Tour Blog
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Friday 29th June 2007 - 11:07pm
Well the Big Band are back in the UK. We arrived back about half an hour ago after a successful couple of days abroad. Everyone has thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we are all looking forward to going to Italy this time next year! There were a couple of things that went wrong of course - Chris Gunning leaving his passport in his suitcase instead of his hand luggage, noone taking any adaptors to plug the amps and keyboard in at the first gig, the coach being equipped with a video player that wasn't going to be able to cope with the DVDs that everyone had brought with them etc... Kate didn't manage to stay sober for the whole week like she was meant to - in fact she was drinking wine on the first night! Saying that, I don't think I would have managed if I'd been challenged to go without tea for that long so... Did you know that it is actually illegal to cross at a pelican crossing before the little green man lights up in Belgium? I didn't! Apparently you are subject to an on the spot 20 euro fine if you are caught - lucky I wasn't spotted by any police type people when I crossed in Brussels right in front of the Police Station (I didn't know about this fine then!). I also didn't realise that in most of Belgium, they prefer you to speak to them in English than in French and can get quite offended if you do speak to them in French. Ah well. Todays ferry ride was even more choppy than the crossing to France on Tuesday. This added to the fact that it appeared that every primary school in the country decided to return from school trips abroad on the same ferry made for a less than enjoyable crossing. But I had eaten an extremely good lunch before hand so didn't really care. The weather was also much nicer in the UK than in Belgium today. Anyway I thinks that all for the blog - hope you've enjoyed reading it. If I'm allowed, I'll be back with another one next year from Italy. Until then, bye! Rhys
Podcast - Day 4
Thursday 28th June 2007 - 11:55pm
"The Pyrenees? They're really small people aren't they?" I don't think I need to tell you who came up with that one do I? Well the second full day is now over. Today started with a trip to a small chocolate factory in Brugge that make every chocolate by hand and only sell in their own shop and cafe. Needless to say, we all bought some of the delicious chocolates and it's going to be hard getting them home without eating them first! We then had lunch at the restaurant where Andy had his pockets picked a couple of weeks ago. Scott ended up paying 14 euros for a litre of coke with his lunch! Then it was off to the second gig, a bandstand right in the centre of town with restaurants, cafes and bars all around us to provide us with an instant audience. We arrived late due to a road being closed on the way there but it wasn't too much of a problem. The weather stayed nice and dry (though a little too hot in my opinion!) and the band sounded good once again - you can hear some clips on today's podcast. John, our driver also filmed some of the concert so hopefully we'll have some video footage to upload onto the website shortly. A quick look at the beach before leaving to return to the hostel. We managed to collect enough money to buy everyone a drink at the hostel bar when we got back. Then we needed to decide on food... chinese takeaway was agreed on. However when we got back with it, we found that the hostel bar including all cutlery had been locked up and we had nothing to eat the food with. Luckily Andy ran round the corner to another takeaway place and pretended we'd just got to Belgium and had brought food but with nothing to eat it. After telling them we were here to visit local churches (!!) he managed to get us some forks to eat the food! And that's about it for today - most of us are struggling to believe that the tour is already nearly over. All that's left is the long journey home tomorrow. There'll be a short podcast and blog entry tomorrow - watch this space! Rhys
Podcast - Day 3
Wednesday 27th June 2007 - 11:32pm
Well the first proper day of the tour is already over. As I write this (well type actually), we are sitting in the bar (called The Rusty Elbow) of the youth hostel. It is of course Andy's birthday, and the hostel provided him with a massive cake that tasted very nice indeed (picture below). At the last count he has had Happy Birthday sung to him 8 times. We appear to have a couple of thieves on tour with us - I won't mention names but we have accumulated some glasses from the bar last night that probably shouldn't have made it back to the hostel - ah well! The Stella Factory went down well with most people - especially as there was not just one free drink at the end, but an hour of free drinking!! We then wandered into Leuven again to find a nice pavement restaurant for lunch before heading for the old people's home for the first gig of the tour. We played a slightly more traditional set and their eyes lit up when we did the Glenn Miller Medley! Everyone seemed to enjoy it (despite the trombone section in a certain number....) and they fed us with cake afterwards. We went straight from there into Brussels. After visiting the Manneken Pis, we found what we thought was a nice little restaurant and had a rather nice meal. And then Andy had an argument with the manager about the bill and well... we left. It should be pointed out that the bill was wrong - Andy didn't just pick a fight for no reason, he isn't that type... and I'm not just saying that because he is here in the bar with me... honest! We ended up in a bar that sells 2500 different beers. They also do tea. I didn't have any, partly because I couldn't be bothered to queue and partly because when I ordered my second cup last night, the barman asked if I was ill..... (incidentally the damn wisdom tooth has finally stopped hurting so I am moaning about things slightly less... the weather is also nice and cool so I'm quite happy). We have given up on the number roll call. We were all assigned numbers to shout out instead of taking a register but between 29 university students and a bus driver we seem to be incapable of collectively counting up to 30. Oh well. Off to Brugge tomorrow morning, followed by the second gig of the tour. Before I go, at last we have a Scott-ism... "I thought Spain was an island"... well I think you agree it was worth the wait, that's all for today, Rhys
Podcast - Day 2
Wednesday 27th June 2007 - 9:47am
Hello! The Bigband have arrived in Belgium! Yep we got here all in one piece... just about. Ash very nearly didn't make it. We were meant to be meeting at 6am. A phonecall to Ash at 6:20am woke him up... there's always one isn't there?! We made good time yesterday morning despite the traffic and arrived at the ferry terminal on time too. John, our driver (also playing bass with us on tour!) told us the crossing would be calm... not true!! Myself and Hannah were offered a massage on the ferry - you can actually hear this happenning on the podcast as we were recording at the time! The hostel is nice though I was totally confused by the duvet-less beds. Anyways upon arriving in Leuven we went for a luxury meal at Pizza Hut - can't complain at an all you can eat buffet though can we? After that it was onto the pub (surprise surprise!) where I once again insisted on drinking tea, but a lot of the band are looking a little worse for wear this morning - todays concert should be interesting. There are some photos of yesterday below including one of me looking my usual happy self on the bus... I hate photos. Today is Andy's birthday - send your Happy Birthday messages in! That's all for today, we're off to the Stella factory now! Rhys
Podcast - Day 1
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