Day One.
15/01/07
good evening friends.
Cardiff. Wales. The Great Hall. 14th January 2007.
tonight is the first night of our UK tour…
hey dudes, apologies… I wrote this last night, but our internet connection went down, so I couldn’t post it… but here you are
good evening friends.
Cardiff. Wales. The Great Hall. 14th January 2007.
tonight is the first night of our UK tour…
we did two shows in Ireland as part of the Kerrang! tour, though tonight is the first show with our exciting new touring production.
This entails the entire sound and lighting system travelling with us in a massive truck.
Some stats:
Biffy Clyro : Kerrang Tour, January 2007:
3 Buses
3 Vans
1 Truck
47 people
A shitload of lights.
To bring you up to date, and hopefully shine a light on the context in which you join us, we arrived in Cardiff yesterday afternoon, after coming from Dublin. After dropping the band and a couple of the crew at the hotel, we (we being myself, Churd, Adam and Gordon) went on to the venue, the Great Hall, to get in a day ahead of everyone else, to do some work in our various areas.
Before I go into more detail, I’d like to introduce you to the core touring party:
Simon: Vocals. Guitar. Rosary.
James: Vocals. Bass. Locks.
Ben: Drums. Bass. xBox.
Churd: Guitar Tech. Stage Management. Big Grey Tech Case
Adam: Drum Tech. Stage Management. BIg Yellow Tech Case
Dave: Sound Engineer. World of Warcraft. Wireless.
Justin: Monitor Engineer. Ideas. Anecdotes.
Colin: Lighting Director. Visual Wonders. 8am.
Gordon: Merch. Tour Assistant. Tour virgin.
Neil: Tour Manager. Blog. Me. Hello.
So yesterday… In the empty room, adam and churd set out every single case of equipment that we owned, and put them in order, stencilling, spray painting, re-arranging, and making things right. I set up a makeshift office in the middle, and a wonderous time we had, to the strains of a 36-track mix on iTunes, and ‘Creating Short Fiction’ by a band called Orko, from back home.
Gordon sorted out all our new merch, and made sense of the various different styles and sizes we’ve got…
All our merch is made under ethical conditions and is fairtrade, which is the first time we’ve done this… We’re also planning to charge people on the guestlist a few quid as a charity donation… The emphasis is very much on doing things right, in every respect this time around.
We managed to spectacularly miss the planned 8pm crew dinner, by not actually leaving the venue til 9.30pm, then crashing out fairly early, only to return at 8am the following morning for the full production to arrive.
After the initial load-in and setup, I brought the band down to the venue, arriving just in time to witness the testing of one of the new visual elements of the show we’ve got this time around… I shan’t spoil the surprise, but needless to say, it looks wicked, and we hope you enjoy it.
No outrageously funny stories to share thus far, and apologies for this blog being a bit techy and boring, but hey, we’ve just started, and there’s plenty of time for japery and madness to ensue.
We’re going to try and get some miniclips up for you to watch. Blame Gordon if it doesn’t happen though. In fact, if anything bad happens to you over the next few weeks, blame Gordon. Look for him at the merch…
"Fuck Sake Gordon… I’ve got no mobile reception, what the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK?"
If you all do it, and none of us explain to him why, it’ll freak him right out… so lets keep this between ourselves… shhhhh.
What else…
The small matter of the band…
They’re all well. Very well in fact. We’ve not been able to divulge a huge amount of information about what the team is up to, as we’re planning to unleash a fucking wave of activity on you all.
They took a little trip to California, the results of which you will SEE (there’s a hint) rather soon… you may have already HEARD the reason for the trip. The Neil Ministry of Disinformation is in full effect, as I’m sure you can tell.
Then we had christmas, which gave everyone a bit of time off, yielding turkey, chicken, presents, parties, an engagement (which will inevitably lead to even more presents and parties!), silly hats, and an awful lot of planning.
They’ve been occupying themselves with a lot of video-gaming, as our tour bus (the large turquoise beauty you’ll see parked outside venues) is equipped with a couple of xBox 360’s. Indeed, one of the first things I did in Belfast, was send out our lovely runner (the member of staff at a show, who literally, runs errands for me) to pick up a couple of games. Table Tennis (ping pong?) and…. of course… Pro Evolution Soccer.
A couple of nights ago, after the show in Dublin, we had a lovely evening in the top lounge, quietly playing ping-pong, whilst Dave, Gordon and Churd were introduced to the latest member of the BIffy family, who in the space of a few months, has grown from a little glint in 6 eyes, to a fully grown behemoth. She’s called Puzzle. It might be a He. I’ll need to check. Regardless, eyes were wide, ears were open, and jaws were dropped.
I’m going to sign off just now, as The Bronx have just gone onstage, and we’re all utterly in love with them at this point… not physically… well… maybe. But certainly musically. And yeah, fuck it, physically.
I hope you’re all well.
Some of you will be in Cardiff right now, enjoying the Bronx… I hope this freaks you out if you read it later…
so anyway… hopefully night one goes well… if so, it should be amazing.
much love.
neil.x