Academy 2 (formerly "The Stanley Theatre" - guess it just didn't sound gig-y enough), Liverpool
We've been here before. The dressing room is deep in the bowels of the earth and is superheated to 158 degrees. They provide you with a single fan which pushes the heat around the room. It's like being in a tumble drier. The graffiti in the toilets is especially filthy here. It's almost worth forming a band and getting a gig here just so that you can see it.
The routine has changed completely now that we are headlining; we can get in the venues earlier and the crew has a lot more to do. This means there is a lot less tourism and a lot more sitting around in dressing rooms getting on each others' nerves. It does present a bit of a problem for the man writing about it, though. Guess I'll just have to exaggerate even more. I say "Guess I'll just..." a lot, don't I?
It feels like we are settling into our five-piece stride now. It's a real pleasure to play a long set, which is something I have rarely done in my gigging career (the only time you get to play for more than an hour other than your own headlining tour is when you have for some reason been booked to play in a pub that normally does tribute bands, and the promoter goes "all right lads, you can set up in the corner, you'll play from 8.30 till 10 then you'll play the second half from 11 till 1. You can sleep on the floor in the cloakroom if you like. I will wake you in the morning with the fire alarm for a joke. Ha ha hahaha. Why are you crying?"). It gives you enough time to realise what the hell you're doing.
