Page 14 - Black Velvet Issue 95

BV95 pg12-15 The Bottom Line_BV95 pg14 19/12/2017 21:11 Page 3

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bus on the day we were meant to play, wher- were swirling, we were like, ‘Yeah, we should do.
ever we were. pretty much, that was the probably get out of here’.” “We met this guy in Yates and he was
severity of it. And we thought, “God, we’ve “You couldn’t even buy water from a slaughtered when he gave us his house
lost a show, any merch we would have shelf in a supermarket,” adds Tom. “We went key,” says Max. “We’ll pretty much stay any-
made…” so me and Callum grabbed the to a Walmart because we are classic tourists. where.”
acoustics and played in the street. We man- “Let’s go to Walmart!” Got to the first one we Callum goes into detail. “We were going
aged to sell quite a few CDs and that just lit could find and there were just no supplies. back to his house at 3am. He stayed at the
a fire in us, I think. And that was when we Everyone had just got everything. That’s bar and said, “Here’s the key to my house.”
were like, ‘Yeah, we’ll make it work if we have when we thought, ‘You know what? This isn’t Went in and there was this Rottweiler dog.
to’.” something to mess about with’.” He’d said, “Don’t go in the kitchen, I have a
Since that show, the band have been The hurricane was heading their way. dog there.” We went in. Whenever someone
playing acoustic sets outside after shows “We drove to the Houston show, be- says, “Don’t go in the kitchen,” you’re gonna
when they are able to. Tom tells Black Velvet, cause at this point it hadn’t been cancelled, go in the kitchen. We went in the kitchen and
“We’ll be hustling for an hour/hour and a half so we went to the venue and everyone was there was this dog mess all over the kitchen
after the show, so while most bands will be still going ahead with it, so we went to floor and it was the smelliest house that I’ve
packing up and having a couple of beers Denny’s Diner and got a text saying, “Hi, it’s ever been to in my life. The dog was an
we’re still out there in the elements trying to been cancelled,” so we didn’t even go back angry, angry dog. This is the worst. So we all
hustle and make the money. Long story to the venue. We just left straight away.” crammed in on the sofas. I think at 5am he
short, we set off on tours before we can af- “Our tour manager’s words were, ‘Get came and woke us up, angrily shouting at us
ford them. We go on tour without the money the hell out of here’.” that we should eat pizza with him… I remem-
and if we don’t hit targets on merch, we “We drove to Austin; that show got can- ber the next morning, we were so scared of
would come home and touch wood so far, celled, so we had to drive 2000km to Arizona, leaving his house; it was on the second floor.
we’ve managed to come back finishing all of which sucked. And we hadn’t had any sleep One of us managed to get out, so we threw
them. It’s a huge risk, but that’s just what from the shows before in Europe. It was a all the backpacks from the top down the
we’re about.” long way. It was a weird way to start the first stairs and just ran, bolted out of his house,
They decide whether they’ll play American tour we’ve ever done.” didn’t even say goodbye. It was weird.”
acoustic songs from the venue location. “If “It’s definitely a great story to tell now.
it’s in the middle of a highway then it’s al- It’s just the most punk rock thing ever! It’s n August 2017, the band opened for
most impossible,” says Callum. ridiculous,” adds Max. IThe Offspring in Prague. “That show
“And if it’s residential then you might get was pretty scary to be fair,” says Callum.
told off after two minutes,” adds Max. “When ou may think that things would be all “We’d never been main support for a show
we can, we do, but in Europe, a lot more of Ywell and good over in Arizona, but, that big before. The fact that someone would
the venues are just outside the city, so oh no. While driving to Las Vegas, their van put us that high on a bill is crazy enough,
you’ve got the perfect spot to do it. You’re caught fire. and it was such a big show. It was at an ice
not gonna piss too many people off. And a Max says their initial reaction was, “Get hockey arena and it was sold out; 35,000
lot more people hang around, because they everything out! What are we gonna do? Oh people, and we just didn’t know how we were
have to wait a bit longer ‘cause they’re out- my God! We’re gonna die in the desert!” going to go down, really. It was strange.”
side town. Whereas here, most UK venues Drummer Matt says, “There was defi- “I think it’s weird, because with Simple
are right in the city, everyone’s like, “Right, nitely panic. All I saw, there was smoke com- Plan’s crowd you tend to have that poppy
gig’s done, now I’m fucking off,” sort of ing out of the CD player. I just panicked. vibe, generally. Offspring have too, but I
thing. So, it depends if anyone sticks “What the hell do I do?” so just grabbed think Offspring’s fans are more mature, more
around. We don’t exactly advertise it in ad- everything I could and everyone just bun- into their punk rock. So we were like, ‘Are
vance, because we don’t want people to be dled out the van.” they going to jump? Are they too old for
sat in the cold for two hours and us be, ‘Oh, “Everyone handled it so well,” says Tom. that? Are they going to like the old school
by the way…’” “No-one actually freaked out, everyone was vibe again played by a bunch of new kids on
“I think it’s also etiquette to the headline just on it, “Right, you get this, you get this, the streets again?’ But it was great,” adds
band as well,” says Tom. “For example, you get this,” and it was awesome to see Max.
some of the bigger tours we’ve been on, it everyone definitely come to the races that
takes the headline band quite a long time to day.” ith a song called ‘Insecure’, The
pack up and get their gear out so we have What had actually happened was that the WBottom Line tell us that they can be
enough time to get our hustle on, sell CDs, radio in the van had overheated and the top quite insecure about band-related happen-
meet people and try and sort of survive, then had exploded off it. Sulphur flew out into the ings.
we’ve got enough time to play an acoustic engine. “We worry about everything – we just
set and we’re not stepping on anyone’s toes. Callum explains, “Me and Tom had to don’t show it!” laughs Callum.
When the headline band do come out they’ll find a stick to lift it out while all the sulphur “Absolute swans on the surface, but
go to their bus, go to their van, the fans can was pouring out and dump it into the side of paddling like fuck underneath,” adds Tom.
meet them.” the desert so it didn’t explode. Everyone was One thing they’re a little insecure about
On the recent Waterparks tour, they say so chilled about it considering we could are headline shows. They much prefer sup-
it was a bit tricky as Waterparks left the ven- have missed potentially the biggest show of porting other bands as they don’t have to
ues quite quickly. “They always go and see the whole tour.” worry about whether anyone is going to turn
their fans, so the last thing we want to do is Tom adds, “One thing I’m very proud of up!
start playing acoustic songs when Water- is us group of people, there’s never a “No, “We like to know there’s going to be a
parks come out, and take their thunder, I it’s not happening,” it’s a “We’ll make it hap- crowd there. It’s not our problem if there’s
guess, in some respects. So we just judge it pen,” so while some people are trying to not a crowd there!” laughs Callum again.
and do it when we can really.” hitchhike and find lifts to a service station to “When you’re headlining, it’s down to you if
buy a battery knowing it wouldn’t work, but no-one shows up, and you have to take
017 saw The Bottom Line support we’ll try it anyway, a couple of us were hitch- those records to labels and agencies, and if
2Simple Plan for a second time – fol- hiking further down the road, trying to find there’s no-one there it’s a big risk.”
lowing the success of their first tour with someone to take us to Vegas.” The band did their own headline tour in
them a year earlier. The 2017 run included Some kind Americans came along and January and Max says it went down well.
U.S. shows, which kicked off right when Hur- stopped for the guys, letting them jump in “We had loads of people turn up. We’d sort
ricane Harvey also kicked off. “We landed in the back. They made it to Las Vegas for the of established ourselves doing those bigger
Houston at 5am and the airport was empty,” show that night. shows with Simple Plan, and, I dunno, doing
says Callum. “Not a single person in it. I’ve hen on the road, to save money, the a nice hour on stage, and having people sing
never seen an airport, an international air- Wband usually try and find floors to back was awesome; 100-150 people a night.
port, that empty and we were the only people sleep on so they don’t need to pay for hotel It was real progress and we could see that,
in it, apart from the security. We sort of rooms. One of the strangest had to be when and that was our thing. It was dope.”
walked outside. It was literally the perfect ex- they were up in Manchester. They played a
ample of the calm before the storm. It was so show, hadn’t found a place to stay, and went he band released their debut album in
silent, no cars on the road. All the clouds for a drink to decide what they were going to T2012 entitled ‘Role Models?’ 2018
THE BOTTOM LINE