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After a two hour security
check in Dublin Airport the Amsterdam flight was delayed which left a five
minute gap between arriving in Amsterdam and getting our connecting flight
Moscow. So, cut the long story short, all our equipment and clothes didn't
show up on arrival at Moscow. Brilliant, just brilliant!! As well as that,
where the hell is John Clohessy?! 20 minutes later he arrives after being
interrogated by the Russian customs for no apparent reason....
After hooking up with our promoter (Sergey) and an hour or two getting our
translator (Sergey) to talk to the KLM airport staff, we head out to our
tour-bus to meet our driver (Sergey). Ok, so now you see the trend,
everyone is called "Sergey" here!!! After an amazing drive through Moscow
with an 'oul sing-song and several beers in the bus it was time to harrass
our all-too-flustered hotel reception staff (An upcoming DVD might show
some of the hilarious scenes than ensued).
So, a couple of hours later we meet two of the guys from one of our Moscow
support bands, Tintal, who start ringing their mates in St Petersburg
frantically to try and sort out some equipment for our gig in St
Petersburg the next day. Imagine, trying to find an Irish bouzouki with a
pickup in the middle of Russia. Guess what, thanks to the Tintal guys and
friends, we did. So, the rest of the night is spent drinking, gawking at
the cool sights of Moscow, eating prawns in some random pub and running
for the night train to St Petersburg.
....Wakey, wakey. We arrived in St Petersburg at around 7 in the morning.
It was freezin, and having no change of clothes, we were starting to reek.
We meet up with the wonderful Wolfsangel crew and 'Natasha the great' who
couldn't have been more helpful. After daudling around the city we
eventually get carted off to the venue in the suburbs, Club Arctica or in
Russian "Клуб АрктикA", on the Baltic sea coast. Now I know the meaning of
the term 'Baltic', it was freezing. After spending a few hours waiting
around and soundchecking, we decided to take a walk down to the baltic sea
coast, kinda cool to see it,,,, literally!! On the way back Keith took a
liking to a dead pigeon (see the photos section). And after some excellent
support bands on we go without our costumes and using an acoustic guitar
as a banjo to the chants of "CRU-A-CHAN CRU-A-CHAN CRU-A-CHAN.....".
Beginning to really like St Petersburg. The venue was packed and everyone
was going crazy... way more crazy than I've ever witnessed. Brilliant gig.
Brilliant crowd. Brilliant place. And after a quick after-pint with the
lads of Wolfsangel we head for the midnight night train back to Moscow.
Jeeez this is a busy schedule...
After a hilarious night on the train (check upcoming DVD), we arrive back
in Moscow to the news that all our luggage and equipment have arrived. By
now we are properly stink. At 2PM we were carted off for a press
conference in an Irish pub!! Great! And after some sound checking in Club
Tochka, we check out Tintal. Great band! Especially considering none of
them are Irish and they play loads of Irish tunes. This gig was televised
so it took a while to learn that swinging my bow too wide meant I
clobbered some camera-guy. A packed house, and yet another excellent gig.
At the end as an encore we got two of the Tintal guys, Sasha and Feodor,
on stage to play "Ride On" with us. Great buzz, Huge Crowd, Great
place.......
We're going back... |