FAIRCHILD kindly gave us access to some exclusive behind the scenes footage from their travels around the UK, with New York four-piece MOTHXR. In the final part of the tour diary series, it becomes more a story of friendship and celebration than finalities and goodbyes.
Day 4 – Nottingham
Round up by Adam Lyons (frontman/singer), James “Jum” Alexander (drummer) and Tommy Davies (bassist)
We’re back. Day 4. So we’ve reached the halfway mark and we’ve made it thus far. We thought it would be a really good idea to go out in Glasgow till 4 in the morning (to a bar called Nice’N’Sleazy’s). Then get up after four hours, just shy of five hours sleep, and drive six hours to Nottingham, it was tough. We got there sleep deprived, we didn’t know if we’d get to the hotel before soundcheck, it took a bit longer than expected.
Can we talk about Nottingham’s one way street system? The maze. It took us 20 minutes to collect the van which was about 200 metres from the venue, so it took us 20 minutes to do a loop. We pretty much went around the whole city via Suffolk, to come back into Nottingham so we could park the car, then get the gear in. By the time we found the venue it was soundcheck time so that meant most wardrobe changes were facilitated in the van, viewed by the onlookers of Nottingham’s local CBD. And by soundcheck, we mean get up on-stage when the doors are supposed to open, check your instrument and hope to god the sound guy likes you and knows what he is doing. But he did.
I think we all take a bit of pride in being able to get six band members onto an already crowded stage, plug in and just go for it, no matter what the circumstances. That confidence is like a shield of armour that we take to every show. Most nights we are playing deaf so you get use to it pretty quick. Everyone performed in singlets (which the English call vests), it was so hot. We pretty much detoxed out all the toxins from the previous 3 nights.
The drive from Glasgow to Nottingham.
Nottingham show.
Nottingham’s finest English breakfast.
Mothxr in Nottingham.
Day 5 – Bristol
Round up by Tommy Davies (bassist) and Nathan Lyons (keyboard/synth)
I [Tommy] was lucky enough to have the drive from Nottingham to Bristol and it was a pretty epic day. 25 degrees, a two hour drive, smooth sailing all the way there in the heap’of’shit van that we’ve got. So when we got there it was pretty standard stuff, waiting for everybody to soundcheck. The venue was The Exchange, Nathan has played there before when the boys toured with MUTEMATH but I hadn’t actually been there before. [Note: earlier this year, three members of FAIRCHILD supported MUTEMATH on their UK/EU tour in a stripped down format]
It’s the only venue on the tour where a few of us had been before so we kinda knew what to expect with the setup, we had a few sound issues at the previous gig, so we wanted to redeem ourselves this time. The night actually flew past and by the time we got to play, it turned out to be one of our best performances so far.
The locals were super stoked to see us play and gave some very positive feedback. It was first real night that we got to hang out with the Mothxr sound tech. A dude called Ilia, a weapon sound guy with a thick French accent and an infectious personalty. If we got a chance to take a sound guy out on tour with us, he would be number one on the list. We stayed at our third Travelodge which had an all night bar – big mistake.
Nathan waiting for soundcheck in Bristol.
Tommy stretching his legs after the drive to Bristol, looking for the accommodation.
Patchy’s pre-Bristol show warm up.
Lonely nights at the merch stand.
Day 6 – London
Round up by Adam Lyons, Rhys Lyons (the band’s manager) and Tommy Davies
The all important London show. It was at Dingwalls, the place was rammed. We even got soundcheck out of the way 15 minutes before doors opened. That was a win. And when we were walking around on-stage before hand people were shouting ‘FAIRCHILD’ and knew our names. I don’t know about the other bands but I have never known people that we didn’t actually know to be screaming out our names before a show. It was absolutely ridiculous but also very humbling.
We got lots of nice feedback too after the show, people came for photo’s, a lot of merch was sold.
London pre-soundcheck.
London show.
Tommy’s finger explosion, London.
London crowd.
Day 7 – Southampton
Round up by Tommy Davies, Tim Voeten (guitarist) and Nathan Lyons
We left London a little dazed and confused because we had such a fun night but also we we’re all a little disorientated from a week of driving and playing shows. Everyone had to put up with me yelling at my phone all the way to Southampton because Geelong was playing Hawthorne in the first qualifying final of the AFL and it was intense. I don’t expect anyone in England to know what the hell that means but back in Australia it is a big deal.
We had never played in Southampton before, and prior to load in we decided to go to our local Travelodge to drop off our bags, but to our excitement there is more then one Travelodge in Southampton. Which James managed to navigate us to two of the wrong ones before we found our correct home for the night.
We played at Joiners which is a pretty cool bar, in the middle of not the prettiest part of Britain that we’ve been in, that’s for sure. But it was good fun, and an energetic crowd. Mothxr had a tough night because they were having a few sound problems and the show got pushed back a little. So we banded together in the pit and made sure we’re getting amongst it as much as possible. They sounded amazing and really put on a show.
There were a few Savage Garden group sing-a-longs that night after the gig.
Early morning travel lodge in Southampton.
Day 8 – Brighton
Round up by Tim Voeten, Nathan Lyons and Tommy Davies
Last day with Mothxr and Natives down in sunny beautiful Brighton. It really turned it on for us the last time we were here as well [Note: the irony here is that both times FAIRCHILD have played in Brighton it’s been a miserable rainy day]. We’re at the Green Door Store this time, it seems like it’s the middle of absolutely nowhere but it’s really cool. It literally does have a green door. It actually has three green doors.
Fingers crossed everybody can get setup with no sound issues for the last show and make it an arena rock show tonight *Jokes*. It’s a shame that it’s our last night on tour with these guys because they’re really freaking cool, it’ll be bittersweet. It’s going to be a depressing drive back to Manchester tomorrow but we’ll try not to think about that until tomorrow morning.
There was a different feel to Brighton because we had to say goodbye to the Mothxr crew, and we had grown quite fond of them throughout the last week. so after we finished playing the party began. Mothxr played an amazing set. After the show there was a lot of bonding going on, group photos, exchanging of band shirts and from all reports the best deep house rave party the Green Door Store had ever seen.
We wish we could have continued the tour with Mothxr into Europe but instead, the next day we dragged our sore heads into our post apocalyptic tour van and headed back to Manchester to start the working week.
Patchy is just weird at the best of times.
Brighton goodbyes.
Missed part 1 of FAIRCHILD’s tour adventures? Head here.
Find all FAIRCHILD’s previous releases on iTunes here.
All photo’s provided by FAIRCHILD. Photo credits to Tim Voeten and Lowri Burkinshaw.
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