Core of Nation tour, day6

Have you ever had to share a motel room with 2 (almost) strangers? or even with 2 mates who you know well.
It's almost impossible to relax and get a good nights kip, so when you do it 5 nights on the trot and you never get there before 1 am, you're guaranteed to be worn out.

Anyway, onto day 6 which was a gig at the Axe and Cleaver in Boston, Lincs. This was only a 1 hour drive from Sleaford so I decided to treat the lads to a bit of traditional English seaside entertainment, a trip to Skegness!!!!!!!!!!

Core of Nation storm the eastern seaboard of East Anglia, they look really happy.

As opposed to the FuryUK boys who looked deep in thought.

So one of them said "what's Blackpool like then" I replied " just like Skeggy, but 10 times bigger and dirtier!" I think they got the picture.
Anyway we returned toBoston in time to get ready for the gig, the Axe and Cleaver is right in the middle of town and is a fairly large pub with a courtyard carpark and 2 of the meanest looking guard dogs you'll ever see.

Some nice people I met, thing she's called Amber (I wasn't taking notes).

The gig wasn't very busy, it was Tuesday, but the Nightvision lads made the effort to come down and give their support along with the lovely Jean, who runs a rehearsal studio nearby.
Hank gets to change his snare drum head.
Luke decides to restring his bass and cuts one string too short, oops!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some live action shots.
Freestyle jazz dancers.
And all that was followed by a nearly 2 hour drive to Ely, so bed was after 3am.

Cheers, Mick.

Core of Nation tour Day 5

After about 3 hours kip on the stage at Kettering I woke up with a real hangover, you know the type where you really need another 6 hours sleep but you know it's not happening anytime soon.
I took a couple of Anadin and went on the prowl to find some breakfast. No problem as there was a cafe on the other side of the carpark!
Martin FuryUK(drums) in the 'beer garden' at Sawyers!

One bacon butty and a can of Coke later and voila, I started feeling human again (if only it always happened like that). A few minutes later the Swedes called to get me to pick them up at the Travelodge. Only this time there was mass confusion as I went to the one we passed on the way into town. 45 minutes later I found them sitting on the carpark twiddling their thumbs and looking rather impatient, I don't know why as there was no gig that day, just a radio interview at Siren FM in Lincoln.
To make things more interesting on the Travelodge carpark was a retired couple and their vintage motorbike, this cheered me up immensley as I love old stuff like that.

1928 Montgomery with 680cc JAP v-twin, mmmmmm nice.

The Swedes had expressed their desire for a decent meal so I kept an eye out for a decent looking country pub to dine at. This place looked ok so we stopped, a quick call to the FuryUK boys and they joined us.

If you look closely you can see Mark wincing after taking a heavy kick in the wallet, they don't budget for fancy eating when on the road but felt obliged to on this occasion.
After a very nice meal we proceded in an orderly direction to the Travelodge at Sleaford where I resorted to buying some shampoo from the garage as I'd forgotten to pack my own (you wouldn't believe that I used to work on the road a couple of years ago!).
Next on the agenda was a quick social call to the lads from Nightvision to check on a few things and have a beer, or coffee in my case (I am driving).
So it was onward to the studios of Siren 107.3 FM located on the campus of Lincoln University, where Hank and Kjelle fron Core of Nation and Chris and Martin from FuryUK were to appear on a live radio show.
Holy shit, a real radio studio and everything, I was impressed. It was all very interesting and both bands got about 5 mins. airtime and 2 tracks each played and some free publicity for the next nights gig at The Axe and Cleaver in Boston.
After a 30 min. drive back to Sleaford it was shipping order time at McDonalds for supper and an early night.

Cheers, Mick.

Core of Nation Tour, day 4

After not sleeping much at the Travelodge (this will become a recurring theme), we had some breakfast and set off to meet up with the Fury UK boys for our gig in Kettering.
On the way we had a couple of hours spare and Ola suggested we could go to York for a bit of r+r.







Of course we had to find a bar whilst there.
After the vikings failed to sack York for a second time, we headed off to Ferrybridge services and met up with the FuryUK crew.















We managed to pack some of our gear into the van and took on Luke as a passenger.















The trip to Kettering was unremarkable save for the 20 miles of roadworks around Nottingham!
So we arrived at the venue, Sawyers rock pub in plenty of time so the lads decided to check out the local catering facilities.














The venue itself looked like it could be a really cool place and lots of good bands have played there, but it was showing signs of the hard times we live in these days and unfortunately seems to be on a bit of a downer at the moment. Hopefully it will pull through and become a top venue again soon.
The carpark seating arrangements were basic.

Having said that, we immediately felt at home and settled in to make a night of it (only me and the FuryUK boys that is. The Swedes took one look at it and booked into the Travelodge again!)
The gig was not well attended, a sign of the times I think. But we more than made up for it with a rather good aftershow drink and entertained ourselves by playing youtube music vids through the PA monitors until the early hours. I hit the matress at 3.30 but could still hear Chris and Martin discussing the merits of 7/4 and 9/4 time signatures at 5.30ish.















That's just about all for Sunday, even though it was well into monday morning, as I crashed out on a mattress on the stage with someone else's sleeping bag (which I didn't fit in) for warmth and my coat for a pillow!!!!!!!!!!


Cheers, Mick.

I'm a rock star!

Last night I finally got to play drums on stage, infront of an audience with some real musicians.
The occasion was my mate Chris' 21st birthday bash at my local, the Hark to Towler

I was joined on stage by Dean Casement, an exceptionally talented guitarist and singer and Little Mick Magnall from Kick the Kat on bass. We played red house by Hendrix (because it's probably the simplest song you can play on the drums) and I did a half decent job of it too.
I was rather nervous and probably had a couple too many before I went on, but hey, it was a party and we were there to have a good time. There were probably enough musicians there to make 5 bands and the lineup changed virtually every song. Next time I'm going to rehearse a bit and try something a bit more challenging.

Cheers, Mick.

Core of Nation tour day 3.

So day 3 of the tour starts with a hangover and a call to collect the guys at 12 ish. First job was to pack the car with all the gear we would need for the gig at Doncaster, this was more difficult than day 2 as all the bags and rucksacks needed to come as well.
This monumental feat of packaging was achieved after several attempts and resulted in Hank (drums) being completely burried in the back seat.
At this point I have to pay tribute to the Ford Galaxy 1.9 CDTI that we hired, it took all the luggage and people (just) was pleasant to drive and returned nearly 44 mpg without at any time feeling strained, underpowered or unstable, very impressive.





An unscheduled stop saw us at St. Ledger Harley Davidson, so that Damma (guitar) could buy another t-shirt. Aparrently they are much cheaper here than in Sweden!



Next stop was the home of Mick Ball, now I had been warned to expect the unexpected before I met him, so it wasn't aa complete surprise when we were greeted by an extremely loud, in yer face Yorkshireman, running up to the car and sreaming 'WANKERS' at the top of his voice in the middle of the street!
He treated us to a BBQ of spare ribs , chicken wings and chicken kebabs, whilst indulging his obsessions of playing the drums (badly) and waxing lyrical about Steel Panther, a band I had never heard of before.







After being fed and watered at chez Ball, we arrived at the venue, Hall Cross Rock Bar Right in Doncaster town centre. A top venue run by Gary, who does an interesting line in t-shirts.











We were again supported by the excellent NG26 who also provided gear for the gig, which went down very well with the locals.






























I can also confirm that the Mullet is alive and well in South Yorkshire. So back to another Travelodge and another truncated nights sleep.

Eating kebabs during daylight hours, a discussion.

What is it about eating kebabs that vexes normal people so much?
I recently attended a music festival in a local town and it being tea time I decided to get myself a doner kebab to fight off the near starvation I was suffering from (that may be overstating it a bit).
No sooner had I sat down on a grassy verge, where lots of other people were drinking beer, when I was castigated by one of my peers for being a 'filthy bastard'!
Why is some spiced minced lamb with salad and chilli sauce, wrapped in a naan bread so offensive to most folk? It was delicious, but if you eat it in public, most people think you must either be drunk to contemplate eating such a thing or a social leper for doing so whilst sober. And I didn't drop too much of it in my beard either!
So, to sum up, you're either drunk or wrong in the head if you partake of this delicious delicacy in public during daylight hours. You can't possibly be 'normal' can you. I mean, some folk looked at me as if I'd just trodden dog shit into their brand new carpet,FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or the others tell you you're going to die a painful and horrible death by food poisoning for eating such disgusting muck.
I'll leave the last words to one far more eloquent than myself.

"what don't kill you, make you more strong" J. Hetfield.

Day 2 continued.
After a swift doner kebab (there's always time for a kebab) we squeezed the gear into the hire car and headed off to my local watering hole, the Hark to Towler, Tottington. http://www.myspace.com/hark2towler
Where the guys have enjoyed themselves previously. I was a little concerned that 2 gigs in one day might prove too much but I needn't have worried as the show went down very well, ably supported by Derby based metallers NG26 who also supplied the backline tonight.
http://www.myspace.com/ng26
The gig was also noteable for the guest appearance on stage of former CoN frontman Rolf Berg, who liked the barstaff so much on his previous visit, he decided to come over and live with one of them!
The guys were staying over at the venue, so it was party time until the small hours and a good time was had by all.
I have lots of pics. from the party but they shall remain unseen to protect reputations, or until someone pisses me off enough for me to dish the dirt! :-)

On tour with Core of Nation Part 1

Day 1















A few months ago my favourite Swedish metal band decided to embark on their 3rd UK tour and asked for the services of a driver to lessen the stress of touring in a foreign land. Being recently self employed, I naturally jumped at the chance and offered my services.
After meeting the band at Manchester airport on Thursday teatime, the first stop was Whittles pub, Oldham. Where I was presented with my Road Crew t-shirt, by Kjelle(vocals) and Ola(bass).
The rush to get to the venue and the stress caused by the journey obviously had an effect on the performance, which the boys were less than happy with, although the audience were in fine spirits and didn't care one little bit, enjoying themselves enormously.

After a bit more post gig R+R the saga of checking in to the Travelodge began, no pics. of this exist and it's probably just as well!
After it all subsided I was home about 2am.

Day 2
The guys had a deserved lie in and i was called about 11am to get them on the road to play at the Bridgerats MCC Ratpack Rally 2009. First we went to meet up with Mark and Lynne of Rocksector Records who were managing the tour and assisting with lending gear and transporting stuff, we would also be gigging with their band Fury UK on some of the gigs.

Now many of my friends regularly attend this biker party, but I'd never been before, so it was a treat for me to get to go in for free. We arrived at about 3pm and were met by Rochdale John (social secretary)
and showed to our parking space directly behind the stage.

Having been to many biker parties and organised events myself I must say that I was mightily impressed with the Bridgerats MCC and their management of our small part in their event.



















Going on stage at 5pm Friday at a biker party almost guarantees a small audience, this was the case here but everyone who bothered to listen was very impressed by the performance and we were even asked if we could go on again later that evening. Unfortunately we had another gig booked at my local pub that evening so were unable to take up the offer.

More later.
Cheers, Mick.

Hello blog readers.

Hi to all who know me and also to those who don't. I'll be putting random stuff on this blog to entertain the masses and for my own personal amusement as and when the mood takes me.

Cheers, Mick.