Tour Diary – A Rolling Stones Special #1 Monday, June 2nd, 2014

A year ago, the idea of supporting the Rolling Stones would have seemed utterly preposterous, yet here I am, on a Swissair flight back to London writing about exactly that. Here’s how it went down…
The universe smiled down on us, the planets aligned themselves and an unlikely series of events over the past couple of months resulted in an email from above stating “We’re on! We’re supporting the Rolling Stones!” My email response to this…? “Holy fuck!!!!!”
Here ensued a tornado of activity as the first show was seven days away. An operation was launched to extract Luke from his holiday overseas, all other engagements were cancelled and “Exile on Main St” was on constant rotation.
A week of excited anticipation went by before the time came to meet at Heathrow airport and disembark on a magical voyage we could tell our grandchildren about. We boarded the plane feeling like we’d all won a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.
Upon arriving at Zurich international airport. We eschewed the usual band tradition of being met by a man in a van and instead, took a train and a tram to our hotel. If there’s one thing The Temperance Movement collectively love, besides good food and rock’n’roll music, it’s a hotel spa. At this stage in our career, the chance of there being a spa in our hotel is just hopefully optimistic and usually highly unlikely but upon discovering one on the top floor of our Zurich hotel, Paul, Damon and myself were up there like a shot. It was like a sauna nirvana up there! A sauna disneyland! We showered, we sweated, we steamed, we bathed in Japanese Onsen pools and we lounged around in our dressing gowns like a trio of Hugh Hefners. Had we actually been the Rolling Stones, i’m sure we could have also summoned the Playboy Bunnies too…but one thing at a time!
I woke early the next morning like a small, overexcited child on Christmas day. I crept silently out of the room so as not to awake the Kraken – a soundly sleeping Mr Damon Wilson, and went downstairs for a coffee. Today was the day we would get to play at a Rolling Stones show!
Nothing of particular note happened until we arrived at the venue. It was then, when the gigantic stadium loomed ahead of us that the excitement really kicked in. When you enter the Rolling Stones’ world, it’s like visiting Blofeld’s volcano lair in James Bond’s “You Only Live Twice”. There are men in hard hats everywhere, some holding clip-boards, checking computer screens, shouting into walkie-talkies, abseiling down from high above the stage or speeding past in golf buggies, all under the ever present watch of the “Lips” insignia. As a Stones fan, finding yourself amongst this is the equivalent of a Star Wars obsessed kid visiting the actual Death Star! We were shown to our dressing room – bigger than most of the venues we played in our previous visit to Europe – and were greeted by a couple of very welcoming and helpful representatives of the Stones camp.
After the Stones’ soundcheck, we were given the green light to set up. A team of hard-hatted crew helped carry all our gear onstage and in a matter of minutes we were line checking, and in a matter of a few more minutes we were done. Doors had opened and an army of Stones’ fans were already excitedly charging towards the stage from the back of the stadium.
As i may have mentioned more than once before, we like food! Eating food is not purely a human function to be performed to stay alive but it is a multi-sensory pleasure to be experienced in the company of others, and what better place to do this than in Rolling Stones’ tour catering. The colours, smells and tastes were almost overwhelming. Tantalising salads, exquisite cuts of meat, delicate and mysterious deserts, intricately carved watermelons and even a chocolate fountain! I realise i’m being overly verbose for the purposes of making my tour diary interesting but fuck me it was good!
The time finally arrived for us to go to the stage. I wouldn’t say that i was nervous. Just very excited to be a part of something so big and steeped with so much history. It really was a huge honour bestowed upon us by Sir Mick et al and if he or any other of The Rolling Stones touring party happen to read this, i’d like to sincerely thank you all for giving us such an incredible experience and for making us feel so welcome in your travelling home. We had an absolute blast.
So here we are now. Travelling home and taking with us one hell of a memory. And the best thing is…there are 3 more shows to go!
- Nick



Tour Diary – A Rolling Stones Special #2 Wednesday, June 11th, 2014

The band were reunited at Heathrow terminal 1 in the early hours of yesterday morning for our trip to Berlin to play our second show with the mighty Rolling Stones.
Our faithful squire James Pepper was flying with us on this trip. Unaccustomed to air travel as he is, he unwittingly packed his guitar tools in his hand luggage. These were promptly confiscated by officials who deemed them a threat to national security. I can’t see how it’s possible to hijack a plane with an allen key unless there’s a way of dismantling the aircraft from the inside but either way, Pepper was de-tooled. Thankfully the razor sharp scissors in my bag, the presence of which I was blissfully unaware, were ignored by the x-Ray machine.
We were met at Tegel airport by Norman, a friendly dude who drove his transporter van like a golf buggy. As we left the airport, he was sat sideways in the driving seat, one hand nonchalantly resting on the steering wheel, chatting to Phil about the World Cup. I couldn’t even work where his feet were! Our soundtrack for the journey was a Brazilian medley of Astrud Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim. This, mixed with the 34 degree heat, was putting us all in a holiday mood.
After a quick stop at our hotel and a hastily eaten lunch, we set off for the Waldbühne. The Waldbühne is a stunning 22,000 capacity amphitheatre nestled in a natural ravine next to the Olympiastadion, site of the 1936 Olympics. Our dressing room was in a spacious building situated up the hill from the amphitheatre and after dropping off the gear and checking in with production, we drove back along a woodland road and up the hill to our quarters. As we had some time to kill, we took the opportunity to lie out on the grass in the sun for a while. Phil immediately took this as a cue to strip off and get his stripey underpants on display. Having spent some considerable time and shared many hotel rooms with Phil over the last couple of years, I was surprised that he kept his pants on – or was wearing any for that matter, but as guests of the Rolling Stones, we’re being mindful to be on our best behaviour.
The time came for Phil to put his trousers back on and we drove back down the hill for our soundcheck. A quick blast of “Only Friend” and we were on our way back up the hill again for a bit more hanging around in the sunshine, the days of lengthy drives and breaking down splitter buses a distant memory…for now at least. We’re going to enjoy every minute of this whilst it lasts!
As we were strewn about the lawn, living the life of riley, interesting looking people began to arrive. Our dressing room was next to the VIP hospitality area and it was then that the familiar face of Ross Halfin – legendary rock’n’roll photographer appeared with another familiar face. Joe Perry – legendary Aerosmith guitarist! This is the bonkers world we’ve been invited into where Rock legends stroll by whilst Phil Campbell sits around in his underpants.
Then came show time and back down the hill again.
I’ll admit to being a bit more nervous for this show. The last one seemed to come out of nowhere and I think we were so stunned that it was actually happening that there was more a feeling of bemusement than nerves. This time, there seemed to be a bigger sense of expectation. Nerves is a strange thing. It’s a mind game to be wrestled with. You’re going out to do something you’ve done many times before but as the context changes, so does your reaction to the situation. I can’t speak for the others in the band but I don’t always get nervous – anxious would be a better word – and if I do get nervous, it’ll be about fifteen minutes before I go on which is when the realization of “Oh, this is about to happen now” kicks in. Once I step onstage, the nerves are usually gone and I’m in the moment. There are times during a gig when I might be looking around, taking it all in and various thoughts will flit through my mind. Last night, as I looked up at a 20,000 plus crowd filling the Waldbühne in Berlin, my thought was “Jesus Christ, we’re supporting the Rolling fucking Stones!”
Tune in again for further accounts of our great adventure with the Rolling Stones. Next week, Vienna and Dusseldorf!…
- Nick



A Rolling Stones Special #3 – Oh Vienna! Tuesday, June 17th, 2014

We managed to all make it through airport security without having anything confiscated this time although I was subjected to a personal pat down which in another circumstance I might have paid money for. Either the guy was convinced I had something illegal concealed in my trousers or he was practising reiki on my pelvis, I don’t know?
This was to be another fly in, do the gig and fly out mission again. This can make life very confusing. One minute we’re at home doing the washing up and performing the other mundane tasks of everyday life, the next, we’re walking out to 60,000 people in Vienna at a Rolling Stones show. I feel like a rock’n’roll Hannah Montana.
Upon arriving at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, we went to find our dressing room. With such a vast network of passages, corridors and tunnels, this proved to be harder than we thought and a Spinal Tap “Hello Cleveland” type scenario unfolded. We were sent this way and that until we found ourselves in a corridor lined with such signs as “Warm-up Room” and “Band”. There was the smell of incense in the air and people with walkie-talkies wearing black we’re busying themselves with bowls of fruit. Hold on, this definitely wasn’t where we were supposed to be…we had stumbled into the Stones’ inner sanctum. It was like taking a wrong turn whilst on a sightseeing tour of Buckingham Palace and finding yourself in the Queens bedroom.
We were subsequently pointed in the right direction where we found a room containing a bag of mixed nuts and a box of Choco Leibniz. Yup, this was us! Strangely, the sign on the door read “Anti Doping”.
There have been a few tweets and posts recently stating that we are supporting the Rolling Stones but haven’t met any of them yet. Well this is no longer true as we had a pleasant chat with the great Charlie Watts as he left the stage after their soundcheck. He and Damon found some common ground in drums and cricket and no doubt if they had spent a little more time together Damon would have given him his recipie for scones.
Now that we’ve done a couple of shows with the Stones, our faces have become a little more familiar to the crew and we were made to feel truly welcome when it was time for our soundcheck. They are an incredibly warm and professional bunch and should they ever read any of my literary efforts here, I’d like to express our deep gratitude to them. Thanks Guys.
So, onto the show itself. As we got together for our traditional group hug before walking onstage, we were almost at a loss for words. What can you say really other than “Have a good one boys!”? On the other side of the backdrop were 60,000 people who for the next 30 minutes were going to be watching The Temperance Movement. Yes, we’re only borrowing them from The Rolling Stones for half an hour before we have to give them back again but hopefully some of them might come back for more at a later date. That’s the idea at least. The show was fucking amazing. We came off buzzing from the adrenaline. This experience is bonding us even tighter as a band. We’ll never forget it. Oh, and thanks to the guy near the front with the Temperance Movement T-shirt. We saw you!
Well, I’ll sign off for now as I have a feeling the next and final Rolling Stones special tour diary entries is going to be a big one…stay tuned for Dusseldorf!
- Nick



A Rolling Stones Special #4 – The Finale Friday, June 20th, 2014

The following may or may not have happened. I mean, I’m pretty sure it did. I was there. We all were. I pinched myself a few times to see if maybe I was daydreaming and still at home doing the washing up but no, it appeared as though we were actually standing in a corridor outside Camp X-Ray, hanging out with the Rolling Stones! In the flesh! Let me backtrack.
We had just done our set in the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf. A huge cavernous, behemoth of a building big enough to fly a helicopter in. It possibly has it’s own weather system.
Before our set, as we were waiting in our dressing room, me deciding whether to go on with or without socks, we were visited by Mick Jagger’s P.A. “Mick would like to say hello” she exclaimed. It was at this point that things got pretty trippy.
We were taken upstairs and led down a corridor, past a smiling Charlie Watts and into Mick’s dressing room. All was tranquil and serene inside and a very welcoming Mick Jagger was there to greet us. We sat on sofas around a coffee table chatting about this and that. It was such a surreal experience that I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if Elvis had popped his head round the door. I’d loved to have stayed and chatted for longer. He was an instantly likeable guy with an impressive energy about him but as it was time for his vocal warm-up and time for us to do a show, we got up, thanked him for having us, as all polite boys do, and left him in his sanctuary.
Finding the stage was no simple feat. There is an internal road that orbits the venue with various parking areas and slip roads that take you into the main arena. It was on this road that we found ourselves anxiously scratching our heads wondering which exit to take to get us to the stage. It was “Hello Cleveland” all over again but this time we were jogging round the M25! We finally found our way to the back of the stage and after a few moments to slow our heart rates back to a safe level, we walked on to the stage.
The first thing that struck me was that it was dark. Our previous shows with The Stones had been outdoor venues, hence in broad daylight, but now we had lights to add to the excitement of it all. Our logo was emblazoned on the giant screen behind us and 46,000 people stood in front of us. It was a far cry from the Water Rats in Kings Cross and yet, as Damon launched us off with the drum fill intro to “Ain’t No Telling”, everything felt familiar and as it should be.
It was great to look out and see a few more Temperance Movement T-shirts in the crowd and we even had a banner this time. Nice one Movers!
As if our meeting with Mick wasn’t enough, we had been asked to return to the Stones’ dressing room area after our set for a meet and greet so back we went. As we walked past Camp X-Ray, the pulsing sounds of Reggae could be heard coming from inside. These were followed by Keith himself. I don’t know who it was who said “You should never meet your heroes, you’ll only be disappointed” but they were wrong. Mick and Keith were far from a disappointment and although like star-struck teenagers we may have been, I’d like to think we kept some semblance of cool as one by one, all members of The Rolling Stones emerged from their dressing rooms to come and say hello to five slightly overwhelmed members of The Temperance Movement. This was better than Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory! (see diary entry #1)
As we stood in the corridor with Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie, I couldn’t help noticing how, even though they have reached legendary status and live in a slightly different reality to most of us, they came across as just a bunch of guys who have been bought together through a mutual love of music and still get off on playing live. They have a vast catalog of incredible tunes and, when you see their live show, there is still that spark which ignited them in the first place. After all these years, the energy appears not to have been diluted. If we can achieve a fraction of what they have and maintain the same level of energy, I’ll be happy. Rolling Stones, we salute you!
We’re now in Vitoria-Gasteiz near Bilbao to play the Azkena Rock festival. There’s a storm brewing outside. Our stint with The Stones is now over and as incredible as it was, and it was incredible, we’ve a lot more adventures to look forward to.
Stay tuned!
- Nick




http://latest.thetemperancemovement.com/