So here we are again, with most of June behind us now, Syteria left for Manchester's Star and Garter with a few days to recover we hit the road again to Evesham to play the 'Iron Road' which was a nice little warm up for the Seven Sins festival in Swansea. Anyone who read last months blog may think that we don't get hotels when we do gigs, that was a very unusual weekend and not something I would like to do often as I don't think our backs would take that very often, or for that matter poor Keira stuck listening to all that snoring lol. We went up in the world in Evesham with decent accommodation provided for us upstairs and sitting in the living room was a little home gym which of course we all had to have a go on to show each other we actually do exercise in between all that snacking in the car and ...ahem.
JULY we hit the road after a little breakfast to head to Swansea, me and Julia headed headed out shopping and found a couple of small sex shops so had time to grab some new stage gear 😃
After getting back from Swansea, I dropped everyone off then got home just in time to do a panel a in Leeds for a 'Women in Music' event, then finally bed before the next journey down to London to meet Martin Jarvis, Girlschool's new manager in a nice hotel foyer then back to Leeds the same night but at least I didn't have to drive😀then a weekend Festival with Girlschool at the Sixfields Festival in Nothampton. Then back to Leeds to do a podcast interview the next day. Then another Girlschool gig at the Rock n Bike festival where we had a rather over qualified roadie for the evening in Mat Sargent, the bassist from Chelsea and Splodgenessabounds great to see him with Hayley there doing our merch for us too😊Shame Mat wasn't doing our sound that night, oh dear, horrible sound on stage.
A few days to recover and then back to the Brudenell in Leeds to watch one of my old favourite bands The Dickies play and this time I didn't have to get up on stage and kill a song for them as Leonard was back and well, a great night too as it was their 40th anniversary tour, here's an obligatory snap with Stan.
Back to the world of Syteria the following week with a nice long rehearsal followed by playing the Rock N Blues Festival. One day I am so going to go to the right gig with the wrong band or the wrong gig with the right band or some thing like that, I'm confusing myself here... 2 different bands, rock n blues, rock n bike and both in Derbyshire wt?
Next was the biggest challenge so far, drive to Whitehaven for 'Haven and Hell' to do 2 shows on the same night with 2 different bands yay😀. I drove up on the Friday so that I could at least get some rest in the hotel and meet Girlschool up there that night, well that was the plan, but they got stuck in dreadful traffic so ended up being a late night anyway. Next day up and to the festival to see an SLF tribute band and try catch Kate from the Sex Pissed Dolls to say Hi as she was Syteria's 1st drummer for all of a day...lol It's a new festival and will be really big one day, great location, nice people organising it and a good Classic Rock line up of Girlschool, Diamond Head and O/D Saxon so a fun event.
Loved that weekend, look forward to doing more double duty gigs in the future 😉caught up with a few old friends in the other bands too.
A few days to catch up on all things social media and then down to London for our 2nd gig at the Lounge in Archway, as this time we were headlining 'The Lounge Fest'. Caught up with some old friends there including Malcolm Dome and Tony Wilson, great to see them enjoying themselves, Malcolm throwing some shapes at the after show, strictly next yr I think😉.
Band dinner together in Archway with manager Dutch
Well that's it for July and August. September almost half way already and our good friend Craig Renwick celebrates his 50th Birthday at our 1st headlining gig in Leeds on the 1st and he informs us it's his 666th gig ever...spooky
