The Automatic Tour Diary! Week 1.
Artist profile:
The Automatic
The first few days of The Automatic's UK club tour have been going down a storm! Read Rob's take on things, from his view as frontman of the Welsh rockers...
Tour day 1: Triumphant return, rock and roll, that stuff
It's weird how familiar a tourbus feels after not very long..it feels like I've been away for a while and now I'm living out of a suitcase and sleeping in a two-foot wide constantly moving bunk again I've come home!
The actual gig part was a little less familiar - nothing was different from gigging before, there were no new experiences (apart from using the in-ear monitors maybe) but I'd forgotten a lot the stuff that I'll be going through on a daily basis for a month. I'd forgotten that when I know what time I need to be on stage, then in the hour before my body automatically charges itself with adrenaline. I started to go a bit crazy before this first gig! You can't go anywhere far away or engage your mind with much else in the hour before a show so all my attention goes to the show, and I just have to wait. Today being the first day of the tour, that felt like a really long time.
The show was great, a sell-out and a really enthusiastic crowd. A lot of people wanted us to play b-sides from our first, limited edition single. Hardcore! Because Exeter Cavern is about the size of an armpit, the first thing I did was bash into Frost and totally de-tune my bass. We opened with a new song, "Light Entertainment", so hopefully no-one really noticed. Speaking of new, when we introduced Paul there were a few surprised faces..I don't think they'd realised he wasn't Pennie!
After the show, our manager was involved in lewd acts with the drummer from our support band, Viva Machine. They got a bit, er, high-spirited and managed to scar Paul and Pete (photos) for life. Good times.
Tour day 2: Why can't every venue be like this?
Total contrast! Gloucester Arts Centre is huge! There's a stage big enough that we aren't smacking each other in the face with our guitars, for one. It holds 400 people and we sold it out, go us! I'm a bit surprised (in a good way) that so many people still want to come and see us after being off the musical radar in the UK for about a year, good times! It was a mixed audience, too - plenty of young folk in some sort of perma-pit who would probably have moshed to Sigur Ros, right up to the grown-ups lurking in the shadows at the back by the bar.
It was so different to Exeter..that had a kind of mad, frenetic energy that came with being in a tiny, packed sweatbox where it's hard to breath and no-one can tell what's going on. Tonight, more people were just standing and watching, which is what I've been expecting. Being between your first two albums is a unique position - you don't have enough of a back catalogue to play oldies from start to finish, and you want people to hear the new stuff too, especially as we've put so much into writing and recording it and it all kicks ass. Because of that, we've been playing a set that's half new stuff. It's gone down so well though, I can't complain!
This venue had a lovely dressing room, a shower, washing machine and tumble drier, great staff - all the things we're going to need and miss two more weeks into this tour! D'oh!
Tour day 3: day off
Gloucester's only an hour from Cardiff so we came home. I woke up in my own bed, score! Actually, so far I've only spent one night on the bus. It was boiling hot and I was already covered in sweat from the Exeter gig. I was so slimy the next morning.
Anyway. I'm going to see Future Of The Left tonight. They're loud bastards. If you haven't heard them, do it, they're awesome.
Right, er, I'm still in bed, the only think I've done today is brush my teeth so I've got nothing else to say. Bye!
Tour day 4: The Snows of Northampton
I've played the Soundhaus before. My first memory of Northampton will also be my lasting memory of it. The bus arrived there overnight, so when I woke up I looked out of the little window in my bunk to get a snapshot of my neighbourhood for the day. The first thing I see is some graffiti crudely sprayed onto a wall opposite the venue saying "Jihad Warrior"..
The venue's a good one. We only played the small room before, but it was a well-attended gig and a great crowd considering how small a band we were then, so I was looking forward to playing. There was a great aftershow, too. We were in the big room this time and I wasn't disappointed.
There's not really too much you can say about a good gig - we played well and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. You were either there or you weren't, I'm not even going to try to give a blow-by-blow account. If something fucks up, there's plenty to tell! Paul made some friends and enemies by talking football during the set. Afterwards, someone was overheard saying "Pennie didn't annoy me half as much this time!!!"..er..
After the show there was a club night but a few of us had heard about a house party from some of the staff in the venue, so Frost, Stan, Pete and I walked over there while it snowed down by the bucketful. Everyone at this party was battered when we arrived, it was hilarious. The house was absolutely packed, it was like an episode of skins! I spent most of the time talking to some guys out the back. It was still going strong when we called it a night at some point after 4am..
That's pretty much it!
Tour day 5: Stoke. More snow. Bloody FREEZING.
Us (Ze band and tour friends) and Viva Machine had found a Wetherspoons which was mostly pretty disappointing..I bought a towel..Christ, maybe I should start taking drugs, this is well boring. What's happened on this tour?
Well, there's the different kinds of pain visted on my left hand by my own clumsiness. On the first night I slammed the middle finger of my left hand in a solid, heavy, metal flight case, leaving a purple line running across the middle of the nail and a slight dew of sweat on my forehead from the dull, strength-sapping throbs of pain. I didn't do serious damage but it hurt like a bitch. Then a couple of nights ago I was making a brew of honey, lemon and ginger (good for the the throat, kids) and I scalded the index finger of that hand. Again, no real damage but a different finger and a different (but equally exquisite) kind of pain. I gouged out part of the middle finger on my right hand on a loose nail somewhere too..
The gig in Stoke was cool. There was a giant circle pit..well, there was a circle with no-one in it which the more enthuasiatic kids ran across occasionally. There was a lot of crowd surfing too, three girls at the front had people twice their size landing on their heads over and over again. I was dreading a broken neck situation at the time!
After the gig I did not go to Jumpin' Jack's, which I'm glad about. I turned back when Frost, Paul and Pete went in and just watched Back To The Future II on the bus with Iwan and Viva Machine instead. Frost, Paul and Pete couldn't have been in there longer than five minutes when they came back.
Fin.
Tour Day 6: York
I like York, it's an old and picturesque town but pretty lively and full of cool shops..which is why I spent £50 on cool T-shirts..then bought a Stanley Kubrick box set..
I also went for a swim because there was no shower in the venue and I was starting to feel the ming!
Paul, Iwan and Pete bought remote control cars, which have seen a bit of action and got covered in mysterious sticky stuff on the bus. They now occasionally move by themselves, when switched off..
York Fibbers does good fajitas, they're famous amongst touring bands. I ate too much, I was stuffed.
Gig was good. A guy who interviewed us for..I can't remember the name of their blog..had his nose broken in the pit and re-set it himself in the loo. Hard man!
Keep an eye on Rocklouder for the next installment!
Rocklouder
The Automatic Official Site
The Automatic Myspace
Buy The Automatic CDs | Buy The Automatic mp3s | Buy The Automatic Tickets | Buy The Automatic Merch
The first few days of The Automatic's UK club tour have been going down a storm! Read Rob's take on things, from his view as frontman of the Welsh rockers...
Tour day 1: Triumphant return, rock and roll, that stuff
It's weird how familiar a tourbus feels after not very long..it feels like I've been away for a while and now I'm living out of a suitcase and sleeping in a two-foot wide constantly moving bunk again I've come home!
The actual gig part was a little less familiar - nothing was different from gigging before, there were no new experiences (apart from using the in-ear monitors maybe) but I'd forgotten a lot the stuff that I'll be going through on a daily basis for a month. I'd forgotten that when I know what time I need to be on stage, then in the hour before my body automatically charges itself with adrenaline. I started to go a bit crazy before this first gig! You can't go anywhere far away or engage your mind with much else in the hour before a show so all my attention goes to the show, and I just have to wait. Today being the first day of the tour, that felt like a really long time.
The show was great, a sell-out and a really enthusiastic crowd. A lot of people wanted us to play b-sides from our first, limited edition single. Hardcore! Because Exeter Cavern is about the size of an armpit, the first thing I did was bash into Frost and totally de-tune my bass. We opened with a new song, "Light Entertainment", so hopefully no-one really noticed. Speaking of new, when we introduced Paul there were a few surprised faces..I don't think they'd realised he wasn't Pennie!
After the show, our manager was involved in lewd acts with the drummer from our support band, Viva Machine. They got a bit, er, high-spirited and managed to scar Paul and Pete (photos) for life. Good times.
Tour day 2: Why can't every venue be like this?
Total contrast! Gloucester Arts Centre is huge! There's a stage big enough that we aren't smacking each other in the face with our guitars, for one. It holds 400 people and we sold it out, go us! I'm a bit surprised (in a good way) that so many people still want to come and see us after being off the musical radar in the UK for about a year, good times! It was a mixed audience, too - plenty of young folk in some sort of perma-pit who would probably have moshed to Sigur Ros, right up to the grown-ups lurking in the shadows at the back by the bar.
It was so different to Exeter..that had a kind of mad, frenetic energy that came with being in a tiny, packed sweatbox where it's hard to breath and no-one can tell what's going on. Tonight, more people were just standing and watching, which is what I've been expecting. Being between your first two albums is a unique position - you don't have enough of a back catalogue to play oldies from start to finish, and you want people to hear the new stuff too, especially as we've put so much into writing and recording it and it all kicks ass. Because of that, we've been playing a set that's half new stuff. It's gone down so well though, I can't complain!
This venue had a lovely dressing room, a shower, washing machine and tumble drier, great staff - all the things we're going to need and miss two more weeks into this tour! D'oh!
Tour day 3: day off
Gloucester's only an hour from Cardiff so we came home. I woke up in my own bed, score! Actually, so far I've only spent one night on the bus. It was boiling hot and I was already covered in sweat from the Exeter gig. I was so slimy the next morning.
Anyway. I'm going to see Future Of The Left tonight. They're loud bastards. If you haven't heard them, do it, they're awesome.
Right, er, I'm still in bed, the only think I've done today is brush my teeth so I've got nothing else to say. Bye!
Tour day 4: The Snows of Northampton
I've played the Soundhaus before. My first memory of Northampton will also be my lasting memory of it. The bus arrived there overnight, so when I woke up I looked out of the little window in my bunk to get a snapshot of my neighbourhood for the day. The first thing I see is some graffiti crudely sprayed onto a wall opposite the venue saying "Jihad Warrior"..
The venue's a good one. We only played the small room before, but it was a well-attended gig and a great crowd considering how small a band we were then, so I was looking forward to playing. There was a great aftershow, too. We were in the big room this time and I wasn't disappointed.
There's not really too much you can say about a good gig - we played well and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. You were either there or you weren't, I'm not even going to try to give a blow-by-blow account. If something fucks up, there's plenty to tell! Paul made some friends and enemies by talking football during the set. Afterwards, someone was overheard saying "Pennie didn't annoy me half as much this time!!!"..er..
After the show there was a club night but a few of us had heard about a house party from some of the staff in the venue, so Frost, Stan, Pete and I walked over there while it snowed down by the bucketful. Everyone at this party was battered when we arrived, it was hilarious. The house was absolutely packed, it was like an episode of skins! I spent most of the time talking to some guys out the back. It was still going strong when we called it a night at some point after 4am..
That's pretty much it!
Tour day 5: Stoke. More snow. Bloody FREEZING.
Us (Ze band and tour friends) and Viva Machine had found a Wetherspoons which was mostly pretty disappointing..I bought a towel..Christ, maybe I should start taking drugs, this is well boring. What's happened on this tour?
Well, there's the different kinds of pain visted on my left hand by my own clumsiness. On the first night I slammed the middle finger of my left hand in a solid, heavy, metal flight case, leaving a purple line running across the middle of the nail and a slight dew of sweat on my forehead from the dull, strength-sapping throbs of pain. I didn't do serious damage but it hurt like a bitch. Then a couple of nights ago I was making a brew of honey, lemon and ginger (good for the the throat, kids) and I scalded the index finger of that hand. Again, no real damage but a different finger and a different (but equally exquisite) kind of pain. I gouged out part of the middle finger on my right hand on a loose nail somewhere too..
The gig in Stoke was cool. There was a giant circle pit..well, there was a circle with no-one in it which the more enthuasiatic kids ran across occasionally. There was a lot of crowd surfing too, three girls at the front had people twice their size landing on their heads over and over again. I was dreading a broken neck situation at the time!
After the gig I did not go to Jumpin' Jack's, which I'm glad about. I turned back when Frost, Paul and Pete went in and just watched Back To The Future II on the bus with Iwan and Viva Machine instead. Frost, Paul and Pete couldn't have been in there longer than five minutes when they came back.
Fin.
Tour Day 6: York
I like York, it's an old and picturesque town but pretty lively and full of cool shops..which is why I spent £50 on cool T-shirts..then bought a Stanley Kubrick box set..
I also went for a swim because there was no shower in the venue and I was starting to feel the ming!
Paul, Iwan and Pete bought remote control cars, which have seen a bit of action and got covered in mysterious sticky stuff on the bus. They now occasionally move by themselves, when switched off..
York Fibbers does good fajitas, they're famous amongst touring bands. I ate too much, I was stuffed.
Gig was good. A guy who interviewed us for..I can't remember the name of their blog..had his nose broken in the pit and re-set it himself in the loo. Hard man!
Keep an eye on Rocklouder for the next installment!
Rocklouder
The Automatic Official Site
The Automatic Myspace
Buy The Automatic CDs | Buy The Automatic mp3s | Buy The Automatic Tickets | Buy The Automatic Merch
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