Part 3 - Holmfirth, Manchester, York, Bristol

I'm back in London, albeit very briefly, and now have access to a proper computer which means I can type lots of nonsense about the tour.

Miles travelled so far: 764.5

Four dates in and I'm thoroughly enjoying the experience, everyone on tour is really friendly and Richard Hawley in particular has been very kind to us, even letting us share their dressing room on the first night due to a dressing room shortage.


Smoke Fairies' post Holmfirth, must have been a dismal performance!

Bridgewater Hall in Manchester (pictured below) was a rather swanky establishment, cleverly built by people who clearly know their acoustics 'cos the sound in that place is astonishing. It's usually frequented by massive orchestras, which was made apparent to us when we were told we'd have to pick up all our equipment at a ludicrously early hour the following morning due to the (something) Philharmonic loading in. Following a somewhat late night I woke up fully clothed (brogues, coat, suit and tie) remembering that the entire the band were staying in a one bed Travelodge room. Cosy!


Despite being incredibly picturesque, York was a stressful place to arrive at. It's like a miniature version of London with scores of people buzzing about and no bloody parking spaces, we ended up driving round for over an hour trying to find somewhere, which eventually we did at the cost of SEVEN pounds. Next to that car park was a shop selling TVs for almost the same price! The York Opera house (which we're all standing outside below) was an amazing venue though, it's a lovely old theatre and we played our best set yet.



The Bristol Hippodrome (below) was a marvellous establishment, our set was less than spectacular. Thanks to Rowena for letting us stay at their lovely house, come studio, come farm!


The rider situation is an interesting one, we get a crate of beers between the four of us each evening and at the York Opera House they gave us a bottle of Marker's Mark too which was great! The rider situation is interesting, or dull, because if you have a look at the Government's Guidelines it says that men shouldn't drink more than 4 units a day. By my calculations, given that there are only 3 of us drinking the rider due to the fact that one of us has to drive, that means we're drinking 8 cans each every night, which comes to 17.6 units which is 4 and a half times more than the recommended amount. Considering this rider is provided by the promotions company, that means they're effectively encouraging us to break the Government's Guidelines. Now, that's my kind of business!

Right, off to Ipswich...