What's the worst thing that happens on the eve of your first tour? A cold.
I felt it coming on the night before and have been worried since about the effect on my voice. Anyway, we travelled up in hope and arrived for the first soundcheck in good order. Very much like the first day of term were introduced to the Fall and given a pep talk by Mark E Smith. "No more Saturday night only gigs now", he barked, "you're now professionals".
Point taken.
I was quite nervous just before the show, the venue was almost full when we commenced our opening song We're the Support Band. My voice held, I remembered all the words and my bandmate John Procter was faultless despite problems following the re-stringing of his guitar.
All in all a good start and we were astonished by the merchandise sales. We spent the night in a small hotel in Bilston full of commercial travellers, which took me back to the low point in my life when I attended a Zenith Windows training course.
This morning I took a stroll round Bilston - remarkably picturesque. Now we've just arrived in Newcastle, there's only one word to describe the one-way system - ludicrous. Tonight we're supposedly playing to students. I'm not sure how theyll react to songs about Ruby Wax ("who?") and David Coleman.
Onward and northward.
