European Tour Diary 2001

by Michael McKeegan

Wembley Arena - London, England (Oct 14th, 2001)

Let’s start at the start… Tattoo The Planet. This rescheduled (you all know the story by now) gig ties in nicely with the start of this (our umpteenth) European tour. A nice way to kick off in the barn that is Wembley Arena—great bill, Napalm Death steal the show in fine grinding fashion and we go down really well on what is a rather extreme line-up.

Only problem is that there’s no real vibe backstage—no communal backstage shenanigans to bond us all. Napalm Death, Defenestration and our good selves try our best but it’s not really much fun drinking in a small dressing room reminiscent of a blitz bunker. Slayer still rock and Tom Araya’s rambling between song banter is hilarious… how stoned is he?

John Henry’s Rehearsal Studio - London, England (Oct 15th, 2001)

Commonly known as a ‘rehearsal day’ which is where we try to work out all the songs we recorded back in January for the Shameless album. It goes surprisingly smoothly, maybe due to the fact that we had played most of the songs (in some form or other) on previous European and US tours. Quiet night of packing and the like.

John Henry’s Rehearsal Studio - London, England (Oct 16th, 2001)

Run through a ‘test set’ a few times and iron out any last minute problems. Myself and Graham head to Camden for some food whilst hardier souls hit the pub to await the arrival of our new bus (and home) for the coming weeks. It’s hard to describe the anticipation when one gets onto a new tour bus (no matter how many times it’s been done) and the cry goes up—“Treat or travesty?”.

Thankfully it’s a treat. Two lounges (upstairs and downstairs), 12 beds, Playstation 2, TV, video, hi-fi’s, the lot… We’re very pleased. This is where 12 grown men will live, sleep, eat, drink and be hungover for the next 7 weeks. Leave at about 11pm for Coventry.

Colosseum - Coventry, England (Oct 17th, 2001)

Wander up into town with Martin to get some fresh fruit for the juicer. We’ve decided to try and be a bit healthier on this tour and try to avoid the dreaded colds which always do the rounds. It’s an ever decreasing circle. You get the cold, someone gets it off you, you get better, a week later you get infected with a stronger more virulent version. Anyway, the good intention is there!

Meet our other support band for the UK, Nerve. All seem very cool and up for it. We’ll have a lot of fun with them and Defenestration. Soundcheck goes good and before we know it’s showtime. Great gig (first nights are usually a bit ropey) and we all have fun. The new stuff goes down really well. In fact, the best that I can ever remember.

Afterwards we hang about for a bit and I torment Lee Dorian (Cathedral vocalist) with old school metal banter (overheard question: “Lee, what is the BEST heavy metal riff of all time?”). I am a buffoon. As I’m reminded of all this the next day in… Newcastle.

Newcastle University - Newcastle, England (Oct 18th, 2001)

Getting closer to winter now as the bracing northern air hits us this fine morning. Go down into town to do a bit of shopping and try to locate the Motörhead—No Sleep ’til Hammersmith remastered special edition. No luck, which is a pity as legend has it the very live album was recorded in the Newcastle Mayfair all those years ago.

Lots of messing about with the PA before soundcheck which is frustrating both for us and the crew. Believe it or not we do try really hard to make every show sound and look as good as it possibly can. Both Pete and Gareth are sticklers for professionalism which is fine by me.

Gig is really good fun. The Geordie crowd regale us with many chants of “You fat bastard” and several variations on it. As it’s a Uni show everyone gets cleared out afterwards but a kindly security guard invites us to their birthday party in the bar upstairs. We go up for a bit but it’s not really our scene and we slip away off to the bus where it’s all laid back and chilled out.

The Garage - Glasgow, Scotland (Oct 19th, 2001)

We’re all big fans of Glasgow so everyone is up early and out and about doing stuff. I manage to track down the Motörhead CD and have a nice bit of lunch in a little restaurant. Martin heads up to Rico’s studio to play some cello on his new record. Apparently the studio is awesome and the new stuff sounds brilliant… should’ve went up and been nosy!

Andy’s new haircut (2001) Tonight is an early show which means we must be off stage before 10pm. This means us going on at 8:45pm with poor Nerve having to play at the unholy hour of 7:15pm. Hardly rock and roll.

Watch Nerve as they are on home turf. They play great and we get a sighting of the infamous ‘Shagulator’… a friend of theirs which basically involves a huge Scottish man in his underwear wearing a wrestling mask. I just hope that’s water he’s spraying over the front rows.

The Glasgow crowd is brilliant as usual and we all have a great night. Andy is in good form and comes off with some classic quotes onstage. After we head to Nice And Sleazy’s across the road and I meet up with my sister who’s studying in nearby Edinburgh. It’s a cool bar and is the scene of the famous Therapy? ‘bar-room brawl’ incident back in 1998. This gets mentioned a few times but the two main culprits (Odgers and Brady) are noticeable by their absence.

Rico and Rick from Rico (European touring partners in 1998) are in there so we have a right laugh with them, which mostly involves recounting how badly they lost it on that tour. Meet Dom and John from Mogwai who are nice lads ’tho Dom is suffering from a brutal cold and this is severely restricting his drinking. There is a plan to go to the Cathouse (infamous rock club) but I fancy having a clear head on our day off and nip away to the bus.

So off go the foolhardy crew to the Cathouse with the Nerve boys and Graham heads off with a very monged John (Mogwai). God have mercy on their souls. I however get into my bunk and sleep the sleep of the smug.

Day Off (Manchester, England) (Oct 20th, 2001)

Brilliant. Our hotel is in town so that means I can get food, wash clothes, buy a new mobile phone (horrible but a necessity) and generally not have to sit in a hotel room all day.

Start to hear reports from the previous evening… carnage seems to be the order of the day. Star award goes to Graham who managed to visit another pub, two different clubs, a house party and managed to round it off by getting on the bus and telling everyone he loved them. Hardcore.

Diamond and Gareth are watching the rugby in their room and judging by Dave’s yelling Ireland might just have won. Martin, Gareth and myself have a nice Mexican meal, then we go to the cinema to see Brotherhood Of The Wolf. It’s great, imagine Dangerous Liaisons meets The Matrix with a big werewolf thrown in. Most enjoyable.

Manchester University - Manchester, England (Oct 21st, 2001)

Ah, Manchester on a rainy Sunday. Lots of procrastination about going to get a nice Sunday dinner. In the end no one goes and we content ourselves with yet more sandwiches from the rider. As you have probably noticed by now the two main obsessions on this tour are food and keeping clean… in fact most aren’t too bothered by the keeping clean option!!

I suppose these are the two main things taken for granted whilst in the comfort of ones own living space. Stick people on tour and the concept of nice hot food and nice hot showers become a distant memory. While a lot of bands concern themselves with ticket pre-sales and ‘units shifted’ on tour, the most commonly asked questions in the Therapy? dressing room (after “How stoned is Diamond Dave?”) would be “How are the showers?” and “Is dinner a buy-out or are we getting fed here?”. I dread to think how many times a day John Adkins has to answer these two questions.

We’ve played here a few times and it’s always good fun. The local stage crew are cool as are the security guards so that goes a bit of the way to making the right atmosphere for a rock show. After soundcheck Andy goes off for a drink with Dog Toffee (they did our last UK tour support and Andy sang some vocals on their song/single Radio) whilst the dressing room stereo gets commandeered to listen to football commentary.

Tonight I’ve actually got some people on the guest list—my brother is over visiting another of my sisters (she lives here) so they’re coming down. It’s mad, my brother works abroad so between my touring and his work schedule I haven’t seen him since November 2000. Shocking.

Loads of gremlins in Andy’s guitar rig tonight… cutting in and out and generally being a pain. It’s very frustrating when this happens, especially when the crowd is as good as tonight. Andy explains what is going on and we leave the stage for a few minutes to get the problem solved. Good call, as when we go back on the guitar amp sounds ace and the breather has given us and the crowd a boost of energy.

Hang out with the family for a bit, then it’s time to say goodnight and we pile on the bus for a short overnight drive down south.

Concorde 2 - Brighton, England (Oct 22nd, 2001)

Gen from Defenestration showing off her new hat (Nov 2001) Spent quite a bit of time down in Brighton in the past so it’s always good to go for a walk and see what’s changed. Graham and I go for a coffee and wander aimlessly down the lanes before soundcheck beckons. Pete grew up here so he tells us some funny stories about his misspent youth playing in dodgy heavy metal bands in this area.

The club is really great. First time we’ve been here and we all agree there’s an ‘American vibe’ about it. Can’t put our finger on it, but it reminds a few of us of the kind of place we end up playing on US tours. Looking forward to the show as our last Brighton show was awful. Can’t remember the name of the venue (Brighton Centre maybe?) but we hated the venue. Sound restrictions, arsey security and hall lights on through the whole gig. Tonight will serve to wash away that shame!

Very young crowd in tonight which is always great. I reckon a good portion of these people are seeing us for the first time. Better be good then! Gillian, our press officer, is down with a journalist from Metal Hammer to review the show so I’m glad the gig goes so well.

Everyone is hungry after the gig so we persuade the bus driver to take us to the Market Café. A place I’m not familiar with but seems to have some kind of local notoriety. It’s basically an all-night truckers café with all manner of greasy fare to harder one’s arteries with. Most sane (?) people settle for a dish called the “Gutbuster” which is an enormous plate of fried food but Graham (aka Bottomless Pete) excels himself by opting for the “Mega-Gutbuster”. Jesus H Christ…

Zodiac - Oxford, England (Oct 23rd, 2001)

Sore stomachs all round today. We never learn do we?

Anyway, The Zodiac is possibly the filthiest venue we’ll encounter this tour. It really is just disgusting. A particularly virulent cold strain starts the rounds later this evening so we reckon it was picked up within these walls.

Gig is really good fun and the place is packed and singing along very loudly to all the new songs. We’re impressed… someone’s been reading their lyric sheets!

Afterwards we meet Cath (ARK 21) and Ben (ex-ARK 21) who invite us to a pool bar next door. Sounds good even though I don’t play pool. Meet a few other loyal T? fans who’ve been travelling to all the shows. They’re tired… I can imagine, at least we can sleep as the bus drives overnight. The bar is OK if a little dead and we witness a great pool showdown between Cath and Graham and later John Adkins and Graham. As John pots the final ball his demeanour screams “SHARK!!!!” all over.

Waterfront - Norwich, England (Oct 24th, 2001)

AHA! (sorry, couldn’t resist it) Go on a very long and frustrating search for food with Mr. Cairns which results in a great discovery of possibly the best chips of the tour. Nice.

Gig is a good one… showers, good PA and all are in fine form. Except Nerve who can’t come to Europe with us and are feelin’ blue. Show goes well and yet again the Shameless songs get a really awesome reaction. We must be doing something right!

Everyone is talking about an ‘end of first UK leg’ drink up but to be honest everyone is just way too tired. Stacey (Defenestration’s drummer) manages to have a one man party by getting blind drunk on wine and wrecking their dressing room. Nice to see he’s sprayed blue shower gel all over the wall. He apparently doesn’t normally drink (Yeah, don’t we all…) and when he does he metamorphoses into Stacey Chaos-rock beast.

So, tired and weary we all drive back to London to go our separate ways (for a few days), enjoy some home comforts and sanity before it’s off to Europe we go…

Lucky - Rijssen, The Netherlands (Oct 29th, 2001)

This seems like a nice town. The venue is lovely and we spend a good part of the day exploring it and larking about on the many stairwells. A quick soundcheck… if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it! We have a lovely dinner in the little bar next door. One of the local crew tells us that this is a very ‘religious’ part of the Netherlands and as a result they don’t have many rock shows. Strange.

Defenestration play well and get rewarded with a good hearty reaction. Plenty of punk and metal types in the audience so I reckon there’s some kind of ‘non-religious’ counter culture in these parts.

We play a pretty good set though we’re maybe a bit rusty after the couple of days off. No one would notice though, that’s our little private secret. After we hang out for a bit, then most decide on a early night before we drive onto Amsterdam.

Melkweg (The Max) - Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Oct 30th, 2001)

Remember this venue from our many times here and our last show in the Max with MxPx and Less Than Jake. Have a great soundcheck and everything sounds ace. Meet our old friend Jan who has now got himself a job with Sony Records… good for him. Now maybe they’ll sign some good bands!

A bite of dinner then a few interviews means I can’t even go for a quick walk up the street… who cares, I’m here to play, not to sightsee.

Come showtime I’m glad I preserved my energies for the gig. For a ‘major’ city there’s absolutely no hit of blasé-ness or forced cool from the crowd. They are in a word—MENTAL. All over the stage, singing along and even going apeshit on the balcony. Brilliant. We see a lot of familiar faces in the crowd and they all seem to be enjoying themselves.

Afterwards we meet a few people for a drink, best is meeting René (Teethgrinder) who is really cool and we have a good chat about what he plans for our website. Give him a couple of CD’s worth of rare and unreleased T? stuff to be used as downloads for the official site… he seems like a trustworthy chap!

The bus isn’t scheduled to leave ’til 8am but it’s a surprisingly subdued night. Maybe we’re getting old but it seems a lot more fun to hang out in the back lounge chatting and listening to music than trawling round bars in search of a drink. We leave that to more hardcore souls like John Walsh…

De Velinx - Tongeren, Belgium (Oct 31st, 2001)

Wake up about 10am and we’re still driving on towards todays venue. Apparently this is a strange place to play… we usually do Brussels but to do something different we decided to bypass it this time. It’s a big, BIG hall with awesome dressing rooms and lovely facilities. Walking around backstage it feels like I’m in a Bon Jovi live video, circa 1987. Thankfully there are no poodle haired rockers lurking in the shadows, just our poodle haired crew.

A few friends show up… a group of guys who plan to release a limited 7″ sometime in the future and Robby VDH brings a RACK of fine Belgian beer. Much appreciated chaps. Peter from our record company shows up and we have a drink with him and that’s cool as he’s a very funny guy. My girlfriend is also here today so it’s a perfect day all round.

The show is awesome. It’s brilliant to have a big stage to work with, and to look out and see 1500 mad Belgians is a sight not to forget. It’s over way too quick and before we know it’s farewell time, onto the bus and a long drive onto towards Austria.

Travel Day (Tongeren, Belgium - Vienna, Austria) (Nov 1st, 2001)

It’s always the same. Play a great show in a cool city where we have a tons of friends and the odds are we have a ridiculously long drive to our next destination. There are many reasons for this. One is our bus drivers hours… they are very closely monitored by a tachometer which means they can only drive so many hours in a row. Also, just ’cos a couple of people want to party it’s not fair on the other 10 who want a good nights sleep and the chance to do something, however mundane, on their day off. It’s all about respect they say.

On the other hand whenever we are in no hurry to drive on, it’s always in places where we’ve had a shit time, the bars are all shut and there’s no food on the bus or services for 300km. Sod’s law I believe.

Anyway, even with our swift getaway from Belgium it’s still 8pm the following evening when we pull up outside our hotel in Vienna. It’s been the mother of all drives so all we can do is eat a reasonable Mexican meal and to bed early.

Pepsi Music Club - Vienna, Austria (Nov 2nd, 2001)

This is a new one on us. Vienna seems to have more clubs opening and closing than is necessary for any major city. This was formerly known as the Rock House which, coupled with the Marshall Café (a bar/café kitted out top to toe in Marshall amps) next door, is good enough for me.

Stuck in Austrian snow (Nov 23rd, 2001) Just before soundcheck the promoter asks us if it would be OK to add another band to the bill. As Defenestration can’t make it tonight (too long a drive in a van) of course we say yes. Turns out that our second support is none other than TV Smith, punk legend and former frontman of The Adverts!!! We all get very excited as this is a nice little surprise for us.

TV turns out to be a very nice, unassuming man who does a great acoustic set and gets the (notoriously hard to please) Therapy? crowd warmed up. Special mention also to the other support band who do a great noisy gig to justified loud cheering. We’re well fired up by now and the day off has done everyone a power of good. My monitors are great and the vocals (which sometimes get lost onstage) sound really clear and powerful… we are the punk rock Beach Boys!

There’s nearly a major incident backstage when one of TV Smiths entourage eats Sean Brady’s’ pizza. The poor guy hasn’t eaten all day and as a fan of the Italian delicacy is obviously looking forward to it. Note to any support bands, do not fuck with Therapy?s pizza… consider yourself warned! Another long drive tonight so load out quick, hit the Marshall bar for a swift Heineken then we drive all the way to…

Frison - Fribourg, Switzerland (Nov 3rd, 2001)

Ah… the Frison. This has been the scene of some of the most frustrating Therapy? gigs ever. Nothing to do with the crowd or the organisation but every show we play here has been jinxed in one way or another… power cuts, equipment breaking, amps blowing up. No explanation, just something weird always happens.

Maybe it’s the ghosts of all the bands who’ve played here in the past and since split up. The dressing room is totally cool in that it is decorated with old gig posters. It makes for interesting reading, loads of great bands who are no more. Urge Overkill, The Jesus Lizard, Helmet, Silverfish, Mudhoney, Tad… bands we’ve toured with but managed to outlive. Sad but uplifting in a strange way, we’ll not see their like again.

Good to see Defenestration again. Their days off involved driving loads and drinking loads, thankfully not at the same time. They all seem to have very sore heads today so we go easy on them. Reeves, the guitarist, seems to have caught the brunt of the Therapy? wind-ups. This usually involves some kind of slur on his sexuality, childish but fun. This is an on tour tradition. Find someone in the support band and wind them up to see if they crack. Reeves appears to have been chosen as he seems to be the LAST in Defenestration to crack… hence he presents the biggest challenge. Past recipients of the abuse would be Hug from Group Dog Drill (in tears at this very venue 2 years previous I believe!) and pretty much all of Rico (they cracked big time).

Well, glad to say the jinx of Frison is but a distant memory. After a beautiful communal dinner backstage we proceed to give the people of Fribourg what is know as a Big Rock Show. Quite simply put… we RAWK and so do they!

Abart - Zurich, Switzerland (Nov 4th, 2001)

Small club this time, but a nice atmosphere and all the locals seem pleased to see us. As today is Sunday it’s a laidback lazy day. Don’t really do much of note, just chat and enjoy some fine curry for dinner. The show is very punk rock and the crowd are more like a ‘Saturday night’ audience than a ‘Sunday night’ one.

After the show some band and crew hang in the club driving the DJ (who wants to go home) with requests for more and more obscure 80’s hits. Later Graham and Pete discover that by putting Grolsch beer bottle tops on their trainers they can recreate the look of Bros circa 1984. If anyone reading this knows what I’m talking about then shame on you!

Travel Day (Zurich, Switzerland - Cologne, Germany) (Nov 5th, 2001)

Boring day off. Too wet and everyone is too tired to do anything.

Kantine - Cologne, Germany (Nov 6th, 2001)

Gig is in a wooded area and very mucky… much to the delight of our bus driver Paul who watches us drag more and more mud onto his lovely clean bus. Sorry. Don’t really enjoy this show too much as we have a really shit sound onstage and for some reason it seems really hard to get the audience going.

I suppose we get spoiled with such great shows all round the place so it’s weird when we have an off night. Some of our German record company (Motor Records) are here, so we chat with them and have a laugh afterwards.

Zeche Carl - Essen, Germany (Nov 7th, 2001)

Wow. Another really strange show… two in a row, how weird.

Tivoli - Utrecht, The Netherlands (Nov 8th, 2001)

Now this is more like it. WE LOVE UTRECHT! Played a great show here about a year ago so it’s cool to be back. Raining, so we hang in the dressing room making sandwiches and playing music. Very relaxed all round. Soundcheck sounds great. We jammed the original version of Dance here last time round!

Later myself, Andy, Martin and John Adkins find a really nice Mexican restaurant and have a great dinner. The waiter finds us hilarious for some reason or another… every time we speak he starts to laugh. Laughing stock of Utrecht? So be it!

Show is brilliant. Great crowd and such a lovely venue. Good to wash away the shame of the previous two gigs. Pete walks into the dressing room afterwards yelling “It’s back!”. Afterwards we hang about for a bit and I annoy Defen’s tech Hot Steevee with tales of obscure grindcore bands. We have a short drive so it’s cool for both bands to have a bit of a drink together. Special thanks to Ronald for the beers…

Day Off (Hamburg, Germany) (Nov 11th, 2001)

Exhausted. Take it very easy. Brave man that he is Andy heads down to Endless Pain tattoo parlour and gets a totally brilliant new piece on his left arm. It’s amazing, really vivid colour-wise. Kerstin from Motor Records knows the tattooist (she has some really cool ones) and Visions Magazine comes along to cover it for the mag.

Grosse Freiheit 36 - Hamburg, Germany (Nov 12th, 2001)

This is a very famous venue and we’re delighted to be playing here at last. Tonight is the first of the Jack Daniels Rock Nights which is a short tour sponsored by JD. Also on the bill are two German bands Thumb and 4Lyn, should be fun.

The gig is situated in the middle of Hamburg’s’ notorious Reeperbahn red light district. At the stage door, where the crew load in, lurk many strange ‘man-lady’ creatures. One attempts to engage John Odgers in chat but the size of ‘her’ adams apple frightens him off. It’s a very David Lynch start to the day.

Tonight is also being filmed by Viva TV as a multi camera shoot (though the first we hear of it is when we arrive at the show). Basically that means the whole stage is in chaos and it’s unlikely any of the bands will get a soundcheck. The TV ‘luvvies’ are busy getting their lighting, etc. correct and getting in the way while the bands sit about bored.

Jack Daniels also have appointed a very inept ‘stage manager’ who seems to have very short thrift with our crew. Excuse us for wanting to put on a professional rock show for the audience who’ve paid to see the bands! Some great moments worthy of Spinal Tap occur as there’s an argument about the use of a drum riser which entails our boys moving all our backline not ONCE but TWICE. Bizarre!

Andy and El Presidente of Turbojugend (Nov 12th, 2001) Do a load of press and that’s a welcome distraction. An interview with Visions Magazine where we all play an old board game called… THERAPY. It’s a lot of fun and we have a right laugh with it.

As predicted, the fucking about during the day pushes the showtimes back by nearly two hours. We go on at nearly 1am to an exhausted audience (doors were at 7:30pm) with the worst onstage sound ever. After about 8 songs and countless requests to fix the onstage sound levels we cut the set and give the crew a minute to work out why it all sounds so shit. Of course Andy couldn’t hear his vocals as the amplifier powering his monitors wasn’t even turned on! That’s what happens when you have a camera crew all over the stage knocking things over.

We go back on and fair credit to the crowd who pull some energy out of somewhere and go for it during the last 9 or so songs. Afterwards have a good chat with our crew in the dressing room and decide that the people running the show aren’t very experienced and might need a bit of help. Meet up with the Turbojugend St. Pauli posse and have a good time hanging out with them. El Presidente is in good form and we chat about all things punk rock.

An old friend, Biffen, turns up as he’s just done a show with Hardcore Superstar in a club up the road. We’ve known him for years. First through Clawfinger, then Entombed, Backyard Babies and now these boys. He is the king of Swedish rock and roll. The guy even starred in the Swedish version of Big Brother. He tells us all about this over a few beers and we promise to keep in touch better in the future. Yet again it’s amazing who you can bump into whilst touring…

Traumfabrik - Kiel, Germany (Nov 13th, 2001)

Try and explain to the stage manager that normally lights come in first, then the PA, then the bands equipment, then the headliner soundchecks, then the other bands follow. This means everyone has peace to set up their respective equipment without interference. This seems too logical for him and today is another day of frustrating waiting about. Damned sure we’re not going to let it spoil our show so we just lie low and let the egos battle it out.

It’s really funny how some people have such a bad attitude to gigging, I think it’s an insecurity thing or something. Let’s face it, no one is going to play our songs better than us, just as any other band will play their songs best. It isn’t a competition or anything.

For badness we offer to go on first so we could all start later (at the minute the crew load in at 10am, not fun when you get finished at 3:30am the day before!) and finish earlier (we can get some drinking in and watch the other bands) but the Jack Daniels people panic and say that it’s not possible. Ah well… anything for an easy life.

Gig itself is great and the crowd are well up for it. Lots of fun onstage and yet again an early night as everyone is worn out.

Modernes - Bremen, Germany (Nov 14th, 2001)

Things are going a bit more smoothly and we’ve begun to hang out with the German bands. Both are quite different to Therapy? but have got their own following and are pretty noisy live… lots of energy, which we like.

Yet again another cool gig. Our set is cut short as all bands have agreed to play a similar length to allow all a good chance to let people get into them. Not a problem as we fly through our amended set with machine like precision. We’ve done so many shows so far it’s really beginning to show. Really tight playing, energy levels high and lots of confidence from all band members.

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