Blog: Tour Diary 4: Bath

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Last Friday saw a monumental moment in the relationshop of The Trains On My Tracks and I, for LO! we got to use a TWO TOGETHER railcard for the first time! It was Quite Exciting and would have been even more so if anybody had actually checked it!

We MADE the train with time to spare - I'd spent a WEEK panicking about it - and were soon in Bath, where we strolled to our hotel. We were in the Holiday Inn Express this time, and NOTED with interest the large Indian Restaurant over the road. A quick change then we hopped into a taxi and zoomed out the The Rondo Theatre, where I was DELIGHTED to see that they'd printed out some of our tour posters and stuck them in the window - nobody else has been brave enough to do this before!

Inside we met Mr G Osborn and Mr J Hare, who'd be joining Gav on piano later on and, after a quick soundcheck, we decamped to the lovely pub down the road. I was very keen to visit it as last time I played with Gav in Bath we'd gone there and I'd had the best pint of London Pride I've had in my LIFE, it was DELICIOUS. I am happy to report that it still was, and we celebrated by having an HILARIOUS and lengthy chat about Diverse Subjects, including the value and use of microwaves, the miracle of induction cookers, and CREEPY HORROR. I laughed a LOT!

Back at the venue Ms G Petrie arrived after ANOTHER heinous car journey - she'd taken over four HOURS to get there from Leicester, which was bad enough but she'd be heading back after the gig to FLY to a family holiday at 4am next day. She was going to NEED a holiday after all that!

People were gently trickling in and I asked the nice soundman what time I was on. He looked surprised - it clearly said 8pm on the tickets, so that was when I was starting! I'd been a bit worried about whether the audience would all BE there by then, but as we got to SHOWTIME they all turned up, and it was thus to a healthy sized crowd that I did THIS:

The Peterborough All-Saints Wide Game Team (group B)

(You Make Me Feel) Soft Rock

The Perfect Love Song

That Guy

Things'll Be Different When I'm In Charge

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

It Only Works Because You're here

The Lesson Of The Smiths

It felt like quite hard work, not because of the crowd, who were lovely, but because i couldn't SEE anybody - I'm so used to playing in lit rooms that the traditional STAGE set-up feels a bit weird, though it was fun going "Whoooooooo!" when the lights first went down, then coming out like a Variety Star! My nervousness did lead to a LOT of REMARKS and chat though, which was excellent fun, for me at least.

After me Gav and John were MARVELLOUS, especially when they did "You Were Invincible", which he'd not done on the tour before then. Also Grace did some DELIGHTFUL and UNEXPECTED harmonies on the end bit of "Closing Montage", before going on to do a GRATE set herself, featuring a song called "The Distance" which a) I'd not heard before b) was BRILL. Gav and I sat together clucking like a pair of mother hens throughout the set, taking it in term to nudge each other and say "I like this one!"

By the time we'd all finished, packed up, and said our cheerios we'd JUST missed last orders, so there were final hugs and then The Number On My Card and i HOPPED into a taxi and back to our hotel. We'd not had any tea so decided to go for a CURRY over the road at The Mint Room. Initially we were told they'd stopped serving, but the waiter took pity on us and we got to go in and have a GORGEOUS meal. Having mentioned them in That Guy I thought I ought to have a DOSA, and was glad I did as it was GORGEOUS.

Usually on this tour I've returned to the hotel and gone to bed, without even a Dirty Pizza, let alone an ACTUAL CURRY, but with The Bourbon In My BOttle there for the ride things got even MORE Rock & Roll, as we sat in the Hotel Bar and drank us some JACK DANIELS! It was a full-on aftershow!

Next day all vague plans to go to either the Spa Baths or the American Museum were turned down in favour of a lie-in, a hotel breakfast and a trip to ANOTHER great Bath Pub, The Crystal Palace. They'd had a refurb since our last visit, but it wasn't HUGELY different, and a great place to have (basically) BREAKFAST BEERS! Life on the road, it gets a little bit KRAZY sometimes!

posted 27/5/2014 by MJ Hibbett

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