Jimmy Bowskill Band - European Tour Blog - Jan - Mar 2010

January 29, 2010

Again, we skip breakfast and try to sleep in. I feel awful and wish I could cough up what’s stuck in me without the pain in my back overwhelming me. Dan wakes and looks better. We meet in lobby and hit the road for Erfurt. Our tour itinerary says we are going to an 800-seat venue. The drive takes us four hours.

We arrive in Erfurt and go to the hotel first. This is a luxury as most days we only have enough time to go to the venue first. I need to do laundry but shower and put on the same clothes instead. My stage shirts haven’t been washed since the tour started and are just awful. After each gig I’m positively rancid.

A lack of communication sees Steve go to the venue to unload and Jim walks there a short time later. Dan and I stay back waiting for Steve to come and get us but by 6pm become concerned enough to walk there ourselves which proves to be quite a hike, especially in this cold weather.

When we arrive at the venue we find a beautiful hall. We head straight for the room with food. The promoter often doesn’t know that there is an opening act on this tour and today is no exception. The catering is sparse as it was presumed that Ash was the only band, but we muddle through.

Again, our sound check is cut short and we rush upstairs to wolf down a meal. I, like most of the guys in the band, am having trouble at home so my appetite is lacking as a result and I eat little. We rush downstairs and play a great show that the audience seems to love. After the show we go back upstairs and try to relax. We await Ash’s set and do our meet and greet. Back at the hotel, we arrive to a darkened room with no electricity.A frantic front desk clerk moves us to another room on a different floor (I love repacking at 2am) which only compounded the rough day we were having.