Wrist duly slapped!
Whereâs that on Bennetts Hill? Halfway up or halfway down? 
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Reprimanded over two dots!
Stage times:
Lazuli: 7.30-8.10
Fish: 8.30-10.30
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Drinking time 12 noon - until I canât drink no more 
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We are in the Briars rose crystal chandeliers lol⌠Andy is on flight mode lol due to incompetent battery life lol⌠
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Metre long bratwurst are going down well in the market!!
What, with sword swallowers?!
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Phenomenal, the audience was shite, but the band and performance was superb. Roll on Glasgow when we can get amonst it. 
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The audience where I was upstairs was crap theyâd come for one songâŚ
The performance was fantastic, Fishâs voice held out really well, was expecting him to hold back a little considering the problems heâs had recently and him heading to Glasgow soon for the last dates,but he was phenomenal!
I had a great night, shame those around didnât bother.
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Fantastic gig tonight!
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Great Venue, Great Performance, but Audience was crap, I was upstairs on the balcony giving it laldy and those around me sat on their arses doing Jack shit, Birmingham punters are poor, well at least most of them, no heart and soul.
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I was also on the balcony, as I said to Andy afterwards, chap next to me clapped for the first time in the gig at the end of The Company! Shocking. I donât think that Pipeline is a good opener, he needs something like Incubus to get the people on their feet.
Iâm not sure if the Town Hall does standing gigs but seating killed it, though the acoustics were very good.
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I must admit, reading about it on here, Iâm surprised to hear that it was a seated gig.
Just read Fishâs FB blog on the gig; not a happy bunny!
Have you got the link Keith?
Bit of a nightmare yesterday in Birmingham. As first gig in run of 3 I was hoping for a relatively easy one regarding not having to push the voice and it ended up exactly the opposite.
The sound on stage was one of the worst on tour due to the venue acoustics rather than our engineer who was struggling himself out front. Lazuliâs engineer had come backstage after show with a haunted look after fighting with the desk. The room is great and perfect for acoustic instruments but itâs an animal with a PA cranked up.
What it meant was that onstage I could only hear a mush of sound and was pitching into a huge undefined mess of frequencies.It wasnât helped by a voice that was struggling with the top end where I really needed to hear where I was moving and catching notes. Probably my worst vocal of the tour and despite a good 20 minute warm up pre show I couldnât get rid of the âcracksâ. I ended up pushing too hard and today was straight down to an A and E in Sheffield to get more cortisone to get the swelling down in the chords. Iâd finished the last short course on the day off in Birmingham and I obviously needed some more. Itâs a short term fix and not an option I have ever used in recent years but with so much pressure on these gigs I have to use every weapon in the arsenal to make sure they happen no matter how âdirtyâ.
With a sore throat bug now doing the rounds in the circus I cannot take any chances and there are scores of bears in the backwoods that donât eat as much honey as I do just now.
The other problem last night was that the lighting was very basic and mainly washes leaving nowhere to hide on a big orchestral stage. I ended up getting very self conscious as I struggled in some sections to hit notes that I couldnât make out to form. The others were struggling too even with the in ear monitors and no one was relaxed and enjoying playing. I could see that the audience were getting off on the show but we could hardly hear the responses in the cacophony.
Another seated audience meant that energies changed as well and it wasnât until âKayleighâ when I asked people to stand that it started to raise a level.
Backstage we received a lot of great compliments but inside I knew it wasnât our best by a long shot and I was concerned Iâd pushed myself too hard. The gigantic bottle of wine was left unopened and I took a sleeper and hit the bunk shortly after getting back on the bus.
I woke up at 12, a lot earlier than I wanted but the last few days have had my too stressed to lie under the covers. The pills I picked up today are starting to kick in and take down the inflammation so everything should be in reasonable shape later tonight.
I dread Sheffield as memories of split heads on stage runs from the balcony and the infamous call off minutes before due on stage in the 80âs still give me the shivers. 3 to go. I have the meds and the will to make it happen.
ps Judging from some of the posts on the timeline below a lot of people really enjoyed the Birmingham gig. Thanks for that, it just made me feel a lot better after I wrote this.
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Just pleased to say âI was thereâ.
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