The airplane captain shows us what sporty driving means. Excellent. The spanisch Bord personel refuses to speak understandable English. And tue airplane Looks like a modern bathtube. We feel safe! But we arrived safely in Stansted and took a taxi to out youth hostel in the cosy town of Saffron Walden. Mike, the host of the 600 years old out hostel (magnificent) tells us where the cheapest Burgers live and that’s all we need to know. This morning fat English breakfast - the tourist thing. Delicious! So the first day feels like holidays (it is…) and now we’re waiting for the other guys to pick us up. Tonight Northampton - time to get some workout.

More about our first show in England tomorrow.

The first gig of the tour is waiting. The guys of through solace are coming by to pic us up. They got a van which is around 50 years old and got like 270 000 miles on his back (no joke). 14 people and a lot of equipment fit in there… actually on the roof as well. Looking like the transsib we make our way to Northampton. Busdriver Richard is doing a great job and we arrive safely. The club is not really packed but we have a great time hanging out and playing some music. The question where to sleep is going to be answered as well which is cool. So after a cool first day we’re happy to fall into a comfortable bed and enjoy ourselves. Tomorrow we’re heading North… that’ll be great I can tell you.

Its Tuesday morning and we’re looking forward to a nice gig tonight in Huddersfield. But there should be some surprises waiting for us. As we get right out of the van at the venue the promoter sends us a message and cancels the gig. Alright what shall we do? The next surprise is waiting right in the club called “the West riding” . The girl working there is actually coming from Jena, the hometown of some of us. Very nice and she immediately gets into her mission of fixing this night’s show. So we just paint some flyer on our own and get it copied. Then all the crew walks around the city and invites people. Being your own street team is fun actually! Later in the club quite some people are showing up and for the day of redemption and through solace present us some amazing shows. We have a great fun on stage as well and people seem to like it. Weird feeling beeing far from home and shouting at the people in a foreign language and they still connect to it. We feel very welcomed here! And the Huddersfield metalheads look great with their Whirlwind Records base caps. The aftershow party turns out to be a great thing getting some free drinks and a cool DJ as well.
We give a big cheers to Alex and her crew who saved our day and made this night very special! Thanks for that and we’ll be back in the “West Riding”.

Alright today we’re heading Scotland. Should be careful not to mix up Scottish English and all that stuff. In Glasgow, Dave the promoter is already waiting in the 13th note café. They got a nice downstairs room for shows and it’s gonna be very hot as well. After short sightseeing the concert begins. The guys from through solace and for the day of redemtption delivering a great show as usual and we got some violent dancers in there. Cool. Our show is interrupted by some accidents. First AndI is jumping into Rob and he has to fix his guitar and cable stuff. Then Andi hurts his head on the monitor box (which is standing on the ground!!!). He got a huge lump which looks Rock’n’roll actually.
Afterwards we try to fit 20 people into the two room appartment of Dave. Cosy! But its working out and Hoth found some internet access in the aerospace again. Great Job. Tomorrow we’ll go to Newcastle not knowing what’s going on there. It’s gonna be fun anyway. So far we have a great time with the other bands. There’s a real community feeling growing.

Again. This morning the promoter told us that we can’t play in Newcastle cause the venue is not letting uns in. Anyway we’ll give it a try and start our journey south. We kind of getting used to the killing climate in the van, eating, sleeping, and complaining about the lack of space.

At the club in Newcastle, the dog and parrot, the problem appears to be not existing. The guys there just let us in and tell us to play. So noone knows bout the problem of the promoter. Anyway he’ll miss a quite decent night.

Again, we print out some flyers on our own and go inviting people. And there are some showing up - just enough to have a comfortable atmosphere in the small venue. There are also two other bands at the club which are ought to play as well. Whatever, we get that sorted and every band’s gonna play a short but intense set.

After the first local band, for the day of redemption manage to produce the first circle pit of the tour. Excellent. The people hold their level and are quite into every band which is playing. So we have a great time enjoing a short and great show. Crazy people.

After the traditional beer can on the pathway before the club we’re kind of happy that we spend money which we don’t have on another cosy bed and warm shower. Well that’s worth it.

So we liked Newcastle a lot - also the city made us wanna stay. Even more exciting, considering the fact that the gig was actually cancelled in the morning. Quite some surprises waiting for us here in that country where people always drive the wrong way :-)

...this one ia a stupid fantasy story which resulted from loooong bus travels. And its just not possible to translate:)

Its 2.41 in the morning. And not the end yet. We’re in the van on the way to the airport. Richard has taken the opportunity to have some more hours in his beloved van J and it’s his birthday!!! I could imagine some better things on my birthday than driving around some stinking dudes which are either sleeping or talking weird things in a foreign language. Rich – we appreciate that!

A few hours earlier: We are in South Wales- in Neath or more exact in a little town in the nearby. The last show of our tour was supposed to be open air. But the weather was not liking that which made us going inside the Rugby club belonging to this court. Before we watched some Rugby and football match as well (how can the referee just end the game when there's a penalty in the last minute? Don't get that) The location was alright and we met some other bands (liked firefly) to play with us. Not that many people found their way to the venue which I can understand looking at the weather and the fact that they expected it to be open air. Nevertheless for the day of redemption, through solace and we played some wild shows to exhaust our last energy for this last night. Had loads of fun to hang out woth all the guys and made some friends again. As eating always is important – We had the biggest burger I’ve ever had!

Time to say goodbye. Sad that this always happens when we just got to know each other.

In the bus again. Everybody is fighting against the heavily needed sleep. Actually just Richard and me. He should not sleep cause of driving and I look after him a bit and assist when it comes to sort out the next opportunity for having a coffee. The others either talk nonsense or are asleep. The trip takes us 5 hours and finally we make it to the airport. Here we get along spending the last money on some breakfast and getting into that noisy Ryanair plane again. The pilot goes for the record and we’re home early. Martin nearly causes a crash withs car by driving on the left side… he must have missed that we just flight home.

Holidays are over. We especially thank the guys of through solace (for putting up the tour, being great tourmates and making tight music – keep it up) for the day of redemption (you impressed us being such a compassionate band on and off stage – loved it) Richard (much more than just a driver – big fun hanging out with you) and all the others which hosted us in their clubs, invited us to play, and came to the shows to please us! Was awesome to be far away and feel home on stage as everywhere.

Special thanks go out as well to Philipp whoreplaced Silvia on bass for this tour. Very good job and great tourmate!

In the next days we’ll put up a huge foto page and videos are in the making as well. Islands, we’ll be back!