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PETE'S TOUR JOURNAL PART THREE - Tuesday 15 March, Zoetermeer Holland If I went to sleep with apprehensions of something new and unknown, and feelings of overtiredness, all of that was washed away by the healing qualities of a good eight hours' sleep - something I hadn't had for a while recently. I was and still am, amazed that I slept so well on my first night on the bus. Sleeping on a moving bus is usually something I work up to over a few days and is aided by the necessity brought on by total exhaustion. The bus had pulled up in the loading bay for the venue De Boerderij, which was situated to the side of a railway station. There was a large building nearby that held a couple of clubs, a cool-looking hang-out of a bar and a little kiosk that sold hash, marijuana, cannabis and all things smokable and illegal in most other countries round the world. I went to get some fresh air and bumped into John M who was getting his suitcase out of the bus. Today was deemed a good day for us as John had played this place a few time before with Arena and he knew the promoter, Rudolf Heinz, well, who I met very soon after. He and his team looked after us all well, starting with a great breakfast and good coffee. The gig was in a nice hall with a good backstage area. We had a dressing room downstairs near the shower etc, with Spock's having an upstairs dressing room. I was introduced to the promoter who seemed an excellent chap, and had assembled a good local crew around him. One guy who was looking after the dressing rooms told me he had just finished work as a solicitor in the local town, but this was his hobby as he enjoyed music and helping to put shows on. The whole feeling of the place was a friendly one. I went back into the main hall to see Rob sorting out the PA that had been hired in locally and Tommy, Olly and Uwe (keyboard tech) were busy putting Spock's gear on stage. I went on a mystery tour round the building to see what else I could find. Up the stairs by the offices and kitchen, I found an upright piano. The lid wasn't locked so I sat down and did my best to disturb anyone in the vicinity. A couple of ladies came out from where they were working and I thought they would ask me to stop, but they were quite complimentary so I carried on for a bit until boredom set in. With this level of touring there are usually large chunks of the day that could be put to better use. Unfortunately though there is never quite enough time to really get your teeth into something else. I realised when I strolled over to the train station that we were about half an hour from Den Haag, however I would not have had enough time to get and do any sight seeing before I had to head back for our soundcheck. I settled for a walk to where I thought Civilization was. It wasn't until several minutes walking (and I like walking) I realised that I was still just on the outskirts of nowhere, walking past large blocks of flats with parkland in between. I finally found a small mall with a mini-mart and a pastry shop, where I bought six small chocolate eggs with various delicious fillings. I ate them on the way back thinking we must be by the sea as the wind was definitely of a freezing cold coastal nature. Back in our dressing room, John M and Kate were checking out how well their new Orange SPV C500's were performing. Although I have recently updated my mobile I felt quite in the dark ages with all the features their phones have to offer. John checked his emails and then went on to the Kino website to see if there was anything new about the gigs so far. There was lots of good people making lots of good noise. Always nice to read favourable things about the gigs. It cheers you up no end when you're away from home and family. Poor old John Beck moved house the day he left for this tour, and would return at the end to completely new surroundings. I should really say poor old Jo, John's girlfriend, who had been left with it all while we whisked him away under the pretence of hard work and toil. I myself have been moved into a new house while on tour and it is a strange and tricky situation for both partners to deal with. All problems are more difficult to deal with while away on tour mainly because of the lack of contact. The hours are strange and the time differences can be unmanageable at times. I went in to watch Spock's soundcheck which sounded great. I like the hall and Rob knows what he is doing. While they were finishing off, Paddy was sorting out our gear, Bob had his cymbals and I was tuning my basses and getting my leads together. We got on stage and I talked to Olly about moving a couple of things - I had to check he had marked his positions for mike stands etc before I could move them to where I wanted them. I also decided not to use my bass amp I had brought along and just di the bass from my pedals to the PA. Rob thought it would sound fine as he favoured the di sound of my Warwick basses anyway. This would save time for the changeover and would be a help to all concerned. I also asked if Olly could tune my basses in between a couple of songs as the night before I had to tune my basses while we were on stage and it took way too much time away from the show. He said that would be no problem he would be happy to so, and was a real help from then on, as were Tommy and Uwe. We had a good soundcheck, again mainly with 'Leave A Light On', which has most of the element we need to check levels of, and I felt we were starting to make progress as a band. Spirits were definitely on a high as we sat down to a nice relaxing dinner with a good bottle of wine all served by the promoter's wife. I believe this sort of personal touch does wonders for small venues. If you have ever wondered why some of the biggest bands in the world will go back and play what might seem to be insignificant little gigs as one offs or warm up shows, it is because somewhere along the line, someone took a bit of time and effort to look after them. The meal was lovely I remember it well and said at the time it would probably be the meal of the tour. I don't think I was wrong on that count. I even had the dessert, something I rarely do as you can end up just non-stop eating on tour. After, as I did the evening before, I did a couple of interviews for journalists. Then I went out front and saw where Kate had set up the merch stand. This was the first proper look at what was on sale. Spock's had an enormous amount of stuff for sale most of their CD catalogue it seemed and a few t-shirts. Kino had both versions of the album and two t-shirts. It all looked really good. Kate was getting fed up with all the boxes she had to lug in and out of the halls with no help from the crew, either ours or the venue's. Something else for me to mention to Tommy. In the meantime I went back to prepare. Thomas and various InsideOut people were coming to the show and we wanted it to be a good one for them. This was a much more comfortable gig for me - 'People', 'All You See' and 'Perfect Tense' were played well I thought, but just like yesterday, 'Swimming In Women' went down a storm. I mentioned to Thomas earlier that 'Swimming' had stolen the Kino show as far as we were concerned and it felt the same tonight. It is after all a great song. For me though one real highlight was to just look across stage and watch John and John play 'Picture'. It is such a pleasure to be doing this sometimes - just when you least expect it, you get that overwhelming feeling and remember why you spend your life devoted to music and suffering the business. 'Losers' Day Parade' was not quite so rewarding unfortunately, with a few little mishaps here and there, but it still came across well and people seemed more than pleased with our set. This was confirmed while talking to people later on, it seemed again like yesterday our music was being well received. Thomas and the rest of the Insideout crew enjoyed our set. Always good if the record company like what you're doing. We were pleased with the end result, and Bob and I agreed that we were getting used to playing together and it was sounding pretty good. Again I caught the second half of Spock's set, again a good one although not the same wild vibe as on stage in Hamburg. Afterwards we were all in one of the bars winding down after the whole thing talking to fans and various people who had worked on the show. It seemed to be a good bill us supporting Spock's - we were all getting on well and the audiences liked the whole thing. I got talking to the lady who had been selling the dope in the kiosk all day. However when she realised I was in the band that played Kayleigh, she was a bit starstruck and wouldn't leave me alone. Eventually I had to be rescued by Kate and John M but not before she asked if I would like to go back to her place to listen to her old records. I thought this might not be such a good idea as I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't what she had in mind so I made my excuses and headed for the sanctuary of the bus, where I settled in my bunk for another good night's sleep. I was still up when the others came meandering back from the bar at around 2am, which seemed to be the bus leaving time. John Beck and Bob were just outside the door having a last fag and as my bunk was directly at the top of the stairs I had the breeze coming in which was pleasant and the dull mumble of their voices in my ears as I dozed off.
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