Newcastle, Glasgow, Sheffield and Birmingham…

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…!

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If you can’t see the Videos – visit www.faithlessblog.co.uk

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