Young Knives Tour Diary: Part Nine

22nd May - Friends Of Mine Festival

I hate festivals; This is the first festival of the season and as per usual we get sideways hail. As we drive on site it looks like everything has gone south, the first thing we see is a collapsed big top, it does cross my mind that it don’t really want to die on stage, but then maybe I do, I don’t.

I have no festival paraphernalia, no wellies, no hood and no brolly. In fact none of us do, we get soaked in a few minutes of being outside. The stage we are on has no awning beyond the front of the stage so all the monitors and electrics are getting wet, I think this might get cancelled.

As I walk into the dressing room I see that Howard Marks is here and his mates have nicked the wine off our rider. Terry Christian is introducing A Certain Ratio on the main stage, House speculates that as he walks off he says to one of his aids "Who do I have to punch round here to get some Trumpet". Everyone laughs so hard we do a collective wee, he's not always that funny.

Then the sun comes out, the jackets come off, the punters stream back into the field. Yuck go onstage just before us, they are great, It’s the first time I have seen them but I am sold, it gets us worked up into a froth.

Our gig is just so much fun, the sun is low in the sky, the fog machine is whisping into the dusk, the crowd are hot and we make the most of it. It sounds amazing on stage - this is not normal at a festival - plus we make no mistakes!

'Storm Clouds' is so flipping loud, it’s such a good song to play live. We have to drive all the way back to Oxford tonight but we enjoy a few cheeky lagers in the back of the van and drift into a merry fugg; I love festivals.