The Subways were kind enough to chronicle their North American tour for us, and we’ll be running their tour diary in several installments this week. Billy Lunn will be our guide, and as he writes, “Because so much usually ends up happening on our tours, we thought that this time round, whilst we’re on our exciting US/Canada tour, I’d keep a diary of all our happenings. As well as being a nice little insight for you guys into our daily lives, it’s also a nice way for me to recap and relive the days as they happen!” Check out entries for Days 6-10 below.
USA 2016 Tour Diary Day 06
Early start today for a Converse live session, but it was a great excuse to get in a cab and see the sights of beautiful Boston. The wealth of redbrick buildings reminded us of the redbrick of Manchester in our own U.K., which adds a natural autumnal look to the city, and this wonderful quality was compounded by the blue skies and soft, orange sunlight! On our way we passed Harvard Business School on our right, and I wanted to take a detour over the bridge to Harvard Square in Cambridge so I could get a nice feel of what it’s like there. All of a sudden I felt pangs of wanting to study a postgraduate at a Boston uni after I finish my BA at Cambridge—assuming I graduate, of course! Haha! We didn’t take the detour; we like to be punctual!
We reached Converse HQ in good time, and had a lovely chat with all the guys there whilst we set up our equipment. Everybody was so friendly—film crew, sound crew, reps, everyone—so we felt right at home straight away. The studio had big windows looking out over the river, and so there was a constant stream of natural daylight, which sends me always into a happy dreamland, and I think that that helped with the overall good feeling of the day. We bashed out “Dirty Muddy Paws” and “Rock & Roll Queen,” and followed them up with a quick interview explaining our songwriting philosophy before grabbing our free pair of Converse each and calling a cab.
This time we passed Boston University on our way back to the venue, and the uni wind band, accompanied by a full drum kit set up, were pumping out “And the Beat Goes On” by The Whispers, which made me yearn for college life even more. The students were just rolling out of their classes and walking by with their books under their arms. I want to study here! This yearning was drowned out nevertheless by our cab pulling up at the venue for load-in time: seeing our guitars and drums all laid out in front of the stage gave me chills of anticipation of what the night ahead held in store. Nothing beats the feeling of putting on that guitar and looking up at all those expectant faces. The fabulous Winter Brave, who had travelled all the way up from Texas just to play with us, opened up the evening’s entertainment. Josh and I kept remarking throughout their set how “these guys can PLAY!” And they’re such lovely guys. Then it was time for the heroic PINS to come on, and they played yet another blinding set. These are five incredibly talented ladies with some awesome songs under their collective belts.
When we crashed into “Kalifornia” we knew it was going to be a great night. I maybe spent a bit too much time talking during the set, but when you’ve travelled all this way, it’s hard not to want to engage so much with those smiling faces! Goodnight, Boston! And thank you!
USA 2016 Tour Diary Day 07
So back into Le Grande Pomme! It was a drop-and-go once more, and the one we’d all been worrying about because it was expected to be a bit stressful getting all the equipment out of the bandwagon and into the venue, let alone finding a good place to park the bandwagon afterwards. Still, we managed the job in a magical fashion, and soon afterwards we were all onstage sound checking and making jokes at my expense (it’s okay, it’s nothing less than I deserve!) in no time at all.
We were being photographed all day by a wonderful chap called Kenny, and whilst he took photos of us setting up we began talking about how great Bernie Sanders is for the U.S. elections, and how awful the Tories are for the U.K. in general. We were chuckling away at the ridiculousness of our respective situations, but deep down we were sort of weeping at the state of world politics at the moment. Still, we agreed, that’s why art is so very important: we are given safe environments for free expression outside of all that stuff. Take gigs, for example: there’s something so primal and cathartic in the way we express ourselves at rock gigs. We sign a crazy contract with the band and all the other gig-goers when we enter the venue through the front door and hand over our tickets, and we then proceed to go absolutely nuts – all our frustrations and worries are either expunged or forgotten. That’s why I love rock ‘n’ roll in particular; it’s a form of anger, beauty and celebration all rolled up in one!
And that’s just how it felt onstage that night. We were playing the Studio at Webster Hall for the very first time, and what a venue! Cool to the very core— New York as a microcosm. Born Cages rocked, and PINS were amazing as always. When we walked on stage, the feeling of goodwill washed over us. We put that goodwill to use, piling savagely into “Kalifornia,” keeping the tempo up right up until “Popdeath,” when we let the audience groove and take a quick breath for a bit. Tonight was a milestone for myself because I indulged in a stage dive during “It’s a Party.” Thank you for catching me, New York! Your embrace was nirvana inducing. And apologies to the photographer down the front, who unfortunately had to deal with my huge butt in her face as I tried to get back onstage. I hope you recover from your ordeal as quick as possible!
After the gig we had to wait for our manager to catch a cab to the bandwagon so he could drive it back to the venue for load-out (in the end he had to park it miles away—I’m not sure where, exactly), and in the meantime we were treated to some quality gabba/grime from the DJ who took to the stage after us. I started slipping into a trance from the processed beats when the van arrived. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the sonic texture of the music, it’s just that I found it hypnotising when compounded with post-gig exhaustion. I was glad nevertheless when we finally got all our equipment onto the bandwagon so we could set off. A quick shower to wash the madness out of my hair and some Family Guy to relax to. Now we’re on our way to CANADA!
USA 2016 Tour Diary Day 08
I bought a pack of Girl Scout cookies today. I’m unsure as to whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, because I just know that I’ll end up munching my way through these bad boys in no time at all, and I’ll regret it one hot, sweaty evening when my belly proceeds to bounce away onstage! But it was really nice have a little chat with the lady and the young girl who were stood behind the array of cookies. We all declared our mutual love for chocolate, but I simply had to go for the shortbread because of my dedication to butter.
Today was all about making good time to the American/Canadian border, so we got some mileage under our belts before stopping for a well-deserved break at Lake George, N.Y. It was a lovely, clear day, so we (guitar tech Al, manager/driver Ben, sound engineer/tour manager Steve, and myself, as Josh had stayed in the bandwagon for a few more hours of sleep and Charlotte was off on a run somewhere) walked a couple of miles round the lake before stopping at a bar called Christie’s to grab some lunch and a few cold beverages. My Diet Pepsi went down a treat, whilst the others enjoyed their alcohol-tinged yummies. After we ate our food, which, frankly, took a bloody long time to arrive—but we enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine in the meantime—we took a walk around the town. I spent far too much money on bubble gums, and we bought some postcards for the Pledgers!
So back on board the bandwagon we decided to tuck in to some of the Spaghetti Western DVDs sound engineer/tour manager Steve bought at a Wal-Mart. The genius of Death Rides a Horse will be with me for a long time. I love a good revenge flick tinged with psychedelic episodes of back-flashing mayhem! By the time we reached the American/Canadian border I’d finished Book VII of Le Morte D’Arthur (this one was a doozy on the exploits and adventures of Sir Gareth of Orkney) and moved on to Book VIII. We got the “all clear” from customs, and we were on our way to Montreal. Till tomorrow, y’all!
USA 2016 Tour Diary Day 09
Ah ha! Rain! This is more like it. We all expressed just how at home we felt in Montreal simply because of the weather. Josh and guitar tech Al, who both live in France, also said they felt eerily at ease with all the French signs about us. After brushing my teeth (always item number one on the day’s to-do list), I sat down and read a few more chapters of Book VIII of Le Morte D’Arthur (spoiler alert: Sir Tristram is a very naughty boy) before meeting up with a few of the guys who were already up and about, and who had set up shop in Starbuck’s to steal some wifi.
Free wifi was heaven-sent, especially when five minutes of data roaming costs over £30. Silly Billy. Just wait for the free wifi! Luckily there was wifi in the venue, and this saved us an awful lot of financial meltdown situations. We loaded all the equipment up those steep steps to the Fairmont Theatre, but the hike was worth it. What a venue! It looks like a ballroom from the 1920s, and you guys know how I love my 1920s décor! After sound check, we had a great chat with the two meet-and-greet Pledgers, Mike and B.J., who were such fun guys. Mike admitted that he’s a Liverpool fan, and we both lamented the possibility that Spurs might catch Leicester to win the Premier League title. But enough of that. The best part was when we took photos at the end and Mike and B.J. showed us their acrobatic yoga skills and put us all to shame. In light of their awesomeness, we dedicated “Black Letter” to them! Oh, and B.J. gave us a book of her very own recipes! So sweet! Afterwards we wrote our messages on the postcards we picked up in Lake George and sent them off to the Pledgers. I hope they like them! Our manager Ben ran through the rain to get them in the post on time. Let’s see if it worked!
We also had a Columbian fan in the crowd (how cool is that!) called Mateo, and so Charlotte dedicated “Shake! Shake!” to Mateo! We had an absolutely marvellous time onstage tonight. My voice felt like it was getting back to normal again, and there were, once more, so many smiling faces out there in the crowd. Thank you so much to all those that came along. And thank you to Montreal for making us feel at home, weather and all!
USA 2016 Tour Diary Day 10
It was a much earlier load-in today. Well, that’s how it was planned to begin with—2pm as opposed to the more usual (and much more comfortable) 4pm—except that guitar tech Al was on driving duty on this particular run, and he’d decided to take us on an involuntary detour of lovely Toronto! “Involuntary” being the operative word and “decided” being the superfluous. Hey, whatever gets us out and about is fine with us! We arrived at about 2:45pm. Cheers, Al!
We had a nice big stage to work with today, and the in-house crew was delightful. They gave us a good helping hand with loading the equipment into the venue, and they were really sweet in providing us with side-of-stage monitoring for our onstage sound via the very handy Max. Right through sound check Max got thoroughly involved with our jokey little system. We like to keep things bouncy and fun throughout the day, and this usually involves taking the piss (out of me!) and it was great to see her rocking out side-stage during show time! Getting into the spirit of things.
We had two support bands with us for the Mod Club gig: as always, the superb PINS, but also Secret Broadcast, which featured among their members our beloved Keith from Die Mannequin on the drums. We toured Europe with Keith, Kevvy, Care and JC, and it was so good to see Keith (and JC, who was helping Secret Broadcast out) again, let alone having him share the stage with us once more. It was a great line-up, and by the time we hit the stage the adrenaline was seriously pumping hard.
The feeling for this gig was electric, and it really, really, really does feel like my voice is back in full swing again. To top off this amazing gig, I also finished Book VIII of Le Morte D’Arthur after lying in my bunk until 3am hooked on the adventures of the very naughty Sir Tristram. Day off tomorrow, so I’ll be holding fire on Book IX until our show in Cleveland!
