Blog

As the Panama Kings tear up and down GB, guitarist Stuart Bell (far left) gives us the inside track on what has been going down. Clearly, what goes on tour doesn’t always stay on tour…

DAY ONE:

Having just managed to buy, insure and tax the new PK mobile (officially christened ‘Mild Terror’) less than 24 hours before the ferry was due to leave for Holyhead, we’re ready to rock. Spirits are high until about halfway to Dublin when we’re a split second away from a 70mph head-on collision in the middle of some mind-bending roadworks. We only have a cassette player in the van so we’re stuck listening to mixtapes [mate and driver] Toner made when he was 17 – dying in a car crash listening to Bryan Adams’ ‘Please Forgive Me’ is frankly not the way I plan to bow out. The upside to all this is that the memory of me crashing ASIWYFA’s van into the back of a Tesco lorry when I drove on the last tour doesn’t seem quite so bad now…

DAY TWO:

After a good night’s kip in London at [Six Star Hotel's] Ian, Neil and Tim’s gaff (and a sneaky listen to some ace demos for the new Six Star album), we hang out east for a while then soundcheck at 93 Feet East, which is conveniently 30 seconds away from the flat. Once we’re sorted we head round the corner to Rough Trade to catch an instore by Kasms (ex-Test Icicles) then pick up a dodgy curry on Brick Lane.

The gig turns out to be pretty awesome. I’ve played countless shite, soulless gigs in London over the years but tonight was a proper party with a great crowd – would you believe people actually danced?? Once we get wrapped up we get a chance to catch up with a load of NI ex-pats and Paul and Chris from our label who seem genuinely elated that, after spending the last two months working on our new single, we’re not shit live.

DAY THREE:

After staying up half the night going nuts on absinthe and Spotify, we get on the road early for Brighton. We’re playing at the Great Escape Festival, which is like a mini South by South West by the sea, and our first show of the day is a last minute set outside on the beach. The sun is shining and the beer/Relentless (fake Red Bull) is free flowing and by the time we head for the Speigeltent at lunchtime, Toner and Franko [bassist Luke Carson] are already pissed as farts. We get a chance to catch up with the ASIWYFA boys then off to the Ocean Rooms for soundcheck, which is bizarrely the third time I’ve played a gig in a strip club and the third time there haven’t been any strippers. Just my luck.

Before showtime, we make our way to the Rock Sound curated venue for ASIWYFA and get our face completely melted by The Computers. They’re so badass, the singer actually gobs on himself as much as the crowd. They’re also pretty funny, like a cross between Peep Show and The Bronx, but even so they’re no match for ASIWYFA, who absolutely demolish the place within the three songs we manage to catch before hitting the road.

The gig tonight probably trumped the last one on the dancefloor and despite testing stage sound, we still ripped it up. The best thing about it, though, was that Niall [Kennedy, vocals/guitar] managed to shoehorn jokes about the potato famine, the credit crunch and swine flu between songs. I think that’s a record…

Quote of the tour so far: “I hope you get run over in a train crash”

Posted on: 27th January 2010

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