PARIS, TOURCOING, STRASBOURG, BRIGHTON GREAT ESCAPE FESTIVAL, GRONINGEN, AMSTERDAM

This is matt with another instalment in the not so up to date IHH blog!
We left Toulouse early in a long blaze of glory to PARIS! Lucky as we are, the GPS didn’t share our sightseeing hopes. Well, in a twisted way it kinda did. We were led way up into the mountains through some beautiful towns (though I was half asleep at the time) to a thrilling dead end. This meant that by the time we got to Paris it was time for soundcheck. Another ridiculous show in another amazing venue, the Elysee Monmarte. We managed to get ourselves to an absurdly expensive but aurally amazing afterparty and on the way to yet another kind stranger’s house we snapped photos of the Moulin Rouge through the wide open van door. The next morning we drove past the Eiffel Tower with “too little time to climb”. Had some delicious felafels which totally ruined my best pants. Like reverse dalmations.

Straight to Tourcoing next, heavily raining, but strangely fitting. We were all taken to dinner in what seemed like the best personal dining room ever. Dinner conversation included a very odd story about the Manic Street Preachers and a very crude game they play while recording (it involved “bags”) Some crazy guy stole my lighter twice so I let him keep it. That night we stayed in an extremely dubious hotel. But a hotel nonetheless (!!) And had a relatively relaxed drive to Strasbourg, where the Rakes’ encore song (titled ‘Strasbourg’) finally reached it’s blitzing peak. I should also mention that their merch guy Chris brushed his teeth with a toilet brush: “my teeth feel numb”.

We went out on the town with the Rakes and a few locals to a pub where you can buy a giant beer with a tap. Who needs to get up ever again?

My lifelong dream of teleportation abilities was given new life the next day as we drove through the night (myself a little too drunk) from Strasbourg to Brighton. The Euro Tunnel is amazing. We got to wander around the massively and presumably uncharacteristically overcrowded town of Brighton all afternoon. I imagine that on a normal day it’s even more wonderful. We wandered into a studio for a maximum professional photo shoot with Olly Hersey, who very graciously offered us his place to stay the night (he had CATS! Sweet times). We played our “showcase” at Great Escape to a packed room (80 people, hehe) of slowly warming folk. We ran into quite a few familiar faces there as well, including Kellie Lloyd from Screamfeeder, who directed our first video clip. And Jin, the wonderful manager of New Pants. It was all so comforting.

Then something amazing happened. We somehow made our way onto the guestlist for the Gang of Four show. After wandering around for ages and realizing that the map was quite possibly drawn by a toddler, we made it there and BAM! Gang of Four!



It was pancake flippin’ amazing.

We got some sleep and started heading back the way we came. 10 hour trip to Groningen, which was brilliant. We played in a venue called Vera, which had some pretty long and awe-inspiring history. The “Catering room” was full of old press shots of bands who’d played there eg:



We stayed that night in a hostel which made us all feel like we were kids sleeping at our best friend’s house. The next day it was time to head for Amsterdam. We got there and went to a café for (seriously) just a coffee. Nobody believed us. Later on that night we did go to a café though, and had a delightful canalside sit. Before this though, we made the brilliant decision of going to the ‘Pirate Bar’, which actually had nothing to do with Pirates apart from the rope door handle.



Needless to say, when we got back to the hostel that night, I was too scared to get on the top bunk, and slept like a freaking log.

That’s where I’ll leave it, even though this doesn’t bring us anywhere near up to date. Hope all y’all are cool as courguettes, and please stay that way until we see you.
- Matt