Derby, Norwich and Christchurch

Thursday 22^nd April - Derby Assembly Rooms.

Bit of a journey to Derby. We paid £10 to go on the toll road as the sat nav told us to. It was really empty but turned out we didn’t really save much time by going that way. Waste of money. Nice day in Derby, the Assembly rooms get in crew were a friendly double act. I popped into town and took a few photos

The venue (marquee is a market thing going on)

The Guildhall opposite the stage door.

During set up they put this amusing picture of Jeff on the big screen!

Here is pic of venue from my position…

And from out front

Here is pig doing his soundcheck!

Tonight saw my debut on keyboards in ‘PIGS’. Really enjoyed doing something quite different.

Show was the totally new one this evening which made it feel fresh.

We met a chap called Jeff after the show.

Felt a new level of tired afterwards once the adrenaline had worn off. So many roadworks in Derby it took us a bit longer to find the hotel too.

Friday 23rd - Union, UEA Norwich

After breakfast we travelled to Norwich. Got a bit lost thanks to Sat Nav and it took about a hour longer than it should have! Found the Union on University campus. The sun was out so the shorts were on....check out Jason's pale not seen the sun yet legs!!

As it was such a lovely sunny day that after feeding the crew with toasted sandwiches, we went to sit on the lawn outside with all the students! (there were groups of them behind me when I took this picture)

We got tempted by the sun and ate icecreams. (Fredi got a a £5 tub of phish food ben and jerrys' and then regretted it afterwards!) Noticed out of the corner of our eye that there was a lake in distance and moved! What a nice campus!

Took some blankets and sat by lake.

Jeff modeled for me! Here is the least vulgar picture! (ie after he'd done all the other poses and collapsed) Ignore Jeff, the lake is in the background

Jeff then found rabbit poo and threw them at me. I forget these are grown men!

We were not allowed to make noise until 5 in the venue and everything was done by 4 so it was nice to relax for a bit.

We were ready by 7.30 only to find it started at 8, so for amusement I put hair extensions in Jeffers as he had the most hair for them to clip to. The curls don't really work tho huh?

If you wonder why Jeff gets on this blog the most it's cos he comes up with the most poses and does the stupid stuff. Patch hates people taking pictures now he's bored by it, Chris is usually busy and Steve is usually restringing his guitar!

The show at Norwich was great fun, the crowd are standing up and there is a bar at the back so it's quite a different atmosphere. Lots of very enthusiastic people! Much hand shaking at the end. One of my fav's this year! (Although the sound on stage was a bit different because of the room.)

At the end we met some nice people. There was Dennis and it was his birthday, and I presume they were his sons but i'm not sure, John and Danny Saggers. John chatted to us, (well to Fredi!) he had the tightest jeans i've seen and they showed a lot of ankle, is that the new look?

Saturday 24th April - The Regent centre, Christchurch

On the minibus! me and Chris

Last of the three shows, bit of a trek to Christchurch which is next to Bournemouth. Again quite a nice day but not sunny enough for sun bathing (rubbish!) After get in had a wander around the town. Had a errand from Jason (and with him was Chris today!) for some araldite glue. We found this nice church (Spot the Fredi game!)

The we found a charity with some abandoned Greyhounds, Whippits and Lurchers in the square so there was a lot of stroking and they let me take pictures if I mentioned them on here..(I gave them money too don't worry!) The lady said they are the most placid dogs ever, and sleep for 21 hours of the day. I thought they'd need loads of exercise being that they are such sprinty runners!

Think Fredi liked this one the most!

Made more chuffing toasted sandwiches! It's like a factory line now! Me and Fredi were churning them out, two loaves of bread gone!

Friend of Fredi's dad came to see us play as he lives near by, Dave was his name and he was very tall!

There were some sweet people at the gig, and some rowdy ones! We met Sabrina who was with her dad. She was 13 and already loads taller than me!! Good on her for liking floyd at that age, totally cool young lady!

Did an overnighter home.

Spotted, the pig logo on bus en route!

Whitley Bay and Glasgow 16th-20th April 2010

Friday 16th April ……Night time travelling up to Leicester as we wouldn't make it to Whitley in one go on saturday! We met Billy our dep sax and we played games in the minibus. This evenings game was the someone shouts name of a band and the first one to sing a song by said artist/s win and chooses the next band name etc...When you have many hours to kill it's surprising how you can make these games go on and on! Patch wanted to play the shut the fudge up game, he’s such a happy traveller!

Saturday 17th April
Next morning after a costa stop the vans headed towards Newcastle and Whitley bay. Went under the Tyne bridge which took 2 whole minutes!!! I made a highly boring video which may feature on my next 2nd video!

Nicknames
Fredi is sometimes called Heidi or Henri by the boys, not sure why but she quite likes the names, and Billy our dep sax called us Poppy and Henri, (think he was told too). I’m always mistakenly called Poppy, not Molly or Holly, but I quite like Poppy, I said I also like Poppit, think it’s a cute word, even though it’s not really a name as such. Chris told me he could call me Poopit if I wanted.. hmm, not sure about that! Poopi has since stuck!

New songs tonight so we were cramming on the bus… 'not now john, we’ve gotta get on!'

Went past an immense power station,


A lovely sunny day when we arrived in Whitley bay.

English Riviera of the north apparently. Fancy pants venue which has had a big refurb recently.

The Playhouse!

Not sure why there were the odd red chairs in the auditorium tho. Ejector seats to make sure the audience is pleasant?


Went for a jaunt down to the seaside, took some pics..

Whitley Beach

War memorial

Arcades

This reminded me of the delights of Paignton, Devon! (where I lived before I moved to Exeter.).

This disused place intrigued me, what was it?

Two boys stopped me and asked me for a tab, which with the strong accent I didn’t understand! It meant a cigarette, we eventually got there and I said no, I don’t smoke. They were about 13!!! Oh deary me

Got back from my trip and Fredi was still studying away in the dressing room. Doing some drama coursework!




Getting ready was a bit of a disaster this evening. Thought I had plenty of time and then the eye lashes weren’t going on properly and the whole lot had to come on and I got really frustrated, so I asked Fredi to do my make up tomorrow evening..

Show was good fun, although our feet were frozen ( we have a fan blowing smoke behind us and it was pretty chilly!!). Different set as we have now introduced 3 new songs which will take some getting used to! Loved singing not now john.
Wilma and Peter who came and chatted after the show said he promoted/booked pink floyd for a few gigs after their first album came out. It was a sell out and Factoid!... He said they were paid £150!!!
He also donated a few things to the pink floyd book that our manager wrote.

Heres the new merchandising t shirts etc..

Stayed not far from venue. Some very noisy random boys in room opposite having a party! I was so tired I didn’t care.

Sunday 18th April
6 hours sleep and we were off again to Glasgow.
Venue seemed smaller than I remembered but it is a still a biggy! Kept the same dressing rooms as last year.

Boys got the nicest one with annex part..


Fredi got on with some more work and I went for a shop in the town centre. They have a super undercover mall thing underneath the entrance to concert hall

After a nose around, I went into prêt a manger where my eyes were bigger than my belly and I came out with more than I went in for!

Later…
Back stage while setting up all the gear, the fire alarm went off and we all had to go outside the stage door and it had started raining pah .. then we hear these sirens and three fire engines turned up, we were getting a few looks from the passers by, it all looked quite dramatic. The alarm stopped, we ‘hurray’d and we were allowed back in.

During sound check, I asked Paul Galley to take some pics..
This was a nice one of whole band.




This is the ''Which ones pink' moment, where all the pink lights go to Patch. (He is very manly the rest of the time!)



The band before we went on



Us on stage during the show



After the show


Ryan and Loren two kids we met! Savannah is in this too, not looking at camera, she is Steve L's granddaughter. She's ace!


My first video, I bought a new ipod cos of all the travelling and the limited capacity of my old one! Found it had a video camera!! bargain! so I made this video, my first attempt at editing, I think it's quite good! It was filmed in the back corridor of the concert hall glasgow.

Hand on the mend

You'll all be pleased to know that Patricks hand is on the mend and he's getting more movement back all the time.

Oh and I'm really looking forward to our gigs this weekend in Whitley bay and Glasgow!! We have come such a long way since our first royal concert hall gig a year ago! Will it seem a lot smaller the second time, I doubt it!!

New songs are well on the way too!! No sure if i'm meant to mention them but my new fav is Not now John cos us girlies get to do lots! but the timing of each bit is so different, we have to wait 4 bars then 1 then 5 oh my !!!!

Catch you with news and pics after the shows..

Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton Saturday 27th March 2010

Well, again this is a bit delayed but I made notes so it's all good!!! We arrived and the venue was smaller than I had in my head, well the stage was anyway.. No hanging space in dressing rooms, whats that all about huh?? We arrived pretty early so went to get breakfast in the Litten Tree ( think this was it's name) while the other crews got on with their stuff. Me and Mrs Loar had a good gossip when they had all left! Mrs L for anyone who knows her is the coolest person and her children are very very lucky to have her as their Mum. She laughs at all the disgusting and horrible things the band say but then again she has known Patch since he was 14 so she's used to it!
To combat the naughty words being thrown around willy nilly I wrote 'LOVE' on my knuckles as a protest. We need more love in the world folks!!



I didn't take many photos of this place for some reason ( I think I was all photo'd out from the day before!!) . Here is pic of the venue



I kinda liked the two circly things suspended from the ceiling, not sure what they were for though.

Here is the stage, now as I was saying it was a bit smaller than those lately, so the day after I had been promoted to front line I was relagated to standing on a BOX!! Yes a BOX!! ha ha. It was fine, just had to keep my movements to a minimum. My box was just behind the Hammond and in front of the sax 'riser'



Sound check was very painless today and we were done by 5. So we all went out to find food...a few of us went to Pizza Hut and it was very nice.
Here is the gang in said hut!


I did go a bit crazy taking close up pictures of people eating but I won't put them on here!!! Some things are best left to the imagination!

After gigs I sometimes get people saying to me, oh when the chords started to 'great gig' we were wondering whether you'd pull it off... or sometimes even 'we had a bet as to whether you'd mange the song!!' Luckily they all say complimentary things afterwards.. So this is my turn, I wasn't sure that the audience at Wolverhampton would be very loud, but man oh man I was wrong. They were amazing...really got into it, true floyd fans, and there were lovely comments after the show. Met a young lady who had a car covered in Floyd memorabilia and she was so looking forward to bringing it tonight but she crashed it a few days after getting it, oops.. She promised to send in a picture which I haven't received yet... please do send in if you read this.

The local crew were fantastic and we were out of there before 12, which was handy as we were doing an overnight trip home. Darn motorway roadworks had closed junctions, so it wasn't pleasant at 3 in the morning going off down back roads while trying to sleep.