Friday: Woke up at ten to six and couldn't get back to sleep, I agreed to try out for a band on Wednesday, my audition is on Sunday and I'm fucking shitting myself over it. Had one of those days were everything felt like it was going wrong. I took the bus to Rochester train station and it was so late it would have almost been quicker to just walk there. Got to London and went straight to Berwick Street only to find Sister Ray and Reckless Records were inexplicably closed. Went to Virgin to raid the Hip Hop section but they were out of most of the stuff I wanted, did find an Alias ep and a Buck 65 album relatively cheap. Got something to eat at the Vegan Chinese place off Soho Square then went into the Fox to meet Mills. First time I've been in there since they moved, there's more space but it still gets well badly crowed. Best thing was the bar staff, one of the least attractive barmaids was talking to someone while pouring a pint and spilt a load on her hand because she wasn't looking, her instant reaction was to say "I'm so drunk" later I asked the one guy behind the bar for a coke and he nearly put a shot of Jack Daniels in it as it was right next to the ice bucket and a little after that a guy behind me asked the barmaid from earlier for a coke and she said "vodka and coke?" later more competent, and fitter barmaids started to take over from them, we walked over to the Mean Fiddler, no queue, we got straight in. Went to the merch stall, one guy asked for three copies of the tour seven inch, one of the guys said he wasn't sure as there weren't that many left, some big foreign guy yelled "I WANT ONE!" and the poor guy behind the stall tried to assure him it wasn't that bad, when it was my turn to be served I asked for a CD and a seven inch adding "please" the guy gave me them with my change I said "thank you" he said "cheers" people appreciate some politeness.
Total Fucking Destruction: Found myself amazed that I could recognise one song from the other (well they aren't the most typical Grindcore band in the world). Noticed the drummer/singer only had one snare, a bass drum and four cymbals, well that's all you really need to do blast beats.
Narcosis: While they were setting up I pointed to there guitarist and said to Mills "look it's that guy who's meant to be dead" a couple of days ago their other guitarist posted on some message board that John had died after one of these shows on this tour, when it transpired that it was just a sick joke a lot of people got fucked off. First off the singer said "some of you may have heard that Jonboy died, well it's true we're having the funeral next week, three people are coming if you want to pay your respects your welcome" there were a couple of people next to me who kept yelling nonsensical heckles; "PAEDOPHILE" "PILLSBURY" "WHERE'S THE OWL?" First time I've seen them with there new singer, he moves around a lot more and actually faces the audience, like last time they played most of their songs back to back only allowing three breaks in their set. The singer asked if there was someone called G in the audience, who'd been posting some death threats over the internet because he was so fucked off with them "we were expecting a Dimebag like incident, we're all wearing bullet proof vest so aim for the head"
Brutal Truth: Wow, Kevin Sharp has gotten fat and Dan Lilker still hasn't changed since the eighties. I only have two albums so I didn't recognise a lot of the songs but they were fucking great. I was surprised Kevin let people on the front row sing into the mic, I've never seen a Grindcore band do that. Some guy behind me yelled "do some disco moves" Mills whispered in my ear that it was Lee Dorian, I glanced over my shoulder and sure enough it was him wearing glasses, he later got on the side of the stage, Kevin noticed him and laughed "you fucking twot" Americans can never pronounce the A in twat. Before I went to get my backpack from the cloak room Kevin lent over to the drummer so he could say "make sure we're properly dead before you start" and then went into Walking Corpse. Watched the rest of the set from the back with Mills. One of the better reunion shows I've been to.
Got to Victoria, I got a fruit salad, crisps and orange & mango juice from Marks and Spencer's, found Mills and headed for our train saw Genet, Becky and their mate after they had come from the Rocky Horror Show and sat with them on the way home. Got off at Chatham to get my taxi home because I was too tired to go to the tap.
Saturday: Woke up feeling groggy as shit and worse than that I've got a sore throat coming on, hope it gets better before tomorrow, I'd hate to pussy out of the audition. When Mum and Dad left for lunch I tried screaming as loud as I could and it hurt. Had lunch, got the bus to Chatham, had little Pikey kids yell stuff at me that I couldn't hear over my iPod. Got in the Tap, sent a text to Mills, he came down, told him about my throat and he said I shouldn't have cold drinks because it shrinks my larynx (fuck, wish I knew that before. Waited two hours for the bands to start because the local support pulled out and the other bands had to come up from Ashford, Mills was about ready to go when finally something happened.
Lakes: James from Winter In June's new band. Good in a Like Hurricane disjointed Post-Hardcore kind of way.
November Coming Fire: Their sound was pretty shit but they played good, played Near Death from the first ep but I was disappointed Gareth didn't let anybody sing along.
Left Tap said goodbye to Mills and got a bus home, it's weird leaving gigs in the middle of the afternoon, last time I did that was when November Coming fire played a matinee show at the Underworld with Send More Paramedics and Orange Goblin, usually when I go to matinee show now there's always a show in the evening to go to. Got home, made myself a cup of tea with honey and lemon and had dinner, watched That 70's Show and South Park, read then went to bed early.
Sunday: Woke up after seven, still had a sore throat but it felt better, also a funny feeling of excitement, I had a terrible feeling I'd choke at the audition but also that it could be a lot of fun. Spent the whole day drinking tea with honey and lemon, sucking Lockets and watching That 70's Show. Got to Strood train station for the 6:56 train to Gillingham. Found the pub they said they rehearsed at, had a look round inside and just found unfriendly looking motherfuckers. Eventually the two guitarist (Dan & Joe) turned up with their dad and the PA, helped them load it in the function room, their bass player Luke turned up and after nearly an hour so did Guy with his drums. They started rehearsing the three songs they had then it was my turn to sing covers. I did warn them before hand "I'm recovering from a sore throat" "I'm full of nerves and caffeine" "I will fuck up" and I did. We tried doing three different songs all of which I fucked up so eventually we just did two Terror songs over and over again until I got them right, they offered good advice but at times it felt like I was just mumbling through songs because I didn't want to strain my throat too much (I think that's what hung me in the end, I didn't want to tell them I couldn't do it because of my sore throat but that would have sounded like a pussy excuse if I heard that, I could also blame Scott Vogal for doing so many vocal tracks, I kept fucking up the end of one song and I found out from listening to it on the train home that it was because one line over lapped with another two that would have been better if I left out), half way through the dad (sticking around to do sound) fixed up another mic so Joe could do back ups to help me out, it got a bit better after that, my throat was really hurting but because my adrenalin levels were up I didn't care as much. When I had to leave for my train they told me they'd let me know and I got out as quickly as I could because I thought I did so badly. Popped in Beacon Court were Fee's party was, didn't see her but I found Mills and told him it didn't feel like it went well and he told me my voice sounded like it was going then I left for the train station. At the end I can say I at least tried, failed, but tried. When I got home I tried gargling with some of Dads mouthwash and spat up some blood. Brutal.
Total Fucking Destruction: Found myself amazed that I could recognise one song from the other (well they aren't the most typical Grindcore band in the world). Noticed the drummer/singer only had one snare, a bass drum and four cymbals, well that's all you really need to do blast beats.
Narcosis: While they were setting up I pointed to there guitarist and said to Mills "look it's that guy who's meant to be dead" a couple of days ago their other guitarist posted on some message board that John had died after one of these shows on this tour, when it transpired that it was just a sick joke a lot of people got fucked off. First off the singer said "some of you may have heard that Jonboy died, well it's true we're having the funeral next week, three people are coming if you want to pay your respects your welcome" there were a couple of people next to me who kept yelling nonsensical heckles; "PAEDOPHILE" "PILLSBURY" "WHERE'S THE OWL?" First time I've seen them with there new singer, he moves around a lot more and actually faces the audience, like last time they played most of their songs back to back only allowing three breaks in their set. The singer asked if there was someone called G in the audience, who'd been posting some death threats over the internet because he was so fucked off with them "we were expecting a Dimebag like incident, we're all wearing bullet proof vest so aim for the head"
Brutal Truth: Wow, Kevin Sharp has gotten fat and Dan Lilker still hasn't changed since the eighties. I only have two albums so I didn't recognise a lot of the songs but they were fucking great. I was surprised Kevin let people on the front row sing into the mic, I've never seen a Grindcore band do that. Some guy behind me yelled "do some disco moves" Mills whispered in my ear that it was Lee Dorian, I glanced over my shoulder and sure enough it was him wearing glasses, he later got on the side of the stage, Kevin noticed him and laughed "you fucking twot" Americans can never pronounce the A in twat. Before I went to get my backpack from the cloak room Kevin lent over to the drummer so he could say "make sure we're properly dead before you start" and then went into Walking Corpse. Watched the rest of the set from the back with Mills. One of the better reunion shows I've been to.
Got to Victoria, I got a fruit salad, crisps and orange & mango juice from Marks and Spencer's, found Mills and headed for our train saw Genet, Becky and their mate after they had come from the Rocky Horror Show and sat with them on the way home. Got off at Chatham to get my taxi home because I was too tired to go to the tap.
Saturday: Woke up feeling groggy as shit and worse than that I've got a sore throat coming on, hope it gets better before tomorrow, I'd hate to pussy out of the audition. When Mum and Dad left for lunch I tried screaming as loud as I could and it hurt. Had lunch, got the bus to Chatham, had little Pikey kids yell stuff at me that I couldn't hear over my iPod. Got in the Tap, sent a text to Mills, he came down, told him about my throat and he said I shouldn't have cold drinks because it shrinks my larynx (fuck, wish I knew that before. Waited two hours for the bands to start because the local support pulled out and the other bands had to come up from Ashford, Mills was about ready to go when finally something happened.
Lakes: James from Winter In June's new band. Good in a Like Hurricane disjointed Post-Hardcore kind of way.
November Coming Fire: Their sound was pretty shit but they played good, played Near Death from the first ep but I was disappointed Gareth didn't let anybody sing along.
Left Tap said goodbye to Mills and got a bus home, it's weird leaving gigs in the middle of the afternoon, last time I did that was when November Coming fire played a matinee show at the Underworld with Send More Paramedics and Orange Goblin, usually when I go to matinee show now there's always a show in the evening to go to. Got home, made myself a cup of tea with honey and lemon and had dinner, watched That 70's Show and South Park, read then went to bed early.
Sunday: Woke up after seven, still had a sore throat but it felt better, also a funny feeling of excitement, I had a terrible feeling I'd choke at the audition but also that it could be a lot of fun. Spent the whole day drinking tea with honey and lemon, sucking Lockets and watching That 70's Show. Got to Strood train station for the 6:56 train to Gillingham. Found the pub they said they rehearsed at, had a look round inside and just found unfriendly looking motherfuckers. Eventually the two guitarist (Dan & Joe) turned up with their dad and the PA, helped them load it in the function room, their bass player Luke turned up and after nearly an hour so did Guy with his drums. They started rehearsing the three songs they had then it was my turn to sing covers. I did warn them before hand "I'm recovering from a sore throat" "I'm full of nerves and caffeine" "I will fuck up" and I did. We tried doing three different songs all of which I fucked up so eventually we just did two Terror songs over and over again until I got them right, they offered good advice but at times it felt like I was just mumbling through songs because I didn't want to strain my throat too much (I think that's what hung me in the end, I didn't want to tell them I couldn't do it because of my sore throat but that would have sounded like a pussy excuse if I heard that, I could also blame Scott Vogal for doing so many vocal tracks, I kept fucking up the end of one song and I found out from listening to it on the train home that it was because one line over lapped with another two that would have been better if I left out), half way through the dad (sticking around to do sound) fixed up another mic so Joe could do back ups to help me out, it got a bit better after that, my throat was really hurting but because my adrenalin levels were up I didn't care as much. When I had to leave for my train they told me they'd let me know and I got out as quickly as I could because I thought I did so badly. Popped in Beacon Court were Fee's party was, didn't see her but I found Mills and told him it didn't feel like it went well and he told me my voice sounded like it was going then I left for the train station. At the end I can say I at least tried, failed, but tried. When I got home I tried gargling with some of Dads mouthwash and spat up some blood. Brutal.