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CHICKENHAWK TOUR DIARY JUNE 2010
Rob 'Hawk brings us his tour diary from the band's June dates with Pulled Apart By Horses
It starts when you're a kid and you get back from your first school trip. At the bottom of your bag, where the lost things go; where your used swimming kit provides nourishment to the transplanted forest growing around what were once your gym shoes; where light barely penetrates the musty fug of the disintegrating ephemera of a school term, and whether or not you've actually eaten one, there's always one fucking apple core; in places twinned with Under-Your-Bed, you always found loads of bits of paper.
Some were all screwed up and scrap, like workings out for maths problems. Some of them were folded up neatly, like the permission slip from your Mum, which somehow got sucked into the abyss, never to be found again. Well, until now. Some were barely even paper anymore, just tie-dyed blotchy pieces of soft flat stuff. Some you just had no clue where they came from, stuff you couldn't even place. Sometimes it wasn't even your writing. All these little mysterious scrumpled up bits of the void, just lying in the bottom there.
It's kind of like that every time Chickenhawk's Rob emails us a new tour diary.
This time, the boys set off on tour with the mighty Pulled Apart By Horses to make hooves out of claws, play through farts and give the old tour curse a little exercise, accompanied by photos and gallery from Giles Smith.
We love Chickenhawk. Even if they can't play Rock Band.
* * *
Monday - Manchester The Deaf Institute
First day of tour with Pulled Apart by Horses, our amazing luck kicks in straight away with a disaster of sorts. We attempt to drop Equipment off to PABH Van via Paul's car only to have his boot lock jam so we are unable to get flight case out. Paul recruits a man with a bottle of Stella in his hand at 11: 30 in the morning to try and help him. Surely that's a sensible idea. At least a band member wasn't stuck in there...
This is the first time we are taking out our own Sound Engineer in the shape of Giles, you might see him behind the sounddesk at our gigs in future. He's the one who looks like he could destroy the world with a single punch. My future entertainment is going to revolve around seeing how powerful he truly is.
Arrival in Manchester isn't too painful, however the radio/cd player is broken so we actually have to talk to each other. Go to a Scream pub whilst Horses are soundchecking to have bit of food and cider.
Giles is my hero and I'm so glad we have our own engineer now, crazy how much of a difference it can make to your sound and its good to have someone outside the band to tell us objectively what is and isnt working.
Gig is well attended and we go down pretty well, particularly enjoy playing new song 'Yes, Have Some.' Whilst both bands are riff in nature we are a heavier breed than horses so I thought we might not go down well with everyone but get a lot of awesome comments afterwards which is always nice.
PABH are playing much longer than they have previously now they are doing a headline tour and all credit to them they lose no intensity doing a longer set. Tom even gets a bill at the end of the night for £4.50 for spraying the crowd with soda water mid set. Ask rock bands to play, then moan if they do some rocking. That makes sense, well done.
Back to Leeds for a lovely sleep and do it all again tomorrow.
* * *
Tuesday - London 100 Club
I'd never heard of the 100 Club before, apparently it is seeped in rock history, how ignorant of me.The walls are covered in photos from the past including And Justice For All Era Metallica POW POW POW RIFF.
PABH have a dressing room clearly labeled 'PULLED APART BY HORSES.' We have a pile of beer and water labeled 'CHICKENHAWK' left outside the dressing room.
Someone kindly changes this to 'ChickenPawk'.
Do not enter the dressing room. Everyone finds this amusing, PABH are deffo not the type of chaps to demand only they are allowed in the dressing room. The dressing room doesnt have a door handle either, this is full on rock power.Maybe they only give members of PABH door handles so only they can get in the dressing room.
The gig is a lot of fun to play except my monitor decides to randomly make farting noises at me during the set which would normally be quite entertaining but in this case its pretty hard to keep playing songs through massive farts. Still a really good gig. London what a lovely crowd you are.
During PABHs set me and Ryan watch 2 members on Boningen decide to kick the shit out of each other, fair enough.
After we load the gear out we get huge pizzas and drink vodka, pump some iron and do press ups, total lad rock action.
* * *
Wednesday - Nottingham Bodega Social Club
After leaving London just after a morning of attempted Chickenhawk Rockband, bearing in mind of the band have never played it before and Pauls previous attempts at family gatherings have ended up in arguments.
You're in a band you should be good at this!
Matt decides he should attempt expert straight away, culminating in an attempt at Iron Maiden's 'Run to the Hills', which after 6 tries we dont even get to the first chorus. Stick to real instruments I think.
Stop off for family feast at services, Giles punches a wall through with his little finger.
Some of this day is a lie.
Soundcheck is good spend a bit of time getting things right.
Gig is packed and again people respond to us really well. Support bands should be given more shit, come on abuse me!
James from Rolo Tomassi is in the crowd, have a bit of a chat and he tells me that their recent gig at Download definitely wasnt shit. You should go and listen to them they are good you've probably already heard of them though.
Drive back to Leeds that night to go to work the next day total power delete fun...
Chickenhawk are back on the road this Autumn with We Are The Ocean and Brides. It'll be ace.
Click here for full dates
Here's a review of the definitely not shit Rolo Tomassi set at Download.
Further links
- Chickenhawk on MySpace
- Myspace and homepage of ludicrously noisy Chickenhawk





