Features Tour Diary: Canterbury (Part Three)

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 three, as penned by Luke Prebble (vocals/bass)…

Photography by Samuel Bradley

The first and most important thing to say is that Scott was indeed the rightful winner of the glove contest, we are all very proud of him. If you have no idea what im talking about, just read yesterdays entry and all will be explained!

So yesterday we got to the beautiful city of Edinburgh for show number 3. It was the first time we’d played at the HMV Picture House, which is a very impressive old theatre. Theatre venues are always the most atmospheric for a good rock show, so top marks there. BUT, unfortunately bottom marks for the 28 step load in/load out. Brutal.

Before we arrived at the venue though, Mike and I performed a small acoustic session for LocationMusic.tv which was really fun. However, in true Canterbury fashion, in the last chorus of our second track, Mike snapped a string on his guitar, and us being as prepared as we always are, didn’t have a spare (we are like the band equivalent of a village cricket team; one bat that the whole team shares, a home made helmet, that sort of thing) but I think we just about got away with it. I think.

What we lack in organisation though, we make up for in novelty merchandise. Our sticks of Canterbury Rock went down very well indeed amongst the Scottish, we have to hope the people of Hull enjoy sweets to the same extent!

In a bid to work off the tour flab that is associated with various fast food consumption, Sam has added yet another string to his bow by becoming our fitness coach (with the help of a muscular man called Sean on his laptop….?) he turns venue corridors into gymnasiums and gets hearts pumping and sweat dripping all over the place.

The actual show was the best so far on the tour, even perhaps one of our best ever as a band. The crowd were great, as the Scots usually prove themsleves to be, and we felt slicker than ever. So thank you Edinburgh for a great evening.

After the show we had a two and a half hour drive back down to our Travelodge in Newcastle. Now we’ve seen a fair few Travelodges in our time, and as a collective, have never been as excited about any one as we were last night. It was perhaps a combination of the clocks going back giving us an extra hour in bed, the font that the room numbers were written in, and a spirit raising show, but everyone went to bed a little giddy repping a smile.

See you in a bit Hull.