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PETE'S TOUR JOURNAL

PART EIGHT - Sunday 20 March, Pratteln Switzerland

We drove through the night - well, not us personally of course, Chris the driver was the man responsible for that kind of thing. I remember us leaving Verviers, but not much else I'm afraid. I think I got my head down fairly soon after leaving. I remember we had a discussion about getting to the German border with Switzerland where Olly had a lockup we would leaving most of our merchandise. This was because Switzerland, not being in the EU, would tax us on all merchandise brought into the country, so we only wanted to take the minimum needed for the show the next evening.

I woke up early next morning and went down to make myself a coffee. Tommy and Olly were up and I sat chatting to them. We were still in Germany at the time heading towards the Rhine. Looking out the window I could see it was a beautiful morning as we traveled through Bavaria towards the border. A couple of hour later we stopped at Olly's lock-up and left the merch we didn't need. We carried on and a few minutes later we were in Switzerland just over the Rhine and a motorway. We stopped outside the venue which was a modern sports hall kind of place up a hill from the town. In fact I never did see the town that day. We all gradually got up and off the bus and into the hall. Around the back of the stage and up some stairs was a wonderful sight. Breakfast! I remember meeting an old friend of John Mitchell's who now lives over there, a soundman who had come over on his motorbike to say Hi. He, myself and John chatted over a breakfast of bacon and eggs and some wonderful fresh bread. There was also quite an array of cakes and sweet nonsense, not at all suitable for that time of day, but consumed all the same. Afterwards I found an internet connection and messed about on my computer for a while, it's amazing how much time you can spend on laptops if you need to lose a few hours in the day. Eventually I couldn't stand the feeling of not quite having got up any longer and went off to find the showers and changing facilities. Very functional, very clean - just what you would expect from Switzerland really.

While Spocks were soundchecking I went out for a bit of fresh air. Some fans from Italy had travelled over to see us and were standing the other side of the big metal fence that surrounded the grounds of the venue. I wound out and round to chat and they took a few photos. I had big plans of walking back to the Rhine and chilling there for a bit. I managed to work my way to the motorway and stood on a bridge watching the traffic roll by instead. Not what I'd planned but fairly entertaining. There were lots of tree-covered mountains, with the motorway running along a natural ravine. I suspected the river was not far away, but I never got to find out.

Arriving back at the venue I was just in time to help set up our gear. It's funny nearing the end of a tour, we only had two more shows including this one and I started to feel like I would miss it all. Talking to John, Bob and John, it seemed I wasn't the only one. You get into a good routine and everything starts to sound better and you just want to carry on.

The stage was a nice big roomy metal structure which couldn't have been more different from Spirit of 66. Plenty of space for us to put more of a show in. The soundcheck went well and we ran bits of Losers' Day, Swimming and Leave A Light On. It felt good which usually means it sounds good out front although it was a bit of a metal shed without people in. We went back upstairs to have dinner then time seemed to just disappear. I kind of hovered around between the bus and backstage but before I knew it was time to go on. The Swiss fans were great. I think they took a little time to settle into it but really were making a lot of noise by the time we got to Losers' Day. They do this kind of high pitched wailing noise which can be quite eerie, but means that they loved it. I haven't done many shows in Switzerland recently so it was nice to be treated to this amazing response. Thank you.

After our show we went back upstairs. Chatted about the show, the high points and lows - the high points increasing as time went on. Losers' Day was a particularly good moment for us. I showered and changed, went back down to talk to fans and see the rest of Spock's show.

At the end of the whole evening we were to stay the night so the bus could have power then pick the merch that had been left in Germany and carry on over to Karlsruhe just 200 kms away.

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Part Nine coming soon