Features Studio Diary: Worship (Part Two)

Holed away in a tiny cottage in the country, Worship have left their native Reading behind and are hard at work on their forthcoming debut album. Being the nosey sorts we are, we’ve got the band keeping a studio diary for us. Here’s the second part.

We weren’t supposed to be gigging again until December, but leapt at the chance to support The Antlers on a few UK dates. Cabin fever was really starting to set in at the Welsh cottage we’ve been holed up in, writing our album, so it was perfect timing.

The first date was Concord 2 in Brighton and it was the first time we’d played live in a while. It seemed to go well and we were really happy with our performance, which meant we were in good spirits about the rest of the dates. When the gig was over, we went over to see our friend Phil who’d invited us to a lock-in at his pub. We got back late.

The next date was Thekla in Bristol. The venue’s on a boat and it was one of two sold out dates we played on the tour. After a pair of sweaty performances, The Antlers joined us at a bar on a boat, which has its own micro cider brewery, and we all had a few mulled ciders.

The Antlers were playing Koko in Camden next, but we were off to the Electric in Brixton to support Primal Scream, as part of Levis’ The Craft of Music. This was one of the biggest shows/venues we’ve played and the whole experience was pretty exciting. We had the longest sound check we’ve ever had and when we finally went on stage, some five hours later, we were very relaxed.

Left to right: Pierre (Worship’s live sound engineer), Tom (drums) and Rowan (Dawbell PR)

This was also the night that we first laid eyes on our debut single, ‘House Of Glass’ in vinyl form (due for release on 21st November).

The next day we were in Birmingham to play at the Rainbow. Some awful traffic along the way meant that Tim arrived at the venue five minutes before we were about to play. We also suffered a malfunction to his keyboard rig, which we couldn’t resolve (and still can’t explain). We played the whole set without it, which was a novel experience, but didn’t seem to affect things too much.

We had a weekend off after this and used the time to head back to Wales and continue working on the album. We also took a bit of time out to walk up the highest point in the Brecon Beacons, Pen Y fan.

On Monday we headed up to Sound Control, in Manchester, with a brief stop in Redditch to have a drink on a narrow boat. There was a hidden balcony area behind the stage, which afforded us a great view of The Antlers’ set.

The final night of the tour was at King Tuts in Glasgow. This was the other sold out date on the tour, and there were a lot of faces packed in the smallish venue.

After we’d played, we headed to a bar called Nice & Sleazy to meet up with our friends in Post War Years. They were all drinking something called ‘buckfast’ with The Naked and Famous, who they’d just supported elsewhere in town. We were later joined by The Antlers and Glaswegian locals Frightened Rabbit (who’d just played a secret show in that very bar).

A few buckfasts later and James (designated driver) was transporting us, The Antlers and a few members of Frightened Rabbit to a house in Glasgow. I think there were ten of us in the van in total and we only have five seats. I can’t remember much of the house, but when we eventually got to our hotel, the night porter suggested it might not be worth checking in, as we’d have to check out again very soon. There was also someone asleep in our room, but we too tired to question it.

The next day saw us drive from Glasgow all the way back to our Welsh cottage. The length of the journey wasn’t improved by the size of the mutual hangover, but it’s good to be back writing again.