Hello fiendish blog fiends.

Holy shit, don't go and watch Sweeney Todd unless you're absolutely sure! Absolutely sure you can handle two hours of agony. I was led to believe that it was going to be as gripping as it was black and gruesome, and "If you don't like musicals, don't worry because you'll hardly even notice it's a musical at all!" That's bollocks. It was in fact a continuous shit-stream of contemptible songs and singing from start to finish, the light 'disney-like' style of which completely ruining and alienating the goriness of the plot. By the end I felt like I'd been covered in sludge. The highlight of a Tim Burton film pretty much being a cameo performance by Ali G is even more telling! Not sure what I was hoping for really. An audacious idea I suppose, but one best left to the likes of Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke!

We've been having lots of fun and madness the past week. Tommy Doyles is a crackin fock'n night ewt I tell ya. Fock'n crackin aye. It gives you that 'hootin and hollerin' sort of good old Irish thigh slapping, fiddle playing, jig-like, hay-strewn, barn-dancing ambience, being high up in the rafters of an old oak tavern as it is. But then bizarrely, no sooner had we left the stage to catch our breath and returned to start packing down our gear and celebrate with a good jolt of Irish Whiskey, had it suddenly turned into a hip hop night where throngs steamy jiving booty had assembled, and were being thrust left right and center. Time to either 'Put your hands in the air', or make a sharp exit. Saturday gigs- they're the worst!

....Cleveland.. ..Ohio....'s a strange place. One where we were warned not to walk four blocks from the Agora Ballroom to the Days Inn on our own in broad day-light down a seemingly harmless quiet stretch of road. Were they over compensating because they thought that being from Wales we were from some 'Lord of the Rings-style' country shire where we live off turnip soup and have never seen a motor car before, or were we actually in mortal danger and all these seemingly benign vacant buildings were full of crazed homeless junkies, peeping out through spy holes preying on weak lone tourists to kidnap? Nah! I prefer the idea that all the local venue guys were staring at our feet and ears looking for irregularities, and whispering to each other in little huddled groups whenever we'd walk by. Nevertheless we had a great show.

....Chicago....- The Beat Kitchen. Really vibey place. For some reason the whole city was having its 4th July fireworks celebration- on the 3rd. A bit weird. They drag that one out a bit don't they?! I don't blame them. Any excuse for a piss up is worthy. A few notable artists were in attendance at the show- The Company of Thieves, and Brice Woodall (minus his positrons). Check that lot out. Nowt much else to say except, banging crowd, banging venue! (Was that worth saying?!)

The final day of this little run was very memorable! ....Milwaukee.... Summerfest 2008. Hurrray what a day! This is one of the larger festivals that they have here in ....America..... I've probably mentioned before about their lack of the huge alternative diverse summer festivals- which we have in the UK where the majority of the punters 'live' in the campsite for a weekend and have multiple huge stages which can hold around 60-80 thousand each, and varying sized peripheral tents displaying all genres of popular music from jazz to metal to techno, and in some cases theatre and film and dance and performance art and fair grounds and pretty much anything you could think of that's entertaining (except live sex shows! I knew you were thinking it!) So I know in ..America.. there is Coachella, which seems the most equivalent to what we have in ..Europe.., but the obvious reason for the lack of these all encompassing events is the sheer vastness of the country. Hence why there are successful touring festivals here like the Warp Tour where they bring the show to you. I think Lollapalooza was also a touring festival. Is that still going? Anyway, as a generalisation in America there are Radiofests where the major radio station in that state promotes and stages a smaller event which generally people from that state attend, and go home each night (and probably have a similar length drive to what would get you to a major festival in any part of the UK).

Anyway back to Summerfest- which is one of the more progressive of these radiofests boasting 12 stages and an eclectic line-up of bands like Stevie Wonder, Rush, Gnarles Barkley, Tom Petty, Seether etc. This was the first festival we'd done since the As Far As The Eye Can See tour, and we were billed two bands before the headliner 'Seether' on what was the more indie/alternative of the stages.
So the day-time was pretty uneventful. The highlight for me being 'Suffrajet' from ....Chicago-.... they were on before us and rocked out good. Then along came our set time, and the show went without a hitch. We rocked. Nice receptive crowd. Job's a good'un etc. [Incidentally the radio station presenting our stage were doing a text-in voted 'Emerging Artists' competition between 4 bands that day- including ourselves- where a number came up on the big screens to text if you wanted that band to win. Our first battle of the bands!]

But then things got a little bit crazy. After the show I was the first one back in the dressing room, on my own at that point as I apparently roll the best joints (a little duty of mine!), and no sooner had I gathered my thoughts (and my breath) enough to start that little task had Gaz come running in going "Quick, get your shit, some band has cancelled on another stage, we're going on in 10 minutes!". Great, I thought. Impromptu second show! Yeah rock and roll- lets go! So that was the extent of the decision making process- pack up quick and off we go to the adjacent stage. Another gig! BUT, alas it wasn't until we got there that it dawned on us to think, hang about, what stage is this again? IT'S ONLY THE FUCKING DEATH METAL STAGE, and get this- we were about to do the warm up slot before the headliners- 'Five Finger Death Punch', and fill in for a band called 'Black Tide' who hadn't turned up! No Joke! It's funny because before our first show on the other stage we were warned by the stage manager that "This is a family event now boys. They don't take kindly to bad language", and now we were standing before an army of extremely angry metal heads (on an even bigger stage) chanting "BLACK TIDE! BLACK TIDE!" and who, yes that's right, DON'T YET KNOW THAT BLACK TIDE HAVE CANCELLED! Naturally we started to feel a bit uneasy as we paraded out onto the stage to set up our 'keyboards' and stuff! A few members of Five Finger Death Punch were floating around watching us set up looking as incredulous as we were at the situation. But theirs was more a mocking type look of- "Oooooh. Good luck boys!" Ours more "Wait a second. Who said yes to this again?"! (And my thoughts in particular- "Gaz you cunt, now look what you've gone and done!") You know it was like- "Sorry folks, your thrash metal heroes Black Tide couldn't make it. How's about a nice bit of People in Planes instead!!! Anyone?" Now if you're reading this blog then you'd probably be thinking at that point, "Great! Good switch. Result. Two PIP shows back to back!" But, I can assure you that the crowd were definitely not thinking that. In fact speculation goes out the window because they were thinking out loud. Something along the lines of "FUCK YOU! FUCK KEYBOARDS! CUT YOURSELF YOU FUCKERS!" At that point we were thinking, shit, if we can just manage to not get bottled here it would be a success! If we can just avoid being rushed to casualty in an ambulance here we're on a winner! We were quite literally up against the blackest of tides, more like a black tsunami, and it was either sink or swim...
30 minutes passed....

Thank God! (or should we be thanking Satan!) Whichever, we made it happen! We turned up to 11, rocked our motherfucking hardest and somehow stayed afloat. We rode that fucking black tsunami! Yes- they were throwing devil horns and not bottles! They had the alternative rock in them, and we helped them identify it. You know, it's in those situations when it's best not to know the full details before you commit to something. Then you really find out what you're capable of. (Thanks Gaz! You really know what you're doing! Great call mate!) Probably our finest achievement to date was coming off that stage at the end, physically and emotionally drained to redeemed chants of "FUC-KING-GOOD! FUC-KING-GOOD!" A pretty basic compliment, but under the circumstances it was a triumph, and hey to cap it off, that's when they told us backstage that we'd won the battle of the bands from the first stage! So not such a bad day after all! Now where was I with that joint!

Incidentally on our final ceremonious parade through the festival at the end of the night back to the van, Mel and I came across the 'Dance Tent'. Well I say tent, it was actually a 10 foot square gazebo to keep the decks out of the rain. Very charming, and much more traditional and tribal than the usual ....UK.... dance tent affair of 10 thousand sweaty gurning mutants with glow sticks. Here there were basically about 20 people packed into a dusty square getting down face to face with the DJ. We permitted ourselves a little Bud light-fuelled rave. Much more like it than trying to generate a dancefloor vibe in the middle of a field of 60 thousand watching the Chemical Brothers or fucking Basement Jaxx!

So, onwards and upwards. We have a little break now before we pick up the tour again in a couple of weeks with an Australian band called The Skybombers! Sounds like a joke but yep, People in Planes and The Skybombers will be set to 'take off' in a town near you! Dates coming very shortly.
Album- Beyond The Horizon: Sept 9th.

Take it easy,
Now take your blog and shove it up your blogs you blogging blog holes. Blog you!

(sorry I didn't mean all that about the blogs and stuff. bye)
Pete x