Chris woke me up at 6.30 in the morning to move the car. On our walk back we were greeted by a cheery, passing cyclist shouting “hey guys!’ we turned our tired heads to see Mike (see previous blog) emerging from passing traffic, looking fresh faced; if anything better than the night before. Mike chatted to us for a minute or two and laughed at the fact that Brendan was still in bed, we laughed along; then went straight back to bed. I slept on the sofa for a few more hours only to be woken from my slumber by Brendan’s iPhone blaring out the Imperial March (Darth Vader theme)
We got up, showered, packed and drove to Bamberg, the destination for our day off.
We arrived at our AirBnb and checked in to our sleeping quarters (three mattresses on the floor.) Very cosy! Once we were settled we chilled out for an hour or two then headed out into the city as the sun went down. We went to an amazing Italian restaurant for dinner and ate our days budget in a single meal. Eating can be so disorientating on tour; It’s impossible to maintain any form of routine . We’d missed lunch again so needed a monstrous meal. We each had a starter of bruschetta but Brendan realised he didn’t like tomato, so I ate everyone’s starter then we ordered some German dark beer which was fantastic and a salami pizza. We had a quick look around Bamberg and took some night photos and headed home, promising ourselves that we’d get up early and check out the city in the morning.
We didn’t. We slept in. We headed out in the city with only an hour to kill before we had to check out and get on the road again. We saw the main square and the cathedral then wandered through the roman streets stopping in a few souvenir shops where we splashed our personal (non tour) budgets on beer and little keepsakes then headed back, checked out of the AirBnb and drove to Speyer.
We were staying in Rauenberg, about a 20 minute drive from Speyer. Our room was in the basement of the building, the lighting was a bit clinical but for the first time in weeks we all had a bed each. Buzzing about this revelation we packed up the car ready for the nights gig, snacked on a few chocolates (we’d missed lunch AGAIN) and headed to Speyer ready to smash out another show.
The Irish pub was one of the cutest venues of the tour so far. We were greeted at the venue by a beaming venue owner, Liedl. Liedl’s an absolute dude. He’s genuinely one of the nicest people we’ve met on the tour so far. He brought us out some food, helped us set up and had a few beers with us before the show. Tonight was the grand opening of his new music night and we were to be the first show.
We headed out into the streets to flyer for our show that night Edinburgh Fringe style, This has a low success rate in the UK, where we can work all the charm we can muster and try out some cheeky tactics (walking up to someone and say, “Excuse me, do you know how to get to xyz?” and when they answer say “WELL we’re playing a show tonight so we’ll see you there then!” – In Germany though, with limited phrases in our vocabulary, we had to resort to lead with the flyer and hope. We gave out a handful of flyers and got brushed aside countless times. We headed back to the venue, soundchecked and got prepped for the show.
The Speyer show was a delight. It was busy, just the right mix of rowdy / respectful for a show. The crowd loved it, I loved it, I played out of my skin and put in a really strong performance. I came off stage and sold 5 CD’s and we made over €200 euros on hat collection. Liedl also bought a T Shirt and we were in 100% party spirit. We got chatting to a polish girl who started drinking with us, hard. She bought us shot after shot showing us ‘how the polish drink.’ (basically shot vodka like a tequila slammer) We partied on for a few hours, signing posters and CD’s for new fans, talked to strangers, danced with new friends and shotted vodka the polish way. Finally after the bar was closing up we went round to bring the car round. Chris was designated driver, me, Brendan and our Polish friend were absolutely shit faced. We loaded everything into the car and our friend fell asleep on the back seat, she was in no position to walk home and probably too far gone for a taxi. We finished loading up the car and then Chris said the words that all musicians are terrified of hearing…. “Joel man where’s your pedal board?.”
I sobered up instantly. We checked round the venue and found nothing. We unpacked the car and packed it again and found nothing. Liedl searched the whole venue and found nothing. It was gone. Someone must’ve taken it. I was heartbroken, or as heartbroken as I could be considering how drunk I was. The good times came to an abrupt end, everyone was suddenly glum and serious. We agreed we’d call the police in the morning and headed back to the car. That was when we remembered that we still had a very very drunk Polish girl in our car who needed dropping off on the way home. None of us could be bothered with it anymore. Everything that made the night fun wasn’t fun anymore. She fell asleep on the back seat and was in too deep of a sleep to tell us where she lived. Thankfully after a long time she woke up and managed to tell us that she only lived around the corner. Chris dropped her off at her house then we called it a night and went home hungry, drunk and upset.
I’d like to stress, the night in Speyer was fucking phenomenal. It was my favourite show by miles. The ending of the night is a separate entity and it would be an insult to a night that Liedl and the team worked so hard on to put a downer on it by saying that that night was ruined. It wasn’t. I loved it. I’ve been telling this story chronologically but I don’t want to leave you on a negative note, so i’ll quickly say that many people have bought CD’s and Merch or donated towards a replacement board. While the money raised wont cover the cost it’s definitely lightened the load. Also, this has in no way ruined the tour. I’m writing this 3 days ahead, and some of the days since this event have been some of the funniest I can remember. So yeah. Happy times. Shit happens, we move on.
#FollowTheGrandTour
If you would like to help raise some money to replace my pedal board. Please grab some merch:
https://joelgardner.bigcartel.com
Joel's Side Of The Story 
Leave a comment