You Probably Haven't Heard Of Them : Basingstoke, 2nd September 2012.

The idea of Basingstoke was that we’d surprise the guys and just appear on the front row without telling them we were even going to the gig (like Doncaster).
However we actually fell at the first hurdle (…like Doncaster), as when we pulled into the car park we noticed Shane standing outside the van tweedling away on his guitar
I vaguely remember skipping across the car park to Shane and greeting him with something along the lines of “Is the venue open yet cos I really need a wee”. Poor Shane. When I’d had my wee we came back out and chatted for ages and he told us the most amazing story about the time he tried to shoot at a rabbit that was eating the lettuces in his garden to scare it off and ended up shooting himself in the foot with his air rifle. Incredible.

I remember seeing Beveridge come back from the town, and I think at some point we must have seen Kemp, because when we were in the venue the only people we managed to surprise were Drew and Pill. (I have a vague recollection of Pill waking up and finding a wasp in his hair? I wish I could remember the full story to go with that but in a way I think it’s even funnier that I don’t.)

Inside the venue Drew walked past us and doubled back, just standing, staring and pointing for a minute in silence before giving us a hug and saying “I didn’t know you were coming today!”
We evaded Pill until just as the guys were setting up. It was the Bang Bar (again, like The Leopard, RIP) they were playing, which you may or may not know did not have a stage. The guys literally played on the floor, with everyone standing in a semi-circle around them. Pill was bumbling around and generally being Pill and as he squeezed back past us to go and get some more of his stuff he did a triple take and then just scooped all three of us up into a giant hug. It was adorable.
The only thing I remember from the set itself is the classic ‘song about periods’ Bleed Till Sunrise, (and that’s because it was the last time I heard it until 18 months later on the Cabin Fever tour in 2014 in Carlisle, and also because I have a video that is horribly out of sync and I still mourn because that video should have been perfect fuck my life) and Club Tropicana. The reason I remember Club Tropicana is because Falkor managed to elbow me RIGHT IN THE JAW as he and Davey rushed forwards to join in for that song. He hit me so hard I saw stars and actually very nearly fell forwards and took Drew and Kemp out, which to be honest would have been pretty spectacular. Sometimes I’m almost disappointed it didn’t happen.

Walking outside afterwards, Pill yelled at me “MEG! IS YOUR FACE ALRIGHT?” which I think is the closest Pill actually gets to being caring and concerned, bless him.
When we’d gotten back to Louise’s the night of Manchester we’d dug out the twins (Louise’s twin boys, Bill & Ted) old toy stethoscopes for the lads to wear to be Sanch & Dag so we could recreate the photo from Manchester but with even more props.

Somehow Pill ended up with one of these and spent about 5 minutes sat on a wall trying to use it on himself before looking up and announcing “……..Where’s your heart?!”

I got a group photo this night and Luke Lucas tagged on the end, next to Shane. I had literally no idea at the time who he was and why he was in my photo, and I’m sure it wasn’t until the first time I saw The Dead Lay Waiting in Stoke that I even realised who he was.