4905/17825
The Happy Now? tour draws to a close, with just seven more gigs to do in the next five weeks after today. And all the excitement of feeling international, whilst not having to leave the UK (though I understand there’s some contention over that) as I flew to Belfast today. Going to an airport makes it feel like a holiday, even though it’s no different from any other gig really. I get access to some airport lounges with my bank account (not very good ones, admittedly, but they usually have free food and drink and places to charge your computer) and even though it was lunchtime and I’ve vowed to cut down on drinking and I was working later, it seemed a shame not to take advantage of what was on offer and have a free beer as I wrote my blog. And I also ate some crisps and a muffin. Because they were free. I still can’t shake this attitude, even though I am now able to afford to buy what I want and am trying not to be unhealthy. If something is free, the 22 year old me who lives on baked potatoes and has £3 in his bank account can’t help but take over and insist that I have stuff. Even if it’s stuff I don’t want. Because it’s free and thus it is my right.
The beer was a pretty nice treat in fact, but this lack of self control does not augur well for me returning to fitness.
As I was on holiday, I felt that I should go sightseeing in the city once I was here, but I hadn’t slept much last night and instead stayed in my mildly cell like room in the hotel and tried to snooze off the beer. It was hard as I seemed to have a bed from sitcom that was connected to the one in the next room through the wall. It couldn’t be, right? But at one point I thought there had been an earth quake or a bomb as my bed shook as the person next door bumped their bed against the wall. If they were going to have sex on that later I was going to essentially be taking part in a threesome.
I was taking part on the last day of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and back in the hot Black Box venue that I haven’t played for a few years. This gig had sold out weeks ago and I could easily have played somewhere twice the size (I will be back in a bigger venue next year) but I enjoyed the intimacy and in spite of the heat it was a much more lively audience than last night. I was even able to joke about how nice Dublin was and how if I lived here I’d want to be part of the same country as them.
After months of touring with just the Cannibal for company, it was nice to be doing a gig that was part of something bigger. The team at the festival were very friendly and I got taken out for dinner and then on to the marquee after the show to just miss Grandmaster Flash performing. They were going to go on to an end of festival party, but I was pooped and so had to be a party pooper. I felt pretty bohemian for having stayed out for one more beer and then stood near to somewhere Grandmaster Flash had just performed. So I went to bed, considering how my life has changed. And quite pleased that it has.
