UK Tour Diary Part 1
Touring is where bands find out what they're made of and if any sociopathic murderers are lurking within membership. When Wild Bill and the Lost Knobs answered a Craigslist ad from a person claiming to be a promoter in the UK looking to book Austin bands, expectations were low. He said his name was Tony Sundigger, and referred to himself in the third person. We couldn't find much information on him, and his accent sounded completely fake. Still, he was promising festival appearances and shows all over the UK, so with nothing better to do we continued to follow up with him. He immediately suggested we change our name because "knobs" translates to "penis" in the UK. We said "no", and he said "well, then". The deal was sealed and, we all ended up having a jolly old time filled with pints, prats, pants, and picadillies. The following is a brief account of the highest lights.
--Day 1 and 2--Tony and the Bear
Pete "the heat", Amandalin, and myself hit the friendly skies to cross the pond where we'd meet up with Ash Gray (guitars), and Greg Davies (drums) to complete our touring band in England. By the time we got off the plane, the band was in high spirits and barely talking to each other as evidenced by Amanda's statement on the train into the city: "Bill, from now on, only talk to me through Pete."
--Day 1 and 2--Tony and the Bear
Pete "the heat", Amandalin, and myself hit the friendly skies to cross the pond where we'd meet up with Ash Gray (guitars), and Greg Davies (drums) to complete our touring band in England. By the time we got off the plane, the band was in high spirits and barely talking to each other as evidenced by Amanda's statement on the train into the city: "Bill, from now on, only talk to me through Pete."
Tony Sundigger
We met up with Tony, a strange looking long-haired, chain smoking, leather wearing rocker-type with an obsession for American country music. He gave us our schedules and told us he'd need to see us rehearse before the first show the next evening. But first, pints! English pub culture is one damn good reason to visit the country. The people are very friendly and positive everywhere you go in an almost un-American way. Our first city to visit was Sheffield, home of Joe Cocker, The Arctic Monkeys, Def Leppard, Human League, and Jarvis Cocker. Unless you're an absolute alcoholic, there are hardly any distractions for working musicians in the former steel capitol of the world. For bad or for worse, we love booze, and were easily able to talk Tony out of rehearsing after a few pints. "Sheffy" is a very nice, small music city you might easily compare to Austin, complete with allergies and a lively bar scene. Our first few nights were spent in a district similar to dirty 6th above a bar called "Bungalow Bears".
We are very mature and never once called it "Butthole Bears". Nope, not once. There was no live music there, but the noise from the late night crowd made it hard to sleep while adjusting to the 6 hour time change. Pete expertly timed and tossed a banana peel out the window onto the sidewalk into an oncoming crowd of frat boys. He managed to score a sweet "three piece" with a domino-effect crash. The first guy slipped on the peel, the rest were head down on their phones and ran right into him, and they all went down to the pavement. Tony attempted to drop grapes into oncoming cleavage from the next window to no avail. The sun comes up ridiculously early so sleep was rare at first.
Today, we rehearsed in the Yellow Arches studios. This rehearsal complex hosts practice spaces for local notables such as Jarvis Cocker, and the Arctic Monkeys. You can rent brand new spaces for around seven pounds an hour. They also recently opened a venue complete with full stage and bar. We witnessed an open mic night that featured full band jams of classic 60s and 70s rock and roll standards. It was like a true rock n roll gym, and the vibe was unbelievably positive with a strong sense of community.
There is a special mutual appreciation of American and British music that exists between our countries, and it was cool to see it in action. We had fun talking cross country influences back and forth with the other bands. It was interesting to see a very positive attitude and appreciation toward American music from them, and for us to get to learn more about British rock and influences first hand.
Room view looking down on Bungalow Bears
Day 3--"Sheffy"
Today, we rehearsed in the Yellow Arches studios. This rehearsal complex hosts practice spaces for local notables such as Jarvis Cocker, and the Arctic Monkeys. You can rent brand new spaces for around seven pounds an hour. They also recently opened a venue complete with full stage and bar. We witnessed an open mic night that featured full band jams of classic 60s and 70s rock and roll standards. It was like a true rock n roll gym, and the vibe was unbelievably positive with a strong sense of community.
Yellow Arches Live Venue Open Mic
Our first gig was tonight at the Royal Standard, a college bar and venue owned and managed by a local band, the Velcro Teddy Bears. The pub is home to two house dogs: Teddy, and Spike. Spike quickly won my heart with his overbite and tendency to sit on barstools and growl at patrons. 
The show went well and we learned that our song "morning glories" turned quite a few heads because apparently the term translates to "morning boners", and we might be known as a full-on sex-country-rock band at this time. Our fame is spreading like a virus…Tony is pleased.
Spike Don't Take No Jibba Jabba From Nobody!
Click the tart for Part 2