Tour Day 5, 27/9/97
- FEAR & LOATHING IN THE RISING SUN

Down to the Rising Sun Arts Centre here in Reading at 4.30pm to rehearse "Seroxat" another new song! - the more we play the faster these new tracks are coming together and the stronger the band is. Seroxat is all wild harmonica and driving bass & drums with excellent spoken word from the Rat (who wrote it over the past couple of months when he was homeless and sleeping rough on Brigton beach, taking anti-depressants and drinking Special Brew). We have the Makers on to support us - and we almost get a repeat of The powerhaus experence, 'cos while the Makers are much more interesting and diverse than Thompson, they're still well laid back and 'nice'. No-one, nowhere has ever described Broken Brow as 'nice'. So the Makers bring about 40 people in, which is a good crowd for the Rising Sun, and half way through our set we've scared half of 'em off.... mind you Stuart did wink at somebody's mum (or something like that) and the whole table of 'em got up and left.

A smart gig in the end, we play well and damn tight, 13 songs, a looong set which leaves us all wrung out... Still earned some dosh #8.75 each! from the door share! Our first dosh on the tour...

I'm off with that particular girl I mentioned earlier on (see 23/9), George and Stuart take the van back with the gear and the Rat moves on to further beer, partying and mayhem.

Tour Day 6, 28/9/97 - ZONK

Totally bloody knackered. Clean the house and walk down by the river to recharge my spiritual batteries. We're all taking a bit of space from each other on these rest days.

Tour Day 7, 29/9/97 - DON'T FORGET THE UGLY PILLS

Last minute getting stuff together (food etc.) for the first real "on the road" leg of the tour (East & North England).

Tour Day 8, 30/9/97 - HYSTERIAMECHANICAL

More hard work packing the van and trailer while the Rat goes off to try and score some smoke for the trip. We don't get off 'til gone 1.30pm and I'm worried we'll be late to soundcheck in Cambridge, but it's a good drive and we're there for 4pm  - no wuckin' furries!

The Cellar Bar is a wee rabbit warren round the corner of Napier St. (behind the Grafton Centre - Cambridge's mall - another metastasing tumour of the original American plastic fucking paradise). Fuckin' nightmare parking situation with some arsehole delivery guy in a 7.5 tonne truck trying to reverse up the street that we've had to double park to unload in and other fuckers coming and going and getting stuck. Me and Stuart have to bump/lift the trailer around in the dead end 'cos it can't be reversed and we get everything (van + car + trailer) right up on the pavement so the fat arsed truck can reverse in. At this very stressed out moment the driver's window of the van fucks up and won't stay up, the Rat tries to wedge it with my water flask - which punctures.... So we light the meths stove and the Rat melts the puncture shut with a hot knife. Window is still fucked. I am not happy... Now we find that we can't shut the top of the bloody trailer and me and George have to get the fuckin' screwdrivers out and move one of the hasps (while we're stood in a busy street, blocking the pavement and the door to some gadge's house). At least we've unloaded most of the stuff now. That done I'm back in the van trying to fix the window, I am very stressed.... at this moment some woman with a baby buggy has the fuckin' gall to shout "STUPID PLACE TO PARK!" Boy! does she get an earful from me! Like I'm responsible for the arsewipe with his 7.5 tonne truck shoving us onto the pavement... Killkillkillkillkillkill gggrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

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