THANK YOU FRANCE / HELP THE DOG

Two things. One good, one bad.

01. FRANCE REPORT

We did a tour to France. It was fantastic. We had a great time. There will be no diary as such because there was no conflict. It was just really really fun. Here it is in bullet points.

• Rolled into Nottingham to crash at ME's house (he moved. This was covered in previous dispatches). Visited England's oldest inn, which was a moving experience for all concerned, mostly in the gut.
• Left at 2.30am the next day for the ferry and just powered through to Rennes by 6pm (take off the hour time difference). Great show here with loads of brilliant people being super bien to us. 
• Booted it to Lyon at 8am, arriving just before 6pm. Big venue more often utilised for jazz/improv but in a really nice spot near an old prison. Again a really cool show and everyone takes care of us and is just faultless.
• After a late one, we crawl to Reims. Bit of an unusual location and probably through fatigue we become convinced that the van is in mortal danger from local youths. It isn't. We play a Halloween set (Wilkinson's decorator suits, fake blood, silly string, stolen drill) and mess the stage up pretty bad. I offer to clean it up, the guy shrugs and says 'we don't care'. Still convinced of danger, we head to Lille overnight.
• Relax in Lille. We love Lille. We gently recover from all the driving and ease into the last show. Fred from Berline0.33 (who split recently: sadface) joins us for 'Holy Cross'. Excellent show to finish on.
• Crawled home in shit traffic. No arguments, no nothing. It was great.

That was it. Van, play, socialise, sleep. Here are some photos taken (mostly) by the band.

Less fun than last time: ML in Dover

Bar'Hic, Rennes

ME in Lyon (by Hazam)

pre-gig, Rennes

@Bar'Hic, Rennes (photo by Alter1fo)

Morning after in Rennes

ME in his third position (1. rocking 2. driving)

Le Periscope, Lyon

I remember Total Eclipse but not Tarif Unique

the debut of the Ellams-Brookes jazz duo, Lyon

in Lyon (by Hazam)

bloody modern bands, can't engage with the real world

ML after a bad murder in Reims

Fred plays Holy Cross (taken by Frederick Baas)

Back in the USS...K

Photos of the Lyon show by Hazam - https://www.flickr.com/photos/hazamodoff/sets/72157648655853198/

Photos of the Rennes show by Alter1fo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/alter1fo/sets/72157648625695067

THANK YOU et MERCI BIEN to: David, Helene, Niko, Don Lurie, Coco, Vince, David, Erwin, Matt, Kris, Damian, Michel and the guys in Reims (I was so tired I forgot nearly everyone's name), everyone from Grenoble, Bastien, Vincent, Caroline, Fred, Emilie, Gilles, Guillaume, Karine, David, Jono, Dan and I can tell I have forgotten someone here.

02. THE DOG AND PARTRIDGE IN JEOPARDY

While we were setting up in Rennes we got word that some berk had smashed his 4x4 into the bar of the Dog and Partridge in Bolton. It looked a little something like this.

Now. Cast your eyes down the side of this blog and you'll see we've played there on a fair number of occasions. This is our home (not literally, though it literally is the landlord's home) and it means a lot to us. It's where we learned our stuff and died a couple of times and came back to fight on. ML (bass) has booked shows and festivals for the Dog for years. It is part of Bolton's dwindling cultural heritage and someone has driven a sodding sports utility vehicle into it.

Word is that for 2 months it will be out of action, but is salvageable. We don't know what the next step is but we're priming you that if you can help get the place back to tip top form by turning up to stuff, having a drink on your way through town, then it would be really appreciated. This incident has made a lot of people realise what we have and how shitty it would be to lose it.

OTHER NEWS

We are about 20 per cent through work on our third full length record. No title yet, but working song titles include Mass Firings, The Public Weighbridge, Written Backwards, Atherton Derby, and Charters (670-2014).