Day 30: Birmingham
Welcome
Yesterday was the final day of our UK/Europe 2022 Tour.
I grabbed a pork and marmite sausage roll for breakfast from a bakery opposite our hotel.
We had a late checkout so I walked to find a coffee and after taking a wrong turn stumbled upon the Temple Church, a 12th century building that was mostly destroyed in the Bristol Blitz of November 1940. The tower still stands and is west-leaning, with the top leaning 1.64 metres from the vertical.
It was an ordinary drive but Tristan did give us a treat and speed down some country lanes for a bit. With two hours elapsed and with several bushes and branches trailing behind the van we arrived in Birmingham and pulled into the Castle and Falcon, a classic brick pub that would be our final venue for this run.
The pre-show rigmarole played out the same as every other day but this time we tried to make it count. Every lift of an amp, every splaying of a cymbal stand’s legs, every t-shirt counted and folded, all actions had the solemn respect and attention that this occasion demanded. The sound engineer at the Castle and Falcon was a helpful middle-aged gentleman named Ian and he did a fine job, although he was less concerned with the finality of the moment preferring to focus on the mix and keep his emotions out of the workplace.
I’m happy to say that Box 1 made it to the end of the tour and to be honest still had a lot of life left in it. It will be returned to the t-shirt factory and hopefully continue its life with another touring band.
Cherym have been an absolute dream to tour with and we were immensely sad to say goodbye. They provided us with a parting gift, a beautifully decorated cricket bat for us to take on future tours. Thanks Cherym, we can’t wait to spend more time in Ireland so you can show us around properly.
It took us a while to make it to Birmingham with several postponements along the way so we were stoked to finally make a return to the home of heavy metal. Black Sabbath and Judas Priest were in the back of our minds as we played the final notes of the night before waving goodbye and then rushing to pack all our gear off the stage to make room for the ‘Club Night’ following our show.
Anthony Metcalf is the man responsible for booking all of our tour accommodation and I’m glad that he read and acted upon the string of emails demanding that he find me a hotel with proper trouser care facilities. I don’t like to fly with wrinkled slacks so getting to use one of the wall mounted Corby 5000s they have at the Best Western Plus Windmill Village Hotel, Golf Club, and Spa, was a blessing. Thanks Anthony and I’ll catch all you fine readers next season.
Ben
