European Tour Diary: Day 28 - Barcelona, Spain

We’ve loved Spain so far, and today our drive is amazing. The scenery is really amazing, arid open flat plains that look like the deserts around LA and jagged hills and mountains.

We can’t get over the fact that it’s so hot in November. Love it! Those of us who didn’t go out lord it over the ones who are now hung over and retreating from the sunlight in the darker corners of the van.
We stop at a service station to eat and refuel. It’s almost like walking into a kitchen, and it’s all Tapas but it’s all strange and unidentifiable food. I eat some meat on skewers and it’s impossible to actually tell what it is, even as you eat it, which is quite unnerving really… Definitely feel unwelcome in here too, lots of stares and scowls. Time to go then.

We drive on and encounter the worst traffic in history. Suddenly the heat is a lot less nice as we’re all stuck in a heated can, and we crawl into Barcelona an hour late and with the opening time approaching. This means it’s a serious case of all hands on deck as the venue staff and we grab all the equipment out of the van (we have acquired a lot and it weighs a couple of tonnes by now) and drag it into the awesome sleek, minimal and very modern building that houses the venue.

Once in I have to rush through a few interviews (including an acoustic run through of weight of the world with the venue staff running around behind me) while the guys get the stuff on stage and sound check. 
We get everything done in time, and head to our dressing room to try and get some food in. Our dressing room today is a corridor that connects to the main stage room so we’re ready to go on at a moments notice. We play the set and for me it’s one of the highlights of the tour. It’s funny, you can never tell what a show is going to be like, sometimes you can be stressed, rushed and disorganized and end up having the best show ever, sometimes you can be relaxed, prepared and confident and then the show will not go your way.

We talked about getting tattooed while we were in Barcelona as there is a specific area with shit loads of great tattoo places but we’ve simply not had time so we hang out by merch, talk to people, then hustle CDs as people are leaving, as per usual.
Head back to the hotel as we have yet another long drive tomorrow to get back to France.

-Gus



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European Tour Diary: Day 27 - Madrid, Spain

Madrid is a beautiful city. We get to the venue and John and me shoot straight off for yet more press in a coffee house nearby. By this time I’ve already had a Red Bull and a coffee but seeing as we’re going to be here a while I order and we sit with our coffees and talk for a while. Doing interviews can be a strange experience because you basically have to, for that period of time, be self centered and talk about yourself and feel very self-important. Easier for some, harder for others. I kind of fall in the middle, I like to think I’m quite good at talking, but sometimes it feels weird going on about myself and my band for ages. Ah well, it’s hardly a problem, and doing press is generally really cool so I have no problem. We talk for quite a while and have to rush back to make our soundcheck.

We’ve spent quite a while figuring out what songs work best on this tour, and which don’t so by now we are quite familiar with everything and it’s just a case of getting our sound on stage right. Mind you, I say that like it’s a small easy thing – on stage sound we’re all happy with is just so rare. The sound on stage is really different to off stage, but it’s probably also because we’re a fussy group of guys. 
We head back stage, begin the process of warming up, eating and generally getting ready for the show. Madrid is wicked and as soon as we’re done we head off to grab a bite to eat in a Mexican restaurant nearby. I want to go on the record and state that Mexican food is my (and ours as a group) favourite food in the world. Tacos, fajitas, enchiladas, whatever – if it’s Mexican I can pretty much guarantee I’ll love it. Head back to the venue, hang out with people that want to say hi, and then pack our gear away.





It’s pretty rare that we’ll go our separate ways for the evening but some of the guys want to party and me and a few others just want to crash so that’s what we do.

-Gus

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European Tour Diary: 2 Days Off in Barcelona

We have two days off so we go to Barcelona to stay there for a day before travelling to Madrid ahead of our show there. The journey is long but amazing, and the sky as the sun sets ahead of us really something, it looks like the sky is on fire and changes colour dramatically, almost looks like a hologram.

We reach Barcelona as night falls, put our bags down in our rooms and all go out for a great Spanish dinner of Tapas and Paella and some huge beers. I have to leave the group and go back to the van to do a quiz live on air for Nick Grimshaw‘s Radio1 show that I fail miserably at (5-2), as well as getting the name of the caller I’m competing against wrong. Sorry Roy.
I meet back up with the guys and we go to some bars around the area that to me looks like Barcelona’s equivalent of Leicester Square called Las Ramblas. Basically it’s full of people selling you touristy shit and dodgy guys everywhere. We’ve been warned about pick pocketing as it’s really common here, and nearly end up in a fight with a drunken polish guy when he tries. As much as it’s cool to be in Barcelona, I get the feeling we aren’t actually really seeing Barcelona.



The next day is much better and we spend some time at an awesome beach in the afternoon. We sit right out at the furthest end of a pier dangling our legs over the beautiful clear water. Looking out at the sea, on a beach in weather that we’d be lucky to get in high summer (in November here) we feel lucky to be here. Sadly we have to get to Madrid so we leave all too soon. We get out of Barcelona and make the drive to Madrid through spectacular wild Spanish scenery. I love Spain, and although we’ve crossed many borders and gone through loads of different countries already, Spain in some ways feels the most like we’re in a totally different country. I guess partly due to the climate, but either way we’re really stoked to be here.

-Gus

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