O2 Academy Islington

London here we come……….. it is Friday afternoon, it’s Gaz’s birthday and the whole StoneWire family is excited that we are on our way to play the O2 Academy in Islington.

We only just received the go ahead a week before; I was waiting during sound check in Altrincham when the email came in, we have been confirmed to support Swiss Rockers Gotthard, yay! Rob and I know the band from way back when we were still in Germany. They have a great following all across Europe and Japan so I was surprised that no one else in the band knew them. It’s always interesting how some bands break in a certain market and some don’t (they did headline Rockingham at Rock City the next day though, so they must be known a bit here)

When we arrived at the venue we quickly got the pre-gig buzz that comes when you pull up at a new venue. We were greeted by the security guard who was absolutely charming, at one point he even called me Madam and I thought, ‘not so sure about that one’, haha. The crew that was hired by Tidal Promotions were also great, very helpful and there was no sense of “we are just the support”,

Tour Diary Update

Right... Northampton here we come.
We had a small race against the rain whilst the StoneWire van was being loaded up.  All morning the weather had been pretty decent for this time of year and right as we were halfway through loading up to get on the road, the weather turned... There were a few more bits of gear to go on this run of gigs and it really did feel like a giant game of Tetris!  It was a case of close the back door and don't open it again until we arrive - otherwise we'll get an avalanche of gear burying us!!

20 minutes on the road and all of a sudden a couple of us (me included) are as hungry as hell all of a sudden, not gonna stop yet though, a chewing gum will have to do for the next couple of hours as we've got places to be and traffic to beat!!!  This time I've bought my favourite cushion to relax with, very nice indeed - Gaz has bought a towel(?)! - I guess it does the trick.  We have a chuckle at something that we notice on the back of a hi-vis vest that a guy on a motorbike is wearing that says 'polite' but in the font that would normally read 'police', can't quite remember what it was about, other than that it was a very clever way of quickly grabbing the attention of motorists.  We're making good time and Sky is currently choking as someone mentions a story about 'Gaz's Night Time Sunglasses'...

...and so it begins!

So… Date one of the StoneWire ‘When the Crow Flies’ UK Tour – Evesham ‘The Iron Road’ and to kick off our tour diary here are the thoughts of our newest member… over to Jon…

It’s safe to say that there is a fair amount of excitement preceding this gig as it’s the first date of the tour and it comes off the back of a great headline gig at ‘Herofest’ a few weeks back. 45 minute support slot to play tonight so we’re gonna keep the set-list hard rocking and in yer face… no space for anything to slow and ‘considerate’ tonight I’m afraid!!!

We head off early afternoon… I guess my first conversational memory of the journey was Gaz

Welcome to Sky Says

Hello and Welcome to ‘Sky Says’, StoneWire’s very own blog.

This is the place where we will be posting our tour diary which will include stories from the road (and trust me, there’s always something happening when you’re touring – remember our Sweden van disaster?), Backstage shenanigans, set lists and all sorts of other stuff that happens when you’re travelling with a Rock ‘n’ Roll band.

We will write about music and have discussions with other musicians and industry people and maybe we can even expand to guest posts.

And then there’s me, I might just every now and then write something that interests me or I find