Exlovers Tour Diary – Part 1

We recently spoke to exlovers about their new single amongst other things. This month sees them tour the UK with Emmy The Great and who else but TGTF have been given exclusive access to the tour?? errr.. nobody that’s who. We follow exlovers in the form of a tour diary to see first hand the tour experience. This is part one, with three more parts at 4pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday…

Oxford Academy – 31/01/09

After a hectic week preparing for a long old slog on tour and excitement building, illness hits and Pete is floored by a throat infection. No way we can get ourselves roused for the trip to oxford. Pretty annoying for the very first day of the tour! But, fighting fit (almost) we set off in our trusty, and rather dilapidated Renault master on the road to Exeter.

Exeter Phoenix – 01/02/09

Always like a jaunt down to Exeter. Nice town, nice crowds and we get to stay at Laurels mums’ house and get food and whiskey! Only mild over excitement in the van from Chris, who is prone to getting carried away sometimes (and unbearably talkative) and we arrive at the phoenix. It’s a great venue and the first taste of the artsy style places we’re going to be playing with Emmy the great. Finally get to meet the people we’re going to be spending a lot of time with and everything seems pretty amicable thus far. Instantly hit it off with the Euan, Jo and Adam from ‘young husband’ who are jangly, distorted, pavement-esque excellence.Always nice to meet another band who are fellow idiots like ourselves! Looking forward to seeing more of them throughout the month.

We play well but a bit of technical problems and mild rustiness run through the set, although the crowd reaction is pretty great. Good but will get better. We also start getting through the horrific weather reports, which are causing havoc in the southeast. Which is where we’re heading next. Sweet. Kinda looking forward to some snow but not really feeling the whole dying in a massive Renault master wreck. Anyhoo, we load out and make our way to chez laurels mums for a few drinks and sleep.

Brighton Komedia – 02/02/09

So the weather doesn’t help us out at all. In fact, it’s a fucking mess. We are driving about 20mph all the way to Brighton and every time we think we’ve broken through the snow we come to a closed road and have to go round. Really, really annoying. At the end of it all, our man-mountain titan of a driver, Simon, is a quivering, tear-soaked mess. Bloody good driving though.

We see the three sights of Brighton; the Pavilion, the pier and Fatboy Slim! And he’s only there for our whole bloody set! He leaves very happy and impressed (He doesn’t talk to any of us, but his face betrays his emotions). Next stop Zoe Ball. The set is played to an entire sit down crowd, which is a bit off putting and makes us feel like we’re being too loud in songs like ‘weightless’ and ‘the new one that’s a bit newer than the other one’.

We’re staying at Chris’s friends house this evening but, alas, sickness hits again. The route back to London is impassable, in a ‘lord of the rings’ style weather display, and so we need a hotel sharpish. Luckily, Danny (the Gandalf of our happy fellowship) finds us a nice premier inn. If it’s good enough for Lenny Henry, it’s good enough for exlovers. Shower, wee, whiskey, bed.