Pleasure / Pain
So tired. I had an adventure last night, most of which I really could have done without. This is going to be a really long entry, but I hope people read it as it's quite interesting.
Thursday morning: Get up fairly early (for me), get into town, do bits and pieces, buy Metal Hammer magazine to see if my friends My Life in the Making are finally in it ... they're not. However on the plus side there's some This Is Menace coverage, with an exclusive track featuring Neil from Dopamine (according to the mag), or B. Woosnam (Ben Woosnam from Hondo Maclean, according to the CD). Anyway, head to the cinema and watch Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It's pretty good, but you've got to go into the film expecting it to be fun and nonsense. Which it is. I'm glad I've seen it, but I'm not that fussed to see it again any time soon, or get the DVD when it comes out.
Onto London from town. Just before I reach London bridge the train sits in a tunnel for 10 minutes, because apparently they were requested to conduct line tests. Nevermind if people on the train have to get to a place by a certain time.
Finally get to London and hop on a tube to Camden Town, only the gates reject my ticket. I should have known something ominous was looming from the tunnel incident, coupled with this. I meet my friend Wez inside the World's End, and he's sitting at a table with Jason (Bowld - pitchshifter / this is menace drummer, as well as drummer for The One Condition who I would see later that night). Jason likes to scope out the nearby bar to any venue he plays out, as he's fond of the odd drink!. Wez offered to buy him a drink, but he thought it best not to (I've heard some mad stories of him when he drinks too much!)
I catch up with Wez who I haven't seen since the psientology tour last October, drink some good but ridiculously expensive Hoegarden (which gave me a bad case of hiccups), then go for some vegetable noodles in a chinese noodlebar down the road where we're later met by Wez' friend Nino and a couple of his Uni lady friends. Wez tried to convince them to come to the gig, but they were content with going back to University. Shame.
We head back to the World's End as we can't be bothered to queue for a ticket just yet, I have another Hoegarden after finally recovering from hiccups, then we finish up and head to the Underworld. I'd been told for ages it was £5 on the door, but they scammed me out of another £2 as another band had been added to the bill. Which happened to be Car Crash T.V., who I've had an issue with since they opened for a gig MLitM did, and didn't get off the stage when they were meant to, meaning out of courtesy MLitM cut their set short so the headliners could have their full set. I was not pleased to see them opening here, to say the least.
On our way in I notice Paul Fletcher (The One Condition rhythm guitarist), who Wez says hello to as they met before at a Liverpool gig. Jason comes in a bit later before heading backstage, and Jim (Jim Davies, main pitchshifter guitarist and co-song writer, The Prodigy guitarist, and frontman vocalist and lead guitarist for The One Condition ... I'm running out of breath writing all this!) walks in wearing your typical essex bloke adidas tracksuit zip up top. You can take the boy out of Essex, but not the Essex out of the boy!
Wez and I had a bit of a chuckle about it, before heading to the bar with Nino. We're just generally chatting, when Wez goes "Is that Tim Rayner?" I look round and see some spikey hair, he turns around, and it's actually Al Baker (drummer for The dRAWBACKS, a band I mentioned a few journals ago). I chatted to him a fair bit on the psientology tour as he was the main drum tech for pitchshifter. So it was good to see him again, asked when dRAWBACKS would be playing live (hopefully the summer), and asked how his other band I-AM-I were doing, which actually came to and end last October, but it sounded all amicable from what Al was saying. Anyway, he mentioned Dan and Tim Rayner (the other two dRAWBACKS ... as well as the last lead and rhythm guitarists for pitchshifter) would be down later. Actually Al dragged Tim up to the bar to say hello when he arrived; I think Tim was a bit puzzled as to who I was, but I didn't make a big deal of it by going off on one about how I followed them around the country on their last tour. I might be a big fan, but I try not to spazz out when I meet a celebrity. They were just there for a drink to watch their mates play, after all, so there was no point being intrusive.
Al has to dissapear to help the stage set up for the drums, and then onto the gig, which is really good. Soundwise I would put the riffs quite closely to those found on the more song based tracks on pitchshifter's Deviant album, but with more of a rowdy rock vocal and attitude, then digital punk (although he still incorperates his mad effects to give it an industrial tinge). It was really good and I deffinitely want to hear more. We drank some more at the bar and joked around a fair bit with Jason and Jim, before security threw people out at closing time. We head to the Worlds End and continue drinking (budweiser and hoegarden is a lethal mix by the way) until I need to get on a tube to try to get a train back home.
Now, all that was the pleasure part of the night. I got to schmooze with musicians I totally respect and adore, and apart from JS and Mark Clayden, it was like a social Pitchshifter reuninon, and myself, Wez and Nino were privelleged to be a part of it. All that good stuff happening, I should have known it would later turn into one of the worst days of my life. The pleasure / pain factor comes into play ...
For some reason they sectioned off part of the Camden Town tube (the tube for my friends in the US is the London 'Subway'). This means I had to catch a tube to Euston, get off at Euston, go up, across and down stairs to the other Euston branch (5 minute brisk walk), wait for the next tube train to Charing Cross, walk 5 minutes from the tube up stairs and escalators only to find I just miss my last train home. There is a train that takes me as far as Tonbridge (about half way home), but then the next train from Tonbridge to Pluckley (nearest station to home ... 5 miles walk) isn't until 6am. At the time it was 11:30pm.
My friend Wez earlier in the night offered me a place at his to sleep if I caught the train with him. I call him on my mobile, but get his voicemail, either because his phone is off or there's no reception signal. I make the choice to get back on the tube, and back to Camden Town (again with all the tube hopping from before) to see if Wez is still in the World's End with Nino where I left them. Of course, they aren't, and the World's End is closed. It's now a bit past midnight, and Camden at night is when the junkies come out and beg for change, plus it looks like something is about to kick off between a couple of gangs. I phone Wez and ask where he is, hoping I can still go back to his.
Unfortunately he was at Waterloo station, two stops on from Charing Cross, and his last train would leave in 10 minutes. It takes me 15 minutes to travel between Camden Town and Charing Cross before, so there's no way I'm going to make it. I thanked Wez lots for his generous offer of staying at his if I could make it back, but I just couldn't.
Back on the tube, back to Charing Cross with all the tube hopping and running around I was getting all too familiar with (not to forget I'm trying to sober up through all this). I get back to Charing Cross about 00:30 and for some reason they've had to close off the station because of a security alert, and everyone is carted outside to wait for a bus that will take us to Waterloo and London Bridge station where a train is waiting for us. The bus fills up, there's an argument between an old duffer and a yobbish young man (it was 6 of one, half dozen of the other) and we have to sit waiting until 1am.
We get to London bridge and get on a train that will only go as far as Orpington. Now, I mentioned Tonbridge is half-way home ... Orpington is only about 1/4 of the way home, and it is a slow trip. We get into Orpington at 01:50am and it's like a train graveyard with numerous trains parked everywhere. End of the line, everyone has to get out, but the people left over actually live in Orpington. I check the next time a train will come through ... not one until 05:55am. I'm kicked out the station by rail workers, and I head toward a taxi to ask what kind of fare it'd be to Headcorn (I remembered my grans vacant house is there, and is a stop before Pluckley. Fortunately I had a spare set of house keys on me). Now, for starters, the driver has no idea where Headcorn is, although tries to bluff his way through it. I ask him how much to Tonbridge, and it would be at least £60 (that's $112 US). And I'd still only be halfway home! There's no way I could afford anywhere near that.
Now Orpington is a subburb outside London, and it's a very quiet one so there's no motels or anything like that open (plus I'm not that familiar with the place). I sneak back into the station but get caught. I plead my case and fortunately convince one of the workers to let me sleep in a parked carriage. Now train seats are not designed to sleep in. They're not that comfy to sit in, plus the station isn't enclosed, it's open and exposed to the very cold elements of night. I tried sleeping rough, but it was more dozing with me curled up across three seats, trying to block out the fluroescent lights and constant hum of the engines they kept running. Plus they keep all the electronic doors of the train open, letting the outside air in. SO FUCKING COLD. Seriously the longest 4 hours of my life, if not one of the longest days / nights. Managed to get a really stuffed up nose, and I'm pretty sure I have a cold now too.
Finally get on the first train of the morning, and 50 minutes later I'm at Headcorn, stumble down the road for 10 minutes to my gran's vacant house, get inside and collapse in bed until about 03:30pm this afternoon. And now I'm finally back home and writing this from 07:15pm to 08:56pm. So basically I've spent the better part of 24 hours trying to get home from London. What a bastard.
Supporting Cast:
Me, the hapless hero.
Wez
Nino
Jason Bowld (pitchshifter / this is menace / the one condition ... drummer for hire)
Paul Fletcher (The One Condition)
Jim Davies (The One Condition / pitchshifter / the prodigy)
Al Baker (dRAWBACKS / earthtone9)
Tim Rayner (dRAWBACKS / pitchshifter)
Dan Rayner (dRAWBACKS / pitchshifter
Non journal appearances
Kieren Pepper (The One Condition / the prodigy)
Ace (Inner Mantra / Skunk Anansie)
Extras:
Crackhead 1, 2 & 3
London scum
Train passengers
British Rail Workers.
Thursday morning: Get up fairly early (for me), get into town, do bits and pieces, buy Metal Hammer magazine to see if my friends My Life in the Making are finally in it ... they're not. However on the plus side there's some This Is Menace coverage, with an exclusive track featuring Neil from Dopamine (according to the mag), or B. Woosnam (Ben Woosnam from Hondo Maclean, according to the CD). Anyway, head to the cinema and watch Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It's pretty good, but you've got to go into the film expecting it to be fun and nonsense. Which it is. I'm glad I've seen it, but I'm not that fussed to see it again any time soon, or get the DVD when it comes out.
Onto London from town. Just before I reach London bridge the train sits in a tunnel for 10 minutes, because apparently they were requested to conduct line tests. Nevermind if people on the train have to get to a place by a certain time.
Finally get to London and hop on a tube to Camden Town, only the gates reject my ticket. I should have known something ominous was looming from the tunnel incident, coupled with this. I meet my friend Wez inside the World's End, and he's sitting at a table with Jason (Bowld - pitchshifter / this is menace drummer, as well as drummer for The One Condition who I would see later that night). Jason likes to scope out the nearby bar to any venue he plays out, as he's fond of the odd drink!. Wez offered to buy him a drink, but he thought it best not to (I've heard some mad stories of him when he drinks too much!)
I catch up with Wez who I haven't seen since the psientology tour last October, drink some good but ridiculously expensive Hoegarden (which gave me a bad case of hiccups), then go for some vegetable noodles in a chinese noodlebar down the road where we're later met by Wez' friend Nino and a couple of his Uni lady friends. Wez tried to convince them to come to the gig, but they were content with going back to University. Shame.
We head back to the World's End as we can't be bothered to queue for a ticket just yet, I have another Hoegarden after finally recovering from hiccups, then we finish up and head to the Underworld. I'd been told for ages it was £5 on the door, but they scammed me out of another £2 as another band had been added to the bill. Which happened to be Car Crash T.V., who I've had an issue with since they opened for a gig MLitM did, and didn't get off the stage when they were meant to, meaning out of courtesy MLitM cut their set short so the headliners could have their full set. I was not pleased to see them opening here, to say the least.
On our way in I notice Paul Fletcher (The One Condition rhythm guitarist), who Wez says hello to as they met before at a Liverpool gig. Jason comes in a bit later before heading backstage, and Jim (Jim Davies, main pitchshifter guitarist and co-song writer, The Prodigy guitarist, and frontman vocalist and lead guitarist for The One Condition ... I'm running out of breath writing all this!) walks in wearing your typical essex bloke adidas tracksuit zip up top. You can take the boy out of Essex, but not the Essex out of the boy!
Wez and I had a bit of a chuckle about it, before heading to the bar with Nino. We're just generally chatting, when Wez goes "Is that Tim Rayner?" I look round and see some spikey hair, he turns around, and it's actually Al Baker (drummer for The dRAWBACKS, a band I mentioned a few journals ago). I chatted to him a fair bit on the psientology tour as he was the main drum tech for pitchshifter. So it was good to see him again, asked when dRAWBACKS would be playing live (hopefully the summer), and asked how his other band I-AM-I were doing, which actually came to and end last October, but it sounded all amicable from what Al was saying. Anyway, he mentioned Dan and Tim Rayner (the other two dRAWBACKS ... as well as the last lead and rhythm guitarists for pitchshifter) would be down later. Actually Al dragged Tim up to the bar to say hello when he arrived; I think Tim was a bit puzzled as to who I was, but I didn't make a big deal of it by going off on one about how I followed them around the country on their last tour. I might be a big fan, but I try not to spazz out when I meet a celebrity. They were just there for a drink to watch their mates play, after all, so there was no point being intrusive.
Al has to dissapear to help the stage set up for the drums, and then onto the gig, which is really good. Soundwise I would put the riffs quite closely to those found on the more song based tracks on pitchshifter's Deviant album, but with more of a rowdy rock vocal and attitude, then digital punk (although he still incorperates his mad effects to give it an industrial tinge). It was really good and I deffinitely want to hear more. We drank some more at the bar and joked around a fair bit with Jason and Jim, before security threw people out at closing time. We head to the Worlds End and continue drinking (budweiser and hoegarden is a lethal mix by the way) until I need to get on a tube to try to get a train back home.
Now, all that was the pleasure part of the night. I got to schmooze with musicians I totally respect and adore, and apart from JS and Mark Clayden, it was like a social Pitchshifter reuninon, and myself, Wez and Nino were privelleged to be a part of it. All that good stuff happening, I should have known it would later turn into one of the worst days of my life. The pleasure / pain factor comes into play ...
For some reason they sectioned off part of the Camden Town tube (the tube for my friends in the US is the London 'Subway'). This means I had to catch a tube to Euston, get off at Euston, go up, across and down stairs to the other Euston branch (5 minute brisk walk), wait for the next tube train to Charing Cross, walk 5 minutes from the tube up stairs and escalators only to find I just miss my last train home. There is a train that takes me as far as Tonbridge (about half way home), but then the next train from Tonbridge to Pluckley (nearest station to home ... 5 miles walk) isn't until 6am. At the time it was 11:30pm.
My friend Wez earlier in the night offered me a place at his to sleep if I caught the train with him. I call him on my mobile, but get his voicemail, either because his phone is off or there's no reception signal. I make the choice to get back on the tube, and back to Camden Town (again with all the tube hopping from before) to see if Wez is still in the World's End with Nino where I left them. Of course, they aren't, and the World's End is closed. It's now a bit past midnight, and Camden at night is when the junkies come out and beg for change, plus it looks like something is about to kick off between a couple of gangs. I phone Wez and ask where he is, hoping I can still go back to his.
Unfortunately he was at Waterloo station, two stops on from Charing Cross, and his last train would leave in 10 minutes. It takes me 15 minutes to travel between Camden Town and Charing Cross before, so there's no way I'm going to make it. I thanked Wez lots for his generous offer of staying at his if I could make it back, but I just couldn't.
Back on the tube, back to Charing Cross with all the tube hopping and running around I was getting all too familiar with (not to forget I'm trying to sober up through all this). I get back to Charing Cross about 00:30 and for some reason they've had to close off the station because of a security alert, and everyone is carted outside to wait for a bus that will take us to Waterloo and London Bridge station where a train is waiting for us. The bus fills up, there's an argument between an old duffer and a yobbish young man (it was 6 of one, half dozen of the other) and we have to sit waiting until 1am.
We get to London bridge and get on a train that will only go as far as Orpington. Now, I mentioned Tonbridge is half-way home ... Orpington is only about 1/4 of the way home, and it is a slow trip. We get into Orpington at 01:50am and it's like a train graveyard with numerous trains parked everywhere. End of the line, everyone has to get out, but the people left over actually live in Orpington. I check the next time a train will come through ... not one until 05:55am. I'm kicked out the station by rail workers, and I head toward a taxi to ask what kind of fare it'd be to Headcorn (I remembered my grans vacant house is there, and is a stop before Pluckley. Fortunately I had a spare set of house keys on me). Now, for starters, the driver has no idea where Headcorn is, although tries to bluff his way through it. I ask him how much to Tonbridge, and it would be at least £60 (that's $112 US). And I'd still only be halfway home! There's no way I could afford anywhere near that.
Now Orpington is a subburb outside London, and it's a very quiet one so there's no motels or anything like that open (plus I'm not that familiar with the place). I sneak back into the station but get caught. I plead my case and fortunately convince one of the workers to let me sleep in a parked carriage. Now train seats are not designed to sleep in. They're not that comfy to sit in, plus the station isn't enclosed, it's open and exposed to the very cold elements of night. I tried sleeping rough, but it was more dozing with me curled up across three seats, trying to block out the fluroescent lights and constant hum of the engines they kept running. Plus they keep all the electronic doors of the train open, letting the outside air in. SO FUCKING COLD. Seriously the longest 4 hours of my life, if not one of the longest days / nights. Managed to get a really stuffed up nose, and I'm pretty sure I have a cold now too.
Finally get on the first train of the morning, and 50 minutes later I'm at Headcorn, stumble down the road for 10 minutes to my gran's vacant house, get inside and collapse in bed until about 03:30pm this afternoon. And now I'm finally back home and writing this from 07:15pm to 08:56pm. So basically I've spent the better part of 24 hours trying to get home from London. What a bastard.
Supporting Cast:
Me, the hapless hero.
Wez
Nino
Jason Bowld (pitchshifter / this is menace / the one condition ... drummer for hire)
Paul Fletcher (The One Condition)
Jim Davies (The One Condition / pitchshifter / the prodigy)
Al Baker (dRAWBACKS / earthtone9)
Tim Rayner (dRAWBACKS / pitchshifter)
Dan Rayner (dRAWBACKS / pitchshifter
Non journal appearances
Kieren Pepper (The One Condition / the prodigy)
Ace (Inner Mantra / Skunk Anansie)
Extras:
Crackhead 1, 2 & 3
London scum
Train passengers
British Rail Workers.