The last few days have been more time spent in the van than anything else. Can’t say this is a bad thing though due to the massive litre cans of beer we scored in Germany and the tone of the van conversations/in-jokes – which have reached new highs/lows (mainly lows).We awoke in the, now squatted, former offices of the Department of Defence in the centre of Herleen after a night of graffiti and very loud dub step. We all sorted our heads out on the sunbaked roof of the building and hit the road – onwards to France!

When we made it to Baillieul we had the venue name and the street..but no number or idea of what to look for, luckily when we stopped to ask for directions the venue owner pulled up in his car behind us and showed us the way, when we got the venue we were greeted by a mad old woman who appeared to live at the train station – she showed her appreciation of us coming to her town by smashing and then pretending to be on the phone, shouting ‘Mon Cheri’ at us a lot and flashing us some boob. After unloading the gear the venue provided us with some amazing Spaghetti Bolognese and free beer, because you know, that’s what they do here!

So it was a Sunday night, who knew if it’d get busy… It got really busy. Everyone came out for a stellar final go around from Knife Cutter, The Wickets and Alright The Captain. Unfortunately our friends Grande Duke from Derby fell victim to Sat Nav madness and didn’t make the gig, but local headliners Fall of Messiah brought the night to an epic close with their math/jazz/post hardcore headfuckery. It’s fair to say the second the last note was played we all lost our minds a little..the exhaustion, the booze, the week that had passed hit us hard and we all spun out quite a bit. Fall of Messiah offered us a room for the night in their practice space, which is the upstairs of a barn out on the middle of nowhere, a truly stunning place to crash for the night, just a shame we had to be up for 4.30am to get to our ferry. Those that slept got about 2 hours…those that didn’t consumed everything that the border patrol wouldn’t let back into England and slept for 10 minutes.

So thats it. The long long long drive home. We made the ferry early and unlike the wild pints of stella, arcade machine, tomfoolery of the outward journey, this mainly consisted of sleep and putting classic 90′s alt rock hits on the video jukebox to stave off madness. The second we hit British soil we smell burning. We pull over and need to get the RAC out again to fix the fucking van. 2500 miles across mainland Europe it drives a dream..we get home and it can do no more! It’s trying to tell us something I’m sure…well the RAC are pretty good at their job and we are back on the road in less than an hour. It’s a slog from Dover back up to the midlands. The in-jokes are being pounded into new lows, the naps are far more common and about every 10 minutes we try to think of excuses to head back…”aaahh I left my sock in Luxembourg, turn around!”…”my passport..forgot it..turn back…”…err I forgot to meet my future wife in Groningen, we need to go back!” But the great magnet of home pulled us back and after unloading gear, hugs, T-Shirt exchanges and promises to do it all again we are back. The power of making music and taking it anywhere is incredible, the warmth and respect we were treated with across all the countries we played was truly astonishing. The music made from the people we met out there was second to none. Just get out there and do the things you want to do – anything is possible! Just get ready for the suck when you have to go home! 

Everyone who put us on and put us up and treated us so well.

Loz for driving us

Nikki for Selling our stuff

Everyone who came and saw us, said hello and made both bands want to keep doing this forever.

Twitter @alrightthecapn