t happy with the on-stage sound. Incidentally, while we were in Ipswich, the first of what was to be 5 girls disappeared, the victim of one of England’s worst serial killers, as it turned out. We followed the case during the tour, and they caught the guy just before the tour ended. The other highlight for us was that our good mate Dave Johnson – great keyboard player that JB and I used to play with years ago – turned up at the second night. We had a few ales with him and his brother and a few mates, before our tour bus set off for the next gig in the early hours of the morning. There were three tour buses by the way – Quo’s, their personal crew’s, and the bus we shared with the rigging crew, a great bunch of guys from Denmark.

Next was Oxford, for two nights at the historic Apollo Theatre. We played better, but still not happy. Oxford is another beautiful, historic university town, but it was raining for most of the time we were there. It wasn’t until the next gig in Plymouth, that we solved the first part of our onstage difficulties. The Quo crew rolled out a spare Vox AC30, the exact same amp I’ve used all my life. I got some new (old) pedals and I was in heaven. Finally, a cranking amp up my backside. JB had to wait for a few more gigs for a hire bass amp to arrive, but even so, Plymouth was the first gig where we all walked off stage smiling. Great crowd for us too.

I’m not going to go through every gig – you’d be bored shitless by the time you finished reading this if I did, but I’ll tell you about some highlights. We moved on through Cheltenham (good show), two night back in Croydon in outer London (probably our least favourite gigs, but our good mate Jim Lawrie, Australian wine-maker extraordinaire, turned up to see us at the second show), 2 nights at Bristol (great gigs), then to Blackpool. Funny place Blackpool – it’s a faded English seaside town, which still pumps in summer, but it’s full of old amusement parlours tired old shops. The gig was good, 3000 people at the Blackpool Opera House, but the highlight of our stay there was finding a 10 pin bowling alley on our night off, and me kicking JB’s arse on the lanes (just as I’ll do to him at table tennis to settle a long-standing dispute, if ever we can find a table somewhere!).

Next was Llandudno, in Wales – a beautiful seaside town, and unlike Blackpool, full of attractive architecture and natural beauty. Good shows – I broke a D string second song in on the first night, and my Strat just shat itself, so I had to wheel out my Telecaster, much to the delight of the hardcore Quo fans. On to Hull – great gig, and probably the coldest town on the tour from our point of view, but a mighty crowd. Next up was Newcastle – nice city, good gig, and we got to catch up with our very, very good friends from Hotel California in Norway, who travelled over especially to see us, all 8 of them. We had a great day with them, and several drinks after the show, until our tour bus was ready to roll.

Harrogate and Halifax followed, and then it was the first of the arena shows, in Sheffield. From this point on, the tour was joined by Vivian, a band from Switzerland (see link to their site in our LINKS section). The deal from here on in was that we rotated with them as to who played first. I should have mentioned that up until now, we had been playing a 45 minute set, which was fantastic. It was really great of Quo to allow us to play a really decent set length, From now on, it was to be 40 minutes each for Vivian and us. Unfortunately for the Swiss lads, they had some problems with monitors during sound check, and they didn’t get to play Sheffield. This was a great gig, by the way, about 5000 people.

A night off in Manchester, and we caught up with our great friends Stuart and Lidia, who flew over from the south of France especially to see us, and with Julie and Selwyn, great friends also from Manchester. Much food and drink and a lot of laughs. The gig the next night was at the Manchester MEN, about 5000 people, and it was great. Vivian got to play, and they are a terrific band, and really good guys, even though they don’t speak much English, but then we speak lousy German, so we were equal.
Birmingham NEC was next, one of the biggest gigs, and I think there were about 6000 people. We went ok, not one of our better shows, but the crowd feedback later was good. It was a harder room to interact with the crowd, but you learn something new every night. One of the things we had been doing along the way, was Hayden Clake, our sound tech, had been recording most shows, so we were able to listen to what we’d done and fix things up. It was apparent from some shows that we were playing some songs just too fast, we weren’t sitting in a groove like we should be. Mashy fixed that problem for us, and we really locked in pretty well every night thereafter. I think we played our best shows at the arena gigs. Someone made the comment that we seemed to lift our game when Vivian joined the tour, and there’s probably some truth in that. Our great mate, and keyboard player from our previous band Rough Red, Peter Harvey, turned up in Birmingham, and it was great to catch up with him. His train to London ended up being cancelled, so he came on the tour bus with us to Swansea, back in Wales.

We put Pete on the train in Swansea the next day in the pouring rain, and got soaked walking back to the gig. Quo had never played this room before, but we really enjoyed the gig, and we played really well. This was only a small room (1200) so the Vivian lads didn’t play here. Next up was Nottingham Arena. Nottingham is a cool town – Robin Hood and all that – and the gig was great. Telford next, then Brighton, both good shows.

Then it was back to London, and the legendary Wembley Arena. It’s a pretty amazing feeling to walk on that stage, knowing who’s played there. Quo have played there more times than any other act, so it’s a special place. The room itself is no big deal – in fact there are plenty of better rooms in terms of feel and amenity – but there is plenty of history there, so we were happy to soak it up. The gig was great, people were great, all up an incredible experience.

Then it was off to Scotland, and Glasgow first up. I’ve been to Glasgow before and I like the city. We had a good look around before the gig. I think this was probably one of the best gigs on the tour, probably the best as far as I’m concerned. It was the biggest crowd – about 7000 – and they were fantastic. All during the English dates, we’d been subtly putting the boot in about the cricket, with a bit of playful banter with the crowd. Up here, they just loved the fact that Australia was kicking England’s arse!! Caught up with my friends Dougie and Susan, which was great. Next was Edinburgh (good show, brilliant city), then Aberdeen, also a fantastic gig, great crowd.
From there we did the longest drive of the tour, 10 hours back down to Braintree in the south of England. This was a very strange venue – an equestrian centre, and a first for Quo. It was a crap venue, very cold, and ordinary facilities, and even though I had trouble with one in-ear and had to pull it out, and Mashy had some rattling problem in his in-ears, it was actually a fantastic gig. The Vivian lads left after the gig to head back to Switzerland, hopefully in time for Stefan the drummer to make it home for the birth of his first baby (congratulations Steve – we hope all is well).

Finally, we arrived in Bournemouth on the south coast for the last gig of the tour. Expectations are always high I guess, for the last gig of a tour, but it was a great night. About 4500 people, very into us and we played accordingly. It was a great way to finish.
So, there you have it, a brief snapshot of a fantastic tour. It was bloody long, but that’s just how Quo do it. They travel the length and breadth of the country and play to all their fans and give their fans plenty of chances to see them. It was a great experience, and the musical adventure of a lifetime. What more can we say – Quo, they are just a great band and they are really nice guys. They were fantastic to us, there is absolutely no hint of ego, they are just terrific people. The crew – they were all amazing, so helpful, not an ego in sight, a great bunch of people.

And finally, the fans. We worked hard to get to know the die-hard Quo Army, the people who come along to multiple (in some cases, EVERY) gig, and they really are a nice bunch of people. They got to know our songs, and their enthusiasm helped us win over the crowds every night. Have a look at our guestbook, and you’ll see the reaction to us from a lot of people. Did we win them all over ? Of course not, no support band can do that, but to their everlasting credit, even if they didn’t like us, as I said at the start, they were still polite. But we certainly won over the great majority of the crowds, we could tell that just standing on stage every night.
A special mention too for Hayden our sound guy. He did a great job for us on tour and I think he had the experience of a lifetime also. Well done, Haydo. Also Matty Parnell, Mashy’s son, who we took on tour to film the whole thing, with a view to making a documentary. His hard work lies ahead – good on you, Matty.
What a tour …