Twin Atlantic Tour Diary: Manchester

Twin Atlantic drummer Craig Kneale blogs from the road. Be afraid, be very afraid.

We woke up beside an airport (we were in a hotel though, we weren’t sleeping on the runway or anything) just outside of Leeds after a pretty rawkus show there the previous night. Our bones weary from adapting to playing longer in hot little rooms again, we had to use the powerful action of the 95% reliable Travelodge shower to literally blow the cobwebs away. And I mean literally, there were cobwebs all over the bath afterwards. Another short drive to Manchester meant we could again hit up a breakfast at popular retail store Morrisons, the little old woman at the till asked us if we’d been on ‘The Fame’ yet, which is country speak for the television i’ve come to understand. She then shortchanged me by a full one pound and two pence. I think that whole ‘The Fame’ chat was just her cunning way of ripping off naive, trusting people like myself. If you’re ever in the Morrisons just outside of Leeds watch out for her, she’s dangerous.



Onwards to Manchester, for our show that at Night & Day Cafe. We were playing at ‘night’, and we’d get there during the ‘day’ so it was a perfect name for the venue. We’d played there before many moons ago on one of our first tours with a band called mewithoutYou, who were as Christian as they were good at music. I think their singer Aaron may have been the real Jesus. Minutes after getting into the venue what can only be described as ‘a crazy bag lady’ approached us and gave us poems and was then promptly kicked out by the bar staff. It was definitely the oldest person i’ve ever seen being kicked out of a venue. The poems were pretty good though, one had a picture of an owl on it. Me and Ross had a conversation about how we think she may have been a genius who was turned mad by society.



As we loaded in it started to snow, a snowy load in is not the best load in I can assure you. For one, you get snow on you. And then snow turns to wet. And then you’re wet. And then the wet freezes. And then you’re doomed. But luckily we dried ourselves in time, and escaped certain icy pearl. We hung around in the venue most of the day as they had WiFi with the password ‘chucknorris’ and you can’t really leave when you learn that can you? They also had Crabbies alcoholic ginger beer behind the bar, perhaps the greatest concoction of all time. The gingery taste of ginger beer with the beer taste of beer. Genius. There was a sound curfew until 6pm, as there were real people in the cafe relaxing with a coffee - about 2 minutes after six when I started checking my snare drum they all ceremoniously left such was the enormity of the sound - capable of destroying any conversation being had within a mile radius. Sorry chatty people.



I was on merch duties until we played but it turned out to be a worthwhile job as my friend Jessica brought me a film camera and some lenses for keepsies. I’m barely capable at digital photography so I imagine any film I get developed will look like some sort of apocalyptic white landscape due to drastic over exposure. We shall see! The first band on were called Airship who were superb, like a fine wine. But one that didn’t make you sick. And then Canterbury were like a fine brandy, smooth but powerful. Continuing on with the drink metaphors, we went onstage like a lukewarm bottle of Stella - aggressive but unsatisfying. And cheap. We settled into proceedings after the first couple of songs however, and it was a good show although the crowd was a little quiet. Perhaps because of the bitter Stella taste we sprayed with them at first.



Afterwards I left my wet t-shirt (easy ladies) on a little too long and ended up with a pretty badly chaffed left nipple. Which is still sore now, kind of worrying. I had a friend who went swimming and a bit of his nipple fell off, I don’t won’t to suffer the same fate. It was with this thought in my head that we packed up and left the venue, a successful day overall apart from my nipple. The end.

The moral of the story is always get out of wet clothes fast.