Weekend In The City.

20/04/07

So you join us in a westminster hotel, on Saturday evening.

Like that title? Thought so.

So you join us in a westminster hotel, on Saturday evening.

Tour is underway, and all is well.

Its a long stretch we’re on now, though we’re in good company.
Our roll call this time is:

Si. guitars. new tattoos. sidekick. not in europe though.
James. bass. jim. jimbo. mane.
Ben. drums. signature drumsticks. free watches.
Churd. technician extraordinaire. lover. fighter.
Adam. technician extraordinaire. mac convert. if a week later than…
Gordon. merch. mac convert a week earlier than Adam, hilariously.
Dave. FOH. sound. world of warcraft. forever.
Justin. Monitors. Vibes and ideas. Many flightcases.
Neil. TM. Blog. Same as usual. Me.

Since Thursday, the band have performed 4 times in 2 days, done a photo shoot for the cover of a magazine, done a few interviews, and played one of the best shows I’ve ever seen them do.

On Friday, we did a secret (I say secret, word filtered out as it always does, but even so) show at the Oh! Bar as part of the Camden Crawl.

Just prior, the boys played at Brixton for the secon night in a row, with the mighty Bloc Party, who we’re on tour with at the moment.

Bloc Party. Lovely folks. Fucking amazing band. I’m not sure what the consensus is amongst Biffy fans on BP… I know they might not recieve the credit that they probably should… They’re obviously massively popular, but they make odd music in the same way that Biffy have, and have always been a good bit edgier than your average massively popular guitar band. The new album is fucking brilliant, and they’re pretty amazing live.

Anyway.

We took of for Camden, where we met a heaving fucking venue, with as many people outside as inside.

Adam and Churd had quite the job on their hands, getting the equipment set up… For the uninitiated, adam and churd are our drum and guitar techs respectively. They deserve your hugs and kisses if you ever see them at Biffy shows. Churd is single, ladies, and I’m happy to pass on any messages you’d care to send…

The venue got full to the point where we couldn’t take the band to stage without having to actually walk round the building as the crowd was so dense. On the way, we bumped into some of our friends, who we’ve met a few times (almost always involving them waiting after shows in random places, for 4am buses home). They’d been waiting at the venue since 7pm. This was 12.15am. That kind of devotion is pretty fucking humbling for the guys, so we took them with us as we walked round to stage. Within a few songs they were at the front of the crowd. How they managed that, I’ll always be amazed…!

So the show…

I’m fairly sure that far more people who were in that room, will claim they were there, in months to come… It was one of those.

Si was in the crowd at the end of the first song. I literally had to hold on to his ankle, from the stage, at the risk of losing him to a sea of hands.

To all who were present, we apologise for the bruises you suffered, the weight you lost in the heat, and the damage your eardrums sustained. I’m fairly sure it was worth it though.

By the end of the night, James managed to take a neat chunk out of the head of his bass. On the fucking ceiling fan. Si ended up climbing a pole in the middle of the venue. Upside down. And Ben got accosted coming offstage by a large man. A bouncer who almost wouldn’t let him out of the venue as he had a drink in his hand.

We retired to the hotel, buzzing, but fucking done in. Beat down. Shattered. Fucked.

Today, we went to W6 London, as the guys were doing a photo shoot for a magazine. It looked amazing and should turn out great. Wonderful company as always.

Tonight we’re having a relatively relaxed one.
Si, Ben, Adam and I are in James’ room, having a few drinks, the view from where I am looks like this…

 

Churd is out with his brother Phil, and I heard chat of them hitting a west end show.

A few months ago, just before Christmas, Churd and I had a day off in London, and a friend of Churd’s was in town, as was my girlfriend who had came to visit. So we went to a show. Mary Poppins it was, and it was FUCKING AMAZING.

I think Churd’s hitting Lord Of The Rings though.

Quiz that boy on that shit if you meet him… he’ll amaze you. He’s read them 10-odd times, and is often heard playing the theme tune on the guitar or bass during a Biffy soundcheck.

Apologies for not doing particularly wordy diary entries of late. We’ve just got the photo function working, so I’ve been taking advantage of that. Plus, we’ve been ridiculously busy, and whenever we get half an hour where we aren’t working, diary entries aren’t quite at the top of the list of things to do. Close though, obviously.

Though people seem to enjoy them, so I probably should.

Fucking, here’s another one for you…

Mike from Oceansize did 4 songs on lead vocals in Stoke the other night, at 6 hours notice.
Strung to your ribcage, A Day Of…, Eradicate The Doubt, and Now The Action (TVOB fans were sated I hope..)

And by christ he nailed it. Quite funny to see Si rock out on only the axe for a few songs.
Though that gig kicked the shit out of the boys.

Between you and me, they’ve done themselves fucking proud the past few days. There’s always been a serious work ethic in Team Biff, and its never been more evident than of late.

So we’re off to Europe for a while, tomorrow…

We start in France, and go over and up and down and over and down and back over, and then all the way back up to fucking Preston. Where we’re going to play Colin Murray at poker. Hope you’re saving your pennies Colin, our boys are serious about their game. If you’re reading. Which you might be.

And then our UK dates.

We got the lighting plot draft for that tour, a few days ago.
It looks pretty fly. To say the least.

exciting times.

take care whilst we’re in Europe.

Hopefully Living… will be on the radio and music TV to keep you company in the absence of the Biff on home soil, the video looks amazing, and you’ll hopefully like it… its a big boys rock video.

And I’ll keep you up to date with the goings on within the glowing orb that surrounds us, as we bounce from city to city.

In a bit,

neil.x

PS. Our free playstation3 finally showed up. Some of us bought radio controlled planes. Some of us rode the Big One in Blackpool. One of us shrieked like a fucking baby on the Big One in Blackpool.