Please Sir (Can I Go Now)?
This is my second attempt writing a livejournal entry. The first one failed spectacularly after I tried to change the properties of an image I inserted, and it refreshed the whole page losing everything I had typed for the past 20 minutes! God I hate it when that happens!
I can’t believe it’s already been a week since I headed to Portsmouth to work on my first pitchshifter show. I get off the train, get picked up by Wes (who’s there with plan_b and Long_live_the_new_flesh from the message board … the 2006 PSI car pool massive) and after a bit of driving in circles spot the Portsmouth Wedgwood Rooms and find somewhere to park.
We all head into the venue and Jon Clayden is just hanging out there in the foyer by the merch table with Dean, who handled the merch on the last tour. We catch up a bit before I’m led to Mark Clayden backstage who’s on his front having the knots worked out of his back by Dan Rayner (Well, he will head-bang like a mad-man when playing bass! It’s no wonder it can be a couple of years between tours, it probably takes a fair while to recover!)
Mark asks how I am, I mention I’m recovering from a bout of horrendous flu, and Dan gives me the “you better not chuffing give it to me” look. Which is understandable, I seem to remember Tim Rayner being really ill on one tour; it’s the last thing anyone wants when on the road. I tell them not to worry as I’ll keep my distance, Mark tells me he’ll be out in a sec so I head back to the foyer where the others are.
Wes had brought along a signed Maverick guitar he bought off a mate. It was originally given away as a prize at a pitchshifter show in October 2002, the last tour Jim Davies played with the band. The person who won it was a friend of Wes, but not a pitchshifter fan, and she won it based on her ticket stub number (a ticket she got for free, apparently). She then sold it to another friend of Wes because she needed the cash, he then tried to flog it through eBay and the pitchshifter message board, but was largely greeted with hostility.
Anyway, 2 years later Wes made him an offer, and now Wes has it and needed some autographs redone due the marker wearing off. After borrowing a sharpie off Dean, I take it backstage and find Mark by the front of house sound desk and he’s happy to sign it, and takes it to the dressing room where Jon and I think Jason re-sign it. Wes just needs Tim to sign it, although he’s just popped outside. By the time he does catch Tim, the sharpie has gone missing and Wes has to settle for an autograph in blue ink.
By this point Mark has given me my pitchshifter tour pass and lanyard (I’ve been wanting a lanyard for ages but never wanted to go out and buy one, so I was doubly happy with this!). Here’s a scan of it on both sides (I’ve written my lj addy across it just incase someone is sad enough to fake their own and flog them on eBay, and before anyone asks, no I wont sell you mine!):
It’s a lot nicer then the This Is Menace pass I got for the London Mean Fiddler show last year; that was just a standard day pass:
But I’m holding onto both as they make for ultimate pitchshifter souvenirs in my opinion. How many people can say they got to see their favourite band with a Triple-A pass and got to help them out on the tour?
I head out to grab some food (the first of many take outs), wonder into a kebab shop that has “vegetarian kebab” on the menu. Intriguing, methinks, so I order one only to be disappointed by a pita-bread stuffed with cabbage, salad and a little bit of cheese. Yuck. Ah well, one of the prices I pay for being vegetarian is to expect little to be on offer from general food outlets.
Back to the venue, and I’m ready to hand out free CD’s to each person that comes through the door. Mark told me earlier that the legal capacity was 400, and that there were 4 large boxes with 100 CD’s in each. Now, I’m sure that the legal capacity was 450 as I did some research on the Wedgwood Rooms a couple of weeks back as part of my Music Industry and Events Management course. But, 450 may be inclusive of guest list, venue staff, stage crew and the bands leaving 400 to cover public attendance.
I mention all this about the capacity because, with the help of Wes, I hand out 400 CD’s, and there were still people trickling in an hour after the doors open (and we made sure it was only the paying fans that got CD’s, turning down requests from the venue staff for a freebie). We had the right number of CD’s for the supposed capacity, none of the CD’s went missing, and more then 400 people went to that gig.
Now to me that sounds like the venue / promoter over sold the gig to make more money (and if the band worked on a fixed guarantee and / or percentage of the door, it wouldn’t surprise me if the band were only given a take based on 400 tickets and didn’t see a penny from the extra people. Anyway, I can only speculate … ).
The gig itself seems to go smoothly, I watch from the side of the stage with one of the Murder One guitarists (Dan Marshall, I think, although knowing me it’s the other one …). Anyway, after the set they come off stage and Mark tells me to get some ice because someone’s punched Jon in the eye. Eeep.
I rush to the bar as the shutters are being pulled down and ask for some ice after explaining what’s happened. They give me two measly cubes and a paper towel. I tell them I’m going to need more! They fill up a pint glass and I take it backstage where Jon is already nursing his head with a plastic bag full of ice just saying “OW!” over and over again, but he seems to be in good spirits. It’s afterwards I find out it was all an accident; Jon likes to get a stage dive in during the last song of each show, and this tour they close the set with W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G. From the sounds of it, Jon stage dived onto someone skanking in the pit and got caught by a flailing limb!
By this time people are being kicked out of the venue because of the venue curfew, I say goodbye to Jason and Mark (after recommending some things that might help any bruising on Jon’s eye … wow, after 6 years I actually put my sports science a-level to good use!) and we journey back to Brighton to crash at my place before heading into London the following day.
London and Nottingham tour diary coming soon!