Sticky Fingers Tour Diary: Part Five

It's hard to believe this ride is nearly over; we've been this side of the world for a bit over a month and had a lotta shit happen, the one thing missing? Getting searched. We managed to go the whole tour crossing borders and going back again, so far, without getting searched. They made up for this at the UK end of the French border, we got searched on the way over and one of the dogs had a big sniff around my gear, not entirely sure why, (maybe he thinks I'm stupid), took us an hour and a half to get through the search and it set us back big time. They went through the van pretty much bit by fucking bit and didn't find anything, so we were on our way. We got in a couple of hours late, well after we were supposed to get to our accom, and then after a big night of celebration we returned home to the van and found it had nearly been robbed a-fucking-gain. Luckily this cheese burglar clearly didn't really know what he was doing though. Only managed to half break the back doors open. Not enough to get in and out. Fair crack hacking a go in broad daylight though! The few shows we had around the joint to warm us up as we headed to London were all good but nothing compares to that show.

Some fine lookin' mugs here...

I am in love with the UK, even though we haven't hung around long, for anyone that doesn't know me, I already think it's kind of a spiritual homeland. And it feels like they feel the same about Sticky Fingers. We had a couple of notable warm up shows in and around Bournemouth and our debut show in London sold out before doors. So it was packed. Hot and packed, maybe because they don't have to worry about heat so much they don't put air con in the venues. What a corker of a night it was too. We went down at an infamous joint in Camden called The Barfly and yea, sold out early as I mentioned. Some great bands have graced its stage in their humble beginnings including Oasis and Muse. We made good mates with the gang from the venue and didn't hesitate to host a blizzard themed after party upstairs in the band quarters. All manner of reprobates made it up there and it was the night of a thousand stories. Not sure how much of the proceeds of the sellout we invested back in the local community but, one way or another, it'd be a fair bit.

Hmmm...

I'm struggling a bit writing this one to be honest. Over the next couple nights we had a seriously fun, and over indulgent time in the UK. Gonna go ahead and blame it on the one and only Matt Rule – the legendary music bookings and venue operator from Sydney – famously known for the second to none quality 13 years of owning and running the Annandale Hotel. He's an old mate of ours who really gave the Stickies a push from the beginning. As well as bar jobs to keep us going between tours. We met up with him in Cornwall and that's when festivities really started getting out of hand. Not going to lie. Was pretty convinced I was going to pass away the other night. Oh, and by the way, Dan Rule; if you are reading this, we have kidnapped your son Jack. So yeah, don't expect to see him ever again. He is one of us now.

The latest in touring fashion.

Following a sweet gig in South Devon we had to immediately load the van and old mate Jim did the overnight drive, to the channel train (which we managed to get on first thing in the morning), then longer drive (through four countries all up), to Holland. He stretched himself a bit and had to take a bit of a kip on the side of the road there for a bit, but that aside, no sleep or showers for over three days and booze the only fuel to keep morale afloat, made for a couple of interesting days. The last week was definitely the hardest slog we've ever done as a band. Unfortunately it is still such a haze I haven't got any specific or more suitable stories for you at this time. That being said, I so have a video camera absolutely loaded with footage. And yep, we're making a little mini doco on the tour, so hit us up on our Facebook in a couple of weeks and we'll have it up.

Must stay alert when driving...

The overnight drive, channel train trip brings us back to Holland. And we've got a quick day off then 7 gigs in 7 days (with a couple of smaller acousticky things), then we're headed home. Our big Holland show at the Paradiso this Wednesday is in Amsterdam. Things are going ok here. Once again it's looking like a sellout. More than happy for this to be a reoccurring theme but wouldn't mind the shit getting broken and stolen so we can ease up a bit! Absolutely cheering that 3FM (Dutch equivalent of Triple J) have picked up Caress Your Soul on rotation. We're single of the week on one of the shows on the station and we've also been invited to come into the studio this Thursday for 3VOR12 (Dutch equivalent of Like a Version) - pretty good eh.

Massive big ups to our main man all the way from Cornwall - Woodie the Woodster from the Walkabout Bar - who is just about the best host who has ever put up with Stickies. Straight up legend too. Love ya mate!

And yes, schveegen doogenworth, ah, bogleswitch orphendein. Holland. Cheers.

Got enough Ice there?