We returned to London, in fact, Clapham, where we were lucky enough to be staying at Kyle's girlfriend's father's place that was amazingly empty. Since when do you have a house to yourself in London!? It was weird to have a room (and a bed) to ourselves. Ha. We spent some time walking around London before we jumped in our van and drove to the lovely seaside town of Brighton. We checked out the pier (beautiful), the acquarium(pretty average...) and made some new friends. We then went to Brighton Audio and met all of Vampire weekend (who were lovely) and got involved with soundchecking and all of that pre show stuff.
The show at brighton was easily the most fun on the tour as we were playing on the tiniest stage that we've ever played on in our entire lives. This was such a contrast to the massive stadium stages from our european dates and it was more hilarious as we couldn't see our instruments, each other- let alone the crowd as the lights operator had gone completely overboard with the smoke machine. It was like we were in a war zone with all the smoke everywhere. I thought 'nam was bad! Ridiculous.
The following day we went to Oxford and experienced the beauty of the village and felt a little underdressed and uneducated. The oxford academy was a relaxed affair with a similar crowd and vibe to the night before except the excessively powerful smoke machine was sorely missed. We missed that blanket of smoke and the inability to breathe...Vampire Weekend played a blistering set and since we had played their album to death in the van, we sung along to many of their tunes..."blake's got a new face..." Some of us snuck into the end of the kooks show that was happening below us. I guess that night there was a slight Kooks vs VW battle - Who would win...?
The next day was our final show, that being our headline show. After five weeks of excess and limited sleep we were becoming a ragged bunch. The final show at the metro definitely had a great sense of excitement and it was rad to play to old fans and new fans. Following the show we had many a pint to cap off our second uk tour. We went to some place called the phoenix bar where many a celeb had gathered. Apart from gushing at french chanson, soko, i desperately tried to think of something worthwhile to say to billy bragg, but in the end i had nothing...Some random old man declared that Nick was "a true thoroughbred", we met a man who had impregnated his eye...!? and Nick ended up clashing with members of Kate Nash's band in the stairwell. Apparently they weren't allowed in as it was too full, so when nick went outside for a smoke they tried to stop him getting back in - as to better their chances and claimed that they were "from the band" and that Nick was some "nobody". Huh! Well he was also from "a band" and his "foundations" were rocked.
Instead of crying, he pushed those punks out of the way (i think he should have been a little more forceful...if you know what i mean..) and joined us back inside away from the losers outside-who never got in. Karma boys, karma. Nick vs Kate Nash Band = Nick wins, in fact, dominates.
Many more battles, tales and shows to come.
We hope to see all you all UK peeps in mid June-ish.
Australian Too Much To Do Tour begins april 23 for those in the land of oz.
till then,
AB x