I had another horrendous nights sleep. We’d stayed out super late with Lee and Nicholas in Belfast and ended up going to bed around 3am. We woke up around 10.30am and got our stuff together for a 12pm checkout. It was Chris’ turn to drive today so he was tasked with driving us to our next stop on the tour; Derry, about an hour and a half drive north of Belfast. I took on the role in the sleeper seat and took full advantage of the opportunity and basically slept for the entire journey. I’d love to tell you about the wonderful views that the guys had seen en route, but I can’t; I was out like a light. I awoke as we crossed the river into Derry and pulled into the street where our AirBnb was. Brendan was excited as there was a large set of stairs at the end of our street that was very photogenic. We unpacked, had a couple of pics and headed out into town for an explore.
We had a wander round the city and it quickly became apparent how hard this small city had been hit by the Irish troubles. A quick read into its history confirms this and while every single person we met during our time in Derry was absolutely lovely; the street art and murals showed just how much of an issue this still is. It is terrifying how little we hear / know about this back home. Whilst we were in Belfast an advert had appeared on a mainstream tv channel where a teenager gets shot in a dark alleyway and a warning flashed up at the end saying ‘Paramilitaries don’t protect you, they control you.’ It was shown like a drink driving ad would be shown in England.. it was nuts. It was very saddening and scary. Whilst we’ve been away we’ve seen countless ‘No Hard Border’ signs and just today a masked member of the ‘New IRA’ had appeared on Channel Four News saying they would violently oppose any border set up. I don’t know anything about the situation in Ireland, I don’t claim to uphold an important opinion on the matter; I’m merely blogging about what we saw and it has been shocking and shouldn’t be overlooked / ignored back home. I’ll keep my own politics on this to myself.
Belfast Advert: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-45881781
ANYWAY
Chris went to check out a mural to Derry Girls, a TV show he’s really into and we grabbed a huge lunch consisting of a Louisiana chicken stack with Mash which was absolute filth. This practically sent me into a food coma and we headed back to the AirBnb to prep ourselves for the gig that night. Our show was starting at 10pm with a 9pm arrival time so we had a huge amount of time to fill. I still wasn’t feeling great and after an hour or so of sitting slumped in my bed started to slip into a bit of a mood. I really needed a strong show to pick me up.
Touring’s difficult. You don’t eat right (you can’t. Every option for food is within a service station. You never have time or the amenities to cook), your sleeping pattern is going to be shagged; You never drink enough water which is the key to everything and you’re drinking alcohol most nights and any time you could spend outside is split 60/40 with driving. It can start messing with your emotions really quick if you let it. I remember my first touring experience at 21 when I went on tour with a band called Leopards taking photos and videos for them. The guys had decided that they would try and eat a McDonalds every day of the tour; I managed five days before I started to feel REALLY bad. I remember randomly bursting into tears in Glasgow Garage 3 while the band were sound checking. It’s obvious that eating etc is linked to how you feel, but it is hard to eat right while you’re away and any routine is out of the window. I’d eaten DREADFULLY for the last few days and hardly slept, so I’d hit a bit of a wall. Eventually gig time rolled round though and we perked back up and headed to the venue.
As mentioned in the first blog. Brendan had downloaded Tinder to ‘help us promote the shows.’ His first attempts at using the dating app to get heads in to our Belfast show had failed with the best response being ‘ahahah omg you’re using tinder to promote your friends band.’ In Derry it appeared to be a different story and he’d actually managed to get someone down to the show and bring some friends. This cheered us up enormously. Excited about a drama filled night we arrived at the venue, set up and sound checked. A guy called Dylan was running the night and a local band ‘Dander’ were supporting us. Gig time rolled around and date time arrived for Brendan, so me and Chris had a beer and watched Dander who’s harmonically rich music sent us to another world.
Chris was up first and played an absolute blinder. The audience was small but enthusiastic and were sticking around for the duration despite the fact that Chris went on stage at 11pm. Chris’ comedic set, set the room alight and he won some serious fans that night. I played a solid set and went down well. The crowd had thinned out a bit for me but that was expected considering that it was literally midnight on a Tuesday when I went on stage. A solid 60% of the audience stayed with us to the bitter end at 12.40 though and we sold some CDs and got some signatures on our tour poster. One woman, (who we presume is Kevin from Danders wife), bought both of our CDs and a couple of people tipped very generously throwing €5 or €10 in the hat for us. Me and Chris had a quick post show hug feeling that the tour was back on track after a slightly shaky start and then me, Chris, Brendan and Dylan had shots of Whiskey together to celebrate.
The locals were still in the party spirit and we ended up all being invited back to Brendan’s date’s house for an after party with some people from the bar and her mates. One thing we regretted a bit from our Europe experience was the distance we were staying from the venues every night; meaning after the shows we always had to drive. This time we weren’t making that mistake and Uber was a thing over here. We were staying a 5 minute walk from the venue and touring’s all about the people you meet and the experiences; therefore there was absolutely no way we weren’t after partying. We hung out with the locals until crazy o clock, mixed drinks to the high heavens and passed a guitar round taking it in turns to sing the cheesiest covers we knew. I banged out a cover of Teenage Dirtbag, Wake Me Up When September Ends and Ride Wit Me by Nelly which went down a storm and Chris pretty much did a full covers set. Everyone could sing and play and we had the best night. Finally at 6am, me and Chris decided to call it a night and ordered a taxi for two; it had become apparent that Brendan was staying over. We’d had a brilliant night and a brilliant gig and drunkenly stumbled in to our AirBnb after a funny taxi ride with a friendly taxi driver from Surrey.
At the end of the day Derry was a victory all round, we’d had a lovely small gig and a wicked night at one of the cutest house parties I’ve been to in years. I’d finally got a bed to myself and slept through like a drunken baby, Chris had a full double bed to himself after the night’s adventures and Brendan; well… Brendan got laid.
Joel's Side Of The Story 
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