Falling Down / Rockin' Out...

Friday night in Birkenhead and we hit the ground running, really. It’s not every tour that we get the luxury of rehearsals but we did this time out and it helped. Have to say, I enjoyed the gig immensely, as did the rest of the band. Muddy strapped on a new guitar especially for the occasion. He now has a fine Custom Shop Gibson Les Paul tobacco ‘burst. And... it sounded mighty tasty in his capable hands – perhaps a little more open or transparent than his honey ‘burst one.

I fulfilled a particular Ash tradition right from the start. It’s customary for me to injure myself by falling over, or hitting my head at the beginning of a tour and for Bob Skeat it’s the same thing at the end of a tour. Come to think of it, Joe Crabtree had a bizarre episode on a plane not too long ago. If none of us has an accident (hopefully not too serious) then we get superstitious and nervous. This time, I’d had a crazy journey across the Atlantic due to bad weather in New York and naturally, I was slightly spaced. After Joe had very kindly collected me at Manchester airport, I ended up tripping over my suitcase in a kind of balletic slow mo’ while gamely trying to hold on to my precious computer. My freefall was ended by crunching my shoulder and face into Joe’s gravel driveway while he looked on in disbelief, no doubt remembering his own collapse mid – flight prior to the last USA tour.

Interestingly, Bob had slipped on a wet hotel bathroom floor at the end of the recent German tour, damaging various body parts on some particularly fine designer porcelain fittings. So, now we know everything in that department is taken care of and it all bodes well for the next 40 dates.

By the way, I would like to welcome our new guitar tech, Olaf Broders, who is on loan from the popular German band, July. See you all at a venue in or near your town.

~ A.P.