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It’s December so we are
officially allowed to talk about,
and play, Xmas songs! Now don’t go
all humbug on me, that’s MY job!
The show was fantastic, we actually sold out our night which was very exciting and the people that came to see us were….crazy and warm and friendly at the same time!
We really hope to go back
and do more shows there. The
return flight home wasn’t too
bad apart from the plane was so
hot. Why do they think you want
to be sat in 70 degrees with
your clothes on? Fair enough if
you could wear your budgie
smugglers!
Thank you to our great
friend Aruaud Quinart from
Belgium for the photos.
Then came our home town Newcastle show, opening up for the Dead Daisies on their Daisyland UK tour. Thursday night and the Toon was rocking and roaring! At 19.30 we hit the stage and I have to say my heart skipped a beat when I saw the biggest crowd we have played to in Newcastle since we sold out the City Hall in 1981! A MASSIVE thank you to one and all, you rocked big time! Oh and one or two surprise guests turned up! North East legend Jimmy Nail for starters…
Big thank you to David
Wilson for the shots.
Thank you all so much for your continued support, have a great Xmas and a splendid New Year and don’t forget to check back for more, ‘Robb’s blogs!’
‘Merry Christmas to one and
all!’ |
Right then let’s tell you about this lot! First off, how are you all? It’s probably been too long since I ‘blogged’ but to be honest busy isn’t the word! As you may or may not know we are going into the recording studio on January the 4th to, record our 13th studio album so apart from these shows we have been writing and demoing new songs. We’ve amassed some 35 song ideas and from those we now have 13 killer tunes we are all proud of. Anyway I digress…So first up on the 5th of May we flew out to Barcelona to play one of the bigger festivals of the summer. It has a capacity of 30,000 and it was full! Why wouldn’t it be? Ozzy, Kiss, Priest and the Scorps…Oh and the Tygers of course! We played the ‘Rock Tent Stage,’ which potentially has a capacity of 1500. The Tygers opened up the Saturday, and at precisely 14.00 two and a half thousand lovely Tygers fans crammed in to welcome us this wonderful festival.
As you can see it’s not your ordinary size tent! Amazing, and that’s an understatement! Huge thank you as always to our crew, Ludy our agent and Tour manager and Will our tech. You guys make it so much easier to tour! Stories from Barcelona…well Craig, Tom and I spent the night we arrived, Friday, in the company of Axel Rudy Pell ‘Chewing the fat,’ so to speak. Talking everything music and beyond, what a nice fella he is. Oh and we might have had a glass or two…
Here are a couple more shots from Barca…
And the ‘Live’ shots…
And of course a big shout
out to the wonderful
photographers…
The next day we were on our way to ‘Real Time Live’ venue in Chesterfield. With a warm welcome from the staff and the venue it’s self looking real cool inside, done out like a proper rock ‘n’ roll place with Marshall 4x12 cabs as part of the bar and the cash till’s were made out of real drums! The whole place is just fantastic. Oh and down stairs to the venue is a cracking music shop owned by the same people! Now if you ever get a chance to be photographed by a young lady called Heather Burns jump at the chance, she’s a bit good!
After the show the evening
descended into drinking
Jagermeister bombs with the
owners and all round bad heads
very soon after!
And a few days later we flew into Schiphol airport, Amsterdam to play a festival just out of the city at Deest in the province of Gelderland. We were staying in an old farm which had been turned into a guest house, so just outside the bedroom window were horses, pigs, goats, chickens and the friendliest miniature pony called, ‘Hero,’ you would wish to meet! We had been up all night travelling so we holed up at the accommodation to catch up on some sleep. 18.00 And we were off to the show, it was a bright sunny night and the mood was high amongst the band, the piss taking in the tour bus was at an all time high! As we arrived at the back stage area there was a band on stage called, ’Tricklebolt’ who really impressed me. They gave me their current CD and it’s very good. Our show was extra enjoyable for some reason, can’t quite put my finger on it but it felt really good. And after the show we were treated like kings, with home cooked food and enough Jack Daniels to satisfy Mr Daniels himself! Thank you to Arnaud Quinart for the photo’s…
The final festival in this blog was Vostertfeesten in Bree, Belgium. We flew from our home town, Newcastle for this one. Our accommodation was in Center Parcs and we arrived in good time for a glass of fizz and a rest. Each of us had our own villa, very posh! On our way to the show we got lost! Which meant when we finally arrived it was a bit of a rush to get set up and on stage on time. Our great friends Oliver Dawson Saxon (ODS) were also on the bill and headlining was Vandenberg’s Moonkings. I met Adrian after our show, he’s a good looking lad, and what a nice fella!
And here he is…Arnaud our
good friend and Vostertfeesten
festival photographer! Thank you
sir! |
We had a great time slot on
the bill at 20.15, the hall was
at capacity and the mainly punk
audience really were receptive.
Well run and a great event to
play. Thank you to everyone who
looked after us, “Merci beaucoup
mes amis!” After a few back
stage drinks post show we were
off to our lovely hotel for a
well earned rest!
After the show we got to
meet quite a lot of the bikers
and one in particular…I forget
his name but what a nice chap!
6’ 6” tall and twenty four
stone! I had to ask, “You don’t
look like a ballet dancer what
is your profession?” “I’m a
lumberjack!” You know when you
just want to burst into song but
daren’t?
Our accommodation for this
show was in a bungalow in a
small forest nearby. It was
amazing, with a few beers when
we arrived there it was
goodnight from me and goodnight
from him! The next morning we
were invited back to the venue
for a home cooked breakfast
which was really, really good,
we said our goodbye’s and set
off to Eindhoven airport. Jack’s
flight back to Italy was 4 hours
before ours so after we dropped
Jack off we headed to Wilbert’s
house for lunch. Wilbert is our
crew boss and everything tech!
We would be lost without him…And
what a lovely house Will and his
wife have. Thank you for your
hospitality and generosity sir!
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Hi everyone, hope you are all good? What’s going on in the Tyger enclosure at the moment? Well lots actually! We decided only to take 4 shows before going into the studio in May, the first was ‘Ice Rock,’ a festival in Switzerland in January. Next show is ‘Metal Thunder Jackets,’ festival in Lyon, France on April the 21st and two shows in early May, ‘Hertals Rock City,’ festival on the 5th in Vorselaar, Belgium and 6th in Ommen, Holland at the fantastic ‘Café Calluna.’ We have had a few personal and technical issues recently which have caused us to put back the new studio recordings till January. Things happen, and I also believe things happen for a reason so waiting a little longer for the new Tygers album will be worth it I promise! So, when January comes its full steam ahead into ‘Trinity Heights,’ recording studio to lay down the tracks for the new album with Fred Purser as our engineer. Of course Fred was in the Tygers with me back in 1981/’82 and played on the famous ‘Cage’ album. Fred owns ‘Trinity Heights’ recording studio, and back in 2000 we asked him if he could mix a live recording we had from 1981. Fred had to hire in a 24 track Ampex 2 inch tape machine just to listen and play the tapes! This turned out to be the ‘Live at Nottingham Rock City ‘81’ release. The man is a bit of a wizz when it comes to anything ‘Studio.’ At the moment we have 12 songs finished and a thirteenth on its way. Not sure how many tracks will be on the finished album and how many will be ‘extra’s!’ That’s a record company call. I can tell you there will be two guest guitar players playing a solo each on different tracks!
We have some shows in the UK
later this year. August see’s us
playing the opening night of the
Edinburgh fringe festival, Real
Time Live in Chesterfield and ‘A
New Day’ festival in Kent. In
November we’re playing Lounge
666 in Archway in London, the
marvellous HRH festival in North
Wales and the new Monsterfest in
Inverness then some shows in
Europe. New shows are added
almost daily, so keep checking
our web site,
www.tygersofpantang.com and
select the tab ‘gigs.’
Thought I would post some unseen photos from my personal collection, thank you to all the photographers who took them. So it’s October for the new album recordings and a shed load of dates to support the release in 2019. We look forward to seeing you all, until the next blog... |
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