Legion of Swine Mini Tour Easter 2013

This happened last year of course, completely forgot to upload to the blog……..


Mini-tour Easter 2013

Day 1 - arrive in Prague, get to where I'm staying and immediately given the spare keys and free run of the place, typical of the fine hosting I get all week or so. Relax, write 6 new Dale Prudent pieces, sorry he sends me 6 new pieces for my approval and get an early night as wiped out. Thanks to Jan and flatmates for the fine welcome.

Day 2 - wake up with arrangement ideas for "Give and Take", Paul's new Redgrass tune. Mandolin, piano and trombone parts are floating around in my mind. Creativity levels are high. Nice. Tim, Markus and Laura (spelling?) arrive and we drink 80p 1/2 litres in the station pub. We then nip over the road from Jan's and eat and catch up more. My head starts to thump from all the smoke around and so around midnight I go to bed. Oh, and a new idea from Tim, Christortion, the next phase in harsh noise, which given the time of the year seems appropriate.

Day 3 - Gig day! At last. First set ok, but not exactly right, but given that there's been no rehearsal beforehand, things will improve. Handily for the performance, a dog came in a barked during "A Cute Puppy". We were fed well and receive beer a plenty, it's good to be back on the Continent again. Earlier, we went for a stroll around Prague, up the hills, see top views below. Hilloo's set is a cracker and the 30-odd punters in get into it and special mention to Markus' DJing, nice work. The lad from Lithuania is odd, the Brits do 3 sets, including a freeform demolition at the end and 3 tapes are sold, which is enough for 10 pints. Read that number and weep! Hic.

Day 4 - the first mystery of the tour, as my long-sleeved black top has wandered off somewhere. Rock'n'roll. I came back in it last night, but now it is gone, crazy times in Prague. Today we're off to Vienna, very good. We pass many many car smashes on the way, but arrive safely at the venue, which is an old factory and has a small venue within a venue, which sounds ace, despite the low quality PA. Both LoS/JD sets are good, but the camera that was recording the entire thing has a crisis of confidence and nowt is on the SD card. Bugger. No Pavorotti are sounding great and it's a shame their set has to end. Abraxus Apparatus is very ace as well. It's a 4 way sweep, but the merch table remains untouched. We nip out for a few beers into the Viennese night and end up at a place called "Jetzt", where the music is definitely not "jetzt". A walk back via falafel stall and bed at 4.15am, with belly full.

Day 5 - dark, dense bread, big hole cheese (see piccy) and green tea is needed to shake off the all and tiredness. Good. Small distance to Bratislava, so we can relax for a bit. Scrambled eggs and onions thanks to Looboo ensure bellies are satisfied. In addition to the large wedge of euros we got last night, we are told that we are all welcome to come and play again and another lad who saw the gig has offered us all one nearby in his bar. Very nice. We get to Bratislava and it's pissing it down massively and there are lakes everywhere near the venue. We have no food, except for the leftovers from dinnertime, so have to make do with the free ales as sustenance. The turnout is not so good as the weather gets worse. We have access to a decent setup with surround sound and all play well. the Trowser Carrier set confuses the 20 or so here, a lot, and someone comes up to me at the merch stand and says "I liked your first set, but the second was shit". i admire the honesty as he gives me a handful of euros for some LoS tapes and T-shirt. We leave the venue late and as it's BST now (you wouldn't fucking know it based on the frogs and locusts falling from the sky), we get to bed at 4.30am.

Day 6 - we wake up to big snow showers and wander off for a typical Slovakian veggie meal of fried cheese. My my, it's good stuff and exactly what a woolly head needs after last night. We depart back to the Czech Republic armed again with offers of future gigs and face the snow pretty much all the way. The venue in second city Brno is cute and a venue. Useful. Tonight we will sell all the merch and go back with empty bags, I am convinced of it. We sell bugger all of course. We do get some ace pizzas for tea and lots of free beer, in fact they can't offer us beer enough. As soon as your glass gets 1/2 full/empty, the cheery barman is off round to the table asking if we need more. I could fall in love with this country, although my liver couldn't. We are knackered and it's time for bed. Just a 10 min walk in the snow to a flat full of Walloons. 40 mins later we actually arrive, frozen to shit and several piss stops on the way. Before I finish though, a special mention to the pissed bloke at the gig serenading selected victims with a (well-delivered and in tune) version of "Eternal Flame", passion in his performance. Sadly he doesn't join in with our set singing said song, but you can't have everything.

Day 7 - nice walk in the sunshine back towards the venue, bit of food and back to Prague, where we now relax and do an autopsy on the tour. It seems to have gone down well with all parties involved. Tim requests that I do some proper vocal version of "Whole Again" and "Eternal Flame" for his harsh noise karaoke. I can do that.

Day 8 - was supposed to be an evening of 2 beers, but became 6. Me and Romauld, a new associate of mine from Paris, but based over the road from Jan's, will be performing on internet radio doing a noise conversation via Skype on Monday the 8th of April. We have called ourselves La Mancha.

Day 9 - off home. Sad. Lovely time. I am coming back Prague. Thanks to all for making my stay so fine.