|
|
|
|
||
The A / Groop Dogdrill Tour - 16th September to 18th October, 1997
As most of you will know, we are currently on tour with the most kickin’ bands in
the country, ‘a’, and ‘groop dogdrill’. so how’s it bin
goin’?
The first gig was the splendid alleycat live in reading. we were all finding our feet, as
it was the start of the tour. it was great to see people pressed against the barrier, but
stage diving would have been tragic, due to lack of bodies to surf on. soon, that day will
come. ‘a’ and ‘dogdrill’ rocked, a taster of what this tour’s
really gonna be like. The next day, we trekked down to plymouth uni. this was a weird gig,
as there was a disco in the next room, and the whole venue was packed with freshers, and a
few more seasoned students. We gave it all, and after packing down, we all got totally
pissed, and partied on. by the time ‘a’ went on, we were in full swing, moshing
at the front, like the true rockers we are, chanting “a, a, a, a, a”, which is
fairly original, after 20 jack daniels, probably. We stayed at the venue to the end,
meeting young women and talking about music, and things like that. after that we went back
to the hotel, carried on partying, waking up in the morning fully clothed, etc. and in the
morning al, rob and andy (tour manager) were reported to be playing boyish games in the
lavish heated swimming pool, in the hot, plymouth sun. what a life, eh.
Next was exeter cavern club. we were staying at the buckerell lodge hotel, which looked
dead posh. the cavern itself is a small venue, with a really cool vibe. there were loads
of people there, so hence it was very sweaty, and turned out to be a brilliant gig. as
usual, after playing, we partied in the extreme style. a special note of respect for our
tour manager, andy, at this point, who kept an eye on all of us, just in case we landed
ourselves in those sticky situations, that occasionally rear their peculiar heads. but it
was a peaceful night, probably. ‘a’ were second on, so they could join in the
party frolics, later, like the ‘how many young maidens, can you place
redwood/’a’ stickers on in one night’ game, or the back at the hotel
‘how many warnings can you get from the night porter’, ’how many glasses
can you break, whilst falling over a table’, and ‘how many guests can you piss
off for being too rowdy/ noisy/ in a band’ games. all that said, the people at the
hotel were really cool, gave us a good deal, and the breakfast was lovely. p.s. thanks to
the couple and all their friends who invited us back to their house for an indulgent
night. it all got a bit late, so we didn’t come back, but next time were in exeter,
we’ll accept the offer, and party on.
sunday night took us to the fleece and firkin in bristol. we’d played here before, so
we had a few people come and see us, including a selection who’d seen us in cardiff,
club eye-fu-bach (sorry about the spelling). we sold a record number of t-shirts here, and
had a full on gig, climaxing in chris blowing all the fuses on stage when he knocked a
pint of water over groop dogdrill’s drummer’s fan, at the end of
‘morphine’. 15 minutes later, the lights were back on, but the fan was still
buggered, so we promised to replace it, the sweeties we are. and by the end of the night,
after the standard kick-arse sets by dogdrill and ‘a’, the hoards dispersed,
most of them with some kind of redwood item stuck /pinned /penned about there person (one
individual left with a selection of redwood /’a’ band and crew comments /scrawls
inked onto various parts of their body - which is nice).
southampton was a killer gig. the crowd were totally up for it, moshing like mad, in a
heaving, packed, and sweaty joiners. people had come from as far as bournemouth and
guildford to see us, and hopefully it was well worth it. hello to ‘bloke’ from
southampton uni who saw us at surrey uni with his mates who crowd surfed, one of them
getting thrown out because of it - we had to mention that. ‘a’s set was
‘ace’, with a full stage invasion in ‘bad idea’, ending with jason
(‘a’ singer) being knocked off stage. crowd surfing, and stage diving was rife,
but calmed down with a frighteningly angry dogdrill set. we challenge anyone to jump on
stage and fight anyone of the dogdrill for their mike. only for the seriously nutty, or
people with a death wish. cool stuff. many beers /kebabs /stickers later, we caned our way
back to guildford, watching ‘song remains the same’, humming the ‘my
cigarettes’ dogdrill song, and wondering what exactly we would do on our day off.
wednesday came, and with it a kerrang single review of saltbox (3/5
-”’saltbox’ mixes a classy groove with a more current, aggressive sound . .
. “), and with this in mind, we headed up to the k2 in liverpool. there weren’t
many people at this gig, but those there seemed to enjoy it, especially the three pissed
blokes out of scouse band ‘fu#wit’. afterwards redwood and ‘a’ went on
to the ‘classy’ disco at the hotel - 50p a pint. at 3 o’clock, a very drunk
party of bands, crew, and newly acquired lady friends, were in the grand hall of the
britania adelphi, playing billy joel songs on the posh grand piano. pure decadence as
jiles ‘a’, played van halen songs, and unnamed members of redwood /’a’
sang along, drinking beer out of plastic pint glasses. the night continued with people
getting locked out of there rooms, 20min walks to the kebab shop, and finally bedtime
activities, whatever they are. in the morning the hangovers were large, and after nearly
getting mugged outside the hotel - cheers to the porter who intervened - we set of to
northampton. ruck’n’roll!!!
the roadmenders is a cool venue. it’s a small room with a chill out bit next to it,
handy to nurse your bleeding ears, ‘cos it’s a f###in’ loud sound system.
there were quite a few people when we played, who eventually ended up moshing, and it was
a pretty full on gig. the rest of the evening was spent inside and outside the venue,
watching walter (roadie) bunnyhop some girls skateboard, watching jiles ‘a’ do
spinny things on it, chatting to band ‘midget’, and watching ‘a’ and
dogdrill blow up the p.a. - to match this, we managed to blow up the tour vans stereo on
the way to the gig, listening to faith no more’s ‘album of the year’. at
the end of the night, goodbyes were said, and we headed back to birmingham, to stay with
our lovely parents - we can’t afford hotels every night, can we. a special hello for
this gig to the couple who saw us first at bucks college, years ago, then saw us at
phoenix fest, and tj’s in eastbourne. it warms the cockels of our hearts to hear that
people travel around to see us play, acoustic , and electric.
and next, wolverhampton, the varsity tavern. at this point, i, the narrator, will change
from 3rd person twice removed with something else, or some long english term like that, to
. . . . something else, whatever that is, if you get my jist, ‘cos i’m pissed.
yes it was a fu##n stormin’ gig, and a party as well. food fights took place in the
dressing room between sets, rob and chris fought security to remain in the venue, cos they
were moshing too hard to ‘a’, stickers were plastered everywhere, including on
mark ‘a’s guitar -he was non too pleased, and ended up having a nipple twisting
fight with alistair -, damo ‘dogdrill’ showed his bum to everyone present, as
usual, redwood and dogdrill discussed why dogdrill were skinny, and redwood were fat, and
many, many other things occurred, that we care not to mention (from whence this time, the
term, ‘chief groupie’ was coined, no names, no bands, imagination must be used).
so yes, the music was ‘ace’, the vibe was ‘it’, and in all, this is
what it’s all about. to indulge as much as possible, to live life to the full, and
just to party, running the risk of sounding too cliched and crappy. but it’s true. as
a great man once said “have a good time, all of the time”. enough of this
bollox. we drove home and slept, see ya’ tomorrow, (much hangovers will follow, i
foresee, as my eyes close on me).
nottingham is the rock capital of england. after playing there on saturday night, then
staying on for the club, there is no doubt of this. the closest to this, that the
‘wood had experienced before, would be the loft in guildford, a few years ago, or the
camden palace on the alternative night. but there were so many people at rock city, and
the dress code was generally black. the dance floor in the large room was packed with
people moshing away to the sounds of coal chamber, filter, nirvana, chilli peppers, faith
no more, etc. the club runs from 8:30 - 2am, so when we went on at 8:45, there
weren’t many people, but it slowly filled up. hi to the chicken smashers of
nottingham, and a special greeting to ‘pif’ who’d just been expelled for
smoking ‘something’ in school. never mind, if the educational establishment
doesn’t want you, you could always join a band. more people showed up as dogdrill and
‘a’ played, so it turned out to be a pretty cool gig. many beers, stickers, and
acquaintances later, we headed home, preparing for the next day’s events. a gig
without the ‘dogs’ or the ‘a’s. how would we manage it?
we actually managed it okay, but it was a shame there wasn’t many people there to
witness it. before the gig we did an interview with chas from bbc radio leicester, so
listen out for that the coming weeks. alistair had come down with the killer flu bug,
which no doubt would stalk musicians and crew for the remainder of the tour, picking of
hapless victims, and making them sneeze, and things like that. one thing to be noted about
the physio and firkin, is that the musician chill out area is really cool, with comfy
sofas, and a t.v. (stuck on bbc2, not so good when all that is on is ‘songs of
praise.) anyway, we chilled out, played, and went home. what no party?!!!!
monday came, and with it, more flu victims. we arrived at the hop and grape in manchester
to see hundreds of young girls queuing outside the venue, however, upon closer inspection,
as the situation required, we discovered that they were in fact queuing up for the robbie
williams gig at the academy. ah, well. dom (‘a’ tour manager) had made sure the
entire tour party could get into this prestigious gig, which was very nice of him. the gig
(our gig) was very full on, despite the flu-ridden musicians. angus, andy, and alistair
then went over to the academy to witness robbie, which was ‘interesting’, and a
bit pervy, when he appeared ‘but naked’ for his last encore - tackle covered up
by acoustic bass, which obviously wasn’t plugged in, but the hundreds of screaming
14year old girls didn’t seem to notice, or mind. after this gig the redwood chappies
returned to real event. ‘a’ were in full swing, and at the end, a very pissed
angus and chris were seen stage diving, surfing the hoards of moshers. apres gig banter
between alistair and jiles ‘a’ consisted of “we’re more metal than you
are”, “no, we’re more metal than you” etc. by now, the ‘wood were
pissed, and it also happened to be alistairs birthday as the clock struck 12. back at the
britania, we went to the cheesiest nightclub in the world, for the lengthy time of
35seconds, then headed upstairs to the bar, and played the piano, amusing all the guests
who were indulging in the odd late night beverage. we then went to bed, after kebabs, fire
extinguishers, and conversations / haggling with the manchester ladies of the night, just
out of curiosity, we hasten to add.
the tour continued, amid flu, phlegm, and fatty-fast-foods, to a very fine gig at
glasgow’s cathouse. the promoter and crew of this venue were absolutely brilliant,
and it ran really smoothly. we played, packed up, blew our noses and coughed, then headed
home to the tunes of the dogdrill (we missed ‘a’, but we’d seen them a few
times before, so we’re sure it was a good gig), home being guildford /woking, a 7hour
drive. we got back at 5am, then attempted to sleep, wondering if we would recover from the
collective tour bug we had now acquired.
in the coming days, the ‘wood sank deeper into the heart of darkness, with half the
band on antibiotics, the rest - including walter and andy - feeling incredibly ill. with
this in hand, we took the unheard of step, of pulling the cleethorpes gig, which was a
shame, ‘cos apparently it was storming. the stoke gig was off, ‘cos the promoter
had fu##ed up - sorry to anyone who turned up to see us. the leeds gig was off ‘cos
of the football, and the next day was a day off, anyway.
the boat race, cambridge, was next up. we turned up for this, still ill, and played what
was apparently a cool gig. we sold loads of t-shirts, which is always a good sign, and
everyone talked about some girl getting the ‘a’ logo tattooed on her arm, which
is a kinda’ full on thing to do. weird!
chelmsford came, we played, and went, with us still ill, but with it, came the news that
‘club’ magazine were going to do a page on us for a coming issue. redwood will
be taken to a top stripper venue in london, by a ‘club’ cover girl, who will
strip for us, then interview us, in the nude (she’ll be naked, we’ll be fully
clothed). begrudgingly we have agreed to do it, but there’ll be a full report in the
next blurb, no pictures, sorry. the things we do for our art!!
the oval in norwich, is an odd place. we passed most of the time bragging to the other
bands over our recent ‘club’ article /stripper news. the sound wasn’t too
good, and we hadn’t played norwich before but we seemed to impress the virgin
‘woodies, so it was worth it. we drove back to london, and stayed at the great
rock’n’roll hotel, the columbia. at the bar were ‘the lighthouse
family’, ‘wireless’, and nicki from ‘the dust junkies’, and at 3
o’clock in the morning, redwood. 10 o’clock in the morning, we were setting up
the equipment in g.l.r studio, 2 hours later we were live on the robert elms show playing
memorabilia and power trip, and chatting about wrestling.
the esplanade in southend is another weird venue. it’s on the seafront, and when you
arrive there, you wonder where all the people are going to come from. there weren’t
many people anyway, but we gave it all, and went mad, as did the group of people
who’d come to see us. ‘hi’ to the band ‘brethren’, hope your
first gig went well. the atmosphere of the whole night was a fun one, probably ‘cos
everyone was letting it all out before the big london gig. news that night had filtered
through that the tunbridge wells gig was sold out, so we were all dead chuffed.
the garage proved to be one of the best gigs of the tour. there were loads of people
there, and everyone was going for it, with moshers, crowd surfers, and stage divers out in
force, for all three bands. with such an ideal crowd, stickers and badges were out in
force, and loads of people were wearing there new redwood t-shirts, which is a pleasing
sight to the ‘wood. during ‘a’s set there was another stage invasion, like
in southampton, and once again, the ’wood were seen diving from the stage and surfing
the minions. dogdrill rocked, with an impromptu attempt at backing vocals from a very
pissed ginger from the late ‘wildhearts’ band. in fact, after the show, ginger
had a scuffle with the garage monitor bloke, who was attempting to draw the curtains on
the stage. an hour later, security guards were attempting to eject one of ‘a’s
mates who was stripping in the middle of the dance floor - jason intervened and saved the
day. the redwood crew were fairly well behaved, content to be revelling in the post gig
hospitality presented to the by their record co. and friends. it was after this gig we got
to see the metal hammer album review, which would be out the following day ( 9/10 -
“everything about redwood feels right; the quality songwriting, the rock solid
arrangements, the musicianship and the powerful, soulful nature of singer alistair
cowan’s vocals. . . . .. . . . . .redwood are one of the most intriguing british
prospects on the scene at the moment and surely destined to take over as the most famous
guildford four ever.”) this, alongside that weeks album review in kerrang ( 4/5 -
“‘colourblind’ could quite easily be the year’s best brit
album”), made us all very happy, to say the least.
and so to tunbridge wells the forum, for the final gig of the tour. as was expected, we
all went mad, and had a very energetic gig. the crowd was one big mosh, and we slipped in
‘halloween’, as a treat at the end. it was a brilliant end of tour gig, and
after playing, redwood got ready to party. and party we did. groop dogdrill kicked, with a
very pissed drummer, and there was much merriment. when ‘a’ came on everyone
else was pissed, so stage invasions were rife, culminating in a 30-people-on-stage song
finale ( the ‘wood were in form, singing backing vocals, playing various drum bits,
alongside dogdrill, and ‘a’, obviously). after, the post gig partying involved
many fireworks outside, mark ‘a’ getting the bumps for his birthday ( he was
pissed also for his bands set, though not too noticeably ) and getting soaked during the
ordeal, dan pulling moonies onstage ( this wasn’t too hard ‘cos his baggy skate
pants were hanging halfway down his bum throughout the day anyway ), and lots of swapping
of numbers, and tearful farewells. as one band person said to another, ‘our paths
will cross again’, which no doubt they will. and with a complimentary bottle of jack
daniels (cheers almo), greg, the driver for the day, drove a very drunk redwood band and
crew home to the homely guildford and woking.
so that was it. ‘a’ and ‘groop dogdrill’, are really cool bands, but
best thing about it, is they are really nice people, which made it a cool, cool,
ace’n’rockin’ tour. thanks to everyone who came to see us, to ed who did
our sound for the whole tour, and , well to everyone else. we’ll see you on the next
one.
some useless tour facts
who’s in da van: alistair, chris, rob, angus, walter (guitar
tech.), and andy (tour manager/ guitar tech.)
videos in da van: the lion king, aladdin, seven, star trek, the simpsons
(yeah!!), reservoir dogs, the song remains the same (led zep), trainspotting, and loads
more, including some classic naturalist footage (educational videos), ahem...
cool things about da van: we don’t have to sit on the
equipment, it’s got really tinted windows, so we can look like rock stars on the
motorway, and its now got redwood, ‘a’, and probably groop dogdrill stickers all
over it by now.
music: see music for manbreak tour plus stuff by
the dust junkies, cable, ‘a’, reef, the bloodhound gang, stereophonics,
soundgarden, imogen heap (other almo artist), feeder, china drum, cornershop, jocasta, and
loads more - it’s a long tour, after all.
reading stuff: ‘hammer of the gods’, ‘the death of
superman’, ‘q’, vox, nme, melody maker, kerrang, metal hammer, club
international, select, loaded.
who’s in da other bands: ‘a’ are jason (vocals),
jiles (keyboards /bv’s), adam (drums), marc (guitar), dan (bass /bv’s) groop
dogdrill are damo (bass /bv’s), pete (guit /vocals), and hud (drums)
special note: andy cried when simba’s dad died in the lion king,
showing the humane, and sensitive side to the redwood crew, though he claimed it was
something in his contact lens