TOUR DIARY: Newcastle [BACKSTAGE PASS: Youthmovies]

TOUR DIARY: Newcastle

Posted on April 18, 2008 11:31 AM
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Tuesday – Newcastle

We have breakfast in Glasgow student union, getting there just as the kitchen closes we content ourselves with potato pancakes in bleached white rolls, and sweet tea. As usual Al, who has a busier life than the rest of us (largely because of his record label, but also because his OCD means his days are filled with much more detail), has errands to run. If were ever late it's probably because of this… we have to go to a post office so he can post some neatly wrapped parcels, both his cards get declined and we have a really depressing whip round between the eight of us we manage to conjure the eight pounds he needs!

Back on the road and for the rest of the day there are better things to think about than our inevitable bankruptcies. We listen to Dark Side Of The Moon driving out in the sunshine and frost, the clouds are so low it gives the illusion that the snow is leaking back into the sky. Scotland's countryside is breath taking, waterfalls, dry stone walls that have seen history after history and dense conifers patch-working.

We stop for a good break before we hit England again… an unlikely attempt is made to catch a fish with an ad hock pole, giving up, the rest of the time is spent on tobogganing on the lids of the boxes we keep our t-shirts in. We drive on and Sam gets to see his favourite landmark, a forest that is in the shape of a cock and balls. Arriving at The Cluny in Newcastle everyone's a little apprehensive about the night ahead it's not a town that's ever been easy for us. On the whole the crowd is fairly disinterested, though it is pretty hard to tell whether the Dead Meadow fans are bored or just stoned out of their minds. It's a bad way to gauge a reception but I guess we sell some cd's and garb so there must some people that cared enough.

How you're received as a band is a really regional thing, I guess it's about anthropology… people have the musical history of their homes in the blood… so the more traditional 'song writing' towns like Liverpool or classic rock towns like Birmingham have always been tough for us to crack, they're towns with girthy musical legacies. Most of us in the band moved around a lot when we were kids, so maybe that had an effect on how we go about things. It's another night drive, tonight we're staying in Manchester, I think these drives are beginning to tweak Danny out, his eyes are get ringlets like the cross section of a tree, they're telling how long this life's been going.