Twin Atlantic Tour Diary: Bournemouth

The joys of a day off extolled by Twin Atlantic drummer Craig Kneale.

It’s a strange when you start looking forward to days off. On previous tours we’d sometimes go ten or twelve shows without taking a day off and it felt fine, in fact the day off kind of startled the momentum. But recently with the Shikari tour and now our own tour we’ve had a day off usually every four or five shows, and it is something that arrives with great anticipation. You’ll hear the excited murmurs - “What are you going to do with your day off?”, “Oh, i’m going to build a ship.” or “I’m going to try and sleep for 24 hours until I turn into a pillow” are some of the answers. But it’s not that you’re looking forward to not playing a show, quite the opposite. It’s just that you need to recharge more. Weird that innit? It’s the only time this ever feels like a job, but it is the cushiest job ever - like a milkshake tester.



So we did have a day off, and we chose to spend it in Bournemouth. Why? We don’t really know, Enter Shikari were playing there that night so that’s presumably the main reason. We missed them and their many strobe lights. Whilst we were here we decided to get some tattoos as we had heard that’s what bands were meant to do. We’d all planned to go but some members had decided to have their own kind of mini-festival in their hotel room the previous night so when we headed to Scribe Tattoo at midday we were a depleted four. Paul came with us even though he’d had no sleep, a perfect condition to get a tattoo in. I had thoughts of the needle just popping his body like a balloon, a lack of sleep causing his body’s bones to turn into air. I also wussed out when I got there so it was only Sam and Paul who got stamped, and Barry just came as a sort of observer. I couldn’t decide what I wanted so I got a piercing instead. I made a grave error at the desk and asked where a non-homosexual place to get an ear piercing was. Cue around five to ten minutes of ridiculing from the staff. Kind of deserved.



Afterwards we went to the adjoining tattoo cafe - which is something i’d never heard of before, but was the kind of place that might be described as having great ‘vibe’ - but I wasn’t born on a beach with a surf board so can’t legally use that word apparently. But it did, I even got a milkshake with sprinkles in it - nice. Then I managed to get six DVD’s for £10, all grade A films aswell. This was turning into the best day off ever. We even went a walk down the pier and saw a helicopter. I then went another walk with Ross along the beachfront when he woke up - I was fresh aired out my actual tits. So much fresh air in fact that I became sleepy again as our city heads weren’t used to an intake of things that are good for them. Went back for a little rest, like a cat would.



Later on we met up with those lovely Canterburys and went for a meal at a popular Japanese chain. We’ve decided to combine our two bands to become an unstoppable force known as Twinterbury, the world isn’t going to know what’s hit them. We just need to get big enough through word of mouth first so we can play stages to fit us all on. We’ve booked in to play Wembley in the summer (provisionally), we just need to get people to come now. Afterwards we all went and watched Enter Shikari, in another venue owned by a big phone company. Rumour has it that Buckingham Palace is soon to be called the O2 Buckingham Academy Palace-Dome, but this is unconfirmed. It was a lovely venue though, apparently an old ball room so it looked very regal. We managed to get up to the top tier which was for ‘The Gods’ according to the sign on the door, which was good to know - i’ve always wanted to be a God. The show was great, they had even more strobes and flashy lights than before - and one point I thought I may have an epileptic fit. The sign of a great show.



Afterwards Canterbury kindly gave us a lift back to our hotel, and I got to sample their sleeping quarters - spacious and comfy. And lined with space age insulation so you could pretend you’re an astronaut if you really wanted to. I watched the Refused DVD and it made me a little sad, great viewing though. A good day off then, I got a piercing, DVDs, a milkshake, two walks on the beach, good food and chat, a lighting show that hurt me - what more could you ask for?