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EUROPE (MARCH/APRIL 2009) - PART 2 3/04/09

A day off after the Dutch shows was much needed and also much appreciated! We relished the chance of relaxing in the calming beauty of one of Germany’s most gorgeous cities, Passau. After circling the city and crossing the mountains that surrounded it a few times (our driver was hard pressed to find a route with big enough roads for our tourbus!) we finally made it to our hotel and checked in. The urge to go out and explore overtook us, and we decided to go into the city for a meal – our hotel was only just over the river at the edge of the city. Crossing the river to get into the city at sunset was a lucky moment, as we got to see some really beautiful sights…

After much searching we finally found a few restaurants that were open (it was a Sunday, after all!) along the river and I decided on a certain place that I liked the look of. It turned out to be a good choice, as the meal was one of the best I’ve had in a while! This is a happy face!

Good food makes a happy Billy! After such a good meal, walking along the river was the only appropriate way back to the hotel!

The hotel at night looked rather pretty, so I decided to take a picture for you all to see…

The next morning we set off on the road to Austria for our show at Posthof in Linz! Linz was also a rather beautiful city! We have been extremely lucky on this tour. The Posthof was a large venue and there were lots of dressing rooms and they all had beds inside so that we could rest our heads if we were feeling sleepy - but we were having such a good time that there really was no chance of us wanting to rest our heads. Before the show we all watched the fascinating vocal stylings of our support act, Trouble Over Tokyo. He is also English, though he moved out to Vienna, Austria six months ago and so we thought it would be great to have him play with us. He’s like a cross between Frou Frou and Michael Jackson – what a combination! Watching him filled us with excitement and we were all ready to jump on that stage and start rocking out!

During our show we truly realised how crazy the Austrians are. We were also happy to see that many people in the audience that night had seen us play last year at Frequency festival. The place felt like it was erupting and we were having a great time onstage. It was awesome to see the crowdsurfers and the beautiful flow of the dancing bodies in the circle pit!

I couldn’t help but take a big leap from the drumkit!

The next day we set off for Graz, where we would play at the Orpheum. Graz was also a beautiful city and the Orpheum was another beautiful venue! In the dressing room we had an old honky-tonk piano that was so out of tune it was painful to the ears! So instead of playing the piano we decided to sing songs with my guitar as accompaniment – as usual!

It would have been nice to have some piano thrown in there too though!

The audience were so loud!

We were beginning to believe that Austrian audiences (Graz in particular!) are one of the craziest in the world!

Our last Austrian show for this tour was officially labelled as Bregenz, but it actually took place in a solitary little town near Bregenz called Dornbirn. We opened the door of the tour bus to find a fast flowing river and, just on the other side of it, the venue, which was surrounded by trees and a steep slope from where the river was flowing. We crossed a bridge to the venue and decided immediately that a walk up the hillside outside the venue would be a great idea. I decided to take my acoustic guitar with me because at that moment there was nothing more beautiful to me than the idea of playing it whilst sitting by the river and watching it flow hurriedly downhill over the rocks. The river was helped along by large gradual steps that sloped down the hillside, and in one of my crazier moments I leapt from moist and slippery rock to moist and slippery rock (with my guitar in my hands!) and began playing songs to the trees and the sky!

I found a nice position in the middle of the river on some rocks and began rocking out before realising that the water was rising and if I also realised that if I wanted to keep myself dry then I’d better make my way back to the banks very quickly!

The show was the hottest show we’ve played so far on this tour. We were dripping with sweat and so were the audience! What an incredible place Austria is! During “Rock & Roll Queen” I crowdsurfed to the bar and the barman handed me a tasty shot of vodka, which I instantly downed! Then, after quickly stealing an audience member’s beer (thank you and sorry!), taking a few gulps and then pouring it over my head I made my way back to the stage to finish the song! What an amazing time!

Thank you Austria, and see you this year at Frequency festival!

William Lunn (Esquire)

x

***Charlotte's special explosive blog edits!!***

I don't have much more to add...Mr Lunn put it so well! I'd just like to say a big thank you to all the people who have commented on our myspace about the current shows! I'm amazed at the response we've had!

So...until Frequency Festival!

xxx