yeovil, ski lodge, 18/02/01

et9 / kids near water / stegel

(prd chaos / tat twam asi / star damage / binary 101 / grind & click / yellow fever / evil crawling i / withered)

this is one of those venues that clearly plays host to a mainly inbred clientele. oh yes – despite primarily being used as a resource for skiers and snow boarders, this building definitely doubles up as a venue for care in the community. how else do you explain people crowd surfing to the sound of feedback? or crushing yourself up to a stage which is only 6inches off the floor?!?

but don’t get me wrong… i’d have to put the ski lodge as one of our favourite venues in the uk… mad they might be, but a good audience they undoubtedly are…

we entered into the spirit of things by borrowing a few of the inflatable ‘ski-donuts’ in the backstage area and sending si hurtling down the stairs… not very adult behaviour but amusing never-the-less…

the other bands on the bill for this show (kids near water and stegel) both received rapturous receptions. stegel kicked things off in fine form with their post-metalcore rumblings… keep your eyes on this lot, they’re very interesting…certainly a credible leap away from the generic nu-metal tripe currently over-running everything.

the emo-rock of kids near water is very different but no less enjoyable… dispensing with the macho-istic trappings of contemporary extreme music they attack with layers of indie styled guitars and aggression via honest emotion… oh, i love ‘em…

prior to starting our set, si was accosted by two young ladies who demanded that a song was dedicated to them…despite the hapless sticksman explaining that we never speak between songs, they were insistent… si became strangely helpful though, when they promised to bare their womanly assests at the conclusion of the aforementioned dedication.

with this in mind karl had promised to dedicate every single track to them… but he was felled at the first hurdle… as tat twam asi ground to a halt he gleefully intoned ‘this goes out to our good friends charlotte and claire’. almost immediately the gorilla/human hybrid security guard directly in front of our grinning singer responded, ‘oh, claire’s my sister!’.

as we all laughed karl hastily shouted ‘errr, i think we’ll leave that agreement for another time.’ you see – that’s what happens when you abandon your right on principles.

the gig was beyond manic. as soon as we started the stage was just a wash of bodies. the front three rows spent the entire gig bent double with the weight of the throng pressed upon them. it was almost impossible to play.

the (excellent) security formed a line onstage, and karl performed the majority of the show to the back of one of their heads! it all made for an intense night and we, naturally, enjoyed it.

top gig!

 

exeter, cavern, 19/02/01

et9 / kids near water / ???

(prd chaos / tat twam asi / star damage / binary 101 / grind & click / yellow fever / evil crawling i / withered)

another day, another west country extravaganza. the subterranean cavern is another excellent gig. we always have fun there and the locals are suitably deranged.

added to which kids near water are gainfully employed at this very venue, so we were expecting a fun show.

and, lo, we were not disappointed. and that’s all i have to say about it.

 

london, kings head, totalrock fest, 23/02/01

et9 / stampin ground / hangnail / medulla nocte / onedice

(approx.purified / prd chaos / tat twam asi / star damage / binary 101 / grind & click / yellow fever / evil crawling i)

this was always gonna be scary – a five band bill with the emphasis on the monstrously heavy. for those not in the know (and unable to read the tagline above) the acts unleashing their wares at this gig were: stamping ground, medulla nocte, hangnail, one dice… oh, and us… (and for the really mentally impaired a second day of festivities followed featuring raging speedhorn, skindred, brutal deluxe, charger and defenestration)…

luckily the nice people at total rock were monumentally well prepared and we were simply required to act like a single cog in an immense machine. our arrival time was a yawn-inducing 1pm (especially if you have to travel from nottingham). sadly i drew the really short straw and had to carry half a ton of equipment on the train from bristol… such is the glamour of rock ‘n roll…

i arrived before the band and enjoyed warm company from totalrock’s resident babe, katherine, and warm coffee from totalrock’s resident nutter, matt mason . once the rest of the monkeys arrived we were escorted to the dressing room, a cavernous affair with ample space for five bands and their assorted hangers-on…

we did the dance of the soundcheck fairy and grabbed some food from a nearby shop… as the day progressed the other bands slowly arrived…for us, at least, it was a placid day… (i don’t think the total rock staff felt the same!)…

sadly i cannot comment on the performance’s of the other bands on the bill as i was on the other side of london putting my girlfriend on a train back to nottingham! i only arrived back at the kings head with just enough time to catch the end of stampin grounds set and then pull on my gig trousers…

… and i’m glad i did! the venue was so hot my legs felt like two boil in the bag sausages… there was a very, very large crowd crowbarred into the venue and most of them were unfeasibly pissed… (especially our good friend dan, who saw fit to pull his tshirt over his head to resemble a nun’s habit – for the entire gig!!!)… we blasted through a mid-length set (ie the psi setlist plus approx. purified) and did our best to stay conscious in the sweltering heat. some kindly punter fell over the barrier and landed on a 2litre bottle of water, which promptly sprayed me like a prop from ‘londons burning’. my thanks go out to you whoever you may be.

after the show we got to hang out with a few of our message-board regulars – potato king, jammy, dsd and offkilter69 to name but a few – and some kindly journo-types. all in all a good show.

 

london, astoria, supporting disturbed, 25/02/01

disturbed / et9 / sugarcoma

(prd chaos / tat twam asi / star damage / binary 101 / grind & click / yellow fever / evil crawling i)

well, we only got a weeks notice for this show… came from right out of the blue… cool though… the second sold out astoria we’ve played in two months! (and it would have been three if pitchshifter had got their way).

administrative error number one was the presented required arrival time of 1pm. what they actually meant to say was… 4.30pm. not that anyone minded. it was cool to have a lazy afternoon in london. alex (crew and merch type) visited a hare krishna temple and the rest of us frequented a number of sex shops in search of an inflatable lady-boy to adorn the stage. no luck i’m afraid, but we did, however, see some interesting examples of man’s ingenuity with rubber, latex and leather.

as we had left my scooter in nottingham we were forced to entertain ourselves for the rest of the time with a couple of giant balloons left littering the astoria’s main hall. sadly our enjoyment of slow-motion football was quickly curtailed, first by joe stamping on a balloon and then by karl dealing a fatal blow to the last one with a broom. bastards.

luckily when we entered our dressing room we were met by the sight of a full rider, so murderous thoughts about balloon killers were quickly replaced with happy thoughts about vodka!

perhaps because of this our soundcheck was quick and painless.

as sugarcoma lugged their gear onto the stage we were collared by metal hammer’s mick hudson for a photoshoot. he proved to be a top bloke and he had plenty of ideas so we just let him manipulate us into the appropriate positions (and massage our ego’s with confidence building comments like ‘mmm, that looks fantastic’). that done we headed for the dressing room and continued decimating the rider.

didn’t get to see the aforementioned sugarcoma as i was warming up, but they apparently went down well. we hit the stage as soon as they had finished and started rigging up. one of my favourite moments of recent memory occurred when our pre-hung backdrop was slowly lowered from the higher levels of the astoria’s roofing gantry. very spinal tap.

i risked a sneaky glance at the assembled throng and was immediately struck by the immensity of the show. a sold out astoria looks like a lot of people, i can tell you. if that wasn’t enough to bring out an attack of nerves then the arrival of our yank friend from columbia records (for the third time) certainly was. those of you who have followed our tour diaries will know about our difficulties in impressing this man. for those of you who haven’t, let’s just say circumstance (and the model-builders of tunbridge wells) have historically been less than kind to us.

anyway, there was no time to let any of this effect us. we instigated our now customary pep-talk/warm-up (ie screaming ‘i’m in too deep’ and ‘come on’) and hit the stage.

happily it was a great show. great sound, we played well, the audience reacted warmly and the gods of gig misfortune finally stayed away.

finishing on a high we cleared the stage and quickly began work on our bottle of vodka in earnest. disturbed’s set was spent catching up with mo-rat, darren sadler (and missus), our label bosses and, for me at least, the lovely vanessa warwick. yes, i am fully aware that that sounds a bit wanky and schmooz-like – but, fuck you, they are my friends!

went home happy and drunk (and not necessarily in that order).

 

cleethorpes, beachcomber, 1/3/01

et9 / tripswitch / xxx / xxx

(prd chaos / tat twam asi / star damage / binary 101 / approx.purified / yellow fever / evil crawling i / withered)

the beachcomber is an odd venue. one part of an immense building (which also houses a banqueting hall and two restaurant) it reeks of holiday camp / seaside resort entertainment centre. indeed my initial impressions of it were further heightened by the ludicrous sub zero temperatures we found ourselves suffering on exiting the womb like confines of our van. it really was just like childhood summer holidays all over again!

luckily the set-up for the show was excellent, and all thoughts of butlins and hi-de-hi were swiftly swept from our minds. after ripping through a soundcheck we took refuge in our dressing room (one of the aforementioned restaurants) and decimated the rider.

sadly i missed the supports due to an extended interview with scene-ster stevie b (he of www.amplifythis.co.uk fame), but they evidently got a frenetic response because the crowd were wild-eyed and sweaty as we walked out onstage.

i had a few problems with my amp (blown valves this time!) but the spare was on hand for a seamless rescue. ignoring this little issue the show was good and we sailed through it painlessly.

errr, very dull diary entry (my apologies) but nothing exciting actually happened.

 

newcastle, trillians, 2/3/01

et9 / substate

(prd chaos / tat twam asi / star damage / binary 101 / approx.purified / yellow fever / evil crawling i / withered)

got to venue late as we had to buy replacement valves for my poorly amplifier. loaded in. drank coffee. ate chips. soundchecked. did interview for fanzine (which was refreshingly fun!). watched venue fill (right) up with punters.

checked out substate. cool hybrid of old school thrash and deathcore lunacy (with an occasional blast of full-on rock god posturing). they went down deservedly well. best moment for me was singer paul throwing a substate cd into the throng only to see it fly forward and catch a huge scary looking bloke right in the eye. there was a moment of silence followed by paul spluttering a heartfelt apology and then the bruiser just smiled. within minutes he was down the front demonstrating his forgiveness.

we had a great show with the best response we have ever had in newcastle. people were so kind afterwards we had trouble packing the gear down! cool.

 

edinburgh, liquid rooms, 3/3/01

et9 / unique freak / substate

(prd chaos / tat twam asi / star damage / binary 101 / i nagual eye / yellow fever / evil crawling i / withered)

edinburgh is absolutely beautiful. our drive to the venue was enough to convince me to add the city to my top spots of the uk. (previous winners are bath and york). the place just seems so deeply ingrained with history. there is a nobility about edinburgh that my rambling prose is woefully inadequate in describing.

however, despite the wonderful surroundings and a cool venue my only real thoughts for the majority of the day were – ‘fuck me, i’m cold’. subzero does not begin to do justice to the temperature. no wonder the scots have a reputation for hardness – they’re all furious at being frozen solid half the year. it was impossible to do anything constructive. it was only with the arrival of a heater in our dressing room (an outdoor shed decorated in furry zebra strip wallpaper!!!) that we could begin to operate in anything approaching normality.

once defrosted we soundchecked and ate. all very pleasant.

missed the other bands on the bill as i was indulging in a light tipple from our rider vodka over a roaring fan heater.

we hit the stage running and promptly embarrassed ourselves by having simultaneous guitar breakdown. yep, for the first minute of prd chaos joe and i were out of action. i suffered a power shortout to my head and roberts broke his footswitch leaving his guitar permanently without distortion. luckily these were both minor setbacks and we applied ‘the boot’ to our gear and got back on track quickly.

having had an early fuck up we were more relaxed for the rest of the show. unlucky as we are, lighting usually doesn’t strike twice per night. and maybe for that reason we played a good ‘un. it was the most fun show i can remember doing for a while. lots of good humoured rock posturing and band interplay.

happily we had an et9 messageboard contingent present to support us. plenty of familiar names (well, pseudonyms anyway) were in attendance and it was cool to chat to them all. karl’s look alike was in the firing line for a few quips (which he took good naturedly) and the others just kicked my arse for moving the evolution dates in order to do the fear factory tour.

a good night…. made even better by the extended drinking session we undertook at matts (from substate) flat. dave and i managed to get to bed at 6am. nice people that substate lot!

 

aberdeen, glow 303, 4/3/01

et9 / subsist / deadloss

(prd chaos / tat twam asi / star damage / binary 101 (full version) / i nagual eye / yellow fever / evil crawling i / withered)

glow 303 is an amazing old building. originally a church it spent the majority of it’s life as a plush cinema. the surviving décor provides plenty of pointers to it’s former vocation – white plaster, life size statuettes of roman women, heavy drapes unfurled in the wings of the stage and a high, ornately decorated ceiling. very impressive.

due to the previous day’s alcoholic indulgences we spent almost the entire afternoon comatose upon the floor of the dressing room. coffee was drunk. red bull was mainlined and sunday papers were devoured.

i spent a good half hour deep in a personal headspin after reading the observers commentary on the death of journalist john diamond. talk about putting it all into perspective. the last article the remarkable man had published contained sentiments as profound as anything i have ever read.

discussing the mental processes necessary for living with the knowledge of a terminal disease (he had throat cancer), he tried to explain that faith and expectation are not always the cornerstones of a fulfilling existence. in terms of the great existential question ‘what is life all about?’ he said:

" it’s about loving and being loved, and doing the right thing, and one day being missed when you’re gone.

and that’s all it’s about. it isn’t about heaven or hell or the love of christ or allah or yahveh, because even if those things exist they don’t have to exist for us to get on with it.

it is, above all i suppose, about passing time. and the only thing i know that you don’t is that time passes at the same rate and in much the same way whether you’re going to live to 48 or 148. why am i happy? because i’m alive.

and the simple answer to the question ‘what the hell is the point of it all?’ is, this is the point of it all. you aren’t happy? yes, you are: this, here, now, is what happiness is. enjoy it."

if you want to read more of this check out www.observer.co.uk/review

after a relaxed soundcheck we hunted out a chinese restaurant for a luxury feed and i felt empowered to be taking the happiness direct out of life! i quietly toasted another dead hero with a mammoth prawn cracker and thought of him embarking on whatever adventures await the great and the good on the other side.

we got two very interesting support acts at this show. first up the rock-tastic swagger of deadloss. they described themselves as a brutal cross between guns ‘n roses and queens of the stoneage – and that wasn’t far off the mark. in a refreshing change from the nu-metal shenanigans so ubiquitous in this day and age, they camped it up for all they were worth. they had a guitarist with a cowboy hat on for fucks sake! they got my vote.

subsist were a more extreme proposition but just as interesting. i said fudgetunnel meets neurosis. george said melvins. we all agreed a basic similarity with irish nutters tooth. essentially it was racket. and i mean that in a good way. for a three piece they certainly generated a significant noise.

and that brought us to…. well, us… pumped from our earlier red bull excesses we blasted into the set with a healthy vigour. sadly our monitor mix quickly morphed from a sophisticated combination of guitars and voices to the sound effects lab from dr. who. if you’d have told me that the sound in the wedges was a tank with it’s handbrake on being dragged down a runway by a jumbo jet i would not have batted an eyelid.

but, hey ho, shit happens and you just have to do the best you can. and that we did. despite a ropey performance (occasional vocal harmonies that brought a tear to your eye) we went down well and sold more merch than on the previous three nights.

 

we’ll definitely be back in scotland soon.