Something happened on the way to Swindon

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Mates of ours have stopped calling us The Shakes and started calling us The Breaks. Because that's what happens to every bit of kit we touch.

In the last month we've lost a synth at a gig, smashed up a keyboard stand, broken a keyboard, lost a kit bag and had 3 strings break at 3 gigs in a row.

Even by our standards, this Friday was exceptional.

Gig in Swindon. Me, Gaz and Tim met up at the rehearsal room to pack the gear up. Tim's into his gadgets and he's brought along his TomTom satnav which he's stuck to the dashboard, all proud like a Dad who's kid's won at sports day.

Only he must have set it to 'find the route with the most traffic in the whole of SW London' mode, because 1 1/2 hours later we're still not out of London. Finally, we get on the motorway. 'You'd better make up some time is Tim's advice'. It's good advice. I put my foot down.

The engine explodes.

Still an hour away from Swindon we're stuck on the hard shoulder of the M4 waiting for the RAC. 60 miles away, Junior's also waiting. In a wine bar. In Swindon. He doesn't know it yet, but he'll be waiting there for another 4 hours. It's a shit place and full of idiots. We get a text from him."There's Nothing Like This by Omar's just come on. It's true. There's nothing like this."

The RAC man finally turns up and quickly works out what's happened. The car engine has blow up because I've never put any oil in it. I know this is true, because when he asks me to open the bonnet, I realise I don't know how.

Management arrive in 2 cars. Take us to the gig. Meet up with Junior who's 'relaxed himself' with 5 pints. We're now so late that the headline band have already gone on. Turn up to catch their set and play the show.

One of Gaz's strings breaks in Janine.

It's at this point, as he's frantically trying to retune his 4-stringed guitar in time for the start of Little Sun, that you realise some nights it's not going to go for you. That until you get loads of hairy men carrying all your stuff about for you in massive trucks, being in a band is a constant fight against things fucking up. Then we get a call saying our single's going to be played on Radio 2. Suddenly everything's fine again.

Up and down, up and down.

Wonder what'll break next?

The Shakes Blog

Something happened on the way to Swindon