War Games – 1st ROAD BLOG from their 2015 England Tour

The indie rock band, War Games, is currently on their 2015 England tour. While they’re on this tour, they’ll be doing an exclusive blog for us. You can check out their first entry, after the break.

On Sunday March 8th at 7:15pm, bags in hand we departed a ‘snowpocalapsye’ torn Boston Logan Airport in Massachusetts, an hour north of where we are based. After a five-hour flight, we touched down in Dublin Ireland around 5am local time. One and a half hours of layover later, we then boarded a small “crop duster” of a plane and flew over the Irish Sea to Newcastle, in the North East of England.

Upon arriving in Newcastle we began sorting out our rental vehicle situation, after multiple card issues and many celebratory fist pumps we were free to try and figure out how to drive on the opposite side of the road. Following a few questionable attempts at mastering proper roundabout etiquette and more than a few moments of panic we managed to not die/crash/cry. We were finally en route to our friends, the lovely Grace and Mick Hall’s humble abode to shower, unwind and sleep off the jetlag before our first gig at Yardbirds in Grimsby the following day.

Despite Grimsby having a questionable reputation, Yardbirds was an amazing tour kick off. We shared the stage with our friend Grace as she performed an acoustic set with Joel Gutherson on guitar. After their set, East On Main went on and brought so much energy to the stage with their rad throwback punk band style! Following them, Not Tonight and The Headaches took to the stage and killed it despite being without their lead singer! Finally it was our turn, the crowd was responsive and we had a blast. Once all the bands were done we made our way to the bar and grabbed some (more) English cider and some of us got “well pissed”.

The next day, we made our way to Doncaster to play at a venue called ‘The Leopard’. The crowd was pretty thin but expected for a Wednesday midweek evening. It was still so worth it to meet up with our old friends in the band StereoEpic, Native Braves and The Royal Ocean. The venue was a small place, but the sound was enormous, not to mention the lasagna and chips they had waiting for us when we arrived!

The day after Doncaster was a day off for us. After catching up on much-needed sleep, we all went out for a full English breakfast and were shown the remnants of a Roman wall in Caistor. (There may or may not be a piece of that wall in our possession.) We later went to see the Lincoln Cathedral built in 1092 in the glorious sunshine! The vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows were stunning. We also tested our (arguably non-existent) athletic ability and climbed a hill called Steep Hill, and it lives up to its name! After about 10 minutes of climbing, we made it to the top, but the hill had stolen our dignity. England – 1, America – 0

On Friday, we headed south to our gig at The Lincoln Imp in “sunny scunny” Scunthorpe to share the stage with our friends in Native Bravesagain. We also had the pleasure of playing after Coaves who were amazing! The Scunthorpe show was by far the best show of the tour. The crowd was a modest 100 people but cheered so loud you’d think we were playing at Wembley Stadium!

The following day we ventured into London before our show at the New Cross Inn. We did all the typical tourist stuff; we took band photos at Big Ben and Parliament, we saw the London Bridge and hung out with The Queen at Buckingham Palace. All this meant that we walked about 4+ miles across London and that makes England – 2, America – 0. This also meant that once it was our turn to play, we were all dead tired.

Monday the 16th was another day off. We had spent the night prior at our mate Olli’s house who was gracious enough to take us out in the morning to get food on the southernmost point south located across from a nearby marina in Eastbourne. We all seem to be getting used to searching for WiFi, acquiring passwords, and remembering that French fries are called chips, and chips are called crisps here. The ongoing joke so far is ‘you smell like Prawn Cocktail Crisps’, (shrimp flavored potato chips) YUM! This evening we were treated to a delicious home-cooked meal courtesy of Simon and Mel Chisholm, perfect for recharging us for our show in Brighton tomorrow.

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