Tour Blog – Midlands/North East

The penultimate leg of our ‘Lungs’ tour saw us heading into the industrial north with baited breath of what new adventures and stories we would bring back with us; luckily the answer is a lot. Thanks to a detour via London to collect Simon who was raring to go, complete with freshly made cupcakes we made our way to Birmingham. Less than half way through the journey we realised that with the exception of Matthew we had all become highly intoxicated; the recurring winner of the drunkest man had already gone to Jimmy (1 of the honorary Ideals mascot’s for the leg.) We started to get the feeling that any longer than 5 hours in the bus would result in this.

Upon arrival at The Adam and Eve we set off into the heart of Birmingham in search of the fabled “Around the world in 80 dishes”. This myth became a reality but unfortunately a fairly expensive reality; and so we were forced to wander the streets to find a more suitably priced alternative… 10 minutes later a £2.99 Wetherspoons dish was served and everyone was happy again. With reasonably full stomachs we rushed back to the venue. We were greeted by the depressing site of a near empty room; thankfully the other bands had stuck around and were spread out enough to give the appearance of a small crowd. The gig was played and we made our way to Derby where we staying at our good friend Chris’s flat (the other honorary mascot). Our eyes got redder and finally we gave into sleep.

The next day began badly with news that our Coventry gig had been cancelled due to promoter issues. However this wasn’t all bad new as it gave us plenty of time to visit our friend Billy for a warm shower and a trip to the park in the sun. Ideas were discussed of how to spend our free Friday night in Derby; the decision was…strip club. After a brief visit from the police about the party tank we got on our way. Far too much time and far too much money was spent in what can only be described as Derby’s underworld and at around 2 we decided we’d had enough and dragged our way back home. Of course Andrew did his usual party trick of passing out as a result of too much fun. 

Blyth was next on our largest U.K tour to date. After yet another lengthy drive we arrived at The Blyth and Tyne right in the middle of their all day fundraiser event. We were due to play at 9 and thankfully we were staying upstairs at the venue and there hospitality was amazing, in between grabbing more of the constant free alcohol and trip past the local asbo collection committee to go to Morrisons, more showers were need and more quiffs were constructed. We had the perfect slot of the day and our set was received amazingly with a lot of new fans made. The wise decision of an early was made due to the stupidly long journey back home the next day.

We’re yet to contact the world record books but 6 hours from Newcastle to Ipswich must be fairly close to a new one. We were all at our respective homes in Ipswich and London and awaiting the final and longest leg of our very first U.K tour.