Breaking The Call 24/25/26 May 2019

30/05/19

So went away with the band for our first shows of the year last Friday 24/05/19, prep started well before then with booking hotels, boats, vans etc but then on thursday evening the real prep started.

PREPARATION FOR GOING ON THE ROAD

With a 4am start we headed for the boat in Dublin, and then with a 3 1/2 hour sailing and a 4 1/2 hour drive at the other side we arrived at the Call of the Wild Festival in lincoln a little bit weary.

However after getting booked in and having a walk around the festival site and meeting some familiar faces we got into Gig mode,  and with the help of our amazing crew, Ian and "our Mand" and the fantastic COTW crew we got set up and ready to rock!!

Trucker at Call of the Wild

Tom and Simon at Call of the Wild

Trucker Diablo Pished 

We had a fantastic day and evening at COTW and headed back to our hotel, and after a beer and a cloven hoof cocktail headed to bed 22 hours after id got out of mine.

But guess what? Bright and early the next morning i was wide awake and after trying for a hour and 1/2 i gave up and went and got breakfast and coffee and started to edit a video. After a few hours others started to stir, we took our crew for a well earned lunch and after that when to procure some refreshments for the afternoons festivities.  Despite what everyone thinks we very rarely get to let our hair down on tour we have somewhere to be at a certain time someone to speak too photos need taken etc etc and then the gig sometimes gets in the way, but on this day we only had a 30min slot for Tom to do his awesome solo set and then it was party time.  And boy did we party, we brought a BBQ and cooked burgers and hotdogs backstage had a laugh with good mates and watched some awesome bands while kicking back and having a great time. Deffo a day to remember.

Baz-e-Que

So after a nice lazy morning we had breakfast and headed to Bromsgrove for a headline set at the Breaking Bands Festival. We have played a few years ago as sub headliners so it was great being asked back to headline on their 5th birthday.  We checked into our hotel and had a sneaky pint before we headed down to the site for 5pm as Tom was playing another sneaky afternoon set at 6pm, the boys had a beer and watched him nail it in front of a great crowd.  Then all we had to do was chill and meet old friends in the crowd before our stage time at 10.20 which took a while to arrive but when it did boy did we have to shift.  We only had 20 mins between bands which realistically is too short to get sorted but hey ho we do what we can and hit the ground running with and explosive set.  The boys are having a blast and the crowd are lapping it up and before you know it boom its all over and we are clearing the stage and loading the van.  

Simon at Breaking Bands

Trucker Diablo on stage at Breaking Bands

A quick bye and a short drive to the hotel we have a few beers and talk shit for an hour before we hit the pillow for a quick 5 hour snooze before the alarm goes off and we have to hit the road again to make our 2pm boat back home.  We drove over 800 miles played 4 shows in 3 days met loads of new and old friends drank beer ate burgers and had an absolute ball. 

But best of all we laughed from we got into the van together until i dropped Terry off back home at 9pm on monday night, ppl always ask why the fuck do you do this and you know what, at 4am when i'm dragging my ass out of bed after only 5 hours sleep i wonder the same myself but remembering last week end while i write this really makes me understand why i do this and its in the first line of this paragraph, "we laughed from we got into the van until i dropped terry off back home"  That's why we all do this the music the friendship the laughter, and sure what else would you be doing? Watching shit on TV? Fuck That!!

BTKOR 

Busy Busy Bee

So things have been motoring on at an alarming rate lately, work has been chock o block Trucker Biz has been busy too also been doing a lot of training with Kirsty who was traingin for a triathlon at the start of may (last weekend)

All went well for her, but weekend before it we went for a weekend in Wales, it was very relaxing and we had a great time with good friends and some new friends.  Not sure you care but heres a wee video i made from the weekend.

https://youtu.be/KSfNvbbggLI

So just back into the normal daily grind with meetings, courses and all the usual stuff that happens when you are a global business monkey LOL. ATM i am planning gigs for the end of the month with trucker in lincoln and bromsgrove in engerland cant wait to get away with them again seems so long since we had a gig.

22 March 2019

Sweet baby jesus would you look at the date, but tbh ive got a really good excuse, well i haven't but things have been hectic around here lately.  Apart from going to a PT, doing some awesome mtb in gosford and last weekend in Castlewellan, getting a lot of stuff in order for the band.

I know no one reads this but its still a secret and dont want to let the cat out of the bag just yet, but we are basically booked up for 2019 unless Hetfield + Co or Dickinson + Co come calling LOL. 

I have been to liverpool with Ryan viewing john moore university, a few gigs, in between all the mentalness that goes on in the mcclelland household. One of those things is Kirsty joining a triathlon club.  She has already done 2 triathlons to date but this years wants to do 3 so our lives have been consumed by training which is totally amazing she is such an inspiration and i have no idea how she copes with it all.

So this week has been good got to see Therapy? play in the nerve centre in Derry with a good friend only bad thing was it was a wednesday night and then i had a 2 hour drive home but you know what its been too long since i seen them play it was all worth it.

I was totally knackered on Thursday morning however and in the afternoon i met what is now my mentor for a invest ni training programme which runs until december.  This is something that both terrifies and excites me in equal measures, i have never been on anything like this and if truth be told never thought i would be afforded the opportunity but with things moving forward with our new owner he has seen something he approves off and here we are.

April sees a short trip over to Cardiff for a wedding that has now been postponed and a gig that has been cancelled but as usual we are going to make the best of it getting a 2 day break away is a rarity for us though i would say kirsty will be looking for a gym or at least a pool close by, where ill be looking for a good pub or a carryout and a park bench at least. May sees our first run of shows for Trucker this year and we are already in rehearsals, and we are all very excited to see what we can achieve this year.

bye for now

B

New year......New load of balls LOL 09/01/2019

So after reading my last post i think we got up to day before i left work for the christmas break, i had arranged to go out on what they call Black Eyed Friday with a few mates, which was great but it was an early night as i had so much to do on the saturday morning.  Kirsty and i did a bit of shopping, had breakfast and then headed to my office to wrap presents for the kids and by 2pm we had all that done.  We then went home and packed for our overnight in Ballymena, we made an unexpected trip to see the Pat McManus band play in The Diamond rock club and have dinner with our mates from the north coast and the inspiration behind this blog.  They say the unexpected nights are the best and this was a great one the hotel we stayed in was lovely dinner with great company and then a few (a lot) drinks at the gig was just what i needed after a mental few weeks at work.

Sunday was leisurely as you would expect and we sauntered home and got house work etc all done so christmas eve wouldn't be rushed LOL yeah right we made our usual rounds on christmas eve getting shopping etc picking up fresh produce to make dinner with including our Marks & Spencer online order. and then spend the rest of the day at home wrapping presents for family and friends.

Christmas day with the outlaws

Christmas morning was a very relaxed affair and after visiting family, i settled in to cook for 6, again all very relaxed and the easiest i've found it with bought starters and the key in my eyes brought gravy.  I generally dont drink on christmas day but had a few with my father in law which i really enjoyed.  Boxing day is a different affair as it is my birthday and after birthday presents and breakfast we decided to go for a ride on the bikes.

We had a great spin to blow the christmas cobwebs away

Birthday drinks followed later that day and then a few days of rest and mountain biking before the new years eve, which is a casual quite affair playing board games with the kids over a few drinks.

Back to work on the 2nd of Jan has its positives and its drawbacks but was 2 days before i was off again for a wedding, now i have to admit im not a fan of weddings but this was a wedding with a difference it was a humanist wedding and was amazing great company great venue and was a great night.

All dolled up with somewhere to go

So there we are in a nutshell all caught up....believe me this won't be happening again, but had a great christmas and new year and plenty to look forward to in 2019 so head down lets do this.

20th December

Sooooo, i did say this would be a Radom blog never regular and here we are again.

Been quite busy the past few weeks with both band and work.  Christmas is a bit of a mental time in my day job as we actually close over the Christmas period so every customer has to double up their orders including Tesco and the like.  All this has to be made and sent out before we finish.

On the flip side its usually a quieter time for the band as its usually Christmas party’s and covers bands but hey ho we were booked to play a festival in Troon (winterstorm) and a Christmas party in Galashiels.

Both were amazing in their own but very different ways, Troon was an early show 40 mins and over by 3pm, but with cirmcumstances our set was cut short but we had a blast, met so many nice people got absolutely hammered and met and seen in no order Kaned, Geoff Tate, The dead daisies, Bernie Torme, Toby jepson  and girlschool.  our hotel was fantastic too.  And the Brucey bonus was its only just over an hour away from the boat.

Galashiels on the other hand is 3 1/2 hours from the boat and don’t trust your sat nav if you ever drive and although its a really nice drive through some wonderful scenery the roads it took us were very narrow.  the venue in gala the mac arts centre is a converted church and the staff there were fantastic.  Our hotel there, not that we seen much of it was great too and we would love to go back.

Home 7pm on Sunday evening and up for work for the last week before the Christmas break on Monday.  So all n all a busy few weeks and cant wait to get off for a break, so beers with mates tomorrow evening, dinner and gig on Saturday night with friends and somewhere in there Christmas wrapping/shopping cleaning all has to be done so we don’t leave it all to Monday.  Hope this finds you well whenever it finds you.

MMMMM been a long time, been a long time so I thought I would do a wee update, have been quite busy lately my full time job has been quite a turbulent time as it was bought over and lots of changes, all of them positive i might add.  So as timbuk 3 once said the future's so bright i gotta wear shades.

Took a wee weekend in Glasgow with the bride to see Within Temptation, stayed in a lovely hotel, went to a roller derby had a great bbq meal and a quiet saturday evening, then a dander around christmas markets and shopping centre before the gig on the sunday evening which we loved,

Since then been busing booking gigs/boats etc for trucker next year and getting sorted for a fest in troon that we played at the weekend Winterstorm in Troon and it was awesome.  I had a 4am wake up call to get ready and collect the lads to be in Belfast for 6.30 for the boat and in a first We had the whole Trucker Team in tow which was brilliant. After a Team meeting on the boat sorting out who/what/where/when for 2019 and beyond we hit cairnryan and had a short jaunt up to Troon.

We arrived and got checked in, and after a short delay as a fire alarm went off we got loaded in and because of the delay were on before we had time to get even a line check, the first 1/2 song there was no bass but they soon had it sorted and the band played a blinder of a set to a pretty packed hall.  We rushed off stage and stripped it in record time to try and help claw back some of the lost time the crew had to deal with.

After packing everything away the boys did an interview and then they had a few beers and we decided that Simon, Darren and i would go check in at the hotel and get a taxi back so we could have a drink together. That turned into a fantastic afternoon meeting other bands, managers, promoters all whom had great things to say about the band.  We met amongst others Geoff Tate, Doug Adrich, Dean Costranovo, Kane'd, Girlschool, Wayward Songs, No Hot Ashes and more ive forgotten or was too drunk to remember but all were great craic. After a good night sleep for some!! got up had a great shower and breakfast and was told tales about the night before antics after i left for bed.  We left our hotel for the short drive back to cairnrayn and the boat home.

All in all a great night away and as a wise man said we packed in 6 weeks of touring into 1 night in Troon 

OCT 2017

So been a while since i've updated my blog so have decided to do a quick update, been a busy few weeks and with the nights drawing in(dark at 7.15pm) ive been rushing home from work and trying to get out on the bike when its been dry. 

Work has been the usual mental stuff, and been trying to book gigs for the band for summer 2019, festivals tours etc.  We did a acoustic sessions at Radio Nova in dublin last Friday night which was great all be it a long long day not home to 1.30am after a great session and interview with Tony, he had nothing but good things to say about the lads and Nova have been big supporters of Trucker for a long time.

Ive been doing Sober October and am 15 days in, not easy when people are offering you beers all the time, this weekend Trucker were in the studio recording 2 tracks for a yet undisclosed project so was up there all day on saturday and sunday, was very relaxing but long days but very productive.

Have no plans for the weekend coming so should be quiet and relaxing. Fingers crossed.