...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
talking about the amount of muck spreading around Kent in recent days… he’s right, Kent smelt rather odd last week!  The travel time is approx. 3 hours, we stop off half way to get some food and drink, now I don’t remember exactly where we stopped, but it was the most impressive selection of ‘Service Stop’ food I have ever come across in this country, it was quite unbelievable.  Back into the StoneWire van after food & drink, put some music on (a compilation from Rob’s relative I think) and then arrive at the venue.

We have a little while before we need to bring our equipment in as headliners ‘The Manic Shine’ are setting their stage gear up.  Me, Steve and Gaz go out for a quick look around and another sandwich, Sky is in the bar and Rob is chilling / sleeping in the van.   In the town I grab myself a meatball sub
(very nice thank you!), Steve goes to a cash point and Gaz keeps us company (what a nice bloke).  Walking back to venue, as I try not to drop a meatball from my sandwich, we encounter a guy that is leaning against the wall of a church, staring straight forward and sneezing erratically, non-stop… we find this really rather humourous… Sneeze… Intense stare at Church… Sneeze… Intense stare at Church… Sneeze, SNEEZE… Intense stare at Church… you get my drift.

Back at the venue, and we have a chat with the sound engineer.  Our game plan is now as follows…  (1) Get our bits on stage, plug in ready… (2) sound check during half-time of the Rugby match (England v Australia), (3) when the game finishes we hit the stage.

Now, I’m not at all much of a Rugby fan, so whilst the game is on I sit with my guitar twiddling about and warming up.  Steve is very much a Rugby fan, so he swears and grimaces at the big screen whilst England get beaten by Australia… StoneWire now have the challenge of getting some smiling faces back in the room!!!

We hit the stage a minute or two after the finish of the Rugby, by all accounts the sound out front is really really good and the onstage mix is real good too, we get off to a flyer… ‘Walk The Line’, into ‘Why Me’ then ‘Favourite Bitch’.  We tone it down (but just a little bit) for the next three songs and then complete the set with the heavy groove of ‘Winter’s Hold’, the up-tempo climax of ‘Running with Ghosts’ and then the BIG riffs and chorus of ‘Fix You’. It’s a good crowd in the Iron Road and they seem to really dig our set. Smiles returned.

A quick van load and we’re back in time to join the crowd for ‘The Manic Shine’ set which is really very good. All in all a great night with great music.

Now back into the van, through the fog and into the night… with very much a ringing in my ears!!!

Good stuff – now bring on Northampton @ The King Billy.