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
Having just come back from the Download Festival doing a spot of moonlighting for Total Rock Radio as an interviewer it was nice to be on the other side of the microphone and playing a few shows myself this month with both Syteria and Girlschool.
We seeem to have been up and down to Scotland a few times too in the short time we've been gigging together, playing clubs and festivals gaining new friends along the way.
We started at Bannermans in Edinburgh, a favourite venue of ours to play. it's the 2nd time we've played there in a year now and we are going back there again in November. It's run by the lovely Cristian Kimmet who also plays in Warrior Soul so understands bands needs on the road, regardless of that he still put us up in the haunted flat above the club...or so they say...
We had a great gig and caught up with a few friends afterwards. I decided seeing as though there was a gig the next day I'd get some sleep and there's only so much lime and soda you can drink anyway, boring zzz. The other band were staying in one of the other rooms and along with Robbie the sound engineer and also member of the Exploited had decided to have a party in the main room which was all very well but there was no door, so I may as well have been in there trying to sleep on the sofa next to them. Julia, Keira and Pablo had hit a club nearby and about 4am I heard them coming in, the next thing I saw was Julia hovering over Keira holding her hair back whilst Keira was very ahem gracefully puking into a bucket...good to see things haven't changed that much in rock 'n' roll..ah the good old days eh? not!
Grabbed about 4 hours sleep then up and off for the short drive to the next gig.
Wildfire is a relatively new up and coming festival in Biggar, Scotland run by Dave Ritchie. There was a great atmosphere as soon as we arrived and a little sunshine too, which is always good at a festival. We were on the main stage in the afternoon ready to warm up the crowds for Toseland and O/D Saxon later that night.
Dutch Michaels our friend and now manager met us there and he'd already sorted out the accomodation and food situation for us. All the bands were sat together to eat in Wiston Lodge, which was a beatiful and a great place for bands to crash out and party with several rooms comprising of 3 or 4 bunk beds in each...not that anyone slept much, as someone had taken the opportunity to crank up the karaoke machine and we're singing along badly to a Saxon song...or so Brian from O/D Saxon informed us later that night on stage...the poor things in that band were in the room next door at the time trying to get some rest.
The gig went really well and we'd seen a couple of young girls who'd been walking around with inflatable guitars all day, so we grabbed them and brought them on stage with us for 'When I Get Out Of High School'
It seem as though they had more perfomances than any other band that weekend as they joined several bands on stage. They should join the PRS they'd be loaded...lol
We then travelled back to stay at Dave Ritchies home, he'd told us that he had several sofas, but we weren't quite expecting what we saw once we arrived an hour later having got a little lost, though thankfully this weekend I wasn't driving, we had our lovely Chris Holt and a comfortable van to do it all in, not the Syteria Mobile that is my little Citroen Xsara. We got to the house and almost turned back as we thought we'd walked into 'Sofa World!' (other furniture shops are available)...Keira almost broke the world record as she sprinted in her high heels towards the biggest, comfiest looking sofa there but me and Julia gave a knowing nod as we headed around the corner to find 2 other nice sofas which weren't in ear shot of the 3 men with us, 'sofa' so good (boom boom ;) ) as we knew they would be snoring and Keira was placed right in the middle...hah! Not that we got too much sleep anyway again but that's rock 'n' roll on a budget isn't it?
Next day we headed back to the lodge, grabbed Breakfast with the bands for a catch up then off to Manchester's Star and Garter, a pub I'd never played before but would definitely go back to. The steps weren't so appealing though. After a lovely gluten free pizza thanks to Stu Taylor who runs the gigs there once a month, he keeps the prices low and ends the gigs early enough so people can get the last train home and being opposite the station that's always good and it ensures a decent turn out each time. A quick catch up with friends and a drive back to Sheffield and then finally home to Leeds for some sleep.
Almost over for June and with 1 gig left in June and 1 the first day of July, we'll leave that until the next time... to be continued.
