22:25
We’re in the bus on the way back to Hollywood from San Diego and another gig under our belt. We’ve just come to a standstill on the freeway and can see a police car up ahead stopping cars from going any further. We can just about make out people wandering about the road in front of the police car so we’re not sure what’s happening. We’re all shattered and just want to get to our beds. Someone just said maybe there’s a mad man on the loose and then there was a huge bang in the back of the van. We all screamed but I think it was just the bass drum falling over. We thought it was maybe the mad man latching onto the back of the bus. Daft lassies!
The conversation has just turned to talk of earthquakes and how they can happen in LA. Rosie was telling us how San Francisco is going to disappear one day when the massive quake hits and that a large chuck of California will be going with it. Obviously we’re really tired and the nonsense talk is taking over. How are we going to get to sleep tonight?! We don’t call her McDoom for nothing. This has all come about because Rosie and Gill sit in the hotel watching the National Geographic channel everyday. I suppose it’s healthier than their daily dose of Neighbours which they are missing while on tour! Saddos.
Well the traffic has started moving again so on we go. Frank, the other Prophet of Doom has just announced there’s at least an hour of travelling still to go. To the blog then…..
Today ended up being quite eventful. We left at 12 noon cos Frank was in a panic to get to San Diego in time. The journey should only take about 3 hours but because people would be coming back from Thanksgiving Day gatherings, Frank wanted to make sure we’d get to the gig at 5:30pm with no hassle. Well, we got there at 2.30pm. The roads weren’t as busy as we thought. We arrived at the venue which is right on the beach, under blazing sunshine, wearing black jeans, converse trainers and leather jackets. How unprepared can you be for a day at the beach? San Diego is a really lovely place. I think we got the wrong impression of it last time we were here as the gig we played was at the other end of town and nothing like this area. There was a real party atmosphere at the beach with people prancing about on rollerblades scantily clad showing off their LA perfection. These people obviously don’t queue up for supersize meals like the majority of locals we’ve seen! We decided not to bother buying shorts and flip flops to try and blend in and in true punk rock style, wandered onto the sand wearing our Cons and jeans and sat on poly bags. What more do you need?
It was just Gill, Tippi and myself. We somehow lost Rosie and Kate who is with us at the moment from our management team. There was a little blonde boy sitting with his friends in front of us who was a wee menace. We watched him for ages throwing sand at a flock of seagulls getting them riled up. I have a real fear of pigeons and seagulls so this was not what I call relaxing sun bathing.
Mission Beach is massive. It stretched on for miles and miles and we had to pick the one spot where the entire bird population of San Diego was having a party. Just as we were discussing that the number of seagulls was like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s, The Birds, Tippi herself started squawking and shouting! She thought someone had thrown a coin at her and then I looked at the back of her top where she’d been hit and there was a splat of bird cack! Gill and I were rolling about laughing but the Sparra was not impressed! She still had another 2 days wear out of that top. Ha ha ha! That was the end of the sunbathing so we moved away from that spot up to the promenade where we sat on the wall people watching. We still had about 2 hours to kill so ended up going for a wander round the shops. We sampled some Tacos which were amazing. Apparently San Diego is the place to try them as it’s right next to the border of Mexico. I can confirm that were very tasty.
It started to get very cold towards about 5pm as the sun was going down so we headed into the venue to see what was happening. Not a lot was going on so we went a run in the van with Frank to find a gas station to fill up. Still no sign of Rosie or Kate. We thought they were probably on the fair rides all day making themselves sick. When we got back in time for the soundcheck, Rosie and Kate appeared. Poor Rosie had spent 3 hours in a tattoo parlour with Kate who decided to get a huge tatt on her shoulder! Rosie was dispatched several times to get Kit Kats everytime she felt she would pass out! The tattoo is most impressive and she’s brave for sitting though it but I don’t think I would ever get one.
We eventually went on stage at about 8.30pm. The gig was quite busy but not at full capacity like all the others. It was still mobbed though and we managed to noise up the chilled out surfer types that were watching us! A different type of audience from the last few gigs but they still enjoyed the band and we shifted another load of CDs so mission accomplished.
All in all it was quite a long day. We’re now back at the hotel and about to crash out and hopefully have the first good sleep of the tour.
Night Night
Soup x
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