Skindred Tour Diary

Skindred frontman Benji Webbe blogs from the road for Rock Sound.

Posted Monday, 19 October 2009 by Benji Webbe in

Blog

Skindred frontman Benji Webbe checks in from the road to blog about the band's current UK tour, check out his thoughts below...

October 11, Cardiff
The show in Cardiff last night was slaying, loads of family and friends turned up and I had to look after them, made sure their glasses were full and they all were happy. I asked for the green room to be closed when we were on stage coz I know half of the bastards would of just stayed there drinking and wouldn't even watch us play, so I know we had a captive audience in the Uni last night ha ha.

The show was great everything ran so smoothly, glad it did because I would have felt like a right ass on the home ground if it sucked. The Welsh crowd were incredible and we had a blinder. I loved playing new track 'Invincible' in the set, it goes down well but in a few months that's gonna make people lose their shit.

October 12, Oxford
Oxford Zodiac was always a great gig for us. It has become an 02 Academy now, as much as I loved the old Zodiac the Academy is a much slicker venue. I ripped my trousers on stage last night, luckily my dick never popped out and shocked the Welsh posse, Arya and Mike were going in to Oxford town so I asked them to get me a new pair of trousers...I’ve had a cold for the last few weeks its pissing me off coz I can't shift it, maybe if I stopped drinking the booze at the after shows I might shift it.

This room looks amazing compared to what this venue used to look like when it was the Zodiac. Sound check went well they have a good PA system in here - thank god. I noticed that people were lining up really early to get in to catch our show which was awesome. This tour has been totally different from any other headline tour we have ever done in the UK, the fact that we have sold out every show has made us all know that the 10 years we worked our fucking asses off is finally paying off. We must have won a shit load of British fans during our 30 minute set at Sonisphere this past summer. The last time we played Oxford it was with Gogol Bordello and that was the last night of their tour during their set the PA went down, and they couldn't continue their set, bummer for Eugene and the posse…they are great people.

I sat in our dressing room listening to the greatest hits of Nat King Cole right before we hit the stage that put me right in the zone to get on stage and go ape shit. The place was ram packed and the Oxford crew just had the bounce down to a art, even though I didn't really have to ask them to bounce I did coz I’m a piss taker from Jamaica. I did this mix of Sean Paul and Pantera and to end the set, I stood on my podium and watched the crowd go crazy, they didn't know whether to mosh or dirty wine to it! job done…Oxford got it.

October 13, Bristol
Bristol O2 Academy, we’ve headlined this place twice before in the small room upstairs but ticket sales went so well that we were bumped up into the main room that holds over a 1000 people. For us it's a big deal, we’ve played here with a few times supporting Soulfly and Reel Big Fish and a few other bands. Tonight’s show turned out to be a storming set, the room was packed and the crowd was bouncing skanking mosh pit dancing…Bristol was a great show it flowed like a dream. Wicked gig.