Day 16 - Oxford, Zodiac:

Today was interesting one. Tom and Bren were picked up at home at about 
10:00 am, whereas Will and myself were picked up at 4:00pm as we were 
being taken into London to do a radio interview with Simon Mayo for BBC 
Radio 2, before being driven straight onto Oxford after. The interview 
went well, and didn't take to long, and we were off to Oxford at about 
6:00pm......all of this however did mean that Will and I missed 
soundcheck, which can be a bit disconcerting as you can never be sure 
that everything is going to sound ok onstage.......we needn't have 
worried though, as our team are so good, and everything was perfect, so 
we would like to give a big shout out to Nobby, our monitor engineer, 
for making everything sound fantastic. 

I have always enjoyed playing in Oxford, the stage is really high, which 
can make you feel more comfortable, and the crowd is always really 
receptive. I also had some family and friends in attendance who haven't 
seen us live for about 2 years.

There was one thing however which I would rather put out of my mind. In 
Oxford, there is one dressing room, which both bands share. Therefore, 
there is one toilet which both bands share. As a rule, on a tour bus, 
you can not pass solids into the toilet. This means everyone saves up 
their little nuggets of joy, to offer to the toilet god in the dressing 
room. Times this by two bands and two lots of crew, and you have a smell 
slightly reminiscent of the aroma you would find between the rolls of 
fat of an obese, unwashed, wet Labrador............with a subtle hint of 
festival portaloo thrown in for giggles. It was awful.

Let me onstage, please!!!!! We finally take the stage, and I'm just about 
getting over the smell of five minutes ago. The crowd are excited and 
noisy, and having just had a day off, we are all raring to go. I think 
we all agree that this was one of our performances of the tour, and we 
felt from the fans reaction, that we had really delivered a good gig. 
Confidence was high, and we were sounding great. As the tour has gone on, 
we are noticing that we are becoming more and more at ease with pulling 
off a gig. In the beginning, we would need a good couple of hours to 
prepare, and would be obsessing about certain parts of songs which we may 
have made a mistake in on a previous night etc etc, but now, it feels 
completely natural, and second nature again, which is great.

After seeing off my family, with a cricket bat........kidding, it was a 
tazer, we finally get on the bus to move onto Reading!



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