ON THE ROAD WITH MADINA LAKE September 26th to October 5th 2007 UK TOUR by mark von sound DAY ONE ... BAMBI ON ICE Last night I completed a short run of dates with a sold out London show with Ruarri Joseph ... Today I move straight onto my next adventure ... a very different challenge ... First things first I check out after four nights in the Earls Court Holiday Inn Express ... then stride down North End Road to West Kensington Tube Station to get the green District line just a four stops up to Paddington ... on arrival I purchase a train ticket for the hour long journey to Oxford where I pick up my next tour ... They are a band from Chicago in Illinois in America called Madina Lake ... this will be the third date on their UK tour ... I missed the first two as I had to finish the Ruarri tour ... in my absesnse I put at the helm for the first couple of shows Rich 'Staffy Staf Staf' Stafford covering me as tour manager and sound engineer ... It's never easy joining a tour after it's started ... especially a tour like this which contains 29 people on it of which 23 were Americans and many of these are young and overexcitable ... certainly a big difference to the Ruarri Joseph solo shows ... Madina Lake were very much the headline band for this four band tour ... other bands being main support Envy On The Coast and good friends with Circa Survive whom I recently toured with ...next on the bill were Californian surf bums Halifax who we share our bus with ... then lastly the very young but solid rocking openers My American Heart ... not the best band name I know ... And as tour manager for Madina Lake I was in charge of these 29 people and as I said previously this tour was already underway I'd have to come in and stamp my personality on the proceedings ... From touring in a car last week I am now on a two bus tour ... After shows in Portsmouth and Yeovil I now join with today's event at the Zodiac in Oxford ... well it was the Zodiac but now it's been bought by the Academy Group and has been transformed into a brand new venue ... I did like the old Zodiac especially as it was independently owned ... now The Academy Group have got it that's another one for Live Nation ... then they of course also own all the Carling Academy venues across the whole country including the 4921 capacity Brixton Academy ... They run the Download Festival and the Milton Keynes Bowl and even Wembley Stadium ... they own the Mean Fiddler Group which means they have the legendary venue The Astoria as well as festivals like Glastonbury and Leeds and Reading ... then in America they own the House Of Blues chain of venues which stretch from coast to coast ... maybe one day they will rule the world? ... Madina's stage manager Dave told me last time they were over the bands singer Nathan stage dived into the crowd ... he didn't get caught properly which resulted in get a kick to the face ... his teeth sliced straight through his top lip tearing a split from his mouth up his cheek ... the blood gushed like a river of ketchup ... once in hospital they gave him stitches and pain killing drugs ... but they gave him the incorrect drugs and which made his face swell up like John Merrick the Elephant Man ... hence bursting the stitched and causing the blood to flood once more ... over the proceeding few days things did start healing but each morning Nathan would have to spit out mouthfuls of blood ... He still he stage dives ... The band Madina Lake comprise of four people ... drummer Dan ... Colombian guitarist Mateo ... and the twins ... singer Nathan and bass player Matthew ... An interesting fact about this band is that in 2006 the twins entered the American version of the TV show Fear Factor ... a show where several two man teams battle it out performing dare devil stunts in a knockout competition until they are left with a winner ... well ... Matthew and Nathan won which gave them prize money of $50,000 ... with this huge windfall they recorded the first Madina Lake demos which lead onto them signing to legendary metal label Roadrunner Records ... The American crew they brought with them comprised of Dave and Dave ... Swick on the stage and Casey on the merch stall ... he also fronts Chicago Hip Hop superstars Deadbeatz ... After a great show I escape the sweat pit meat market which this venue turns into post gigs ... I spend the rest of the evening sat on the bus observing the local wild life ... and wild it is ... The bus was parked on the street right outside the venues front door ... in Oxford as I'm sure you know has a huge student population which means an abundance of retarded middleclass binge drinking knobheads ... towards the end of night many of the people coming out of the front door were so drunk and wobbly they looked like they had been auditioning for BAMBI ON ICE ... especially the girls in high heels ... the worst people were crawling outside vomiting and passing out face down ... a team of paramedics were working non stop going from victim to victim ... several times ambulances would take them away to have their stomachs pumped ... As these people attend Oxford University it leaves me cold thinking that one day they may run my country ... And tonight I witnessed the eating capacity of guitarist Mateo ... he disappeared on a quest for food ... then returned with three large Styrofoam containers ... I thought he'd bought food for everyone ... but no ... first he inhales a large kebab ... followed by a potion of chips smothered and covered in cheese ... and for desert ... another potion of chips smothered and covered in cheese ... he hasn't got a gram of fat on him ... where did it go? ... That was my day on September 26th 2007 DAY TWO ... STRAWBERRY DILDO On this sized circuit of venues there isn't many in the UK I haven't worked on shows at ... however today was my first time at The Waterfront in Norwich ... I wake up in unfamiliar surroundings ... in a new bus bunk which is as hot as an oven ... I feel roasted like a Christmas turkey ... down one side of my bunk hot air blows out ... it's so hot it burns my hand to touch it ... I must escape ... After some dreadful directions via cellular mobile walkie talkie phone I hook up with Rich 'Staffy Staf Staf' Stafford for a Starbucks coffee ... we sat outside to see across the street a bizarre entertainer ... he had a shopping trolley containing several car batteries powering a large 1980's Amstrad stereo cassette system ... from with he played a mixture of Beatles and Frank Sinatra songs ... owner and proprietor of this shopping trolley was a very odd chap ... about fifty years old with a jet black Bjork style wig on his head ... he wore a huge purple anorak with half mast trousers far too short for his legs ... connected to the stereo was a cable ... on the end of this cable a microphone ... which resembled a STRAWBERRY DILDO ... he sang into this accompanying such Beatles classics like Norwegian Wood, She Love Me and Twist and Shout ... and the Frank 'blue eyes' Sinatra classic New York ... whilst this spectacle went on shoppers walked passed completely oblivious to him ... I guess they are used to it ... I wanted to get him on our tour ... A woman in Starbucks said he's been there for years ... in the late sixties he was the star striker for local football team Norwich City ... then discovered LSD and never came back ... staying forever in the world of the psychedelic ... maybe he's got it right ... completely devoid from the bullshit of modern life ... Often when in different towns I like to 'people watch' and see what traits the locals have that are different to other towns and to see what stands out ... and Norwich is no exception ... this is a very skinny town ... I mean more than just thin ... I mean walking skeletons ... this is the skinniest town I've ever seen ... So if skin and bones is your thing then move to Norwich ... Today I ventured out and shopped in Argos and purchasing an air pump for stage manager Dave ... each day he blows up several huge metre wide balloons filled up with confetti ... Yesterday I laughed so much at his bright red face ... I felt bad so I wanted to get him a pump ... well ... the good news is today he got his pump ... the bad news is that it wasn't powerful enough and so he needs to rely on lung power ... doh ... Last night for the bands intro music I had to borrow an Ipod from our video cameraman Adam ... this isn't ideal as all other show music is on mine so had the hassle of switching from one to the other in half a second ... so I go on Limewire and had to illegally download their music as non of them had their own album with them ... Our promoter tonight is the a clone of English Northern comedian Peter Kay ... every time he opens his mouth I expect to hear him say "Garlic Bread? It's the future" and "Cheesecake? What? a cake made of cheese?" ... but unfortunately he said none ... Tonight our fearless singer Nathan gets himself another injury whilst giving the front row high fives one guy grabs his hand and doesn't let go ... this results in him slipping and cracking his ribs on a monitor speaker box on the front of the stage ... ouch !! ... After the show nearly everyone on my bus go for food ... they all return with chips and cheese ... a pattern is emerging ... this is what they seem to eat every day ... That was my day on September 27th 2007 DAY THREE ... MUCH MORE SAMBUCA I again wake up in a bunk which is an oven ... this is hell ... I can't breath ... only just surviving my personal cooking I crawl out into the bus aisle gasping for air ... in need of resuscitation ... and again Starbucks comes to the rescue ... I couldn't believe my luck ... in the UK there are no Motorway services that have Starbucks but somehow bus driver Steve has found me one ... the coffee is good but the over priced carrot cake is not ... it was far too dry ... I told driver Steve about my oven bunk ... later that day he manually disconnected the heater and all was good ... Once revived and refreshed we hit the road to complete our journey from Norfolk to Birmingham ... as we drive into the city centre we get overtaken by two speeding fire engines ... thinking nothing of it they disappeared flashing and honking into the distance ... as we approached the venue we discovered exactly what emergency they were needed for ... thankfully no fire ... but if you know the Birmingham Academy then you'll know at the bottom of the road is a low bridge ... and this is where a mini-disaster had occurred ... a small British Telecom truck had driven at a reasonable speed underneath the bridge obviously thinking all was fine until stopping dead and wedging tightly under the middle of this huge concrete structure ... The driver must've felt so stupid ... after letting the air out of the tyres they towed it out with a huge recovery truck ... the sound of the metal roof scraping on the underside of the bridge was very similar to that of the tyrannosaurus Rex from the Jurassic Park movies ... but louder ... Unfortunately that's not the end of vehicles not fitting in places today ... Our bus is too long to fit in the underground car park behind the venue so we had to un hitch the trailer and wave our bus goodbye until its return much later on in the day ... The second we arrive Sammi and Danielle from the record company whisk the band away for a day of press and radio sessions ... Once inside the venue and in my office I get online and receive an email from yesterdays venue in Norwich ... apparently some kid had got a bottle of water in the eye ... his dad was ballistic and very annoyed with us ... I called his dad to say we were concerned and hoped his son was OK ... which I really did mean ... but what did he want from us? any bottles of water in the crowd are not there for any malicious reasons ... completely the opposite it's to keep the kids hydrated ... maybe he wanted all shows to be seated with an interval in the middle of the show for refreshments? ... I know it's a parent's job to be concerned ... but really ... get your son some goggles and rap him up in cotton wool then I'm sure he'll be fine in the future ... but honestly I do hope he's OK ... We had an early show today with doors opening at 6pm ... originally we were booked in the smaller 400 capacity room which goes by the name of the Academy 2 ... but when tickets had sold so well they risked moving it up to the much much bigger Academy 1 with a capacity of 3000 ... if we filled half of it we would've been doing great ... and then for us to sell 2907 tickets was nothing short of phenomenal ... which is what we did ... a band can't have much more of a compliment than that ... Today Nathan was in a lot of pain from slipping on stage last night ... we got a doctor in to get him checked out ... nothing broken ... lots bruised ... box of painkillers ... all good ... The crowd were definitely on the young side ... sometimes when they were screaming I couldn't get the P.A louder ... and trust me I tried and there was a lot of sound system so bloody well done to the crowd !! ... My old pal Dean of Wednesbury came along ... these bands weren't really his kind of thing so he stayed at the bar ... and considering there were nearly 3000 people here ... getting served was so easy ... definitely not a drinking crowd unless fizzy pop is your tipple ... An open plastic bottle of water got thrown from the front of the crowd backwards towards me ... it bounced off the mixing desk and straight into the lap of the in-house P.A guy ... not only did the show come to a near disastrous ending with sparks and explosions but the in-house P.A guy looked like he'd pissed himself ... I was in shock ... The show went fantastically apart from the terrible lighting guy who missed all the cues which we printed next to the songs on the set list for him ... with a very important London show coming up I had to make sure this incompetence didn't happen again so after the show I called my old pal Lampy Ben to book him for the London show the following week ... it worked out perfect for him as he's currently on the road with McFly and had a day off on the day we needed him for ... I had arranged to meet Dean Of Wednesbury at the bar called Scruffy Murphys down the road from the Academy ... but the record company had got an after show party with free drinks a place called the Sanctuary not far away ... I'd got him the necessary pass for access to the uncharged beverages but he wasn't answering his phone or replying to texts ... it is a sad day in Birmingham when Dean 'the-awesome-drinking-machine' is denied the chance of a free bar ... The Sanctuary is split into four or five different rooms ... each with different music ... and each sucked really bad ... but to make the best of things ... Mike singer of Halifax ... Rich 'Staffy Staf Staf' Stafford ... stage manager Dave ... and I ... hit the bar to have shots ... the selection was pretty bad ... the best being sambuca ... so we started the proceedings with a double ... the club didn't improve ... but we did get merry ... with MUCH MORE SAMBUCA ...at 2am we all regrouped in the smoking area before heading back to the bus to start our journey up North to Leeds in Yorkshire ... That was my day on September 28th 2007 DAY FOUR ... YASAI YAKI SOBA I wake today at noon with a decidedly woolly head ... last night's Sambuca hadn't yet left my system ... teeth brushing was a godsend as such a sugary drink turns your mouth to jam over night ... Once out my bunk and vertical I realise we are parked in the alley behind today's venue the Cockpit in Leeds ... I've been here many times ... always a pleasure to come back ... myself and Rich 'Staffy Staf Staf' Stafford need to kick start the day with the inevitable stroll to find a Starbucks ... Leeds is very good for this particular brand of coffee house ... the one we chose was next door to the wondrous bakery shop of Gregg's ... what an oasis in the desert ... coffee and breakfast achieved within seconds of each other ... life is indeed treating me well today ... We enter and exit the venue via a door in the back alley ... now this alley also doubles up as a hangout for alcoholics ... which is who I was met by as I leave the venue going to the tourbus ... sprawled out in front of me was a scarecrow of a man with a huge pitted nobbley red nose ... he tried to speak to me but all that came out of his mouth was the word "fuuuuuuuuurrrkkinaaaarrrrrgggghhhhhgggggddddrrriiiinnnnnnnnnkkkkkkk" ... his breath nearly burnt a hole in my leg as the poisonous gas made my leg sizzle like bacon ... I escaped by tiptoeing through a mine field of empty bottles and cans ... After a chat with the venue all signs of him and his drinking debris were gone ... it's a shame that this man's life had become this way but I needed him away from my tourbus ... I didn't want him bothering my band ... I do hope he found another equally comfortable alleyway somewhere close ... The annoying kids who hang around the bus all day stayed away when the drunken scarecrow was there ... I kind of wish he'd come back ... The kids who hang around the tour bus all day everyday I really wish they'd go away ... the band have no problem signing and meeting kids after the show but they just get in the way of me and my crew in the day time ... and then there's the weird stalkers who know everything about the band and literally turn up everywhere everyday ... they scare us ... they are the psycho bunny boilers !!! Tonight's another sold out show this time in the 500 capacity Cockpit ... Ben the promoter has a little goldmine here ... he always fills the room whatever the band or style of music ... While the supports were playing ... Rich 'Staffy Staf Staf' Stafford and I escape to Wagamamas ... for those people who don't know ... it's a chain of noodle restaurants across the UK ... but then for those of you who do know it ... and know it well ... then my YASAI YAKI SOBA and side of Edamame was both piquant and resplendent ... Once back in the venue and our show was underway it dawns on my how young and small so many of the kids are that come to see this band ... the venue looks half empty even though it's sold out ... I've done shows here when you literally cannot move but tonight you really did have enough space to swing a cat ... The kids tonight who crowd surfed to the stage were annoying ... rather than stage dive back immediately they chose to try and stay up for as long as they could ... but on a much lighter side without doubt Leeds has from tonight's performance won award for the worst stage diving in living memory ... no one got more than a foot ... they simply slowly dropped into the hands of the front row ... like a dying plant ... pathetic ... so pathetic that it was comedic ... At the end of the night I sat on the bus quietly doing my accounts on my laptop when only inches away outside a chap walking passed vomited merely inches away from me down the outside of the bus ... Yorkshire is so sophisticated ... that was my day on September 29th 2007 DAY FIVE ... BROKEN BACK Overnight we drive North to Glasgow in Scotland ... my favourite city anywhere to do shows in ... We park outside the back and the scary stalker kids are here already ... from the safety of the tourbus I see bass player Mathew walking from the venue to return back to the bus ... what I could also see which he couldn't were several kids on recognisance communicating on phones about his whereabouts ... with the confirmed positive sighting ... more and more kids come from every direction ... and from nowhere fifty kids appear ... he's pinned to a wall signing autographs and posing for pictures ... on the bus the windows are tinted so they can't see the rest of the band watching and laughing ... I pop open the skylight on the roof and stick my head out along with my African Safari rifle ... I shoot each of the kids with a tranquilizer dart ... they all collapse on the ground ... after a few minutes they'd be back on their feet once the sedative wears off ... with Mathew saved ... he and the rest of the band escape with Danielle from the record company to go to her mums for lunch ... how rock'n'roll ... they brought me a box back which was delicious ... many thanks Missus Scotland's mum ... However out the back of today's venue the Glasgow Garage we did have the usual ritual of the guy in a hotel just up the road from where we park calling the Police and trying to get our tourbus moved on ... a few years back he got kicked out of the venue for being a drunken idiot ... ever since then he's had a vendetta against the place ... I wish he'd grow up and stop acting like such a f*cking knob head ... Chris who plays guitar in Halifax told me of his previous show in Glasgow ... Before the band played he was drinking at the bar with some guys ... they offered him some pills of ecstasy which he turned down ... soon after that they offered him a sip of the traditional Scottish soda pop beverage called Irn Bru ... little did he know they had spiked him ... this is such a shit thing to do to someone ... worse that getting beat up ... screwing with someone's mind ... nasty ... So Chris is on stage and spinning out and freaking out not knowing what is happening to him ... he had to leave the stage and couldn't finish the show ... I hope karma gets the idiots back for spiking him ... Apart from that its always a pleasure to come back to Glasgow ... the best promoter and crew in the country ... it's always good to see crew boss Dumbo arrive in his turquoise Reliant Robin three wheel car ... Our special guest tonight was Matthew and Nathan's dad who hade flown in from America to come to the next four shows ... he must be proud to see his boys doing so well ... So all had gone well today with everything going to plan ... until halfway through the show Dumbo came up to me to say they may need to stop the show as they think a guy had fallen badly in the crowd ... he had a suspected BROKEN BACK ... five minutes later a message had got to the band to stop ... I'd turned off the sounds ... all the venue lights were on ... the security had divided the crowd so a paramedic to get to the injured guy ... he lay motionless for minutes ... it was horrible ... from around the back of the venue an ambulance pulled up with a stretcher crew experienced in spinal injuries ... the band were mortified this had happened and were so glad to see the guys hands and feet moving as he was wheeled passed ... so knowing his back wasn't broken the guys completed the show ... I got to say how the venue and security and crowd dealt with this was perfect ... later we heard back from the hospital ... he was in pain but OK ... thank f*ck for that ... imagine going to see a band and never walking again ... it doesn't bare thinking about ... and imagine lying in the middle of the dance floor before being discovered with the loud music and moshing feet around your head ... it's the stuff of nightmares ... With the good news he'd be OK we pop across the road to a bar called Firewater ... and that's what we found ... we wanted a shot ... so I scoped the bar and the liquor selection ... not looking good until I spotted hiding at the back ... a bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon ... good stuff ... and it certainly was firewater ... Before returning to the bus I got some verbal abuse for being English ... I could've started a fight ... but losers like these guys simply don't make me angry enough so I ignored it ... and as they wished ... I was in fact ... f*cking off back to England ... That was my day on September 30th 2007 DAY SIX ... FREE BAR Overnight we drive down from Scotland ... but enroute our bus overheated ... we had a relief driver Leeroy at the helm ... miraculously by the time our regular driver Steve turned up the bus had healed itself ... all very odd ... So a little later than planned we arrived in my old home town of Nottingham ... I do love doing shows here as I always get to see friends ... and the venue Rock City is one of my favourites ... today would also be an easy day as the promoter Amy is one of my best pals ... For the first time on this tour we had in-house catering ... When it came to dinner the miserable stroppy cook was told the wrong amount of vegetarians so when it came to me he rudely said tough and there was nothing he could do ... now any good cook would try and make something to keep people happy and feed everyone but this rude guy couldn't even be bothered to be pleasant to me let alone feed me ... as the tour manager its my decision if he works on any future tours I work on ... this guy will never have my trade again ... So I pop next door to eat at Carlito's kitchen and get a delicious halloumi sandwich ... At show time while the intro music is on ... the screams as the band walked on tonight were seriously shredding my ears ... just like Beatlemania back in the 1960's ... today's show is another that got upgraded from a smaller 300 capacity to the bigger 1900 people room ... we got 1440 people ... and tonight the confetti cannons we use each night looked the best so far ... they even covered me at the mixing desk at the back of the room ... towards the end of the set Nathan did a stage dive into the crowd ... when he emerged his shirt had been ripped off him ... thankfully he takes his shoes off before jumping ... otherwise the crowd would rip them off him like vultures they are ... Post show we go to Rock City's bar round the corner called The Rescue Rooms ... George the owner gave us a FREE BAR ... this is something we like a lot ... and are very grateful for ... I do like the Jim Beam Black bourbon they have here ... Whilst in there Rich 'Staffy Staf Staf' Stafford returned from using the toilet to tell me on the floor in the gentleman's room was a spider as big as your hand ... while he pissed it ran over his feet ... ew ... I myself chose not to break the seal ... The Rescue Rooms is also home of Carlito's Kitchen ... another halloumi sandwich was purchased for supper ... at 3am we hit the road for our overnight drive to Manchester ... That was my day on October 1st 2007 DAY SEVEN ... PSYCHO BUNNY BOILERS My day starts at 6am with being woken up by Dave telling me we had left Mateo behind at a motorway services ... Leeroy the driver didn't know what to do ... so asked Dave to wake me ... well even though I'd been awake for nearly 3 seconds and with my first thought of the day I knew what to bloody do ... go back and get him ... isn't that obvious? Or maybe he thought we'd be able to the show with no guitarist? So we returned to pick him up and all was again good ... When I awake parked outside the Manchester Academy the first thing I see are the same PSYCHO BUNNY BOILERS as I see every other day ... waiting ... staring at the bus ... what do they want? Don't they get bored? Haven't they got something better to do? Somewhere better to be? ... obviously not ... Before load in some of the guys go over to play football at a near by park ... all is fine until Rich 'Staffy Staf Staf' Stafford limps back after his hip joint pops out of the socket ... it's such a worst case scenario getting these injuries on the road ... a tourbus is not the easiest place to negotiate when mobility is an issue ... I know through experience ... During the afternoon we hear from the venue that we are not allowed to use the confetti cannons or even the confetti filled balloons ... they came up with different excuses but I believed none of it ... at the end of the day some miserable pen pusher just didn't want us to do it ... even though every other venue is fine with a little more mess ... As soon as they said no then we packed the confetti away for the next night ... but the venue didn't trust us ... unprofessional and out of order of them ... they sent security to our dressing room to threaten and intimidate people to hand over the confetti ... get a grip Manchester Academy ... No one approached me to talk about it ... I am the bands representative but instead they decided to threaten the support bands who are nothing to do with it ... this really pissed me off ... Here at the Manchester Academy there are 3 venues ... the Academy 1 which is a 2000 capacity hall and is currently being rebuilt ... then the Academy 2 at 900 people and lastly the Academy 3 which holds 450 people ... We were booked into the smallest room which we'd completely sold out weeks earlier ... they would've moved us to the next venue up except playing in there tonight was the band the Turin Breaks ... well by the end of the night they had only attracted 672 paying customers ... I'm confident we would've sold all 900 tickets ... so they should've really swapped the shows round ... but hey ...That's for me to know and them to find out ... I finished the night off in the local bar Big Hands ... they have a fine pint of Guinness in there and Dave said so too ... That was my day on October 2nd 2007 DAY EIGHT ... THEN I DON'T REMEMBER ANYTHING ELSE Today is the one and only day off on this tour ... and I think we all needed it ... and with these back to back tours I myself certainly appreciated it ... Overnight we had driven down from Manchester to London to arrive in my London home of the underground coach park beneath Tesco's in Earls Court ... Rich 'Staffy Staf Staf' Stafford had got a cab over to a friends place ... his hip injury was agony ... it's best he gets off the bus and into a house ... he needs rest ... I have since put him on a National Health service waiting list for a plastic hip replacement ... it's a long list but in 2017 he will have the best hip available and then he can play football all day without any fear of injury ... unless the other hip goes of course ... so I reckon I'd better book both in ... Q) And what is the one thing I never do on a day off? ... A) Go to another show ... It's always the last thing I want to do ... But across town tonight Killswitch Engage were playing at the Brixton Academy ... and for a day off to drop on the same day I am in the same town as them means I have to be there ... So around 7pm a motely dozen of us travel down on the tube train South of the river to Brixton ... once all the guys got inside and sorted with the correct passes I stride off upstairs to the Killswitch dressing room ... was great to see the guys again ... drummer Justin's beard is certainly the thickest girthiest beard on the planet ... he should win awards ... positively top hole to see them all ... and good to hang out ... when I see Joel the inevitable happens ... Jim Beam comes along to the party ... before they hit the stage we drank a bottle between us ... then after the show we drank another ... now then ... I remember leaving the Brixton Academy and meeting back up with the chaps I'd arrived with ... THEN I DON'T REMEMBER ANYTHING ELSE ... apparently I remained coherent and well capable of speech however random it may have been ... but unfortunately I had completely lost the ability to focus ... my eyes were pointing left and right but not straight ahead ... hence I did walk straight into a lamp post ... That was my day on October 3rd 2007 DAY NINE ... NOTHING TO DO WITH GERBILS Today was the 21st anniversary of the first proper concert I ever attended ... on October 4th 1986 I saw Iron Maiden on the Somewhere In Time tour at the Cornwall Coliseum near St. Austell ... it changed my life ... without doubt one of the moments with made me who I am today ... I was right at the front with Steve Harris playing bass just inches away ... it was amazing ... when I see the kids at these shows it makes me remember back to that day ... and I do remember at the end of the show turning to the guy next to me and vowing neither of us would ever cut our hair again ... we were metal to the end ... the innocence of youth or just a giddy twat ... you choose ... And from 1986 onwards the month of October was named Rocktober !! By rights I should the have hangover from hell this morning and surface during the afternoon all bleary eyed ... but when on the road that simply isn't an option ... soon after 9am I awoke bright as a daisy to wake up Madina Lake for a busy schedule of press ... they disappeared off with Kirsten from the record company to meet back up with us at the venue later on ... Today is the last show of the tour and on top of that it's in London ... which means always twice as much work as any other show ... But for a change in this town we had a venue with it's own parking ... but only just as I had to get cars removed which parked in the path of our reversing 45 feet long bus plus trailer ... waiting for me here was a guy from the pyrotechnics company we use ... in addition to hiring another 4 confetti canons giving us a total of 7 ... I wanted to have 18 gerbs (pronounced jerbs) ... a gerb is NOTHING TO DO WITH GERBILS but is a large solid vertical beam of sparks ... the ones I wanted to use would each provide a jet of sparks 4.5 metres up for a duration of 7 seconds ... it would look great ... we wanted to put on a show to remember ... but unfortunately the local council official that grants this kind of activity was sunning himself on a beach on the Mediterranean coast of Spain ... we should've let them know weeks ago but as it was such a recent idea we were doomed for it not to come into fruition ... shame ... it would've looked immense ... but we still do also have 20 x one metre wide balloons filled with confetti ... these would be thrown off the balcony while the band played ... now that's a lot of confetti ... also in for the show was my pal Ben doing the lights ... his abilities can help make the performance look even better ... it has got to be as good as we can make it ... people need blowing away ... The chaos of the day was certainly made a lot smoother by my old friend Dan working for the venue ... always good to work with friends ... The show was a fitting spectacle for a band who have completed such a successful UK tour ... moving up quickly in public opinion ... they have changed from a band who play to hundreds of people to a band who play to thousands ... At the end of the day we say our goodbyes to all the support bands ... some very good people and some friendships forged ... after the show the band goes out to party ... I stay and finish my accounting ... how rock'n'roll ... but the job needs finishing ... and also after my previous night partying it really wasn't an option ... That was my day on October 4th 2007 DAY TEN ... SNIFFER DOGS Here's a tour fact for you ... everyday at least a dozen of 15 people on our bus would buy a portion of chips and cheese ... these Americans went nuts for it ... Again waking up early and first job of the day was to work out which motorway service station we were in ... and find coffee ... Already dropped off the bus was hr band Halifax who caught an earlier flight ... But now at 11:30am it's time for the four Madina guys and the two Dave's to get the f*ck off my bus and get the f*ck out of my country ... all great guys and a great adventure ... look forward to seeing them again ... thankfully not an ego amongst them ... With the hip cripple Rich 'Staffy Staf Staf' Stafford remaining on the bus until getting dropped off in Nottingham I was next off at the bus at the central Heathrow coach station ... I needed to get a bus to the small town of Woking then a train back to my home in Weymouth ... I purchase the bus ticket from a machine and wait for my bus details to come up on the departures board ... when I looked over to the loading busses and see a sniffer dog running round and over all the luggage ... our countries security is important to me ... but also important is the tiny lump of hash I have in my bag ... I really didn't need to get caught ... they wouldn't have done anything to me for such an insignificant amount but I just didn't need the hassle ... I just wanted to get home ... but there was no way I could get away ... I had to get this bus so I could get to the next step of my journey ... time comes and goes and my bus doesn't arrive ... so I enquire at the enquiries and discover my bus stop was behind the building ... which thankfully meant no SNIFFER DOGS and trouble free passage was guaranteed ... the 15 mile bus journey to Woking took an hour ... then the 112 mile train journey home took a further two and half hours ... sometimes I feel like all I do is travel ... but I like going places ... as the train comes into Dorset the sun starts to get lower in a cloudless sky ... it reminds me why I moved away from a busy city down to the country ... once arriving at Weymouth train station I walk down a couple of streets to come out on the seafront with in front of me just a few metres away ... the blue ocean ... the sea is the best ... That was my day on October 5th 2007