i awoke with a grin this morning as my alarm went off as opposed to the normal groan and ducking under the covers praying it was just a dream. why you may ask, well today I was not going to work I was going away with Miocene on their first headline tour, 6 days away from home, away from north london, away from life, a much needed break from the stress of late.

I packed everything and I mean everything the night before, the swollen rucksack on the floor a reminder of just how much I crammed into it, well I needed a fresh miocene tshirt (my ones) for every gig as well as clean underwear & toiletries.  The bag pretty full at this point I also had to ram in my camera, film, stationery and merch stall accessories ;p

A couple of emails & messageboard postings later I kissed my parents (joy of being an only child), promised to phone everynight and the left the house and headed for the tube station.

Now when I spoke to Ben the night before he said we were to meet at 12pm in Bethanl Green, taking no chances with the tube, I gave myself two whole hours to make a 45minute journey though I knew that no one would there be on time since no one ever was ;p

The tube pulled up at Bethnal Green, I checked my watch, it was only eleven, I popped back to Liverpool street bought myself a travel toothbrush, the one item I forgot and then went back.  Unsurprisingly no one was aound yet except for Tony our beloved van driver, he was making some adjustements to the door as well as cleaning the windows, we chatted for  a while.

Ten minutes past noon was the time when I glanced at my watch next, Tony & I had been chatting intensely about the current state of hardcore, well no better source of info than Tony considering hes been into it since the 80s.  I sent Ben a text whilst we chatted just to make sure we were in the right place at the right time, he replied with a yes and I will be there in ten minutes which then changed to a five and the next time I looked up Ben along with Graham & Alex were strolling towards me, but where was Leo??

Before I had time to ask, I overheard that all the equipment was with Leo at his place, at the sametime Keith appeared from the opposite direction, looking rather fresh faced and relaxed though the news that there were no CDs to sell was a  bit of a bummer.

Chit chat out of the way we got into the van and set off for Leo's, we got there, I was about to enter the house and get some equipment but then this black dog appeared in the doorway & well Leo also pointed out that his dog barks at strangers, so I stayed outsideand took what was given to me, well whatever my arms could handle whilst Alex played tetris with the equipment in the back of the van ;p

Everything was loaded in the van so we headed off to drop Keith home, though not before stopping off at the Brick Lane bagel bakery to fill up on some quality food & then finally making our way out of London with a variety of sounds coming out the speakers mainly off some sampler CD Keith left behind.

One long petrol stop of, a chance to grab some food, empty the old waterworks and take some time out of the van to relax, we got back in for the road to Leicester which went pretty quick & before I knew it we had come to halt outside the Charlotte and the joy that is unloading began.