Features Tour Diary: Canterbury (Part Six)

When we heard the really rather great Canterbury were heading out on the road with The Blackout, DIY wanted in on the action. The band will be sending us snaps and reports from the road. This is part six, as penned by Luke Prebble (vocals/bass)…

Photography by Samuel Bradley

Portsmouth was the city; the Pyramids Centre was the venue. We arrived in sideways driving rain, with waves crashing over the sea wall. Another venue, which we had never played, and a huge level of excitement when we established there is a leisure pool with 3 slides in it, attached to the building! Scott and I were quick to get our trunks on head straight to the pool, where, unfortunately, only one of the 3 slides was open. It was the slow one, slightly disappointing, but all the same, refreshing.

There has been an awful lot of working out going on during this tour, and it was a rather strange sight to be seen when most of WATO and a few of our lads begun a mass workout in the middle of the empty venue floor. It’s like rock show meets boot camp.

We’d certainly been looking forward to this show a great deal, being that it is the one date that is closest to where we come from. The excitement levels pre-show were filling the room, and those levels went even higher when we got off stage, the show was incredible. An amazing crowd with a butt load of energy.

It was again really nice to see so many old faces and friends after the show. It’s always so heart-warming to see people coming back again and again and enjoying themselves so much.

I decided to dabble in a small game of FIFA after the show, bearing in mind I have never played the game before, I can say I was under-confident. My competition was in the form of a double team, our soundman Steve, and We are the Ocean’s very own Jack. I never stood a chance against these seasoned professionals, and was beaten 7-0. I don’t like FIFA.

The amazing show aside, one of the highlights of the night was the Dominos pizza that arrived just in time before we turned to cannibalism. Our tour manager Nick would actually no longer exist if it weren’t for those pizzas, so thank you Dominos. Thank you lifeguards, thank you ‘Insane’ Shaun, thank you gig goers for a brilliant night in Portsmouth.