STOKE — Best small club in Midlands. Yeah right. More of a shit hole to be honest... Again, no catering — a package of white toast and that’s it. No hot meal either. Had to fight with the promoter for an hour and threaten him, saying that we don’t play if we don’t get any food. Finally, we got 5 pounds buyout with the trade-off that our grade of beer was taken away. This is how it goes in UK, folks. Just bollocks.
Luckily, the show was really good, and we enjoyed playing. Crowd was good, and we’re reaching the basic level of performing. Some evening kebabs and off we dived into great mysteries of UNO.
YORK — Woke up in Bradford for a day off. After having the privilege to use toilets in Paradise Lost’s rehearsal room, we decided to take the train to York one day ahead. Found a cosy B&B near the centre, and after a short break, we headed to explore the city. What a really nice place: old Roman walls circling the city centre and lots of nice pubs and shops. Went for a dinner and had a few bottles of wine. Maybe a few bottles too much. At least that’s how it felt the next morning.
I got a new job in London, and as a result, I was celebrating and buying drinks for everyone. In return, I got inked by our sound guy while I was sleeping in my hotel bed. When I woke up, I was so angry that I could not sleep. Will spend the next day in my own company for sure.
As I could not sleep, I went for an early morning walk, had a nice breakfast, and went to a local picture house to watch a movie. Good choice as I really needed some time alone. I mean, living in close quarters--even with your best friends--does your head in after awhile...At the venue, everything was cool. Business as usual, and boys will always be boys. This time we got buyout money instantly, and everything worked quite smoothly. Gig was also really good, and crowd was awesome. I think one of the best ones on this tour so far. Like everybody else, we’re quite tired after the day off, so we retired to our bunks right after the show. A good night’s sleep is really an unappreciated luxury on tour.
GLASGOW — We woke up quite early and went for a Scottish breakfast. Good stuff, even though we’ll soon start to look like swollen monkeys if we keep up this level of grease and fat in our menus.
We we’re blown away by Glasgow, what a great city! Found a really good used record store (missing records), went to Modern Art Museum, and finally (of course) to the Whisky shop. Good times...We got in pretty late today (4pm), and as a result, we needed to cut our set by one song. We did not have time to do sound check either. However, the venue was packed, and I think this night was even better than York. Great success...Got a few pints with the Paradise Lost guys at a nearby pub after the show. Blue Moon is a really good wheat beer, by the way. Nice, relaxed bus party afterwards, before heading to the land of dreams.
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Insomnium are on the road right now with Paradise Lost in the U.K. The full list of dates can be found here, and you can pick up their new album, One For Sorrow on iTunes now.
