Ok then,guess what??

Weeerreeee baaaaaaaack!!

dear dazza

After another long flight from LA, via heathrow (turns out heathrow is a lovely airport, quite posh, actual nice restaurants and pubs, I spotted lobster in one of the display cabinets, who’s doin that?? Hmmm I’ve got a 2 hour stopover at heathrow, who wants lobster? There’s also a Heston restaurant!! I search for a kfc. No dice)

Landed at Frankfurt, recognize a good looking chap with a bald head and long beard, oh! Nope that was a mirror!! Hang on, there’s another one??? \240Razorrrrrrr!!! Cian and Raze flew from melbs yesterday, they flew emirates the lucky bastards, they are by far the best airline I’ve used so far, I flew air New Zealand this time, they were ok, but not Emirates, Emirates hands out hot towels and they give you socks and the bathroom has a lovely moisturizer and they make you decent bloody Mary’s.. oooh bloody Mary’s yum!!

Focus Ryan

Got beer,

Drive to altengronau

Checked out the festival site

Chat with Cian, Razor and Steve and Renate from epic touring, steve whips up a few burgers on the grill and we have a few beers outside looking over the glorious sintaal countryside!! It’s so green, apples keep falling from the trees.. there’s actually too many, it gets dark and I feel that heaviness in the eyelids,so I turn in..

Slept!! That full I don’t think I even moved in my sleep kinda sleep, you know when ya wake up with pins and needles down one side of your body kinda thing? No? Is that just me?? Should I get that looked at?? Can I smell burnt toast?? Oh no am I havin a stroke?? Nope that’s actually toast, and coffeee ... FRESH POOOOOTS!!

Now it’s morning and we just picked a few large baskets of apples and blueberries, seems Europe is having it’s best summer ever, and it’s gonna be a balmy 27 today!!

Niiiiice

Today we jam on the new gear!!

This year we have purchased rigs that we will leave here for future tours!!

I’m excited!

Peace

Edit

Today is Thursday, after our jam yesterday we went back to the festival site which is coming along nicely, full crew setting up stage and more importantly beer, it’s gonna be a good one! Lots of tickets sold!

New gear is rad, I’m runnin a black star mk2 50 through a marshall quad, \240pretty good piece of kit, real close to marshall voicing, can’t wait to really dial it in! Razors got the same ampeg he uses at home through a Gallien Kruger 4x10, and Cians runnin the same Gretch as last year with a new Ludwig 6.5 inch snare, speaking of Cian he got a burger fir dinner last night, he asked for the XLthinking it was a double cheeseburger... he got this

What a first show!

Great pa

Great stage

Great crowd

Great food

Great fun

850 punters packed into the small field in altengronau, sintaal, a small town in the fields south of fulda... its a tiny town with a population of just 1000, and being the first festival of its kind, in the area, \240it was always a risk! Ticket sales had been a positive indicator and honestly anything over 200 would’ve been a win! In true german style the people came, and they drank and they ate, and they fucking rocked!!

We got to watch the festival Being built from start to finish, we even chipped in here and there to help out, I cooked up the biggest pot of Chile con carne I’ve ever cooked (after cooking it for the household the other night, I was asked to cook more for the festival- so I did) \240it all got eaten, which I was pretty chuffed about!! \240I think the air in altengronau may ne not so fresh this morning!! 😂😂

Sold a bunch of merch and signed a bunch of stuff for people, most of them saying through broken English (as my german is horrid) that they are so happy that we came, “never did I think I would be rocking in altengronau, please have jager wit me” so that was good, actually as I sat in the shadows watching the crowd as the site filled up I could tell it was gonna be a good one, the first hint was the Motörhead shirts everywhere!! Thank you Lemmy!!

Saw some great bands, lord Bishop was killer, bluesy and rockin, Fred boneskin smashed it, the Vagrants as always, and our old friends enno too! Also enjoyed a bunch of the acoustic stage Jay and Akra both rippin out some great covers! We sat around as the crowd dwindled a few people went off to some house party (Cian included) but I decided to wander Home up the giant hill with our Neighbour Rainer.. he helped out with security at the festival and is a true gent!! God damn that’s a big hill.. mountains always look so lovely from a distance, and then you gotta walk up them..

finished the night with a few whiskeys and a jam with Steve and Akra.. perfect

So, first show down, 19 to go, actually maybe 20 now, some biker club or something was there and wants us to play at their clubhouse or something.. sounds fun huh??

Next stop is Reeperbahn

Let’s do this

I’ve got a headache in Hamburg!! Yar could be a song right? Ok so after the absolute elation and exhaustion of sinner rock festival we got to spend a few days in the country of sintaal chilling the fuck out..(the country of Germany is so peaceful and the weather is perfect) \240which really was required after touring the states and then this... I am wrecked!! And then next it’s Reeperbahn, so recharge is required.. that said the locals at sintaal are very excited to have us in town and no one wants to let us rest, neighbors keep dropping in to have a beer, it’s lovely but goddamn I’m knackered!! Anyway we manage to get a good days rest and hit the road for Hamburg a 5 hour blast down the autobahn, check into our hotel and quickly check out the town .. it’s a little quiet (if you could say that of Hamburg) as the festival starts tomorrow (wed) and runs til sun night.. we grab a few beers and a schnitzel and everything seems right in the world .. Hamburg is a fairly sleazy town, lots of sex shops and strip clubs everywhere, it surprises me that one of the worlds most popular music festivals/networking conferences is smack bang in the filth?? Or does it?? I don’t know? I’ve never been a big fan of strip clubs so it’s lost on me, but each to their own.. the next 3 days are filled with meetings and shmoozing and interrupting and bragging and bullshitting and handshaking and well everyone is here to sell something or gather some info or whatever? I’m not sure how anyone remembers anything as it all seems to be done over many beers and schnapps and well it’s beyond me.

We make contact with some good people who may help us in Europe for the future, we see a few good bands here and there and eat when we can between meetings. The lads went out last night and rubbed shoulders with whoever they could, I decided to lay low as steve and I had a lot of meetings today and early starts so, yeah I’ve grown up!! Wahhhhhhhhh

Really keen to get back into the gigs (tomorrow night) the business side of this is interesting but it’s business and as much as I know it’s necessary, I’m out of my comfort zone and I need to play!

Sittin in my hotel room preparing for the next day of reeper, Aussie bbq tomorrow which should be cool .. then we play Schwerin about an hour away!!

Peace

On the road again, like Willy said! Good one Willy you nailed it!! Flashback to the states seeing signs for Willy for president, now that really would make America great right?!

So where the fuck are we?

We’re in Schwerin, you pronounce Schwerin almost \240as you pronounce we’re in, not like swearin, shwerean ... cool town, it looks rich.. seems to be quite fashionable, I’m back in the land of cobbled streets and designer knitwear, quite nice really, the venue tonight is a youth centre, a bunch of volunteers run the place from Thursday to Sunday when it transforms from a place of learning to a place of rocking!!! The boys pulled a bender last night in Hamburg so they’re in a state, I on the other hand retreated from the filth early so I’m rested pretty well, lucky for me actually \240as we had a chance meeting with director for publishing warner Europe .. the big cheese! (an old friend of steve and Renate) What a legend, this guy signed slash, roger waters, Beyoncé to name a few, we bond over Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and beer and shoot the shit, the meeting runs for an hour or so longer than planned as the vibe is so relaxed, but we must move on, we slip him an album and he suggests we contact him for anything we need.. top bloke, not to mention he was Dutch kick boxing national champ!! Weapon!

Gotta say we attended the Aussie bbq in Reeperbahn, what a fuckin joke.. seems Oz is represented as mamsy pansy bloody 2 piece folk orientated shite! I’m sorry but I don’t feel that’s us but hey whatever, the only saving grace might’ve been amyl and sniffers but they broke down and missed it.. I don’t particularly like them anyway but wtf do I know..

So yeah, the venue is cool, tight room with a decent pa the staff are whippin is up some Vega pasta and the beer fridge is full, Cian and Razor are happy about that!! 😂😂😂

Quick sound check then we eat and chill..

venue is filling up, zen bison are support tonight and they fucking killed it, they play a Hendrix influenced heavy psyche rocknroll and I dig it!! Really coo,l actually hard to follow! But we do! We leave the crowd waiting a little tonight mainly so they can have a few more shots and get a bit looser then we assault them with everything we’ve got.. hour and 20 later and we call it, exhausted and dripping with sweat we head to the merch desk sign a few records and CDs and wind down with a few brews... good gig, keep em coming like that and I’ll be happy!!

Big shout out to Wito and the crew at noise and more for the dinner and beds, the german hospitality is the best..

Currently on the road to mulhausen, we made great friends here last year and it’s a cool little room, just polished off some bacon ,eggs, fresh juice and coffee..

sounds alright huh?!

Peace

Oh mühlhausen once again you delivered!

Our visit to this venue last year must’ve left an impression because they all came back with their friends and in true fashion at the musiczentrale no sooner than I walk in I \240have a whisky in my hand.. the lads in enno are here minus phil and the crowd is drinking hard, we were gonna try and get a rest in at the hotel room they provided but instead we spent it searching for towels at aldi and rewe, we found 1 and 4 bath mats!! Success!! 😂😂So yeah we’re all pretty wrecked but there’s no escaping the party tonight, we’ve become pretty good mates with these guys and they like to party soooo it’s on!!

Barmy Rote are our support tonight and I don’t really know how to explain their style, by the look of em I was expecting death metal but I’m completely wrong, they play kinda pop punk/rock .. one song grabs my attention with its almost reggae feel that flips into a double time riffy chorus.. kinda odd but kinda cool, I like it! all 3 guys’ girlfriends trip over each other as they pan back and forth in front of the stage capturing video footage of the boys.. our set was pretty solid although I did forget the words to a song we’ve been playing for 5 years, and I don’t mean 1 word, I mean the whole bloody thing?? Very strange.. it just wasn’t there?! Is it finally catching up with me? All used up?? Early Alzheimer’s perhaps? What’s that over there?? .. who are you?? Who am I? What’s this device I’m holding?? Ahhhhhhhh words!!

But yeah, we played well, merch was bought, people wandered off into the night we stayed and drank, someone handed round a jazz cigarette, then someone handed me a guitar and next thing ya know improv jam, mario wailing on the guitar as razor and I lock into a groove with Cian, these are some of the magic moments that you just can’t find doing anything else, I’m not sure what it sounded like for the remaing punters but to me it was pure gold!!

We get a quick visit from the cops who seem more interested in chatting to us in terrible English than busting us for anything, all 6 of em, They casually look round the place and then wish us well and leave!! steve reminds me of my 4am chat with him when we got home (he stayed home last night) apparently there was like 20 cops and they charged the door and turned the place upside down?? Never let the truth get in the way of a good story right?!

Big thanks to Veronique and Tobias for hookin up the flat and being the legends you are, thanks Mario and Anja for the booze thanks Barmy Rote for the support and thanks Mühlhausen for the party!

Peace

I don’t think I have any photos so here’s a van selfi

Dear dj 000

Berlin delivered the goods

So it turns out Bremen is a cool town, this is the home of Beck’s, and we’ve done our best to help Bremen unburden themselves with their Beck’s overstocks.. honestly this country has too much good beer, it should illegal, or something .. ?! So yeah the drive from Berlin was a fairly quick one, but a tough one, but our fearless leader powers through. We arrive at the meisenfrei blues club .. on time.. somehow... and turns out the sound guy and headliners aren’t in yet, so we wander the streets for a couple of hours and find ourselves sitting under Bremen cathedral in the afternoon sunshine, someone reckons we should get a beer, so we do.. great spot, great beer.. but we can’t dilly dally so we get back to the venu and load in... this place is a blues venue with a very long history, posters from musos from all over the world line the walls everyone from bonamassa to Motörhead and now the balls, pretty good company there huh? \240Tonight we support dirt river radio an Aussie blues rock band who are also on tour throughout Europe .. these guys are doing 26 shows over 31 days.. pretty tough schedule, good luck guys!!! We set up our gear and soundcheck, awesome pa.. this is gonna be fun!! We’ve got 2 hours to kill so we head next door and eat some of the best chinese I’ve had in a long time, seriously good!! I wash it down with a yep you guessed it, a jasmine tea!! Haha!!! \240I noticed a little tweak in my voice in soundcheck and it’s got me spooked.. fingers crossed it’s ok.. we fall back into the club and it’s starting to vibe, not packed but there’s a few about. Apparently there’s a football game on so it could be hit or miss.. turns out crossing your fingers don’t work, my voice let’s me down tonight and I’m fucking pissed off, it changes everything I don’t know what’s happened .. we blast thru the set but I’m \240not happy, hopefully I can regain some range.. uh oh

DRR are great they play a really Australian style of blues rock, lots of dynamics and some great harmonies.. I love the Aussie storytelling and they’re really nailing that. Heath has had to overcome some band issues after one of the band pulled out days before the tour leaving them to readjust their whole set at very late notice, and Heath and crew rose to the occasion and smashed it outta the park. Makes me want to write more stories into our music, great stuff guys!

Sold a few records tonight, met a few new fans which makes me feel a bit better, we say farewell and good luck to heavy d from THM and DRR \240grab a bottle of whiskey and head home to chill.. we take full advantage of the day off today and sleep in, razor cooks up eggs and bacon and we head out to check out the beautiful city, honestly a pretty place highlited by a cathedral over 1200 years old that took a millennium to build, some of the stonework and woodwork are unbelievable.. (I farted in the oldest part of the building, the original chapel, sorry Jesus, but holy hell the acoustics down there are crazy good)

We grab a coffee city centre, a beer just out of town and head home to cook up some bangers and mash..

a good day off

Hopefully the rest cures my voice!

I’ll keep ya posted!

Ok this is a post from the 24th that didn’t seem to work..

Dear DJ 000

Berlin went balls deep!!!

What a time to be alive

So it turns out the venue we’re in tonight is called toast Hawaii and let’s just say it’s got a certain vibe to it, lots of interesting trinkets and ornaments about the place, then you look a little closer and most of them have a sexual theme to them, not to mention the male and female blow up dolls on stage and the graphic sex scenes hanging over the bar!! Apparently they do a thing called porno karaoke, “what is this” I hear you say.. well ya know how in normal karaoke you get up and try to copy the singer of your favourite song, well with porno karaoke you get up and try to copy the scenes from your favourite porno as it plays on the big screen.. yep it’s a thing!!

Great little venue, surprisingly powerful pa, great sound guy.. we meet Cozza who put this show together and plays in “see what happens Larry” who fucking rock by the way, intense stoner doom monster jams, Cozza is a superhero and I think I thanked him too many times for hookin us up.

Hannah and Simon are in the house, and it’s great to see em, Hannah has been living in Berlin for 3 years \240teaching kids and Simon is a kiwi who Also lives here and makes sausages for the Germans so they must be good right,?? the sausage man never sleeps, is the name of his business and I’m kicking myself for not meeting up with him later as I know he woulda given us smorgasbord of snags, but Cozza and Hannah had other plans, mainly drinking!! Such a good time, we played pretty well and the Sunday crowd seemed to enjoy it.. we also got a surprise visit from Lena and met her friend whose name escapes me, things get pretty blurry, but it was great to see her too.. so yeah things got a little sideways, Hannah stepped up and took over dj duties,sash kept the beers flowin and we all got well involved, things wind up at toast so we move on to another little bar and shoot the shit until they kick us out! I was meant to kick Hanna’s arse in table tennis but it seems she’s vanished.. actually where’s Cian? Cozza and I finish up with an Irish coffee and we’re done!!

All in all it’s a bloody good night!

Day off today, we’re on the way to Bremen tomorrow we meet up with the boys from dirt river radio which should be rad!!

It’s my dads birthday today, the guy that’s inspired me more than anyone I’ve ever met and I wish I could have a beer with him! Keep em cold Dad, I’ll see ya soon ..

Berlin baby!!

Yeahhhh!

Dear D town

Another beautiful german town, very clean very trendy, good looking people wander the cobblestone streets in designer fashion, bars and restaurants line the banks of the \240Rhine, Oktoberfest has started and the beer is flowing.. our guides for Düsseldorf are akra and Claudia, they’ve helped us find accomm and also booked the gig and promoted it for us.. we drop off our bags and meet jurgen and his dog Otto, jurgen own the hotel we are in tonight, it’s an old hospital that he’s renovating into a hotel. Rad building albeit a little freaky! I have a quick flashback to last year and the old orphanage debacle in Switzerland, damn that place was creepy! We drop the bags off and head to venue, I’m immediately impressed it’s an old building in an industrial area of d town, it has rehearsal spaces and graffiti everywhere (photo opportunity), its grungy, smells like beer and looks perfect, we meet Willy the sound guy who knows his shit and seems like he’s been doing this a while, awesome pa and we sound tough through it.. very happy with that! Quick wander again thru the streets and we all stop at casita for burritos.. I’ve been spoiled in the USA for Mexican food but these burritos are not bad at all, I wash it down with a margarita (cheers Mandy) and we head back to the venue and settle in..

our support band tonight is the input kings, german rock with a splash of rap/rock pretty tight and interesting songs, the front man keeps stepping off the stage with what seems like the longest mic lead in history, at one point he’s in the far corner of the room where lights a smoke and cracks a beer, oh yeah it’s a smoking venue.. which has me a little concerned aftervlast night’s voice but tonight I really focus on singing with my gut and it works, we play one of the longer sets and I’m happy again.. now to keep that up for the next 2 weeks..

pretty light crowd tonight, bit of a disappointment really cos we kinda nailed it, sold another couple of records and CDs so that’s good, we speak to Esther who buys us a round and apologizes for the lack of crowd tonight, apparently we deserve so much better.. thanks Esther, actually she saw us last year in mulhausen, what a legend! Her boyfriend Chris is with her tonight and he buys a record off us, he played with destroyer 666 for 12 years, he’s a giant..it seems germany is filled with massive dudes with amazing long hair and beards!! It’s like everyone is in the worlds greatest power metal band!!

We head back to our accomm , have a couple of beers and chill for a bit, Steve and I battle with a vending machine for a cold beer, steve swipes all his licences \240and cards but the machine wins this round..

currently in the van on the way to ludenscheid, last year this place went off.. hopefully tonight is just as goodpeace

Ok so I got a bit busy there, hard to keep track of things sometimes, the days are gone before you’ve had breakfast and you eat and sleep when you can, after Düsseldorf we trekked up to lüdenscheid, pretty slow drive, the autobahn here are constantly under construction, being repaired and shit, I guess when ya wack it into ludicrous speed ya don’t wanna hit a pothole right?!

So yeah ludenscheid (panoptikum)is how i remember, tiny little bar with a great vibe, we’re playin solo tonight which means for as long as we can, we soundcheck and then have a beer with Ralf the owner and quickly discover this is gonna be a big night, quick rest in our hotel, scoff down some chinese food and back to the bar.. we play just under 2 hours and settle in for the night.. crowd loved it, pretty full, sold lots of merch, signed stuff, drank cocktails made new friends and smoked too much!! at 1 point I realize we’re listening to the lazys, our mates from Oz who are currently dominating Canada, I try to figure out who requested it, turns out it’s a fluke, crazy!! Of all the Aussie bands they choose one of my best mates, one who I’ve lived with and partied way too hard with!! Awesome work panoptikum ya bloody wizards!! The panoptikum bar is one of those places that is hard to leave. But we must, we stumble off to our rooms and it feels like no time at all that we’re meeting Ralf back at the bar to get our gear.. I feel like shit but he looks worse so I feel better now, Ralf teaches me an offensive german phrase fik dich inst knee .. I promise to say it to everyone, (I haven’t been smacked yet but I’ve been close)

ok so next is münster..a really pretty town filled mainly with university students.. on bicycles!! \240holy crap man, it’s bloody treacherous walk-in the streets here .. ding ding .. ding ding.. Razor jumps out of the way of one almost into the path of another, reminding me of a cat that’s been startled ..They also have electric buses, which are sneaky big fuckers, cant hear em at all, and well they’re the size of a bus, so yeah.. watch out for em!! \240 we stop into a hotel/cafe for lunch and I finally get my fill of schweinehaxe!! succulent pork knuckle .. crackling.. gravy.. dumplings . It’s delicious, washed down with an icy cold beer.. once again everything is right in the world! We move to the park and lay in the sunshine for an hour or 2 and people watch, beautiful spot, people everywhere drinking beer and playing games with sticks that they throw at other sticks..Steve goes into full pr mode jumping from one group to the next handing out flyers .. the mans a machine!! \240we dust ourselves off and head to the venue.. tonight we play at rare guitar which is a vintage guitar and amp shop, they have guitars all over the walls and amp stacks ready to go behind the stage, apparently I can use whatever amp I want.. oh my, do I choose the Mesa? The orange? the vintage marshall? The stramp? Too much to decide, can I use them all?? I settle on the orange and we’re set.. honestly didn’t know what to expect tonight, the band we’re supporting is a 70’s rock style, and I think they sound pretty cool, Steve mentions that they look like Stillwater from almost famous! Spot on!! We smash out our set and the crowd surges forward with each song which is a good sign, I menton to the crowd that we were too lazy to set our merch up but we have some, Steve sees the opportunity and jumps into action quickly setting up or hoodies and tees., lucky we did, I think we bagged almost $250 euros in 5 minutes flat, we quickly chat to whoever we can and then file back into the van for the long drive back to Sinntal.. through the night.. I think we arrive back at base around 3/4am and sleep immediately until I can’t sleep anymore..

Great coupla days

See ya at the next 1

Nearly caught up.. yesterday we spent on the couch watching Netflix and resetting, Rod (our driver from last year) and his girlfriend Nadine came over to join us theyre good people .. tonight we play at a local Biergarten for the crew that helped out at the festival, Steve and Ren have put some dosh on the bar and invited the whole town, we play an extended set after Rod woos them all with his dulcet tones.. I’m quite drunk by the time we get on as it seems everyone wants to do schnapps with us, some of the bands from the festival show up, Sven from magmasphere shows up with a bottle of schnapps from his family.. PROST!!! had a great night, sold heaps of merch again we got a taxi home and drank more.. then crashed big time! Another day in the couch talkin shit with rod, Nadine and everyone... Renate whips up an amazing roast for dinner pork and lamb .. a few wines, cheese, and we‘re teatering on the edge of another big one, and then as if by magic we all do our best adult and go to bed.. today we’re on the way to Essen to play at freak show with lord bishop

Should be beaut

It’s raining

And there’s a lot of trucks on the road

I have no photos so here’s one in front of my eyes right now

Hey hey my my

Rock n roll will never die, it might kill ya though!! Played the freak show in Essen on Tuesday night, did the bash and dash, 4 hours each way! So yeah pretty tiring day, freak show is a great little dive bar in the basement between a corner shop and a hairdresser with trinkets and freaky shit everywhere, Frankenstein and rock memorabilia, solid pa, Manuela cooked us up some delicious lasagna while we set up.. so tasty, we’re not sure in the crowd tonight as it’s mid week, but tomorrow is german unity day and it’s a public holiday!! So fingers crossed, I shouldn’t have been concerned as the place is packed in no time, we have a short set tonight as we’re supporting lord bishop for his album launch .. 45mins .. we give it everything and the crowd loved it, massive cheers of zu ga be (one more song) so we do one more and quickly clear off the stage.. it’s so satisfying to see people getting off on the music you’ve created, people lost in the sound, letting go of themselves and surrendering to the rhythm. I can’t think of anything else that feels better.. lord bishop is running a bit late but he finally arrives, he’s playing the crowd bigtime as he’s got a film crew documenting this tour, so he’s hamming it up a bit. He’s a nice guy, and he works pretty bloody hard. He does it all sets up his own merch, guitar, bookings, promo, the lot so yeah he’s a busy boy, but he’s making a living off it, good on ya bishop (I feel weird calling him lord, I wonder what his real name is?? Probably Barry) we’re getting urged by our tour manager to get moving as we have a long drive ahead, I’m still sweating but that’s rocknroll baby, as bishop plays the opening riff to cocaine, we slip away into the night!! I don’t like to leave early but sometimes you can’t avoid it..

we get home around 3am and we all crash hard.

Wednesday is a day off, and we’re gonna do it right, sleep in, late brunch, plenty of water, I used some of the fresh apples and tomatoes to make a chutney, and then we jammed on some old songs to try and remember how they go, we have 2 solo shows this week so we need to play longer.

As soon as the sun goes down I’m getting a bit antsy we all decide to head into the local beer garden, they’re having their Oktoberfest party today, and when we get there it’s in full effect, huge Germans fighting and falling over all over the place, it’s a classic. They won’t let me pay for drinks no matter how hard I try.. word gets out that we’re a band and next thing we’re on stage playing ace of spades.. what the hell?? So much fun!

Head home, me n Steve have a wrestle, which I’m regretting today, it may have got a bit out of hand and everyone decides that’s enough and go to bed ..

Today I have a bruise on my left arse cheek due to playing silly buggers..(that sounds wrong)

today I have a headache

Tonight I will dry out

Maybe ...

ps the voice is holding out so far, managing to find to right spot to sing from, amazing how it helps, from the stomach..

Holy fucking tired

It’s hit me today, didn’t even open my eyes til after midday, not that you’d know it was midday, all the houses in Deutschland have roller shutters on the outside of the windows so you can completely blackout the house/room which is great if ya wanna sleep in, not so great if ya wanna be productive, we played in arnstadt last night at the rockneipe jungfer, this is the place that we started our tour last year, proper East Germans, not many people speak English round here and there’s a bit of a lean to the right here,(if you know what I mean) that said it’s a great venue, totally rocknroll with Udo the blues rock giant at the helm. Let’s just say Udo doesn’t mind a drink or 3 ..,hundred!! He’s such a character and he has a big heart, bloody good cook too, he whipped us up a more than decent goulash. Good start!!

We’re kinda waiting for the sound guy to turn up when Udo mentions, “oh yah, he die 3 weeks ago!” What the Fuck? Sooooo we’re doing it? Holy crap .. it’s not a little pa and it’s a 24 channel desk, ok strap in lads it’s a crash course in engineering, the hard way! With no teacher! We begin finding signal paths, tapping mics until we find the assigned channel, like everything’s plugged in we just don’t know which track is which, the desk isn’t marked so yeah that’s fun.. we notice that all the mic leads are numbered and the foldbacks, phew that should help us... ahhh nope, none of the numbers match up 3 is 5 .. 4 is 2 .. oh shit!! Back to trial and error.. we kinda get it sorted and then our friend Tobias who ran the pa at the festival shows up! He was just coming for a beer with his girlfriend Veronique, but he doesn’t even blink and goes straight into sound guy mode! He fixes everything in minutes and boom we’re sorted! Thanks again T, that’s twice you’ve saved us!

Not the best crowd tonight but the people that are here are rockers and they’re stoked we’re playing, not many bands our style come through arnstadt so we get points for that.. Sasquatch are playing around here soon they tell me which they are VERY happy about..

Enno are up first, they play their german punk rock and they play it well, I talk to one of the locals who tells me he doesn’t like the german language in music, that’s weird that huh.. I guess it’s kinda like how so many aussies hate Aussie hip hop, or Courtney Barnett for no other reason than the accent.. but each to there own.

We play pretty well tonight, we throw in a couple of the old tunes from skeleton creek trying to fill out our set fir the long shows coming up, we go down pretty well I think .. we sell a few albums and shirts, so that’s always a good sign..

couple more beers, some over enthusiastic hugging with Udo and we’re back on the road, we could’ve stayed in the pub but last year we drank til sunrise with the big man and it’s not a good idea today.. we slip off into the night again and do the 140km per hour drive home!! Germany flashes past our eyes like one of those time lapse videos and we’re soon stackin z’s and counting sheep.. speaking of sheep, the lamb in Germany isn’t as good as the lamb in Oz.

That’s all I got

Gonna go sit in the sun,

Forgot to take photos again..

this is where I’m sitting right now

Ahh So..

the Netherlands rocked .

Firstly we played at cafe de reunie in geleen, this is the place we played last year and it was real good to catch up with Theo, Astrid, Rory and our old mate Sarah bacon, Sarah books for bands and last year when a venue pulled out of a gig last minute, she managed to wrangle us a new one, at de reunie.. so it’s good to catch up with them all again.. there’s a few bands in tonight so it’s time for us to settle in and either relax in our rooms or have a few beers and watch some bands, which do you think we chose?? as if you needed to think?!? I’m quickly reminded that this country has a thing with tiny beverages.. I drink bottles of tiny beer (250ml) this time, as the cups are rediculous.. it’s also much more expensive but still delicious. Cian and Razor wander off to a “cafe” with Sarah and come back with a fine “blend” this is no arabica bean though.. and it certainly don’t wake you up and keep you alert! But it’s legal, so when in Rome!! The bands tonight are really good, all good musos and really tight, Nem-q play symphonic rock/metal. All 5 members have in ears and it’s very symph heavy.. great singer, great songs, just too dramatic or something for me.. very precise too.. actually I mentioned to one guy whilst we did changeover that they all wear in ears and he responded with “yes, there is so much going on that we need to hear each other perfectly” kinda gives you an idea of the seriousness of these guys.. I try to stand up straight without falling over as I respond with “Oh yeah I know what you mean” cough !!

We played pretty well again, we’re right in the pocket now, our muscles are remembering everything and the anecdotes and on stage banter flow pretty easy, the odd heckle here and there is also good as we’ve learned enough swear words to respond swiftly .. the crowds love to hear us battle with their language, I think they also like to hear us battle with ours.. I still talk way too fast for them and it kinda amuses people.. we pack up, sell a few bits (they don’t like to buy much here, they’re all a bit tighter) sign a record or 2 and then we settle back into the bar and shoot the shit with Sara and Rori the sound guy.. sarah leaves and we head upstairs to sleep.. yeah right!! We got a bottle of jamo.. so we crack that and chat amongst ourselves for the next few hours, not making much sense. I’d like a recording of that actually.. I think we said “ahh so” at each other for about half an hour..I think so is kinda like “ok” for Germans, but we’ve managed to transform it into a conversation of its own with many meanings.. sort of like how aussies use “yeah nah..” funny as hell !! Anyway I look at my watch which has been stuck on 11:40 for 3 weeks and annnounce \240to the rest of the team “aah soo its twenty to 12, best get some shuteye.” It’s actually closer to 6am and we shoulda been asleep ages ago.. we all stumble to bed mumbling ah so and crash swiftly..

Today we play an early Sunday show with a band called beyond god, the show starts at 8 us at 9 and then we drive back to Sinntal (4 hours) so we should be home by 3am, I now completely regret last nights antics. We jump up for breakfast (I love the breakfast here, usually boiled eggs, salami, cheese, ham, bread rolls, coffee, fruit .. and chocolate sprinkle, and hundreds and thousands and liverworst .. hehe but seriously yumm.. and then we go back to sleep.. sarah rocks up again and then they take off for another visit to a cafe .. they sure love their cafes all of a sudden?? I wonder why? I on the other hand go back to sleep.. til 3pm.. we pack the van and head to the next venue which is 45 mins away.. easy

Uh oh the other band has had to pull out.. their singer is ill apparently.. ”can you guys play for an extra hour?” Oh shit.. in this state? 2 hours?? HELL YES WE CAN!! tonight we’re at cafe tspektacal (spell check) great room, killer pa, we sound check and then head across the street for dinner, burgers and chips perfect (thanks Willy) Willy owns this venue and he’s a cool cat, he’s pretty confident people will be in tonight, it’s been on radio and stuff so let’s see how it goes. People start filing in and in no time there’s a crowd of rock starved netherlandians?? Pushin us to start, so we do (as soon as we have some more of the “fine blend” purchased from the cafe yesterday) we give it everything tonight, I find that sometimes when your bone tired, hungover, and maybe just a little stoned that you play your best, it’s like you tap into this left over tank that only lets magic escape, I think tonight was one of our best shows.. we leave the stage completely exhausted, saturated and satisfied.. chat to a few of the locals and make some new friends.. it’s funny when people know aussies are in town they bring as much as they can to show us what they know.. AC/DC shirts, Gold Coast souvenirs, kangaroo t shirts, crocodile Dundee akubras, I’ve signed some weird shit.. but hey I’m proud of our land, not so proud of all our people, but quite proud of most.. proud enough to puff my chest out, nod my head and say “owyagarnmate” to pretty much anyone I meet!

Today we rested got home round 4am and immediately crashed.. I cooked us up a lamb curry for dinner with help on prep from the lads! Kind of a Thankyou curry.. we start our run home tomorrow so we won’t be stayin in beautiful Sinntal much more, we sat in the sunset and had beers with Rainer from across the road and once again everything was right in the world!

Gonna miss this place, but I miss my lady more!

See ya in a week babes!

Peace

ok sooooo stuttgart here we go.. last year we didn’t play in Stuttgart, this year our mate Cody from mutterbeast hooked us up with a spot in a place called the Keller Klub, it’s got the right kinda grime in all the right places, \240were running a bit late tonight so no soundcheck for us, really good to see Cody he’s one of these guys that’s in 7 bands, running a studio, guitar teching for internationals and booking a venue .. plus a day job? Yeah nah! First band is bouncing Betty , Motley Crue style sleaze Rock, complete with eye make up.. the rockstars are here!! They file out one by one from the green room as the drummer lays down the opening groove, the crowd surges in anticipation for the lead singer, the spotlight comes on, it’s him, yess ahhhhhhhhhhh splooosh!!! Complete with scarf and sunnies.. to be honest though they’re pretty tight, great drummer, fun to watch.. next up is prince pungent and the black mumbas, these guys were great boki from mutterbeast plays guitar in this band and he’s shredding! Great tones, stoner grooves, awesome frontman!! UNITY!!!! Is one of the choruses I remember and I scream it pumping my fist in the air!!

We’re up next, quick line check and pow.. we’re on, we don’t like to Fuck around and sound guy here knows what he’s doing, I realize quickly I may have had a few too many beers.. but that sorts itself out as the adrenaline takes over, that’s pretty much what you end up running on after this many shows in a row.. I also realize why those guys were wearing sunnies, these lights are fucking bright!! Anyway good show, a few bucks in merch, and it’s time to leave again, we gonna drive to the next city so we can sleep in.. so sadly we say goodbye to Cody and his newly wedded wife Alina, and big hugs to Boki and slip away again.. manage to find a bar when we get there that’s still serving, and sneak in a coupla delicious cold beverages.. this bar we’ve found just happens to be where we are playing the next night, and we’ve managed to get the accomm fir an extra night ... sooo

Ahh the old hack, the alte hackerei, one of those venues ya don’t wanna leave, but ya know ya can’t stay, these guys still do it right in a climate that isn’t as supportive as it once was.. record stores closing, venues struggling, people more inclined to go to the big festivals than club shows, value for money, expectations, gym memberships and Instagram fame, reality tv and you tube subscriptions, amongst this the alte hack still supplies fruit and cheese platters, full fridge rider, dinner, breakfast, guarantee and decent accommodation, next to mos record store.. which is awesome by the way..check him out online ..https://www.facebook.com/mosplattenladen/

Anyway yeah so after an ever so easy soundcheck, (great system in here,) we once again head out into daylight, Germany is really warm for this time of year it’s quite amazing, all we can do is find beer gardens and lap it up while we can, we do some old school pr, handing out flyers and trying to look cool, but approachable, but not too approachable in a kind of aloof yet intrigued way, not too interested and not too interesting yet hilarious and intelligent but a complete bogan kinda way!! my default setting right?? \240Quite a few already know about the show.. this is a good sign! Quick visit to the nearest music store to get some sticks and stuff and head back to the venue for some dinner, I grab something light tonight.. tasty pumpkin soup and bread, the rest devour sausages and chips ..not bad!!

I decide to hang backstage tonight, trying to save my vocals and there’s a comfy lounge and a cheese platter to pick at.. not to mention that I’m a bit spent so it’s a welcome retreat.. tonight we have no support, we’re doing just over 2 hours of material pulling songs from our back catalogue, some we haven’t played for soooo long!! I’m running through the songs in my head backstage trying to remember what I can, kinda like cramming for that school year exam, if you don’t know it now, you won’t know it.. this has been my motto in life, probably explains some things huh? What an idiot? \240Practice hard kids!! Cos fake it till ya make it can be a long tiring journey!! It’s time to go On and fuck me im pumped I can hear that the crowd is a good one and we walk on stage and there’s people waiting front of stage!! Rad! This is gonna fire up!! We blast through the set and each song is met with solid german thunder!! Raze and I try to teach them how to say “yeah righto” they need to work on that, the crowd sings along for ace of spades.. enthusiastically!! We stumble through the old songs, encore and done!!! We head backstage, catch our breath, change our shirts, eat some fruit, smash a coupla beers, and head back out to sign and mingle and thank and laugh and enjoy the ecstatic crowd.. 2 hours and 19 minutes we played.. I think that’s a record for us, who the bloody hell wants to watch us for that long?? Karlsruhe that’s who!!

Thanks alte hackerei you rocked us!!

Peace

ps today is fucking hot

Well we’ll well, after the carnage of the alte hackerei I wasn’t sure we were ready for what was in store for us in the Bombig bar and garage, it’s a biker bar and last year it really went off, so it probably should be busy but you never know.. we arrive at the venue after a quick blast down the autobahn and Tom the bar owner Is inside waiting our arrival, we all Say ”ALLOOOO” quite loudly and hug each other like men, slapping the shit out of each other’s back in a half hug, half handshake that blokes do \240. Toms a great guy, 6foot2 built like a brick shithouse, long silver hair tied back into a ponytail and your standard biker gear, jeans, leather cut etc.. he’s not your runnin meth kinda biker though, he’s a good guy, but I’m sure if ya got on his bad side, well let’s just say “sometimes good men have to do bad things”.. we quickly set up, tonight is another solo show so the banner is up, the sound is checked and we’re ready to go. \240We get the keys to our accomm and head off for dinner.. tonight we eat at the local restauran, typical german stuff with an Italian twist, I pick turkey schnitzel Milanese.. bloody yumm!! Then it’s back to venue I walk in expecting it to be jumping but there’s no one there?? Like maybe 5, im immediately embarrassed and kinda grimace and shrug at Tom, he just laughs, I was sure he understood what I meant, I grab my beer and head outside to.. HOLY HELL!! The beer garden is completely packed.. yessssss this is gonna go off!! tom pats me on the back as he walks past still laughing!!

And It does, everyone pushes in to the tiny room, I spot “crazy” from last year, it’s kinda hard to miss him with his massive dreads windmilling continuously.. he’s basically on stage, razor accidentally clips him with his headstock, crazy doesn’t flinch.. we pushed it as hard as we can tonight, crowds like that push ya that little bit further.. we finish up after another record set time and fall out into the beer garden to sit round the massive fire pit, we drink and laugh, the odd pipe gets handed around and everyone uses their best English to chat to us, it’s so impressive how many people speak more than 1 language here, I throw out the odd word of german just to at least show I’m listening.. the night rolls on and the bar staff finally give us the nod, it’s time to leave, it’s not quite light yet but it can’t be far off, we stagger back to the rooms, put the key in the door and it doesn’t open?? \240the lock just spins.. oh shit.. we ring and message everyone but just like us if we’d found a bed, they’re all \240passed out.. \240We find a fire escape and lucky for us there’s an open door on the top floor.. such relief..Bombig brought it big time, it’s a shame this whole area is gonna be ripped down for redevelopment next year, we’re glad we got to experience it.. never fear though Toms already got plans for the next chapter!! Bombigger???

next up is the last show of the tour, a very sad day indeed, Razor and I quiz each other over how long we could tour for before we’d be over it, I mean even through sickness and injury there’s this keep on moving attitude, something that isn’t so prevalent in our normal lives, no matter what, the show must go on,ya just figure it out!

Tonights at a university venue in Mainz, so hopefully a good young crowd, we turn up and meet Ollie who’s booked it for us, load in, sound check, (at this point we’ve got this down to a fine art) eat dinner (Chilli con carne - nothin on mine but I’m starved and it’s pretty bloody good) then off to the accommodation, this place is a unit in the city and it looks good enough, Ollie tells us the French band we’re staying with is gonna be there too.. but when we get there there’s only 6 beds? There’s 4 of us? (Renate from epic) there’s 4 of them.. we’ve gotta fly out in the morning and last nights 3 hour sleep is prob not enough, we take a vote and decide to book a room, which we got for $50 each and free breakfast.. score !! Glad we did, I woulda missed my flight for sure, it was above a dive bar that had some punk band on that stays open til 7am.. oh in Ollie’s defense he did ask us how many people were in our party, I thought he meant band.. so it’s as much my fault for the lack of beds! Anyway the gig goes well Rogue result were my highlight, killer stoner jams, great dynamics, awesome songs.. fuckin pissa!!

We played ok, we’re honestly so shagged that we pretty much just get through it.. I’m done!! Crowd loved it but I knew I could do better, but hey that’s how it goes there was some funny exchanges between us and the crowd tonight, I guess the younger crowd is a bit more Pc ..we sit around chatting and smoking with Uni students, lecturers and rockers, an American soldier bought our last record that we have on us, and then once again we slip away into the night.

so that’s it, currently sitting in the plane headed to la from heathrow, then back to Oz, I’ve had an epic journey supplied by the epic folks at epic touring, Steve and Renate you 2 seriously kickass, \240now go clean up them apples.. 😂😂

From vans, to truck stops, Berlin to bombig, to the heady cafes of the Netherlands, Germany and it’s surrounds continues to deliver beautiful food, beautiful beer and beautiful places to drink it, it’s people support the artists and inspire them to do more, standing front and centre fists pumping with massive grins across their face, baring their teeth with wild eyes loving every minute.. and that’s why we do it, that’s how we feel when we get it right. So until the next edition it’s back to the girlfriend I miss very much, the recording studio To create our next slab, the mates I wanna share a beer and a chin wag with and the country that I hold so dear...

until then..

I know it’s only rocknrolll, but I like it..

peace