After the London gig, we went our separate ways, or at least, I, your humble narrator did. We regrouped early in the afternoon and set off on the long drive to Birmingham, fully aware that pretty much the same drive must be repeated in the early hours of next morning.

The drive was as uneventful as all others, so as per usual everyone found their own to break the monotony. We got to Jake’s in Birmingham, discussed plans for the drive back and got set for the gig.

Scruffy’s is exactly as we left it. There’s a good vibe about this place, maybe owing to the fact that everyone here is very much into the metal, and so it should be too, given that this is Birmingham, home of all that is heavy metal.

Morgue Orgy, the first band on tonight are great guys and phenomenal musicians. Observed closely during their soundcheck, and looking forward to their set. They’re also a very humorous bunch, constantly ribbing Slab’s Big Jim with their nickname for him, Barbara.

We face a tough night after this gig. Celebratory drinks will of course be imbibed, but we do have to be out of Jake’s in Birmingham by 5 in the AM tomorrow so as to get to London Heathrow in plenty of time to allow for any shit we’ll get at the check in desk, plenty of which I’m sure will be available.

Update:

The gig went very well. Morgue Orgy are such an amazing band, very talented, and an extremely funny set of people. We’re really glad to have met them, and will keep in touch! Slab went down a storm, as expected, and after post gig drinks at Scruffy’s, here I sit now, at Jake’s with a houseful of people drinking and chatting. And we leave for London in 4 hours. No sleep.

Update 2: (written on an Airbus A 320 somewhere over France)

We dosed off from about 2.30 to 4.30 AM. Not enough. In pitch black darkness we left Birmingham for the last time on this tour, having bid our farewells to the Big Jim, the only Slab member of strong enough constitution to actually wake up. Well, we did have to heave our guitars over the top of his head.

Long drive back to London in darkness, stopping only for 20 minutes when we were an hour away. Massive hassle driving through London in Monday morning rush hour traffic to drop Karl off at a friend’s, and after that, yet another hassle with our kind car rental agency.

Loathe’s tip to traveling: DON’T. Airports and airport staff hate us. I am still boggled at how we left Birmingham with  7 hours to go until the flight leaves, and still, we managed to be the last ones on the plane, and the last ones to check in. Maybe it’s because the look we sport is not suited to international travel. Suffice to say that our hand luggages were taken apart by what was (at least) a very pretty girl.

Now we go home, and tonight we hit the Excelsior Hotel for the extraordinary general meeting of UKAM and PRS. We shall have many tour horror stories to regale to whomever cares to listen, but the vibe we carry down to Malta is, overall, very positive. We’ve met up with good friends, old and new, exposed our music to a lot of new people, exposed our bottoms to a huge number of bathroom stalls, and in general survived in the madness that is the band called Loathe.