Wrexham, 30th October 2012.

Wrexham was quite possibly my favourite night on Killing is Dead cos so much happened. It was the last ‘official’ night of the tour, because (as I think I mentioned earlier) The Dead Lay Waiting weren’t playing at Koko, that was FVK’s gig supporting Wednesday 13, and it was mental.

The day started badly when we had to get a bus to the hotel. It was the first time Becky and I had shared a room and I had no idea where they’d booked us into, and it turned out it was a hotel pretty much at a service station next to a motorway. Amazing. We got a bus there and had to ask the driver to tell us when to get off cos we had no idea where we were going. In fact before all this happened I’m 99% sure Becky almost got run over by FVK in their van. In fact I’m 100% sure.

Before we even went into the gig shit started going down. Wrexham is a pretty shite place, to be honest, and it probably isn’t the best place to stand around a venue for several hours dressed all in black and wearing a lot of make-up. At one point when Emma and I walked back from McDonalds we happened to pass some chavs who were threatening to set us on fire with homemade flamethrowers made of cans of hairspray and lighters. Wonderful. Not long after this Drew and Shane came out of the venue to go over to a supermarket, and I was so worried about them being attacked by the firey chavs I actually escorted them across the road like a concerned parent. Whilst they were away the chavs got louder and closer and we started to get more and more worried, so when Drew and Shane were safely back inside we ended up calling the police. I tweeted Drew to inform him that the chavs had been moved on, and he replied telling me that he was glad, because he was about to send down a ‘posse’ to sort them out. (When I got inside and asked him who the ‘posse’ was, he told me it consisted of Pill, Dave and Tom of TDLW. Not so much a ‘posse’ as a trio, really…)

The first support band were called My Favourite Runner Up, and the only reason I know that is because when FVK played in Wrexham again about a year later they supported them again and I spent the entire set wondering why they looked so familiar until I finally clicked. …That’s as much information as I can give about them, really. Nothing against them, I just… don’t remember anything…

The Dead Lay Waiting’s set was great cos they have (had? They’re not a band any more and this makes me a bit sad) a song called Take Me Away, and every night when they announced it Luke Lucas (the lead singer) asked the crowd to repeat four words after him (“You. Take. Me. Away.”) and every night Annabel and I shouted “YOU TAKE ME AWAY!” before he had chance to announce the words to repeat. Because Annabel couldn’t make the show, I made a sign that said “Annabel says YOU TAKE ME AWAY” and just as Luke went to introduce the song I held it up right in his face. He read it and just said “Even when she’s not here she fucking ruins it.”

FVK’s set was my favourite. I mean their set was my favourite set of every night but this was my favourite set of all of their sets on the tour. Drew and Shane came out onto the stage wearing orange and pink wigs (respectively) for reasons I don’t fully understand, and from there things only got better.

My favourite moment was during Could We Burn, Darling?, when Beveridge sang the line “Their eyes shine like gaslight, their fingers gag my throat” and he reached out and put his hand around my throat.

At some point Beveridge referred to himself as the Pavarotti of the band, and someone shouted “But thinner and more alive!” and he responded with “…Pavarotti’s dead?!” and I just went “Yes, babe” (where babe came from I’ll never know) and we proceeded to have a 30 second conversation with him on stage and me on the front row about when Pavarotti had died. Amazing. (I said “about 5 years ago” and when I googled it later that night I discovered he’d died in 2007 so I was bang on go me.)

I have an amazing video (here) of At War With The Thirst from this gig. Beveridge shoves his whole hand in his mouth after singing “…sucking at my veins” and then grabs  my shoulder for some reason. A split second after doing so he realises his hand is covered in spit and wipes it on his jeans, before grabbing my shoulder again.
No, I don’t know either.

After Club Tropicana (which was wild) Dave appeared on stage and threw Pill over his shoulder. I don't know why he did it but it was one of the most adorable things I’ve ever seen because Pill looked so happy.

After the show was the best of times, because Tom from TDLW took Becky and I through backstage to the back of the venue where the vans were, and we just bummed around there for ages waiting for the bands. Someone’s Dad was driving TDLW’s van (I think it might have been Tom’s dad) and he’d brought his dog with him, and we spent ages fussing him. The main thing I remember about the dog actually is Dave encouraging him to get into FVK’s van and Beveridge just shouting “DAVE IF THAT DOG IS IN MY BED I’M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU”. 

At one point Tom stole my iPod and was running round with it trying to find his own band’s music on there. There was none.

The last thing I remember happening before we left to go and find some food was being stood talking to Beveridge (I can’t remember what about, I think it might have been my degree?) and hearing a massive ‘clang’ and a load of laughter from behind me. I jumped and spun around and Beveridge and I went over to the crowd to see what was happening. Pill was on the floor holding his head. For reasons best known to himself, he’d decided to run headfirst into a metal pole. Deliberately, I might add. Becky got the whole thing on video (here), and it’s still my go to thing when I’m sad. It’s perfect.

When it was time for TDLW to leave I was stood around when Luke Lucas was saying bye to Beveridge. I don't know why, but I encouraged Beveridge to pick him up, and consequently ended up with these beautiful shots. 

When we left, Becky and I ended up in a takeaway down the road, and we’d only been in there a couple of minutes when FVK came in. Beveridge left pretty much immediately because he thought he’d seen a Chinese down the road and he was really excited by the thought of Chinese food. He came back a couple of minutes later looking totally crushed. It wasn’t a Chinese. It was a chicken shop. (…Have I mentioned at any point that Beveridge is vegetarian?) I have a photo of Drew and Shane in this takeaway actually, Shane asked me to take a photo of them and I really don’t know why…

I have a vague recollection of Pill shouting something at the fruit machine that he’d put £1 in… We left the lads in the take-away to head out and find a taxi cos our Travelodge was a ridiculous distance from anything, and instead of sitting waiting we decided to go for a wander. 

We stumbled across Pill having a piss up a bin. Definitely a sight I could have lived without.

When we got back to the hotel I knew I had to be up to get home the next day (Becky was making their own way to London but I was booked on a fairly early train and meeting Louise at Euston) so I set my alarm on my phone. Well. I say that. I tried to set the alarm on my phone.
Louise had given me her old phone at the start of the tour because my shitty little 2010 Nokia was slowly but surely dying and she’d recently upgraded, which was amazing but I wasn’t used to having to unlock my phone to use it.
I changed my lock screen and then almost immediately forgot what I’d changed it to. Like I had no idea. I tried everything I could think of and eventually completely locked myself out of the phone. I had to sheepishly ask Becky if I could borrow their phone to text Louise to ask for the information I needed to unlock my phone and also to set an alarm so I could be up. This resulted in Becky having to tell me THEIR lock screen so that I could access Louise’s reply and unlock my phone.
What a fucking mess.
Anyway. I got into my phone the next morning, but by this time I’d gotten myself into such a flap that my mum ended up coming to pick me up from Wrexham and I drove to London with Louise and Annabel.
I left Becky a note explaining most of this on a chip box because I couldn’t find any paper.

Until next time, 

Meg Mercury xoxo