Day 11: July 16th, 2000 BRIGHTON, England, FREE BUTT "Its about time for Fish and Chips"
We drove down to Brighton after another good night's sleep. We wanted to get to Brighton fairly early cause it was a big tourist town and the beach had a lot to offer as far as scenery and shops and shit.
We did get down early enough to see a lot of stuff. Unfortunately again it was sunday and a lot was closed, but we still got to see a bunch. We also had the opportunity to finally eat some fish and chips! We had been waiting the whole time to do the traditional British food and Ken Wayne and Chris finally did it. And well it was fish and french fries, big deal. But we did get to see the Lanes shopping district and experience the waterfront. It was cool. We also got to see the Royal Pavilion...that was crazy looking.
The Free Butt was another cool punk club that looked like it had had a ton of cool bands play there or at least coming through.(BOD:Kronenburg) Tonight was the first night that Annalise would be playing as well and we were anxious to hear them after hearing so much about them for so long. The local band cancelled, which was par for the course, and Scarper was the first band on. They were truly fabulous as usual, and next was Annalise. Annalise was really great as well and lived up to the expectations we had for them.
The Brighton set was:
NEVER BE THE SAME-LOOSE TRUKS-LISTEN TO ME-WHETHER-STARE--BEST FRIENDS-STAY-ANOTHER VOICE-SWITCH-PUZZLES-BLINK-NEED TO KNOW-SELF CONTROL-YOU MIGHT THINK-LEAVE ME NOW
We decided to take the ride back up to London to spend the night at Aston's flat. Scarper stayed down in Brighton with some friends and Annalise came up and stayed with us at Aston's seeing as they were playing the next night as well. We had PB&J pn the M23 on the way home to Aston's.
Day 12: July 17th, 2000 London, England, UNDERWORLD "We can't believe its over." and "We left him on the beach with some strange girl" About monk in Brighton
We awoke in London after a fine night of hanging out with the guys from Annalise. Unfortunately there was a bit of bad news waiting for us when we woke up.
Ed, the singer of Annalise, was already on his way back to Exeter because of the death of a close friend of his. Apparently sometime in the night or early morning his friend passed away and he got word of it very early in the morning. We spent the morning trying to find the other guys from Annalise (they had gone out for a walk in London) and generally trying to figure out what would happen for the day. Eventually everyone was found and the other guys from Annalise decided to do the show without Ed seeing as they were already here and Scarper and the Unknown needed to use their gear for the night. It was really nice of them to still play and we appreciate the fact that they stuck around.
We had time again to today to take our time and relax before heading to the Underworld for the show. It was in the Cambden area of London which wasn't far, but still was probably going to take us an hour or so to get there.
We got over to the World's End bar (that's where the Underworld was located...under it...) and after a few trips around the block we figured out where to park and how to get in the damn place.
This was THE club. This place was awesome. It was huge. It was every rockstar's dream. This night was going to be great.
We walked into the club and started to unload. The Underworld was a 750 or so capacity venue. This place had acts such as Hot Water Music, The Get up Kids, Social Distortion and the Muffs go through it. There was four bands on the bill for the night and it was going to be awesome. They had a pro sound system and an amazing backstage area.
So after unloading, Ken and Wayne and Chris took a walk around the Cambden area. There was a ton of shops and cool things to see, Wayne and Chris even ran into some Japanese people at this Vintage clothing store we were at. After an hour or so, we went back for the sound check....
By the time we were done sound checking, we had the pleasure of being treated to a huge buffet of food in the backstage area. Oh speaking of the backstage area, it was total big time. It had a shower, private bathroom, dressing area, and you needed a pass to even get back there. Man did we feel like rockstars.
Chris' wife Kyoko had come to London a few days earlier to visit her relatives that lived there and they were all in attendance as well to see this show.
The first band of the night was the local band Dead Inside. They were a tight heavy band similar to Black Flag.
Annalise played next and they sounded great through this huge sound system. They did a great job playing without Ed the singer, and no one seemed to notice he was missing.
Scarper played next, and they sounded top notch. Wow was this turning out to be a good night.
We were excited to finally get on the stage. I mean after all this was London, England, who would've thought we'd ever play on a stage here...
The London set was:
NEVER BE THE SAME-LISTEN TO ME-WHETHER-STARE--BEST FRIENDS-ANOTHER VOICE-SWITCH-PUZZLES-BLINK-BIFF THE CAT-SELF CONTROL-SHE'S MY EX-LEAVE ME NOW
Well we played probably as well as we did on the whole tour. Of course Chris had to break a string during Switch and he had to use Mac's guitar the rest of the night. It definitely threw us off a bit because up til then we were rocking out hard. We did a great job until She's My Ex when we decided to forget how to play it and we ended up adding an extra verse to it....it was funny. But hey we are humans. We got a good response from the crowd in attendance and there were a lot of people there to see us play. The promoters again did an awesome job and we couldn't have been happier with the turnout.
We loaded out right before the 11pm deadline and we were off to the pub across the street for our final few drinks together with Scarper. After a few pints, we split up with Chris and Kyoko (they were going off to stay with her relatives and then to Paris the next day) and we all returned to Aston's.
We spent the rest of the night talking and hanging out and not believing that the tour was over.
Day 13: July 18th, 2000 London to HOME "...the bass didn't make it."
We got up the next morning and said our goodbyes. It was hard to leave this place and all the people we met.It was especially hard to say goodbye to Scarper. Aston and Julie drove us to the airport and we were off.
We had an annoying trip home.
We got delayed in London and we had to endure crying kids and crappy seating all the way home. And by the time we landed in Toronto we only had 30 minutes to catch our next flight. And that was NOT enough time. We ran like maniacs to get to our connecting flight and sure enough the minute we got on the plane, the doors closed and we took off -- without our luggage. See in the midst of running through the airport we dropped the luggage off on a conveyor belt thinking it was going to get there with us. No one was around to help us out, and it seemed that this was the right thing to do. Well it wasn't. The luggage, including Brian's bass, didn't make the flight.And to top it all off, the jerks at US customs in Toronto were just that, JERKOFFS. We spent the whole trip dealing with foreign customs and they were the nicest people around. But when we get to the US customs people they are assholes. Thanks guys.
So here we sit, August 11th, and we still haven't heard a word about Brian's missing bass. (Stop reading if you are under 18, cause this next part is me being pissed off) Air Canada can go fuck themselves as far as we are concerned. If we ever get the bass back it will be a miracle at this point seeing as they have their heads as far up their asses as possible.
So that's it. Now we are home.
And I am sure we will miss someone, but here is our attempt at saying thanks to everyone we met on tour:
Aston and Mrs. Aston, SCARPER (Russell, Matt, Mac, Kirstie and Micha), Monk Dave, Aston's parents, The Adelphi, Dave and Chris in Scunthorpe, the Lincoln Imp, Darrell, The Indian Queen, Luke, those Portuguese dudes in Boston, Railway Inn, Mike and Dawn in Winchester, ASIDE, CAPDOWN, ANALBEARD, SKIN OF TEARS, SCUTTLE, Amy, Tracey in Nottingham, LUNA:SUIT, DINA, BOBAFETT, Becky, DUGONG, The Slaughterhouse, The Star and Garter, Adz, Jocko and Shirley, BOVINE, SIX PAC CAC, McPhail's, Matt's dad, that Huddersfield club for the funny ass time, 1 in 12 Club, Ewan, ANNALISE, DEAD INSIDE, every single person that bought a cd, shirt or record, and EVERYONE that came to one of the shows. THANK YOU ALL. We will never forget any of you.
