Day 17: Brighton
Welcome
Yesterday we left London on the A2 motorway, and then took the M25 and M23 down to Brighton to play a show at Patterns.
I again went for breakfast with my cousin William, who I should mention was generous enough to put me up at his flat while I was in London. We went to The Good Egg in Stoke Newington and I ordered an ‘Iraqi Aubergine Pita’.
Jonathan earned the first points of the day with a pre-journey table wipe.
On the drive down to Brighton we stopped at a gas station where Liz earned a quick point for a carefully chosen Krispy Kreme.
Our soundcheck was extremely pleasant and afterwards we got fish and chips to take down to the beach for dinner. Liz unfortunately fell victim to a coordinated gang of seagulls who swooped in from behind, one pouncing on her head while the others stole her piece of fish straight out of her hand.
Not fifteen minutes later we saw another group of beach-goers fall victim to the same tactics, this time with a slice of pizza being the spoils. Ben did score a notable point for unpicking his inside jacket pocket so he could sneak a beer down to the beach for Tristan.After dinner Tristan and I went down to the end of the Brighton pier for a rollercoaster ride, followed by a slide down the Helter Skelter.
The fish and chips pre-attack.
Possibly one of the culprits.
Right before the show we had a minor disaster when Jon's amp broke down. He handled it magnificently though, quickly plugging into a DI box (direct input) so we could do the show. After load-out we went with our friends from Peaness back to the now seagull-less beach and enjoyed a few drinks next to the softly lapping waves.
There were some significant points scored yesterday that I wanted to mention. Jon scored a point for a quick guitar amp fix but lost one for leaving the van key on the beach. I got a point for buying breakfast for Tristan but lost a point when I was late for van call because I read the map wrong. Liz scored well with her Krispy Kreme but then lost a point for having her fish stolen. Tristan was the only one with enough stamina to pull ahead at the end of the day. He fixed Chrissy P's bike seat and he delivered a great dinner recommendation. We ran into a spot of bother when we were selling merch after the show and we couldn't get internet to operate the card-reader. Tristan engineered a great solution by turning his hotspot on and leaving his phone halfway up the stairs with the security guard, enabling us to connect to the worldwide web by barely a spider's thread. He did lose a point for leaving a banana skin behind the merch table but still ended up with a 1 point lead over everyone else in the band. Nice work Tristan, it always feels good to win with a -1 on the board.
My faucet of the day is a beautiful example of a vertically oriented three way system with an independent temperature control, that Liz christened Squareky Clean.