Show number one of tour. The first show in the Netherlands. We were playing at a hostel (which is actually such a cool gig, lots of people close to our age that are actually interested in hearing new music.) The venue pulled out all the stops for us on promotion and we pulled in a pretty reasonable crowd to catch our sets. Chris was up first; I was really nervous for him as neither of us had any idea of how the gig was going to go down. We had a few minutes backstage reassuring ourselves – “we do this three or four times every week in the UK and always go down well, there is no reason why we wont here.” before taking to the stage.
Chris did great. I manned the sound for him and sat back and watched him at work. No one breaks down that awkward tension between performer and audience better than Chris. He’s great at making them feel at ease. Chris put in a strong set and went down well with a group of friendly Germans sat up on the steps. I was up next. A friend from Manchester had come along to catch our show and had been buying us drinks so I was reasonably merry. I played a strong set and got the crowd going. I played mostly fast songs and tried out a new number that I’d been working on for a while called ‘This Freedom’ – A song I started writing shortly after leaving my job and did it really well (surprisingly). I closed up with More To Life and Still Not The Same and came off stage to a small crowd of beaming audience members wanting CD’s and photos. I sold a few CD’s, a couple of my new T Shirts and went back up to the room to grab a quick shower before going back to hang out for the rest of the night. We played ping pong, drank fantastic Dutch Beer and made some new friends before calling it a night. Amsterdam had been a brilliant first night of the tour and we were over the moon with both our performances and their reception.
Today we’re booked to play at a bar in the centre of town called Skek. A few friends from the night before chatted to us in the morning saying they’d like to come along. We got our moneys worth out of a breakfast on the hostel, topped up the parking then met up with our film-maker friend Stephanie who interviewed us about our music and stories then headed into the centre for a few snaps. Bad weather sadly cut this already short trip even shorter and all too soon it was time to head to our next destination so we headed back to the hostel, loaded up our car (getting quicker at it now, still a fair old job) and headed off to the next nights accommodation (with Mr Tavener at the wheel.)
That brings us up to date! We’ve just arrived at the second nights accommodation. We’re staying about 20 minutes south of the centre of Amsterdam in a really cool small house. One of my bag’s broke under the weight of the amp inside it which is becoming a regularly theme on this tour with Chris’ clothes bag breaking at the ferry port in Hull. We’re currently planning our route back in to Amsterdam sat on a double bed that we’re sharing tonight in an adorable little house and starting mental prep for tonights show.
Anyway, thanks so much to anyone reading this and to anyone who came out last night. We loved it, please stay in touch! If you want to grab a CD / Merch then you can here and if you just want to listen on Spotify then you can here. Either way, I’ll see you next time I’m around.
I’ve also got a new tune coming out at the weekend. So keep your eyes peeled on Spotify.
Joel's Side Of The Story 
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