Panic Room – September Tour Part 2

Hello again!

The next phase of the Panic Room adventure started by heading north to The Duchess in York, a long journey at the best of times made worse by assorted roadworks. About 7 hours later we arrived in York, admittedly briefly at the wrong venue (onyl by about 20 feet though – the stage doors are on the same little lane!). Somehow we managed to set up and soundcheck in record time and all was well.

We had two support bands tonight – Satori and Kasiuss. I regret to say I only caught the first song of Satori’s set but did get to see some of Kasiuss’ wonderfully tight and energetic set.

Due to the line up, we had to cut the set down a little so went for the uptempo approach…

Freedom To Breathe, Fifth Amendment, Yasuni, Reborn,Go, Endgame, Blood Red Sky, I Am A Cat, Elektra City, Black Noise, Sandstorms, Dark Star, Apocalypstick

Encore: Satellite

Really enjoyed York – great audience,lovely venue and a great reception. The only downside for me was the stage sound which meant I spent a lot of the set not realy hearing myself depsite being right next to my amp. I think I need to go back to York socially too – I really liked what I saw of the town and want to explore!

Finding the hotel was much easier this time (once we managed to get the receptionist to open the door!) and we only had a shortish journey to Derby the following day so managed to get a decent lie in and check out at the last possible second – bliss!

The Flowerpot in Derby is another venue we played on the last tour and was one of the real highlights so we were looking forward to it. We managed to load in early and set up at a more relaxed pace before nipping off to the local Wetherspoons for food before soundcheck. Soundcheck took a while due to various technical gremlins but eventually we got it all sorted and souding good.

No support band tonight so we were able to do a full length ( just under 2 hours-ish) set…

Freedom To Breathe, Fifth Amendment, Yasuni, Reborn, Into The Fire, Go, Endgame, Sandstorms, Blood Red Sky, Elektra City, Black Noise, The Great Divide,, I Am A Cat, Dark Star, Apocalypstick

1st Encore: Satellite
2nd Encore : No Quarter

The Derby audience were absolutely incredible – loads of people and very, very enthusiastic. It was my favourite show of this little tour, such a great vibe! So good in fact that we resurrected our mutated version of Led Zeppelin’s No Quarter as a second encore.

And so, after a relaxed evening and morning staying with our wonderful merch people Ray and Steph, we set off for the final gig of this leg – The Marrs Bar in Worcester. Again we managed to get in early, set up at a relaxed pace, and eat before the soundcheck ( another Wetherspoons – always reliable for food while travelling as they’re pretty much all the same!).

The hospitality at the Marrs Bar is wonderful, the dressing room basically being the landlord’s flat! Well, I say it belongs to the landlord but in effect I think it’s really owned by Rufus, the black cat who lives there and seems to have missed his vocation as airport security – there is no bag that he won’t find his way into!

Unfortunately, the intro music CD decided it didn’t want to work in the venue player so had to be skipped but otherwise everything went pretty much to plan, with the set being largely the same as Derby…

Freedom To Breathe, Fifth Amendment, Yasuni, Reborn, Into The Fire, Go, Endgame, Sandstorms, Blood Red Sky, Elektra City, Black Noise, The Great Divide,, I Am A Cat (dedicated to Rufus), Dark Star, Apocalypstick

Encore: Satellite

The layout of the venue meant people were largely sat a distance from the stage so the gig didn’t have the atmosphere of the previous two nights but it was still well received and people seemed to enjoy it.

Overall, the tour has been a great success. It’s been lovely to see so many old friends and meet new ones – thank you to everybody who came to the gigs and made it such fun for us!!!

We’ll be busy beavering away for the next couple of weeks working on finishing the album ( which, in case I haven’t mentioned it can be pre-ordered HERE – hee hee) but then we’ll be at Limelight Theatre in Aylesbury on Oct 23 and Esquires in Bedford on Nov 13. Hope to see you there!

Take care,
Alun

Panic Room – September Tour Pt 1

Hello all, hope you’re all well. I’m sitting here slightly blearily after a fantastic run of gigs with Panic Room so thought it was time to write a quick blog about it!

We started off at The Venue in Stocksbridge near Sheffield, a great venue that we also played at last March. Due to there being a show in the afternoon, we had a late load in but everything got set up fairly quickly and soundcheck was pretty straightforward. Unfortunately the late start meant the doors weren’t opening until 9, so we headed off to the wonderful Chinese takeaway on the corner.

I should also say thank you to Val and Barry who presented us with a bottle of champagne on arrival to wish us luck with the tour – thank you!!! We really do have wonderfuly generous fans.

Support tonight came from Gaia, who also did the March gig, who were played a great powerful set and went down really well.

And then it was time for us to take to the stage. For those who were wondering, the intro music we’ve been using on the tour is the overture from Bjork’s “Dancer In The Dark” soundtrack – such a beautiful piece of music.

The setlist was…

Freedom To Breathe, Fifth Amendment, Yasuni, Reborn, Into The Fire, Go, The Great Divide, Endgame, Blood Red Sky, Elektra City, Black Noise, Firefly, I Am A Cat, Dark Star, Apocalypstick

1st Encore: Satellite
2nd Encore: Sandstorms

It was a good fun gig and also the live debut of four new songs ( Freedom, Cat, Dark Star and Satellite). The reaction to “Satellite” has been amazing on this tour, it really seems to be grabbing people ( and is of course the title track of the new CD which can be pre-ordered HERE. Ok, blatant plug over!).

It was nice to see Bryan, Livvy and Iain from Mostly Autumn too!

The most surreal part of the night came in trying to leave Stocksbridge and find our hotel. The satnav had been a little temperamental on the way up ( and renamed “Satan Nav” thanks to the bizarre gothic voice it was set to use!) but it decided that it would be fun to get us to drive in circles for a bit. To add to the situation, we were listening to Jon’s “Moog Cookbook” CD, a collection of rock classics recreated in a very cheesy daft way on vintage synths so our circular route was accompanied by Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever” in the style of a Japanese cartoon. I wish we could have filmed this adventure – it would have looked and sounded like something from a Peter Sellers film!

Next stop was The Peel in Kingston upon Thames. We arrived early and slumped around the beer garden for a bit trying to wake up before loading in. Soundcheck was straight forward enough, although the fairly small Peel stage meant a bit of shifting about to allow support band Only Until to set up. I loitered at the back of the room for most of their set – really interesting instrumental rock.

Our set was a tiny bit shorter tonight…

Freedom To Breathe, Fifth Amendment, Yasuni, Reborn, The Great Divide, Go, Endgame, Blood Red Sky, Elektra City, Black Noise, Firefly, I Am A Cat, Dark Star, Apocalypstick

Encore: Satellite, Sandstorms

The set up meant we skipped the intro music ( as there’s nowhere to “walk on” from really and we might have looked a bit odd standing there for 3 1/2 minutes!). The set was really energetic and went really well despite some technical problems with Anne’s mike towards the end.

For the encore we had a little surprise for the audience in the shape of Roger Waters guitarist ( and Anne’s partner) Dave Kilminster who joined us for Sandstorms, leading to an amazing (and loud!) guitar duel with Paul. I noticed a few phones and camers about, so if anyone filmed it I’d love to see it.

The next gig was Swansea so we headed back overnight, a journey which would have been easier without the motorway being down to one lane and doing 10mph for a few miles ( we got back about 5.30am)

And so, after a day at home, it was time to head for Milkwood Jam, a great venue in the centre of Swansea. Tonight’s support was a brilliant solo acoustic set from Jon Owen, singer with The Last Republic. The venue was amazingly hot which meant we had great fun trying to keep the instruments in tune as they seemed to be melting!

The set was a slightly tweaked version of the previous night…

Freedom To Breathe, Fifth Amendment, Yasuni, Reborn, Go,The Great Divide, Endgame, Blood Red Sky, Elektra City, Black Noise, Into The Fire, I Am A Cat, Dark Star, Apocalypstick

Encore: Satellite, Sandstorms

Milkwood Jam is a great venue to play and I really enjoyed having room to wander about onstage. Good to see The Reasoning out in force too, along with fans who’d travelled mad distances to attend!

Coming soon : Pt 2 featuring York, Derby and Worcester

Take care,
Alun