Labasheeda 2013 UK Tour

April 21, 2013 @ Cambridige

First tour day; Sunday 21 april.

Rock & roll lady Chay is our driver for this trek. It is good to have her as she has a lot of touring experience to reflect on and we have a lot to talk about with her behind the wheel.

Our first leg is to drive from Amsterdam to Vlissingen in Zeeland to pick up our drummer Jaimy. From Duinkerken we then take the Ferry to Dover. It is a beautifull trip to Dover, made more so by really very nice weather and a great view as we arrive at the coast of the UK.

April 22, 2013 @ York

We wake up from our first night at a shabby youth hostel in Cambridge, and begin our drive to York. York is a spectacular city; full of medieval walls, ancient houses, castles and churches. It is easy to wander into places that leave you feeling you are in medieval times.

The venue “The Basement” is, in fact, a basement (the rest of the building houses a restaurant). In the middle of the room are rows of benches which are fastened together. They are situated in front of the stage and during the show most of the audience is seated.

This division of the room looks pretty weird to us… We find out as well that the day ends earlier than in the Netherlands and by the time we play a large part of the audience has already gone home. The people that do stay are the best audience though and it is not a bad start at all.

April 23, 2013 @ Manchester

The next day we head to Manchester. Manchester is more or less the opposite
of York, an industrial town with very little green to be found.

It takes us a while to find the venue. It is nothing more than a black door in a tiny street.

Inside we find a big stage and a nice bar with seats and couches. Kraak is a typical DIY space and looks pretty cool. For the night we conveniently stay in the building across the street from the venue. What a luxury! It is a huge space on the third floor which is also a professional photography studio.

Outside in the small street between the buildings we see how the police force a group of youth to empty their beer cans on the street. Before the show we ask if we can play second instead of as the last band and this seems to have been a good choice. Shows like these always seem to run later than intended with too many bands booked. Tonight it turns out that some people leave before the last band has finished playing. It is a shame as Monster Island is a cool band and we enjoy listening to them very much. It would have been nice to have had more lights on the stage, as they change instruments a lot and at times it was hard to see what was happening..

April 24, 2013 @ Norwich

It is a long drive today to our show and to a radio interview in Norwich. The Norfolk area is a bit outside of things, on the East coast. Unexpectedly a BBC interview works out. They will be filming us in a space with chairs which looks very much like a cinema. When we enter the studio we see our video Cars on a big screen and it is very nice to see the video that big.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeXmYmDpZQc

After the BBC interview we drive to Open. It is a huge building in the middle of some roads and it takes us a while to find a parking place. The venue is the fanciest of this tour, a very professional big stage that is wonderful to play on. The line up is very diverse and we are afraid our grungy underground sounds will not really match so well with the other bands leaning more into the pop/reggae direction. The audience however seems to like us and responds very well.

We got a nice review as well from this night. http://norwichblog.com/2013/04/26/stacked-presents-gagadilo-dumbfoundus-labasheeda-someday-soon-open-24-april-2013-review

Chay also filmed a few songs. http://youtu.be/AUxoSbLuxuM

After the show we drive out to a small town called Sheridge where I pointedly booked a youth hostel to be near the sea for a night. The next day we got to have breakfast on the beach in the sun! Amazing for the rainy UK!

April 25, 2013 @ Nottingham - The Chameleon

A local band, Lunar Parc, has organized the show tonight.
The venue is in a shopping centre on top of the building under a roof structure. Compared to the size of the venue, the sound installation is amazing! It is huge! We have very good sound that night. We have been told this venue has a cult status and is closing down in June. Lunar Parc turns out to be amazing. They play songs which are based on drones and the guitarist Sam uses a stick on his guitar to accomplish some nice sounds. The female singer has a great voice as well. It is a very nice night where everything is cared for very well. This is also a serious band that complements well together with Labasheeda.

April 26, 2013 @ Coventry - John Taylor House

Coventry is not far from Nottingham but our Tom Tom has trouble locating the venue… We play with a London based band called Death Pedals and it is a nice night although it was not as busy as the promoter had hoped for because of another show in Town that night. Not much to tell about this night.

April 27, 2013 @ Fell Foot Wood - We are all Trees Festival

The next day we drive to the Lake District for our show at We Are All Trees Festival. The Lake District is an amazing nature area with hills and lakes. We soon find out it is much colder than we’d expected because of the elevation…
Fortunately it is still sunny weather and we feel only a few raindrops. When we arrive at Fellfoot Wood we find a stage in a wooden house in front of a hill. The scene looks like a huge dolls closer. On the hill are sitting a lot of young people with flowers in their hairs, colourful dresses and butterfly paint on their faces. Is this for the May Day celebration? The site is located in the woods and everybody stays in tents. The audience seems to like to take a lot of things to enjoy them selves, whether alcohol or other drugs? I guess this helps against the cold. We can’t wait to get on stage, hopefully the lights will warm us! The cold manages to de-tune the guitars a lot so it is not an easy show. After us plays Mugsta, a nice psychedelic act from Liverpool which we have played with before some years ago. The next morning we wake quite early. The festival site is deserted and it is raining.

April 28, 2013 @ Oxford

Our show at The Derby House in Barrow on Furnes is canceled as the venue has somehow closed. Chay tells us that she had played there with her band The Suicidal Birds, and that this venue has always been at the point of closing…
We have the next day in London, and decide to spend our day off hanging out in the beautiful old university city of Oxford.

April 29, 2013 @ London - Windmill Brixton

In the morning we take a walk in Oxford before driving on to London. The longest part of the drive is through London itself. The venue Windmill Brixton has a real dog on the roof? Poor animal to be there all the time! The venue is a very nice bar but the booker has injured his arm and is not present. This is not well communicated, but finally things work out well. It is a happy surprise that many people turn out this night. We find ourselves in the company of old friends and people that we know from previous tours. The other band, Swinger, is completely wasted from a dinner party that weekend and we think they played a bit half force that night, but they have nice songs and are nice people. For a Monday it is a really good night and also a good last show of this tour.

Tour Photos