Wow, Leuven is not too bad for me.

Cheers

It's okay for me, I wanna buy all the Calla stuff anyway.

Rather amusing tour diary from the boys:

Her Name Is Calla wrote:

26th March
1. Half of HNIC leave Leicester for York.
2. Return to Leicester to collect equipment left behind. Get back out on road to York.
3. Collect Tom from Pocklington, York. Begin journey to Manchester.
4. Return to Pocklington to collect Toms medication.
5. Finally arrive in Manchester. Nice venue. Meet up with the worriedaboutsatan boys
6. Show is abandoned after 30 minutes on stage. Increasingly loud radio noise coming through stage monitors, and all the amps.
7. Drive to Leeds to sleep.

27th March
1. We first drop into a Halfords to buy a new van cd player. The old one doesn't work at all. None of us are keen on two weeks of just talking to each other.
2. We get in the van and discover that the cabling in the van is incompatible with the new cd player. It's made by a company called Sendai. None of us have heard of Sendai
3. Drive to Glasgow. Traffic bad, arrive 30 mins late.
4. Play in a pit with minimal space looking up at the crowd.
5. Make plans to open the ultimate ladies clothes shop. Complete with bar area. Roast dinners served all day with Colmans mustard. Incentives include free drinks for every £20 of clothing bought. We go into far too much detail and at some point agree casually that there should be a shark tank in the bar also. Amongst other things.
6. Hotel plans fall through. Stay at a friends house instead.
7. Sleep sat up right in chairs listening to Adam kissing new girlfriend whilst a ferret that bites runs around the room. His name is William. He gets trodden on accidentally but is okay.


28th March
1. We leave for Newcastle feeling worse for wear.
2. The Cluny in Newcastle is a lovely venue and the sound is great. Though the engineer keeps leaving his iPod running through the monitors through worriedaboutsatan's set. The crowd is fairly small but it's an enjoyable evening run by Angus who is lovely.
3. We stay at Gav WAS folks house for the night. Comfiest sofas ever.

29th March
1. Gavs mum cooks an industrial sized fry up which everyone absolutely loves. We title her Mum of the Year there and then.
2. We head to a charity shop to buy some cds for the van. The highlight is The Nail File: The Greatest Hits of Jimmy Nail. We head to Halfords to work out the cd cabling. We're re-directed to an independent car audio place.
3. A short, loud runty man fits our cd player. He sees it's made by Sendai and just laughs. He looks at a copy of Front magazine on the dashboard and claims that his ex girlfriend looked like Jessica Weekley off of the front cover. We laugh at him. The Sendai cd player has a max volume of 47, unlike other cd players which at least round it off to the nearest 10.
4. Load in at the Holy Trinity Church in Leeds. A night off the drink which is good. Turns out the cd player was connected wrong.
5. Listen to Anna Rose Carter's set which is fantastic. We make plans to record together.
6. Turn out is good and the crowd is lovely and very respectful to the venue. Sound is okay but by the end of the gig we can't hear anything anymore. A little shaky but it's the first time we have ever played the new album in full.

30th March
1. Drive back to Pocklington to retrieve more of Tom's elusive medication. Jimmy sings his best of to us.
2. Drive to Leicester and load in at the Firebug. Do some hugs and high fives with Mr John Helps. He serves us up some lovely chilli and lots of beer.
3. Turn out is excellent and we are really pleased.
4. We split into three groups for the night, some to sleep, some to meet up with partners and some to carry on drinking and eating. Mike is pulled over and fined along with some points on his licence for driving a few hundred yards in the van without insurance. Tom and Adam run across town at 1am in the cold to interrupt Thom's love making. He has to retrieve the van to stop it from being towed. Somehow he manages to pass the breathalizer. No idea how. He is simply an alcohol-absorbing-monster-son-of-a-bitch.

31st March
1. Record a live set for Demon FM in Leicester at 10am. We have a lovely time and are treated well by the staff.
2. Leave for London but are slowed down by traffic. Jimmy sings to us again. Arrive a bit late but have a great soundcheck with a great engineer.
3. The night in London is fantastic with great sets by The Monroe Transfer and worriedaboutsatan.
4. We plan our collaborative album with Monroe Transfer. It'll be epic.
5. Tom realises his medication is missing. Again.
6. Stay at Anna Carter's house and have a great time. At some point during the night things turn strange as a dead goldfish is thrown around.

1st April
1. Tom queues at an NHS walk in centre for 3 hours in the morning. Gets a new prescription. Again. Buys multiple amounts of other medications at the same time much to the alarm of the pharmacist who suspects he's making something.
2. Arrive at Dover having already missed ferry. Switch to new ferry.
3. Go straight to bar.
4. Take beers to arcade and play Time Crisis 3
5. Play Time Crisis 2
6. Play Time Crisis 3.
7. Get back in van and exit ferry. Drive to Stuk, a beautiful venue in Leuven, Belgium. We're late, the manager doesn't look happy.
8. For some reason we're supporting our tour support and they want both bands to play 30 minutes sets. No problem at all.
9. Sign some records then go out for beers with our old friend Jurgen and his girlfriend.

2nd April
1. Wake up in the band flat a bit late. Load out of the venue and set off to Levergies in France to play at Haiti auction winner Vincent Plouvier's house.
2. Levergies turns out to be the tiniest village in the world and we play in Vincent's garage for him and his friends. Vincent cooks us all some food on the BBQ and then we stay at one of his friends houses. We struggle to follow them to town as they drive at about 80mph and we can only do about 55 in our van.
3. Finally settle down for the night for a good solid two hour sleep on wooden floorboards.

3rd April
1. We wake up ready for the obligatory 'mammoth drive of the tour'. Fourteen hours to Berlin, Germany. Thom takes it like a man and drives. Stopping only three times for food and toilet breaks. Jimmy sings to us some more.
2. Arrive in Berlin. Absolutely fucking knackered. Turn out in Berlin is pretty good but we play a sloppy set. Most likely due to the two hours sleep in two days.
3. We have a few beers with old friend Mac Mueller. Afterwards, most of the two bands go to sleep. Apart from Mike and Tom who are starving. Mac takes us to a Currywurst place that specialises in ridiculously hot sauces. There are six levels of hotness. Starting with Tabasco. Tom gets to level 5, which is called Mad Dog 357 (2nd variation- twice as hot as 1st variation). Tom backs out of level 6 after being handed a disclaimer promising not to sue if things go bad.

4th April
1. Wake up and head to Rostock with Jimmy accompaniment.
2. It's pretty cold and we are initially spooked by all the bullet casings in the car park.
3. The venue's dog eats our food rider.
4. The venue is freezing and we leave out coats on as we play. The PA is massive and the sound is great. We play in pitch black with just our projections. A mouse runs across stage during one of the songs.
5. Adam and Tom sleep in the van. In fear.

5th April
1. We head back to Berlin for our day off to spend some time with Mac Mueller again. We arrive at Mac's and make use of his shower before being offered coffee, coffee, water, beer, champagne. In that order. Mac hasn't heard of Jimmy Nail so we fill him in.
2. We had out to meet Mac's girlfriend who is lovely and are taken to a great burger joint. Mac introduces us to his home towns beer, Rosthaus. It's great.
3. Mac takes us off to a few few bars and we have a bloody lovely evening before setting down for the night in the Rock n Roll Haberge.

6th April
1. We arrive at Paris Syndrome in Leipzig. It's a wonderful little venue but we are too late to view the gallery next door. We are greeted by Patrick and the rest of the wonderful staff and have a lovely night.
2. Play a very sweaty gig. Mike punches Tom for getting in the way of his pedals. No one is to get in the way of Mike and his pedals. Ever.
3. Have a few beers with Patrick and then head off to the accommodation for the night.

7th April
1. Go back to Paris Syndrome to load out and have breakfast/gallon of coffee.
2. Head to Jubez in Karlsruhe. Traffic makes us late. It's okay though as Jimmy sings/growls some more about Crocodile Shoes.
3. Play to a smallish crowd who all buy lots of merch which is good.
4. We split up to stay in two different flats. Adam stay up all night drinking and smoking. Meanwhile, across town Tom, Thom, Mike and Tom (worriedaboutsatan) share a flat with a couple. Tom WAS and Tom Calla decide to sleep in the van in favour of watching Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds. Thom and Mike go to sleep in the flat. To the sounds of love that only a man and a woman can make.
5. Tom and Tom abandon any hope of sleeping at 5am in favour of finding a bakery. They succeed. Tom WAS borrow's Thom Corah's coat. Looks like a tramp. But with an iPhone.

8th April
1. On route to Franfurt we blow out a tyre. On the motorway.
2. Tom succeeds in terrifying the nearby wildlife with only the power of his voice.
3. RAC man ensures that we get back on the road in good time.
4. Arrive at Ponyhof in Frankfurt. Have a confusing conversation with the sound guy about tone and noise level on Tom's guitar amps and which way they are allowed to face. He redeems himself by ordering us some great food including a double quarter pounder in a pitta bread with spices.
5. We almost outnumber the crowd and at one point the monitors start to blow (second or third time during the tour). We jump off stage, unplug them then carry on.
6. A local radio presenter takes us out to a party on a boat. Tom WAS and Tom Calla go to the bar to buy drinks for everyone and never come back.
7. Mike Calla goes in search of Tom and Tom. Never comes back.
8. Tom, Mike and Tom are found at the crowded bar drinking mojitos and sambuca's.
9. Band drunkenly make their way back to the accommodation. Sickness quickly follows from Tom who goes to sleep and leaves Mike to sort it out.

9th April

1. Band wake to the sound of Sophie being sick. Again. And again.
2. Band load out very slowly due to the beer delivery truck blocking the street. We cart everything about 200 metres over cobbled stones which apparently amuses the beer guys.
3. Sophie is found slumped in a dark corner hung over and crying to herself.
4. We are again halted from getting to PACT Zollverein in Essen on time due to high traffic volume. Listening to Jimmy doesn't help the fact that everyone is pretty fed up with being stuck in traffic all the time.
5. Load in at the venue and are greeted by the lovely Isa, our label owners girlfriend.
6. We soundcheck using vintage and quality mics on our amps which pleases us no end.
7. There are lots of art installations and various pieces of theatre going on throughout the venue which we try to see as much as possible of.
8. We play a short 30 minute set and are received very well. We go back on for an encore and are again received well. Shake a lot of hands with other artists and Tom is kissed by a middle aged lady with a leg brace on. Still got it.
9. We are taken to our hotel by Isa and Timo where we quickly separate to our rooms for some much needed sleep.

10th April
1. We wake up and some of us make use of the hotel pool whilst others go straight for the breakfast buffet. Which really is top notch. We are treated very well by the staff and bump into a few of the artists from the previous night also which is great.
2. We head back to PACT and after some coffee, Isa takes us for a tour of the Zollverein which is an enormously huge former mining facility. The whole site is a technical and architectural masterpiece. Essen is this years European Capital of Culture. And it really shows. All areas of the facility have been redeveloped or reused as television studios, offices, museums, galleries and arts venues. It's very impressive and we enjoy ourselves immensely.
3. We say goodbye to Isa after another quick coffee and head 30 minutes down the road to Duisburg where we are to play at Steinbruch for the last date of the tour. Manage to get a few Jimmy tracks in on the way.
4. We load in with help from the very friendly venue staff and have a great soundcheck.
5. Timo, our label manager, arrives to hang out with us one last time and see us play our set. We discuss the new album in great detail and get very excited. We also discuss the following tours, direction and next releases. We've never had it this easy and it's very reassuring to be in good hands.
6. We play a big old rocking set and make a shitload of noise. Then go back on for an encore and do it again.
7. We pack down and head off after a few beers and saying goodbye to Timo.
8. We arrive at our accommodation for the night. It scares the shit out of Sophie and the chap who puts us up keeps insisting that Tom walks too loud. "Remember, tippy toes!"

11th April
1. We head out early to get to Calais. We miss the ferry. More Jimmy Nail.
2. Get boarding passes.
3. Van gets searched.
4. Get routed to passport control. Tom WAS finds his passport is out of date. Goes unnoticed.
5. For some reason Thom turns the wrong way and out of the ferry park and back onto the motorway. Thom blames Adam for giving him a wrong direction. Adam accepts blame. We rush to get back.
6. Get to check in again. Look like twats
7. Get searched again. Look like twats
8. Get on the ferry. Beer. Time crisis. Beer
9. Van breaks down outside Leicester. Manage to get it to Mike's house. Northern folks aren't getting home tonight. Stay at Adams. Starving so eat a bucketload of Maryland chicken.

12th April
1. Northern folks get bus to Leeds.
2. Tour is over.

another uk tour on the way, last time in Glasgow they were stunning so I'll be heading to these shows too.  Has anybody heard the new record?  I've just heard the re-recording of 'Condor and River' so far.