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DETONATION TOUR DIARY
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Detonation sent us a tour report of their UK mini tour in June 2003
Friday June 27 At 4.00 PM the alarm is ringing for fourteen people and one sound engineer. A mini tour in UK is about to get started, and everyone is pretty excited for this time of the day. It's 5 in the morning as we all gather at the rehearsal place. We start with one of the best things that come with playing in a band: loading all our shit into the truck. In total we have a group of 15 people including crew, friends and girlfriends of the band. After loading the truck we drive towards Hoek van Holland. 7 o'clock in the morning. Waiting to park our cars on the parkingdecks of the ferry to Harwich. Metal as we are, as soon as we're parked we head for Mcdonalds and the New York pizza for some serious breakfast: Bacon, eggs and sausages for the most of us. Mike (guitarist) actually devours two pizzaslices as if he does it every morning! I try it as well but I almost get sick by the second bite of the fat dripping excuse for a pizza (It wasn't caused by seasickness!) 
We are at open sea for only half an hour as we stand on the outside-deck of the ferry. On the right I hear somebody scream 'Fuck!!!' (actually it was 'Kut!' but that is Dutch ;-) ). When I look down, I see Maarten's (soundguy) cellphone balancing on a narrow ledge, ready to fall into the sea. I try to reach for it but of course as I get close, it's too late. The phone falls down a few meters and now lays on a lower ledge in three pieces, 20 centimeters above the waves. After the whole group laughed their asses off, Maarten sees the fun of it too. Richard, our licht-tech, decides to go for a little gamble at the Blacjack table. He returnes pretty soon and I didn't get to know how much he lost hahaha! Fortunately he had enough left for a few treys of tax free beers. Hail Richard! It's 11 in the morning (local time) as we approach the English coast. A miracle as it is, Maarten's cellphone survived the trip! It has been laying in three pieces to be shit on by birds and washed over by seawater, but it still worked! Anyway, we continue our trip as we take the freeway to Romford, Essex. |
Whoppers
We arrive at the Musictec studio's in Romford at about one o'clock. Everybody falls into a coma on the first sofa they can find. After one hour we leave for something to eat at a typical English food Cottage(ahem…): THE BURGER KING! HELL YEAH!!!. After the whoppers we decide to check out the citycenter. The first beers open at four in the afternoon. Soon a lot will follow, but first the soundcheck! Maarten makes sure he gets compliments from the local soundguy later on by creating a massive sound. The Festival At seven in the evening the first band starts. Dark Veil soon gets renamed Marilyn Hanson 'cause of their age. They're okay though. Our whole group has a great time during Gore: two fella's with a mini guitar, a super tight rasta drummer and a bassist straight from the dark evil forests of Norway (including corpsepaint). At half passed ten it is time for Detonation's first ever gig in the UK. And what a gig it is! The crowd goes crazy and we play f*cking great despite our excessive alchohol consumption. After the gig we all start partying. The first autographs are written down. One British girl, whose name I shall not mention, wants to flash her boobs for a free Detonation t-shirts. I'm not telling how we fixed that little piggy whoehahahaha!!!! 
Saturday June 28 We all wake up pretty early. After gallons of coffee we leave for Bristol, which is where we play tonight. 40 Kilometers from Bristol we decide to lay our asses down in the sun at the nearest parking lot, also to find a shower. We are ahead of our scheme, so we have time enough. After a few hours we head for Bristol again. The Full Moon is the place we're playing, and it looks to be great. It is about seven o clock in the evening as we try to find something to eat, and we decide to ransack the first restaurant we see. Soon the restaurant's kitchen proves to be total shite! I order fish but get a dry spunge that used to be a fish in the Middle Ages, and my shrimp seems to be of massive concrete. So much for the English kitchen… |
The Show
We play together with Nauseum and Kachana. After these bands, it is our turn. We play a pretty good show again, and the twenty people of which the crowd consists have a great time, according to their reactions. We crash at Kachana's drummer's place: a big students house. We proceed with mass alchohol consumption, but get to sleep pretty soon cause we have a long drive ahead next day, when we're headlining the Dungeonfest in Leeds. Maarten and Richard dissappear into the night, in search for a club. Sunday June 29 Everyone wakes up early again (dammit!). After a shower we drive to the festival together with the guys of Kachana, who are playing at Dungeonfest as well. After a few stops along the way, we arrive in Leeds in the late afternoon. The first beers open, and we all have a great time with the Brits again. The Dungeonfest is held in a big kind of basement. The temperature in the Sahara-desert is low compared to the heat in here! Fuck! Do we have to play in this oven? 
Anyway, when we hit the stage wer're all pretty eager again. The crowd goes wild at the first tones of 'An Epic Defiance' and never stops until the last tones of At The Gates's 'Cold', which completes our gig this evening. All is almost turning black before my eyes, caused by lack of oxigen during tracks like 'Starve' and 'Crawling through Vile'. As soon as I open another beer, I come to life again. It was a great gig! As we arrive at the hotel, we have a huge party: Unfortunately this was the last gig of the mini tour. Some of us are so drunk that they can't even speak anymore. The evening will be long remembered as one of the most drunken nights in Detonation's history! Monday June 30 Time to head for home again. Bummer! I could've gone on for a couple of weeks like this, and so did the rest of us. We arrive in good old Utrecht late during the night. The UK was f*cking great! We will be back! C-ya! Thomas/Detonation |