I'll admit that I truly struggle to love England. I'll only admit so much, and say that we warily* set out on a 5 day tour with Manchester doom metal-ers Atavist beginning, not in England but, in Edinburgh.
Off the plane and I instantly fell for this magical, kind-of-haunted-feeling, thistle-loving town. We only had a couple hours before the show so we stowed our luggage and climbed the hill to the castle.
Where we got a nice view of King Arthur's Seat.
It also very quickly became apparent that our companions - Chris, Rich, Si, Ollie, and token-football-hooligan Matt - for the next few days were actually the most charming, young Britons I'd ever met. Added to this lovely mix were Jo, Justin, and Neil of Cold Spring Records and Satori, respectively. And as we ambled through the Lake District the following day, stops were made to pose for pictures. I love these boys!
The night that followed this day didn't inspire me to take many pictures. Especially as we all sat huddled under sleeping bags, trying to stay warm and out of the freezing and slushy rain as we waited to get towed into a running start at 3am. Later - 3 hours later - we really would need to get out and push a van full of gear. Needless to say, the rest of the tour needed to be rethought and after a small, necessitated, but rewarding collaboration in Bristol we had a van rented and the rest of the tour would go on.
I sadly have no pictures of the boys in their briefs as they played to 4 people in Coventry. But, the opening picture is the band in a high note at our final show in London.
*The United Kingdom is a little notorious for being a cruddy place to tour. We left the continent warned by more than a few people. It turns out that it's not much different than touring the United States.
3 comments:
I will further say that as we sat huddled in that blue van, every attempt was made to lighten the mood. Also, it was revealed that these thrashing and bellowing band mates were also very sensitive and dear when it came down to it.
mmmm i miss scotland. so lush! (yet the most brutal, bone chilling wet cold, i know). wish you could have seen glasgow. less immediately pretty but what a great energy!
agreed on that cold. it's just that damn dampness! also, i'm hoping to see glasgow soon, possibly on our next run through the u.k. in march.
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