Young Knives Tour Diary: Part One

Monday 16th May – Newcastle

Got in the nice clean van this morning. It‘s not going to last. Within an hour I cracked a tin of mackerel and the smell of rot in the van is begun. It felt good too. A clean sweet smelling van isn’t rock and roll.

5 hour drive to Newcastle to play the Academy. We are joined on this tour by The Neat and Flash Fiction both of whom are pretty good but I have never seen live so I am quite looking forward to watching. It turned out they were pretty good live too. I really liked some of the stuff The Neat do as it references various bands but I think it actually sounds better than the sum of their influences. You can hear a bit of the fall and joy division and some Stone roses and other baggy era stuff in there but it doesn’t feel retro or like a pastiche of any of those sound. Overall they are like a sort of heavy new-wave-psycadelic band, which in my opinion is a good thing. Plus I haven’t heard anyone else using a phaser on a guitar for ages so that’s cool with me too.

We loaded everything out of the venue and then went down to the head of steam to meet a friend of mine called Emma who used to work in a record shop with Oliver and me. She is doing a PHD in Feminist theory but she still talks to us even though we are tards and make jokes about tits.

I don’t get why everyone has to load out the entire rider in to the back of the van. We will never need 15 tubs of margarine or numerous carrier bags full of half eaten un-refrigerated sweaty ham slices. It doesn’t really add to the freshness of the van either. Some of this stuff is definitely just going to get trodden on. Finished my night with tandoori chicken wings, an aromatic cigarette and then drifted into sweet oblivion.

I am in the van as I write this. Someone just farted. Jesus.