20/11/04 Roisin Dubh, Galway with Large Mound
Sob, end of another era! With this we bid a sad farewell, hopefully only temporary, to Mark. In a couple of days time he and his missus will be absconding to Canada. What we're actually going to do now, we're not quite sure. The idea of having to go through finding someone else again isn't the most appealling. We've been unbelievably lucky so far in that the people we've played with have been exceptionally easy to get along with and great musicians, and you can't help but feel that there can't be that many out there! For the moment I think it means a pretty long break from playing gigs, in Ireland certainly, and until we meet up with Mark again in the spring to do the Pinback US tour. In the interim we can hopefully concentrate on getting the new record together. Going to spend quite a bit of time working on this one which'll make a nice change.
Anyway, Galway. This was a total riot, and a pretty great way to say goodbye to Mark. The Mound were the best I've seen them in ages, Hugh and his scissor kick is just about the greatest thing in Rock! They really were so deadly.
We were pleased with our playing too, most enjoyable in a long, long time. A little tinged with sadness obviously, knowing it was the last time we'd playing these songs for a long time. Oh well.
We more than wet the baby (marks) head afterwards, with a session in the Roisin that went on well into the wee hours. So wee they became the next day hours. Honestly, never had such a bad hangover afterwards, and Gugai's three roaring, though lovely, dogs didn't help too much. All worth it though!!

17/11/04 Crawdaddy, Dublin with Large Mound and Yakuza
Cry, this was the 2nd last show of the Corpo in its current incarnation. Next week Mark is flitting off to Canada for a life of lounging around in the snow, or something. Anyway, fecking flitter, the cheek!Who in their right minds would want to leave the Corpo?!Mark, I suppose.
Anyway, gig was kinda grand despite the double calamity of not getting a soundcheck and the soundman vanishing from the venue when we were due on stage. Oh, make that a triple calamity as I smashed loads of damned strings again. When will I ever learn....
The Mound and Yakuza were deadly and I'm so looking forward to the Galway gig this saturday, gonna be the last of the year too!

07/10/04 Limelight, Belfast with Lafaro and Guided*
Right, it's been well over a week since we played this show and I don't remember it that well. Reason being that post gig, Mark had to whisk me back to Dublin as quick as possible as I had to be in the Airport for 5am to nip off on my holidays. Fairly sure that I remember the gig as being great. My week in Crete, however, was awesome!

01/10/04 Vicar St, Dublin with The Frames and Valerie Francis
And again with the ouch!Tonight was actually my birthday, so playing a gig was actually the least of my concerns, where was the free bar?!
The Frames have gotten to be a pretty huge concern here in Ireland and, seeing as the show was sold out, there must have been somewhere in the region of a 1000 folks at this. Jaysis. Not sure how much their fans liked us but they were polite enough. Sadly, Val suffered at the hands of the crowd and struggled to be heard above the chatter. Shame, as I enjoyed it and thought she was ace.
The free beer was certainly plentiful though, and as soon as we demolished our fridge we made heavy inroads into the Frames one too. Seeing as they were also celebrating being at number one for the second week in a row there were 6 bottles of champagne on the trot too. I have hazy memories of trundling through town at around 4am this morning carrying several tons of gear, without a bother on me. When i woke up this afternoon the bothers caught up with me, and my arms and neck were in rag order, as well as the rest of me! Great night!

25/09/04 The Quad, Cork
Ouch. Free Beamish in the Beamish factory all night long....Ouch....

15/08/04 Crawdaddy, Dublin with Querelle
This was pretty depressing and disappointing. Crawdaddy is a much needed new venue in Dublin and is wonderfully appointed, great room and sound system. But the room was practically empty. Maybe we did a lousy job promoting it or something, it was hard to do it properly seeing as we'd been away with Pinback, but it was pretty disheartening. We had resolved to ease off on Dublin gigs for a while, and this has confirmed it. Will be a hell of a long time before we play here again.
Felt mostly bad for Querelle, who again were superb. To those that did brave the rain and come out thanks a million 8)

14/08/04 Cypruss Avenue, Cork with Querelle
Querelle blew our tiny little minds tonight. The sound in this great new venue was unbelievably good and the Italians took fool advantage, starting off all sultry and sat on stools and proceeding the raise the roof with some insanely good rocking. They've become a very hard act to follow. We enjoyed the playing immensely, but boy was it hot. Joss and I hung our shirts out on a window straight after the show, the next morning they were still sopping wet. Best bit was Nigel from Waiting Room allowing himself become a canvas for myself and his lovely girlfriend Claire to write rude words all over him. And then there was their pal 'Teabag'. Teabag....the man was a legend. Cork rules.

13/08/04 Dolans, Limerick with Querelle, Boxes and Holy Ghost Fathers
Argh, not only was it friday the 13th but a black cat darted in front on the car on way down to Limerick, an omen for the weekend perhaps. Not the best, not the worst. Most enjoyable part was trying to convince Boxes to take acid before the funeral they were due to attend the next day. They *seemed* intrigued by the idea, wonder how it turned out.

06/08/04 The Big Ballroom, Temple Bar Music Centre, Dublin
Is it really over? Are we really back in dreary auld Dublin? Ah well, I love the place really. Tonight was pretty fun, something like a dozen bands split between 2 stages. Downside was not getting a soundcheck, sounding appalling and choking to death on the smoke machine. Upside was the light show, getting to see some bands I've not seen in ages like Northstation (who were aces) and not having to load in a truck load of backline! Bizzarest thing, for us, was no string breaking! 3 weeks around Europe and Rob Crow was put to task every single night repairing strings left, right and centre, and as soon as he's off the scene everything runs like clockwork. Hmm....
The Ballroom is a popular club that runs once a month or so in a small Dublin venue, and I think tonight was in aid of celebrating it's second birthday, which is no mean feat. Sadly, turnout wasn't the best, I really do think the local crowd is getting tired of the same old bands. We need some new whippersnappers to get some excitement going around here again.

29/07/04 Oettinger Villa, Darmstadt
Last night, sob. This villa is a crazy gothic mansion of sorts, sponsored by the German Government. It's been converted into a venue and community project type thing and is immensely cool. We picked ourselves up after Munich, thankfully, and people were shouting at *us* for an encore, hoorah. Chris, the Pinback sound guy, did our sound again and it was superb, what a geezer. Yet again, and for the last time, half of Pinback invaded the stage for our last song, such the deadly lads. During their set we returned the favour and put to practice some fancy dance moves. Pinback ended up doing 3 encores, including the Corpo hopping up on stage for a last communal rock with them, such a deadly way to finish up. Everyone was fairly glum the next morning when it came to say goodbye. Pinback are the deadliest lads and have invited us out on their 2005 US tour, which is pretty phenomenal. The rest of the night was spent trying to get us Irish to say 'Yo dawg, my bad' and them Americans to say 'the cows are down in yonder field'. Though I've never heard anyone Irish actually sat. We'll miss them boys and owe them a lot.
Getting home proved to be a nightmare. We had to drive from Darmstadt to Aachen, before 12pm to drop our van back to Hertz. We then got stuck for ages in Hertz having to fill out damage report forms and that, and after a cavalcade of errors we ended up arriving at the airport exactly 40 minutes before our flight, which wasn't good enough for Ryanair. They were then kind enough to charge us €180 for the privelidge of waiting on standby for the nighttime flight, gah. Ended up getting home probably at around the same time the Pinbacks made it back to San Diego. Still the deadliest trip ever!

28/07/04 Orange Haus, Munich
I think Vienna might live on in our memories as the tour highlight. After I finished writing the update the other night we even got offered an Austrian record deal! Munich didn't go so well. The place and people were great, but fatigue seemed to have set in big time, and it was *really* hard to get into it. People seemed to like it well enough but we felt a little like we'd let ourselves down, and I think the Pinback boys thought they suffered the same fate. Oh well. The aftershow party, however, was only massive. Robs wife, Victoria, was leaving the tour that night so we decided to have our end of tour celebrations a night early. I have hazy memories of purchasing a bottle of rum from the bar for waaaaay too much money and everyone retiring to the band room and mayhem breaking loose. The nadir, or zenith, was reached when a certain member of Pinback jokingly offered to poop on the table for money. €180 later and there he was, squatting on the table and preparing to leave a dirty protest. Thankfully, the pressure was too much and he was unable to perform. Phew!

26/07/04 B72, Vienna
Mother of God. Mad couple of days. Pinback were playing a hardcore festival in the Czech Republic yesterday which meant a day off for the Corpo. Not that it wasn't without noteworthy incident though! Firstly we got stopped at the Czech border by a disgruntled guard who insisted on examing and stamping our passports despite all the EU hoo-haa of late. Far more excitingly we hadn't driven a hundred yards into the country when me and Rob spotted something from the van and our eyes met in disbelief. A prostitute, completely naked from the waist down, standing outside her one room brother/shack on the roadside. Robs wife, the delightful Victoria, fumbled with her camera in a desperate attempt to film the bizarre little row of brothels and tarts, all in the middle of the Czech countryside on a roasting hot afternoon. As the show Pinback were due to play was billed as a hardcore event we were all a little nervous as to how it would go, seeing as they're big softies, but it couldn't have been better. Lovely small crowd in this wee setting beside a lake, and me, Joss and Rob all had ace larks swimming around for the afternoon. That night we absconded to a Czech bar where the beers set us back no more than 40 cent a shot. The Dream! Our Heads! The drive to Vienna today was hellish though, millions of diversions and it ended up taking about seven hours. The club was *amazing* though. Packed to the rafters and people going crazy for what was one of our best ever shows. *And* I only broke one guitar string! The Dream lives on!!! Only off stage about 10 minutes so I'm off for some delicious victory boozes. There is no way in hell I am letting this tour finish in 3 days!!

24/07/04 Starclub, Dresden
Today was a real hot sticky one, and everyone found it pretty hard to move. Still things started of well when Rob managed to track down his long wanted Trio CD's in a German department store. Drive to Dresden was long and uneventful, and we got to see nothing of the city other than the inside of the venue. Oh, and Kenseth from the Pinback got terrorised by these giant spiders around the place. And an evil Goat. This club was huge, about 800 capacity, I would guess. Last time Pinback played here they said they drew about 40 people. Erk! When we took to the stage the place was pretty empty, but thankfully as soon as the music started all these people arrived from outside. Never broken so many things either. ?er roadie, Robertdale Rulond Crow Jr , had to fix my guitar strings no less than 3 or times, re-attach my guitar strap mid song, and sort out some pedal problems - nuts. Last song was a blast as most of Pinback hopped on stage and Rob and me started having a vocal scream fest. Pretty fun! Am knackered now as it took forever to find our accomodation after. We're also getting a bit stressed as the promoter lady hasn't made any financial arrangments for us for the last couple of shows, which is *extremely* shit. Sigh

23/07/04 Magnet, Berlin
Jee-hay-sis, another mad late night. We spent a pretty amazing day walking around Berlin in incredible heat, eating fine foods and chilling, which was much needed. Berlin is my new favourite European city. Venue was pretty small and got uncomfortably packed from the get-go, don't think we've played in such heat before. It was still great fun though, and people were shouting for songs we haven't even thought about in years. Annoyingly we sold out of the CD's the night before and the promoter lady hadn't bothered bringing the replacements in time. Grr. Another v late night too, and playing suffered a little for being exhausted. Even though we can't afford it I'm looking forward to the day off thats coming up....

22/07/04 The Mudd Club, Berlin
Feeling pretty hazy today. We had our own show in Berlin last night as it was Pinbacks night off. Rob played a wonderful solo set and the bar gave us the world of free booze. We then ended up in this class bar called White Trash getting wasted on whiskeys and absinthes with Anthony from Large Mounds brother and some other Irish ex-pat pals, til about 5am. Feeling remarkably unhealthy today. I need to go lay down a while...

21/07/04 Knüst, Hamburg
Bit of a shitty one, this. There had been some confusion and the promoter had booked another support band to play. All well and good apart from them insisting we had to go on first, and being very snotty when Pinback refused to let this happen. This band then took a good 40 minutes to soundcheck, until well after the doors opened, so we didn't get one. They then left all their shit on stage, throwing our cables and stuff all over the place, so much so that things broke down halfway into our set and we couldn't figure out what the hell was going on, leaving us standing around in silence for ages looking like tits. Things were then unbelievable redeemed when half of Pinback stormed the stage for our last song again and the place went suitably nuts. Spent some hours getting toasted in this deadly bar called Mütter afterwards, where all these fans would stare in the window at Rob. Crazy!

20/07/04 Gleiss 22, Münster
Right, we're currently in Berlin and its 4 days after Münster so you'll have to bear with me for not remembering all the details of the last few nights. This gig was tops, and the day culminated in a handful of fairly special events, for me anyway. Firstly Rob from Pinback gave me a secret copy of their new album which we then sat and listened to in the van. I nearly wet myself. Next, Rob gets up on stage during our last song and proceeds to kick out some seriously intense jams. I'm nearly in tears now. The most amazing thing though was when Pinback called up the Corpo to join the boys for their last song. I think I bounced up and down for several hours after. Days even.

19/07/04 Ekko, Utrecht
Whoa, but my neck is getting sore. We got to rockin'again after a couple of days off hanging out at the Dour festival in Belgium, where Joss got to hang out with his Belge pals, Deportables, and we got to stand on stage watching 2,500 people go zingaling crazy for the Pinbacks. Rest of the festival was sort of sucky though, too much reggae, mud, dust and bad music in general. I think we're getting too old to appreciate these things properly. I'm sure everyone else loved the mud. Time off was nice and well and good - we hung out in this nice bar in Brussels getting taught dirty words - but we were so happy to get back rocking. Things were a little crappy as the venue insisted we go on before some local band, and the room was almost empty, but it filled up very quickly and it transformed into our best show of the tour, despite me breaking *more* strings. Sheesh. Rob C has offered to become The Corpo roadie as the breaking shit thing gets more and more out of control. Utrecht seems real nice, but everyone cycles like a loony here. Terrifiying. Oh yeah! We saw a shop called Terrifiance in Dour. It might be a seriously foolish mistake to not rename our band that!

16/07/04 Schlachthof, Weisbaden
After a very long drive suffered in a midst of pretty strong hangovers we arrive, in blistering heat, at what appeared to be some sort of deserted warehouse in a wasteground. It turns out the place used to be a slaughterhouse and, a wee bit disconcertingly, they still have things like the cattle pens in place being used as comfortable couch places. We´re all sleeping here tonight and I reckon many cow ghosts are gonna try and freak us out. Nightmare show for us, guitars broke, strings went askew, amps got unplugged, and amazingly we weren´t lead away to the slaughter. We´re off the next couple of nights, but I´m sure that will only allow for mischeif!

15/07/04 Rotown, Rotterdam
This venue was really nuts. It came across as an uber trendy bar full of good looking Dutch people with funny haircuts and it looked like we would be playing to people eating their dinner. The promoter took us away for some frankly amazing booze and dinner, and when we went back into the venue to soundcheck everyone had been kicked out and the room had been turned into this superb venue. Sound was immaculate. Tonight though, my amp (well, Rob Crows to be precise) cut out after 4 songs and I was convinced I'd desroyed his beautiful and EXPENSIVE Mesa Boogie. Thankfully it was just a busted plug. After the gig these delicious triple strength Belgian beers kept appearing out of nowhere, and I haven't seen Joss quite that drunk in years. Boy, was he suffering the next morning. The night ended with Rob taking off his pants in the middle of the street. Can life get much better?

14/07/04 ElectroWerks, London
Ok, this is the first time I've come anywhere near a computer in a few days so I'm gonna get things a little muddled probably. Finally, things were underway with the Pinback tour. We trundled off to the airport knowing that work permits thing had fnally been taken care of and that Pinback could finally start playing some shows (sorry to everyone, especially the guys that travelled from Sacramento, about the Dublin thing cocking up, not our fault). Electrowerks is a strange, strange venue. It's a little like an abandoned ild warehouse thats now used for bizarre fetish nights, paintball and the occassional concert. Place as absolutely packed with people and things were pretty cool, despite me breaking a string as I picked up my guitar at the start of the set. Bah. Pinback were *astonishingly* good. It just took me 3 minutes to find the * button, damned foreign keyboards!!!

29/06/04 Roisin Dubh, Galway with Thy Swan Army
First ever headliner in Galway and it was a peach. We were still all *knackered* after the UK jaunt, advancing signs of aging are beginning to catch up with us, but it was a crackin' lark.
Good crowd, good skit, good gugai.
Me and Mark had to make a mercy dash back to Dublin after the gig cos we had work today and I finally tumbled into bed around 4am. Ouch.

26/06/04 Bunkers Hill, Nottingham with Andy, Glenn and Ritch, Twinkie and The Death of Love
Last night of this wee tour and the best yet. Just far enough away from Glastonbury for it not to matter! The venue was this really cool room above a bar with a fine selection of ales, but during the third bands set, most of the crowd appeared to vanish, and we got pretty glum and worried. Thankfully, the crowd had mostly just scarpered to the bar downstairs and reappeared when we started playing. Surprising as Andy, Glenn and Ritch were a great band.
The playing tonight was tremendous, we really got into it, and the folks there appeared too as well. Lots of bopping down the front, which is always nice for chancers like us 8)
Touring is the way forward, it really is. Roll on the Pinback jums!

25/06/04 Hobgoblin, Brighton with The Tycho Brahe and Castro
We arrived down to Brighton in plenty of time, and the weather was amazing. We met up with some Icelandic pals and whiled away the afternoon on Brighton Pier, going on rollercoasters and whatnot. Or rather, Joss and the Icelanders went on the rollercoasters as Mark and myself were far too chicken. I think it was the man in overalls with a screwdriver saying the ride wouldn't be working for a few minutes that put us off. Also bizarre was the Ghost Train with a life-size witch rotating on a broom outside. Naked and green....
Tonight we sadly suffered from the fact that just about every person in England had traipsed off to Glastonbury. Was a pretty rocking set though, and The Tychos astounded me for the 2nd time in a row. I have to say, having not seen the 3 piece Tychos for a while, that I was blown away by how great they were. With only the 3 of them and a backing track there seems to be so much more room in the music for it to breathe - they were truly spellbinding at times.
Brighton rocks - its official!

24/06/04 93 Feet East, London with Querelle and The Tycho Brahe
And we were right to be afraid. Seemed like the whole of England was squeezed into every other nook and cranny of London other than 93 Feet East. I was running the merch stall and my pal Martin was watching the game in the bar next door. At 9.30 or so he came, gave me a big hug, said 'Its gone to extra time' and ran back into the bar. Bah!
About halfway through our set the match finally ended and a stream of fairly depressed looking Englanders strolled despondently back into the venue. And we cheered them up with Rock! Maybe...
Sure, it all worked out grand in the end.

23/06/04 Catapult Club, Birmingham with Panda Love Unit and Yellobelly
I think we've been approaching this trip with a wee bit of trepidation. England are still in the European cup and gig attendances have been down to nothing in the UK over the last two weeks, and all over Europe I'm sure. Plus tonight in Birmingham was kind of a student night and, whilst students are lovely and blah, any student gigs we've played in the past have been
fairly miserable affairs. How pleasantly surprised we were! 200 or so punters and those up front seemed well into it. I think the fact that it was £1 a pint didn't hurt. £1 A PINT!!! ARE THEY INSANE!?! The dream lives....

Playing was fairly ramshackle, and it was officialy the hottest room we've ever played in, but it was larks. Joss and myself stood in the freezing car park just after comparing the disgusting sweat stains on our shirts. Ah, sure isn't touring grand!
Tomorrow really is a night to fear. England Vs Portugal and we're in London. There won't be a damned soul for miles....
Thanks to Rob and Claire for the whiskey and toast 8)

30/05/04 The Winchester @ Barfly, Glasgow
Probably a bad idea, or a gig too far in Jossspeak. We love the Winchester and Gav who runs it and were delighted to have been asked to play, and I think we pulled it off but boy were we screwed from the frantic midnight drive from Edinburgh to Glasgow to play this late gig.
It was definitely hard to remain standing, but we mustered through and quaffed a few fine ales afterwards. Apart from Joss who had to leave immediately to be still in a quiet room. He could barely move the next morning. Still, the lads made it to Ikea before the ferry home. The lads + domestic treats = THE LADS!!!!
Scotland and our Scotpals = the dream.

30/05/04 Subway, Edinburgh with Large Mound and Simple Storm
Erm, there was actually a 4th band opening this evening, but I embarrassingly couldn't remember their name when I went to thank them on stage, and I forget now too. Doh.
This room was *huge*. Tiring, but fun playing, and the few folks there seemed to really like it.
This was Large Mounds last gig of the tour, and they were formidable. I'm desperately jealous of their new songs. Wish the Corpo could riff that hard! For our next trick, a stupid dash across Scotland to Glasgow....

29/05/04 Dr Drakes, Aberdeen with Large Mound and Man Incorporated
Long hot drive up to Aberdeen. Venue again was amazing, small with a great PA, Dublin desperately needs something like it. Desperately.
Man Inc was a very nice man, but we were pretty bemused as to how a one man band needs a crew of three people travelling around with him. Hugh and Anthony Mound had booked a hotel room which the Corpo duly invaded for some much needed kip. We chickened out of trying for a free breakfast though, the next morning. We suck. Aberdeen didn't get dark at night, which is odd.

 

28/05/04 Stereo, Glasgow with Large Mound and Pan
I've not had a chance to get near the diary until after we got home from Scotland, so I'll try my best and recount the weekends events. Feeling decidely ropey so it'll be brief. Stereo is a great wee club in Glasgow, deadly sound, wicked jukebox, cheap booze and sound staff. Playing was fun, and particularly amusing was some chap laughing out loud at how ridiculous/stupid our stops and starts are. Best thing of the day was seeing an arse!

About 20 minutes outside Glasgow this car pulled over in front of us. A completely respectable looking young lady, stepped out and walked to the back of her car, proceeded to drop her pants and have a wee on the road. Je-haysis!

22/05/04 Whelans, Dublin with Large Mound.
Hmm, reasonably drunk, probably shouldn't be typing. Fun, if odd night. Reasonable crowd apart from this bunch of gits down the very front who spoiled the first couple of songs, by shouting over everything. Funnily enough it seems they were students of Hugh from Large Mound. Instant fails, I hope. There was also this bizarre girl who flitted in and out of the band room boasting about how she'd bought a guitar that afternoon and made a fortune busking on the street with it, and would then sit in the corner sulking and telling us how 'cool' we were, because we'd alledgedly slagged her on some web forum. As if!
Ah, Dublin, yer a quare auld beast. Looking forward to the Scotterland!

07/05/04 Dolans, Limerick with Giveamanakick.
Bugger, but thats a big auld venue. Classy one too. Yet another fantastic night in Limerick, ace crowd, top scran, fine ales and Pro Evolution Soccer til the wee hours, continued the minute we got up this morning. Giveamanakick were deadly. Such nice lads. Ablert was king, as per usual. Poor Mark though, he despises Pro Evo. We'll need to sort that out.

17/04/04 The Loft @ Blessings, Cavan.
Wow, it rarely gets better than that. Deadly new venue and promoters, Red, in a town we've not been to before with a really enthusiastic crowd checking us out. Apparently the promoters had taken a number of years off before starting up again - one of their last gigs being U2 in the '80s where they lost £250! I reckon Bongo and co should send a cheque up. Amazingly, voice held up after 3 days of abuse, could have been the gorgeous Ice-creams on the way up.
Eager to visit Cavan again soon!

16/04/04 Hoot Nite, Dublin with another cast of thousands.
Pretty great night, the theme was Prince Vs. Queen and it can't get much better than that. The Corpo tackled Bohemian Rhapsody and I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man and I think we're better people for it. Highlights of the night were Neosupervital doing Radio GaGa and The Rimolutions version of Purple Rain. Long live the Hoot!

15/04/04 The Last Splash Live, The Village, Dublin with Bellx1 and The Chalets.
Cursed Transferance. At last weeks Cork gig Joss was in the final deaththrows of a pretty nasty cold that he picked up at ATP. Having been stuck in the same stuffy car as him for 8 hours over the weekend it was inevitable that it would get passed on.
Despite many prayers, passed on it did get. Before last nights show I was barely able to talk. I lost my voice and on the occassions when I could manage speach it sounded like the strangled yelp of a mid pubescent teenager. A particularly spotty one. Surprisingly the days medicinal treatments, including gargling salt in boiled water, seemed to pay off and we just about scraped through the gig. We had Carol Keogh up to sing with us for the first time in ages, and it sounded amazing, probably highlight of the night. Sellout crowd too, but they were pretty much all there for the main act, and weren't that bothered to watch us. Ah well.

10/04/04 The Lobby, Cork with Standard Deviation.
Cork is mad. Seriously mad. I mean, Potato Pies, who could invent such a thing?! Actually, the potato pie is pretty much a wonderful invention and a stable part of The Corpos diet whenever we visit the city, so it is with much sadness that I report that chipper just over the way from Washington St serves up a *lame* variety of said pie. We were disheartened as we sat in the car munching away on what was essentially a wad of spud dripping batter. Where was the spice? And the herbs?! WHERE WAS THE POTATO LOVE??!!!?
Sheesh, at least it didn't detract from Mark stopping at the very next chipper and buying another Cork delicacy, 'Breast in a Bun'....A whole chicken breast in a burger bun. Genius.
Day started with some guerilla recording in 96fm. We were booked in for a live session, but hadn't brought an acoustic guitar with us. We arrived late and spent, oooh, minutes zipping around the building trying to sort it out. We ended up recording a song in a broom cupboard with Joss perched in the corner and Mark holding a mic up for us all to sing into. Funnily enough, it was broadcastable.
Gig itself was cool, quiet enough night what with everyone buggering off to respective family homes to down as many easter eggs as possible, a treasured national past-time, but regardless fun was had. Of particular pleasure was the audience response to the new Corpo pre gig music. How could any night were you get to hear 'Jump' by the Halen and some Shooby Taylor not be a classic. Dave and Nigel from Waiting Room are the funniest fellers too. Way home was spent singing the operatic bit from Bohemian Rhapsody over and over again in a desperate attempt to have it learnt for the Hoot Night next friday. Bless us.

11/03/04 The Institute, Dun Laoghaire with Waiting Room, Coldspoon Conspiracy and Ellison 9.
Jesus, what a miserable, miserable evening. The weather was truly appalling tonight, but remarkably a fair few folk turned out. Odd venue too, converted chapel with a PA system waaay too big for the room. The sound engineer guy seemed content to revoke all our settings before we played which seemed a little bizarre, but oh well. Quite enjoyed all the free beer vouchers, but what a shame the bar closed at 9.30!!! Gah!!! Ended up in a strange bar afterwards for what seemed like a bizarre wedding reception. Felt like home.

14/02/04 The Winchester, Glasgow with Chris Leonard.
So thats that then. Finished up with a hootenanny of sorts in Glasgow, and that one gig alone covered the costs of our tour. Superb, and big thanks to Gav and Sarah for that. Not sure how good the actual gig was as we had to contend with a bizarre farting PA throughout, plus some strange haggard old ladies trying to attach themselves to us to find out 'where the party' was. *Shudder*. Sad the whole thing is over, been a mostly brilliant and occasionally slightly bizarre adventure. Japan next!!!

13/02/04 House Party, Middlesbrough.
We got a call from Ralph the promoter a few days ago with the bad news that the venue we were meant to play tonight has lost it's entertainment licence or something, so we ended up playing a hastily arranged house party to a very hospitable, if potentially baffled, group of Middlesbrough kids. Nah, they were terribly sweet to let us play and even danced some.
Like Mike Watt says 'if you ain't playin', you're payin', so we're dead grateful. The only time we ever played a house party before the police arrived within 3 minutes. Either Middlesbrough has nicer neighbours or we've become easy listening. Shall have to think about that. Last gig
tomorrow night. We won't be sad to get home, but this touring lark really is a laff. Ah well.

12/02/04 The Tyne, Newcastle.
The Tyne Bar = Nice pub full of loonies. The Corpo = 3 tired and scared young men....

11/02/04 Zanzibar, Liverpool with too many bands to list!
We set off from London at 7.30 so we could deal with repairing the amp in Liverpool, and spent hours traipsing around the city trying to get it sorted having spent hours in traffic jams on the way up. Seeing as we then didn't get on stage till 12.30 or so we were pretty sure we would be comatose and not up for much rocking. Turns out to be the best we played probably and those folks who stuck around were even dancing down the front. Us three are starting to resemble sickly old men at this stage. To be expected I suppose.

10/02/04 93 Feet East, London with Querelle and Hey Colossus.
Jesus, where to start. After a pretty late night we had a mad early start to London for a BBC session. Session was pretty cool, though we got into trouble for endorsing the AA over the RAC live on air, cos the BBC can't be having that. They weren't best pleased 8)
Seeing as the venue was on Brick Lane, Mark was adamant there'd be curries for the lads all round. Lunch was about all we could handle but Mark did manage to squeeze one in for dinner. 2 in a day, Jesus. The venue itself was pretty amazing, ultra trendy and swish looking, and BIG. More than a little daunting. Amazingly 2 fantastic sets from Querelle and Hey Colossus saw the place fill up quite nicely, making us all the more nervous. Things started brilliantly, and um, got interesting. Firstly, the guitar amp died on it's legs 3 songs in leaving a bemused and befuddled corpo standing around on stage (we figured out later some clutz musta spilled beer into it, blowing the valves). A replacement amp was soon hastily despatched and rocking re-commenced. And then the guitar broke. And then the replacement guitar broke. And the replacement pedal collapsed. Jaysis. Remarkably the crowd were incredibly decent and sympathetic and encouraged us on. At one stage Joss lept off stage and shouted 'GET OFF' to us from the crowd. The swine. Best London gig yet, nice to see more and more people coming out. Even if their lives are placed in peril!!!

09/02/04 Port Mahon with Querelle and Thursdays of Vega.
Odd one this, we were by far the best we've been so far but people didn't seem that crazy into it. Ah well, the folks organising the show were champs and delivered Ruddles, Tea and Cakes upon arrival. Amazing. We'd been busy teasing Gypsy from Querelle all day about the last time we played with them and he went screaming through Joss's drumkit. Whats the first thing he did tonight? Straight through it and in the first song. Cheeky 8)

08/02/04 The Bull, London with Querelle
Tonight was meant to be the solitary night off of the trip over but those cheeky Querelle chappies organised this one at short notice. Was pretty fun, and we got to meet Spider from Corrie, who was parked down the front. Bizarre incident after the gig where Joss thought he heard someone screaming 'Rape!' from outside the apartment we were in, raced down the stairs and discovered a young lady who indeed was screaming for 'Craig!!' Jaysis.

07/02/04 Cold Rice, Birmingham with YelloBelly
Jesus, the rest of the tour will be hard pressed to live up to last night. Cold Rice is a lovely club run by a very hospitable bunch of folk. Our pal Rob, who we stayed with, treated us like a bunch of scruffy kings. Like we expect to be treated, obviously! Joss and Mark spent the afternoon at the Villa game, a first for both boys. 2-0, sorted. The gig itself was thundering, lots of leaping and stomping and everything hurts a little today. The people there were utterly up for it and down the front which is pretty rare in a town were no-one knows you. Pretty rare for us anywhere! After the gig we were led, with some insistance and a fair amount of wilful capitulation on our part, to a chipper called Mr Egg. The place had a giant egg hanging from the ceiling and every single item on the menu came with egg unsurprisingly. The EGG dream!The booze here is also £1.50 a pint! ONE POUND FIFTY!!!

05/02/04 Freebutt, Brighton with The Rock of Travolta and Hey Colossus.
So, we're finally underway, no thanks to the RAC. We thought we were being sensibly super cautious by printing out directions for every route of the tour using their site and they've pretty much led us wrong each step of the way. After leaving the ferry in Holyhead we followed the instructions to a tee and ended up 60 miles off course in a wee town called Cockshutt. While it may have been annoying to be lost the manifold delights of a town called Cockshutt kept us in good spirits. First night was spent drinking fine ales and playing Pro Evo 3 in London after 8 hours of solid driving, ouch. Yesterday morning we recorded an XFM session in the Capital FM building which went well despite some dodgy cold hampered singing. Quite bizarrely Chris Tarrant does the voice announcements in the elevators of the building. Amusing for 5 minutes, then utterly painful. Brighton seemed real nice and the gig was tremendous skit. No opening night nerves thankfully. The people organising it, Melting Vinyl, were utter stars and fed and beered us to the hilt. Rest of night was spent watching Joss and his many cousins get drunk. One of his cousins is a chocolate salesman.
The dream.....

22/01/04 Whelans, Dublin with Life after Modelling and Neosupervital
Sheesh! Need to practice before UK tour!!!