Friday 14th July 2023
Once again I've been a bit lazy keeping these blogs updated. Life changes and things get in the way.
Since I last wrote I've been busy. Drumming for the Punk band UK Subs, releasing a new album with my metal band Reign of Fury ("Exorcise Reality", available now on Spotify or to buy on vinyl and CD in our online store www.reignoffurylive.bigcartel.com) and I rejoined my old band 4ft Fingers...and then left again (to tour with UK Subs). I even joined and left another band, which probably aren't worth mentioning at this point. I'm also back teching for The Alarm, which is really nice. Theres a few other bits going on right now, goals to be achieved and targets to smash but maybe I'll write more on that another time.
The real reason for this update is because I was trying to tidy up a few bits in the house and found my old tour blog from the 4ft Days 2002 - 2003. TWENTY YEARS AGO!!! I thought it might be interesting for a few people to have a read and get a little insight to what it was like for us back in the days before smart phones, sat-nav, social media and when all we wanted to do was tour by any means necessary. Back in those days we had a clear goal: Success or Death. What success was we had no idea but that didn't stop us from almost killing ourselves to acheive it.
So anyway, heres a highlight of one of the entries to that hand written blog that I spent hours every night writing that made me laugh!! Hopefully, it'll make you laugh too. If you like it, I'll find some other entries to publish.
SUNDAY 15th DECEMBER 2002: The Little Civic, Wolver'ampton
Rider: 12 cans of Red Stripe, 12 bottles of water, a few cans of soft drinks, crisps, packaged sandwiches, chocolate bars.
Tonights gig is SOLD OUT!!
Today started with a BANG! Literally! Rob (lead singer and guitarist) was supposed to pick us up at 3:30pm from boots fountain in the centre of Cheltenham (our usual pick up point as me (drummer), Tom (guitarist) and Dougie (Bass Player) lived in town and it saves time rather than picking everyone up from their houses). I told everyone the night before to be on time. What a surprise, I'm the only one on time. Tom shows up 5 mins after, thats 5 mins earlier than usual then Rob shows up with the van a.k.a. "The Flying Fortress" with Scott Cole (photographer) in the front and Bov "The Merch Guy" in the back.
There was nowhere to park so as the van came round the corner we crossed the road (to get on the same side as the sliding door) so we could jump in quickly. Rob slowed down and I pulled the handle of the slide door to open it. Tom then grabs the handle and Rob then at that moment decides to speed up! Tom didn't have time to let go of the handle and as the van sped up, the door slid open and literally rips clean off in Tom's hand!! We're now standing in the middle of the road in the busy town centre with the side door of the van on the floor in front of us whilst the Rob is driving down the road looking for a parking space!! Fuck knows what Bov thought sitting in the back but my instant reaction was to laugh!
Rob pulls over and me and Tom just stand there for a few seconds trying to come to terms with what just happened and whether we should laugh or cry. We laughed.
"What now?" I asked.
"Get on the other end" Tom replied, and we carried the door towards the van. We couldn't help but laugh and by now everyone in town was laughing too. We leant the door against the van. Rob, Scott and Bov came out to assess the damage. They too found it funny...for now. Scott grabbed his camera, the opportunity to preserve this moment with photographs was too good to miss.
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The mood is changing
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I don't think Im helping much am I
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Then Dougie turns up. With his Irish accent and manner that didn't ever seem to help a crisis he asks "Whats going on?" Answering that question was not a priority, after all it doesn't take a genius to work out just exactly what was going on. After a few minutes of assessing the damage, the mood changed. The door was completly fucked!!
Of course, we all blamed each other but we set about trying to fix it whilst Scott kept taking photos. Things got worse. Dougie tried to suggest things which seemed to just annoy Rob even more. Scott then tried to phone people he knew with a van to see if we could borrow one whilst Dougie phoned our manager Darren to deliver the news.
We decided the best option was to get the van back to Rob's place and try to fix it there. Dougie made more suggestions but Rob was getting very pissed off now. No-one seemed to be laughing anymore and cancelling the show seemed like it might be a possibility. If something bad ever happened to us, it always seemed to be whilst we were about to play a sold out gig!
We wedged the door on and persuaded Rob to drive carefully back to his house. He kept telling me to make sure the door doesn't fall off as he drove. To be honest, if that door fell, there was nothing I could do about it. If I tried to stop it, it would have taken me with it.
We got to Rob's at about 4:15pm and he went and got his Dad. He'd been doing a bit of gardening when he gave him the good news. He wasn't best pleased. After assessing the damage he grabbed some tools and started to fix it. If we could get the door on, we could get to the gig.
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Rob's Dad saving our skin...again.
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Darren was now on his way. Uh Oh. Whilst Tom and Rob helped with fixing, the rest of us tried not to laugh too loudly and took it in turns to hold the light.
Me and Dougie then snuck off to the local garage to buy some food and cigerettes.
"Whats the betting whilst we're away they desperately need our help?" Dougie asked.
"Nah, they'll be alright" I replied.
We got back a few minutes later and it turns out our help was very much needed. Dougie sprang into action whilst I held the light.
After an hour and a half of hammering and straightening, Rob's Dad had bodged it back together and we could now set off. It was now about 6pm and Darren was well pissed off. Bov managed to get our arses into gear, we relaoded our personals which had been taken out just incase we couldnt open the side door again and we made tracks.
We were now running well behind. Bov and Scott jumped in the car with Darren and Nike (Darren's girlfriend at the time), me and Tom jumped in the back of the van whilst Rob drove and Dougie navigated.
What made matters worse was the "team" in the front managed to join the M42, which takes us in completly the wrong direction to Wolverhampton.
"Fuck it" I thought, and went to sleep.
We arrived at the venue at 7:30pm, loaded in then went to the dressing room to summarize the situation. We ate the rider and chatted to a very stressed Darren. After a while I sorted my gear out to save time later and then rejoined the guys upstairs in the dressing room.
We went on stage about 10:10pm after a band called Firefly who'd managed to warm the crowd up nicely. We did a good job and Darren seemed to be happier and less stressed now. Scott though was absolutely pissed by now because the bouncers wouldn't let him on stage to take any photos of the gig. He kept giving us the "A OK" symbol every 5 mins to let us know he was still on his feet!
We got called back for an encore and did "Fake I.D" and "Bugsy". Afterwards we hung about signing stuff and giving drum sticks etc away then I made a start on packing my drums away. Scott came over to try and help with the packing but he was in no fit state. He then disappeared for a few minutes and Rob found him passed out on the floor. I ran up and told everyone to take photos. When I returned, he'd disappeared again. We then had to spend the next 10 mins looking for him. I checked behind the bar to make sure he wasn't filling his can up. We eventually found him at the bottom of the stairs, face down in a heap...with his can still upright! We laughed at him for a bit, checked he was still alive, took some photos and then the others tried to bundle him in the van.
I packed up as quickly as possible and as I brought my stuff to the van Scott was still walking around completely off his face. We sat him down with a friend of ours and carried on with the packing. By now Scott couldn't move his arm and we thought we might have to drop him off at a hospital. He decided to leave it until the morning and see how it feels then.
After a couple more photos with some fans we set off home. Tom drove, Rob and Scott in the front, Dougie, me, and Bov in the back. We got back to Cheltenham at about 2:30am I think. Pick up tomorrow was 1pm.
What a fucked up day!!!
Magic Dave
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Back then, stresses got forgotten about very quickly
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All photos Copyright Scott Cole.
