Posted in Uncategorized on June 18, 2011 by faithlesstourblog
From Johannesburg there was a 12 hour flight through the night to Sydney… only it would be 4 in the afternoon when the plane landed…
Not long into the Quantas flight, suspisions that Australia had lost it laidback “no worries!” demeanour were firstly confirmed by the attitude of the air crew…
LSK asked for a second drink and quickly got told “you guys need to curtail your drinking, this is a 12hour flight”…
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It only got worse upon landing…
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After 12 of the 20 strong Faithless tour party had been fully harrassed, searched, scrutinised and subjected to an extraordinary amount of idiotic questions from the Oz customs officials, the Tour party made it’s tired way to the Four Seasons Hotel…
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After chucking bags in rooms, everyone decided it was best to soldier thru and try to stay awake, so all headed down the road to a sushi restaurant…
Blissy had her hands full as Nate(with his Dad) had got to Sydney a few days earlier...!
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The next morning consisted of a stroll around the Botanical Gardens and the harbour…
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…taking in the Opera House and the famous Sydney Bridge…
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A poster for the Good Vibrations Festival
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After a spot of lunch by the harbour, it was time to head to the festival site for a sound check…
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With the jet lag kicking in hard, the whole afternoon started to turn a bit surreal…
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Dave continues on his 'project' (can anyone guess what it is yet?)
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Blissy openly pondered over the set-list…
…but didn’t get much response from a bunch of delirious or asleep musicians…
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So went to wake Maxi and see what he thought…
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Who promptly fell back asleep with it in his hand…
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While half the band got to head back to relax at the hotel, the other half had to head across town to do a couple of acoustic tracks for an Australian Radio station called Nova FM…
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The next day at a slightly drizzled-on festival site – Dale(a festival assistant & Top Bloke) brought a remote control car to the Faithless production office, to keep Hels Bells’s little helper amused…
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…while Blissy and Maxi were in the throes of the press tent…
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As everyone was ready for stage early, there was time to fit in a few games of table tennis…
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Typically, there were golf buggies to transport everyone the whole 30 metres to stage…
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Jo, being a triathlete, decided to race the carts…
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As everyone waited for the call… Rich, the video technician, popped over to say that ‘his mate George would be watching from the side of stage, if that was alright and wouldn’t put anyone off…?’
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A quick shoulder rub from Blissy and it was SHOWTIME! …
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LSK, being stage left and all, was the only one who had noticed(but not been too distracted by) Rich’s mate George…
Then he popped into the dressing room to say hello…
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It was of course the one and only George Michael!
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…then it was back to the Four Seasons, where Blissy decided to stay in and have a drink with some old school mates…
…while most others headed to the afterparty at the Ivy…
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George Michael & Jo
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Sydney harbour at night.
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The following morning, the entire line-up of the festival, headed to the airport to catch a flight to Melbourne…
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…but not before Maxi & Blissy had signed everyones stuff and had some photos taken…
Posted in Uncategorized on June 1, 2011 by faithlesstourblog
Maxi Jazz, LSK, Harry Collier and other members of Faithless have joined members of the London Community Gospel Choir, the Durban Gospel choir, Jamie Catto (1 Giant Leap) and musicians from around the world to record the song ‘Freedom for Palestine’, written by Faithless guitarist Dave Randall. You can pre-order your copy now. Go to http://www.freedomoneworld.org/ for more info…
Posted in Uncategorized on March 21, 2011 by faithlesstourblog
JOHANNESBURG
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The short plane journey from Cape Town to Johannesburg felt like a lifetime… This was mostly due to the horrific event of Jo’s ear drums bursting after 15 minutes into the flight… Everyone tried hard not to panic as Jo screamed in agony and blood trickled from one of her ears… Luckily a nurse was on board, who managed to reassure Jo slightly and then get the pilot to slowly take the plane down a few thousand feet…!
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The Faithless band and crew were relieved to make it to the hotel… none more so than Jo, who had a doctor waiting to see her…
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The doctor gave her a shot of cortizone and plenty of painkillers…
…and told her to take to her bed…
…but come time to head to the venue, there stood a groggy looking Jo, ready to escort the band…
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At the Gallagher Estate, the equipment had only just arrived, due to it not making it’s flight the previous night and finally doing the journey by road…
Which meant a soundcheck was well out of the window…!
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"More time to enjoy this fine food then"
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In his dressing room, Maxi played some guitar whilst keeping his mosquito zapping tennis raquet within arms length!
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With the girls all ready to rock, the news came through that a mini riot was occuring outside, due to terrible organisation and not enough staff on the doors…
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While the wait continued, Stan had worked out a new warm up routine…
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With most people now inside the building, the call to head to stage was made…
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SHOWTIME
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Apart from the mini riot, it being unbearably hot and the unenviable task of trying to get one of the limited beers from one of the 4 bar staff….
It was a fantastic show, to an extremely patient and deserving crowd.
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Back to the hotel, which had a perfect pool table in the bar, prompting Maxi to spend a lot of time there…
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An early morning drive to a game reserve was planned, leaving at 5.30…!
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Unfortunately, one of the crew fell ill just before getting there…
So it was agreed that the Lions, Elephants and Rhino would have to wait for another time and the minibus turned around…
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Which at least meant everyone got to have a proper breakfast back at the hotel…
Then it was agreed that a day at the pool was the best plan…
Nobby led the way in ‘freeing’ the rubber ducks that were beside everyones bath in their rooms…
They soon all had individual names and talk of a duck race was underway…
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Stan won the first race…
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A last crazy evening out was enjoyed by all… well, those that can remember it…!
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In the morning Maxi and LSK took a trip to the Puma store in Soweto… (to grab some swag)
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Some of the painted adverts on the walls…
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After lunch, the SUV’s turned up to transport everyone to the Turbine Hall, where a corporate gig for Red Bull was to take place…
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SHOWTIME
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The small stage layout was a strange one, with Andy, Stan and Blissy crammed into one corner, Sudha, Dave, LSK & Harry squeezed into the other, and Maxi on a slither of stage conecting the two sides…
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With a couple of hundred Red Bull staff and guests happily entertained, it was time to head back and pack the bags…
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A long flight to Australia was awaiting…
Of which no-one was looking less forward to than Jo…
Posted in Uncategorized on March 13, 2011 by faithlesstourblog
CAPE TOWN
With a 12 hour flight through the night and only 2hrs forward in the time zone, the Faithless band and crew disembarked in Cape Town in good spirits…
It was 34 degrees in the shade when everyone exited the arrivals terminal, which prompted Maxi to immediately remove his shirt…
Barely 20 minutes from the airport, Table Mountain came into view…
The Table Bay Hotel was very welcoming and Maxi was happy to get offered some champagne on arrival…
…his joy, however, was short lived as it turned out to be iced tea served in a champagne flute…
"Why would anyone do such a thing...?!!?"
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The rooms all had a nice view of Table Mountain and with the temperature being a good ten times that of the UK, it was time to hit the pool…
…where most people spent the last few hours of the afternoon…
…taking in some much needed sunshine, unwinding and looking forward to the local cuisine for dinner…
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The restaurant was in an big old corrugated iron shed, right on the beach…
…and the food, as anyone who has been to South Africa will know, was out of this world…
The freshest fish and seafood possible… and plenty of it!!
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The next morning Maxi and Blissy headed to do an interview at the 5FM radio station…
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Maxi, Sasha Martinengo & Blissy
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Back at the hotel, Andy and Sudha had been working out in the gym…
...not sure what Andy said to deserve a right hook from Sudha..!
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LSK had been out and about and bought postcards for everyone…
Maxi sat by the pool contemplating what to write on his postcards…
…but soon came up with some amusing lyrics…
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It was soon time to jump into one of the 5 big Lexus SUV’s and head to the venue…
In keeping with her badge theme, Blissy had ‘Miss Glam’ as her title for the day…
With these particular badges being supplied by Hels Bels, it was no surprise that Jo got ‘Miss Crazy’…
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A slightly extended soundcheck was had, due to it being the first gig back after 5 weeks off…
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During a break in proceedings… Stan and Maxi started taking it in turns to play ‘Guess the Bassline’…
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For those that were hungry, dinner was served straight after soundcheck…
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Harry, Stan and Maxi went out back to enjoy the last moments of sunshine with a beer and a smoke…
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Everyone was ready ahead of schedule, so while the others limbered up, Maxi got a 5 minute back rub from Blissy…
and it was time to head to stage…
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Throughout the afternoon, some members of the Faithless tour had added their names to the heavily tagged corridor wall…
to everyones amusement, someone had added a few words in front of Stan’s name …
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After many enquiries and a few accusations, it eventually came to light, that it was actually Stan himself who had created a genius moment of comedy by self-defecation…
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SHOWTIME!
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After the show, it was So hot that everyone stripped off… So all photos got censored…!
With the heat, the travelling and being a tad worn out from not having performed for a while.. ..it was straight back to the hotel for a swift nightcap and then to bed… A flight to Johannesburg awaited in the morning…!
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It was sad to have only spent a day in Cape Town but at least there was a few days off in Jo’burg to look forward to…
Posted in Uncategorized on March 2, 2011 by faithlesstourblog
NEWCASTLE
A brighter day greeted the Faithless travellers as they set about leaving Manchester…
Stan was well chuffed to be having his morning coffee on a Manchester pavement from a Beat the Street mug…
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The Angel of the North let everyone know that they’d arrived
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Outside the MetroRadio Arena, there was a dedicated team working hard to get a few tons of snow off the roof…
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A quick bite of lunch and it was into the coldest soundcheck ever…!
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Back in the slightly warmer dressing rooms, Dave was working on a secret song and updating his fantastic tour video diary…
…and Maxi was engrossed in his lyric book, writing down some fresh words that had popped into his head…
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Stan was enquiring why Harry was always wandering about in his underpants…
…but with no reasonable explanation to hand, Harry quickly chucked his clothes on and they all headed towards stage…
SHOWTIME!
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After a typically fantastic Geordie gig, everyone reminisced about the all-night aftershow party which had randomly occured last time Faithless set foot in Tyneside…
This time it was a much quieter affair…
LSK shows Blissy his latest bits of artwork…
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Maxi finished off jotting down his next masterpiece…
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The Union dj’s popped in to have an aftershow beer…
"I wouldn't go in there for at least 10 minutes if I were you!"
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Then there was just enough time to put Andy Hirst, the Lighting Designer, in his place…
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…before boarding the buses for some midnight sandwiches…
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With the worry of lots more snow, ice and (possibly) impassable roads, no-one was going to sleep much on the way to Glasgow…
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GLASGOW
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The very sleepy Faithless band members got dropped off at the Malmaison on West George street… while the crew went to do the load-in…
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After breakfast, everyone went to their rooms to get some proper sleep…
…only to be woken a few hours later with news that the gig had been cancelled by the Strathclyde Police due to dangerous travelling conditions…!!
The entire band were quick to point out that they themselves had managed to make it from Newcastle…but that was soon countered by the bus drivers, who reminded everyone of the fact that the buses were equipped with special Austrian snow tyres…and even so it had still been treachorous…!
So at 7pm, with heavy hearts, the band headed back into the bleak wintery conditions to make the journey to Sheffield… sparing a thought for the poor crew, who had spent a freezing cold morning loading into the SECC only to be told to turn around and load it back out again…
The amount of abandoned vehicles on the main arteries around Glasgow showed just how bad it had been…
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Super gutted at not getting to feel the unbeatable love of the Glaswegian crowd, Maxi vowed that a rescheduling would have to take place at the earliest opportunity…
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NOTE:
(unfortunately due to reasons beyond Faithless’s control this will have to be in the smaller surroundings of the O2 Academy)
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SHEFFIELD
A very slow journey from Scotland got the buses into Sheffield just before 2 in the morning…
…where the band made sure they knew what time breakfast would be served until and took themselves to bed…
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The following morning, a student demonstration against the raising of tuition fees took place across the road outside the Sheffield City Council building…
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At 4pm a load of taxis turned up to ferry everyone to the Sheffield Arena…
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Where Jo and Bellsy were trying to make the dressing rooms feel a bit more ‘Christmassy’!
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The crew were busy line checking all the gear before soundcheck…
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Ben Milton - Monitor Engineer
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After soundcheck, Harry got some much needed repairs done…
…and then relaxed with the latest copy of Viz..
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While in catering Blissy was giving some sound advice to the Union boys who were the first support act on the UK leg of the tour…
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Blissy shows off a huge Christmas Biscuit that Maxi's friend had brought from Germany
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All too quickly it was time to head to stage…
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SHOWTIME
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After a swift but very pleasant aftershow drink up with friends and family, the band rolled merrily onto the buses for a short drive to Birmingham…
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Nothing gets past our LSK…
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BIRMINGHAM
After a couple of days hanging around the biggest Christmas market in Europe… It was finally time to head round the corner of the Birmingham Hyatt, to the impressive National Indoor Arena, where a gig awaited…
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Catering had gone Christmas mad… Alongside the amazing, no holds barred, Christmas dinner with all the trimmings imaginable, there had also been a delivery from Secret Santa… Presents for everyone… Which, for the record, consisted of 46 permanent members of staff (including the band) to make the Arena Tour happen!!
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Blissy's 'Yummy Mummy' badge from Santa
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Black Powder and Deodorant
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The Beautiful Sudha
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SHOWTIME
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Birmingham provided an equally impressive crowd to perfectly match their magnificent venue..
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What with not being able to go home due to fear of people absconding, another night at the Hyatt in Birmingham was on the cards, before one final bus journey back to London in the morning…!
Posted in Uncategorized on January 31, 2011 by faithlesstourblog
The Faithless tour buses pulled out of Nottingham and headed into the very snow laden countryside….
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Whilst conditions were treacherous, everyone felt perfectly safe in the hands of H.P(pictured below) and Ray, two of the most experienced drivers in the business…
…and the fact that the ‘Beat the Street’ buses were from Austria and had the latest snow tyres on…!
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At the hotel, there was going to have to be a fast turn around…
…firstly because the band were due at the venue…
..and secondly because the buses were parked on double yellow lines outside…!!
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Jo the Christmas Fairy!
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LSK and Stan wait in reception for the others...
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Maxi turns up just in the nick of time, to save the buses from getting some parking tickets…
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It’s a good job that even our most hated of public servants, i.e. traffic wardens (a.k.a. Wankers), are keen Faithless fans…!
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Upon arrival at the Manchester Evening News Arena, everyone popped into catering…
Where Steffi was guarding her latest batch of fairy cakes for desert…
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Then it was straight into soundcheck…
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…then time to get ready…
In the girls dressing room, it was all malteasers, coke and make-up...!
With half the band stemming from t’north and everyone having major friends and connections nearby, the vibes felt very much like a home gig… Nerves and all…!
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When all the stretching and karate kicks were out of the way, it was time to head towards stage…
SHOWTIME
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As you can see in the ‘Thankyou’ video, with the reactions from both the audience and from the stage, an amazing experience was shared by all…
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Steffi had been into the dressing rooms while everyone was on stage and had left another tray of her crazily decorated fairy cakes and cup cakes…
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Hels Bels was taking down her laminated dressing room signs… but didn’t want any one getting lost or confused, so made do with a sharpie and some A4 paper.
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Lucky LSK got to go home to Leeds for the night...
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…everyone else stayed behind having a chat into the wee hours…
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It was most definitely a night for the Black Powder…
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