Tour Diary - 'The Pig Of Destiny Tour' 


Well, firstly, let me explain to you why this tour is entitled 
'The Pig Of Destiny' tour.

We have recently changed our sound engineer. For those of you who have 
been to one of our shows in the past, and have eagle eyes, you would 
have noticed a little man at the sound desk, resembling a shrew. This 
was Rob. We called him little Rob. He was like an atom....... a nice one.

Now we have a lovely man called John Pennington. A fantastic bloke, who 
works for the likes of Moby, so we are in very good hands. Anyway, back 
to the story..............one drunken night before the tour, after we 
had finished rehearsals, we descended back to the TS house and indulged 
in our almost ritualistic session of a few drinks and some great music 
(Contact by Thirteen Senses :-). So, anyway, John was talking to me about 
this film he'd seen called the The PICK of Destiny. I managed to miss 
hear him, and proceeded to sit being bemused for a good half an hour or 
so, before realising it's nothing to do with a pig in a cape.

Oh well, we thought it would be funny to call this tour, 
THE PIG OF DESTINY TOUR!!


Minus day 1:

Our tour bus arrives at our rehearsal studio to pick us all up. We have 
just met all of our new crew (little Nobby - monitors, and Jamie - lights) 
and indulged in some pizza, so we really don't feel like loading all of 
our gear onto the bus......there is a lot of stuff!!!!

We manage it somehow, and it all seems worth it, when you sit down again 
in the bus lounge and crack open a nice cold one! It's been over two 
years since we have been on a tour bus, but it's amazing how natural it 
feels. I think we have all managed to slip straight back in to the way 
of life that goes with being on tour. Well, it's a long drive to 
Falmouth and we've got some new faces to get to know, so we basically 
just had a big party on the bus, lots of drinks, and great music, and a 
good old natter.


Day 1 - Falmouth, Princess Pavilions:

It's always good to be in Cornwall, it's even nicer to wake up in 
Cornwall, in the sunshine, and with a sea view! It's not however, nice 
to wake up in hot, sweaty, tour bus bunk!! Nothing bothered me though as, 
the excitement of the first day on tour was very strong. I couldn't keep 
still most of the day, and found myself not being able to concentrate on 
anything at all. I needed a pasty!!! So I had one!

I hadn't even seen The Princess Pavilions before, and was very impressed 
when I saw the venue, really nice size, a great stage and large dressing 
rooms - perfect!

We had a spot of bother trying to get the trailer open to load all of 
our gear in, as some of the equipment had pressed itself against the 
door. It took a good half an hour, and about five men just to get the 
door open. I watched from a distance and advised. I think I helped :-)

Luke Toms arrived shortly after, and is a very easy guy to talk to, and 
a very talented performer, so it should be a great tour. I also soon got 
over the urge to stare at his immense moustache!

Pre gig is always a very difficult time. You can't really eat too much, 
or you feel bloated on stage, you can't really drink to much, or you 
fall over on stage, and you can't really go anywhere or you will be late 
on stage!! Today however was much easier as there were a vast array of 
friends and family to pass the time with. Nice.

Gig time!!!! We entered the stage to a great reception from the crowd, 
and that never faltered throughout the entire set. It was nerve racking 
for us as we were debuting new songs from the next album, and we hadn't 
played to our hometown gig in over two years......so we felt the pressure. 
But luckily it all went away very quickly and we really enjoyed the gig 
a lot.

After the gig, it was time for a celebratory party on the bus again. 
Unfortunately the bus was parked on a very severe slope, meaning you 
needed climbing gear if you wanted to navigate the stairs, and it made 
the whole party very very interesting!

All in all, a fantastic start to the tour, which filled us with yet more 
excitement of playing these new songs to our fanbase all over the UK.


Day 2 - Day Off, Falmouth:

Amazing, no sooner do we start the tour, and we have a day off!! Having 
he chance to spend our day off in either Falmouth or Stoke, we opted for 
Falmouth - No offence Stoke!! We had been discussing the previous night 
what amazing things we could do; hire a boat, go paintballing, etc etc.

After showering and eating yet another obligatory pasty, we descended on 
a pub called 'The Grapes' ........I was sceptical about a drinking hole 
whose name made me think of haemorrhoids, but upon entry, found it to be 
rather lovely with a view of the water. This did however mean that our 
'grand' plans for the day were soon forgotten after the odd pint or 7. 
We had a great day in the pub, yes, an entire day in the pub, where 
nothing special really happened, apart from a man with an amazingly red 
face sat near us, and I spilled a blood mary all over the table.

We left the pub, only to carry on as we began, but back on the tour bus. 
A little worse for wear, I was ready for bed at about 9:30 ROCK ON!!!!!!!



www.lewisslade.com/thirteensenses