But back to the beginning of my wonderful August bank holiday weekend, not so early start on a saturday morning to collect a hire van, and pick up equipment from some of the band to make our life easier on a dark sunday night/morning, then off to set up a P.A system to D.J at a friends 50th birthday street party/BBQ.
The next thing i knew i was heading to bed at 8.30pm on a saturday night, 3.30am comes around quickly especially when you are waiting for it from 2. Up showered coffee made and on the road for 3.50 to collect the band and make our journey to dublin to catch a 8am ferry to wales. Our journeys are usually uneventful as we have made this journey so many times over the last 10 years together and this one was no exception plenty of laughs of the bevis and buthead variety, and straight to our hotel only a 2hr 15min drive with plenty of time to spare.
We are the headline act tonight so not on until 10.45pm so in reality dont have to be there until 9pm but you cant sell merch and make petrol money sitting in a hotel so after a great carvery lunch and a wee power nap, we all get ready and head to the venue. Greeted by the crew and organizers and a load of Trucker Diablo T-shirts we have a quick look around to get our bearings and then unfortunately have to temporary unload the van to get out the merch which was the first things put in. I get set up and nearly straight away start selling merch. There is a great crowd who have been rocking from midday and are loving the variety of bands.
We get to catch up with old friends and say hello to our new guitar tech Mandy, with a wealth of experience she really takes the pressure off the boys when we are doing shows like this and is on point all night on everything she does and loves her job. Its all too soon when its time to load in and set up the gear for a short 1 hour headline set so we have been on the go 18 hours for a 1 hour set, no wonder people think we are mental. Some fans have brought our frontman Tom a cake and we after speaking to the festival organisers we decide to cut into our set for a wee rendition of happy birthday which goes down a storm. And then its all over 1 hour gone in a blink of an eye breakdown to side of the stage and a few signatures and sales later its time to pack up and load the van, we are now old hands and this and its like a big game of tetris and with help we have it done in no time and i take the boys and Mandy off for a well earned drink.
We get chatting to our mates in Falling Red and Wicked Stone who hang around to have a drink with us but after about an hour i retreat to the van for a snooze to let the lads unwind. An hour later a rap at the window lets me know its time to head back to the hotel, 3.30am and its lights out for a 9.30am alarm call as we have to head back to holyhead for the ferry. All up and with a mcdonalds breakfast inside us we head back the route we came and as we made good time we stop for a wee shop in holyheads morrisons and i pick up some christmas presents and corn on the cob for tea. Back on the boat the lads have a few pints and its all plain sailing back to dublin and up the road to unload and i get home at 8pm sunday night.
So as you can see not all sex, drugs rock n roll.
MY AMAZIN MERCH STAND
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