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Twin Atlantic Tour Diary: Southampton

Twin Atlantic drummer Craig Kneale recounts the band's UK touring experiences on his Rock Sound blog.

Southampton. I don’t know what an ‘Ampton’ is, but I know that ‘South’ is a direction. I learned that in Geography. Other examples of directions are ‘North’ and ‘North East’. Perhaps an ‘Ampton’ is some sort of pond based insect? It kind of sounds like it may be. Or perhaps it’s where guitar tone was invented? As ‘Ampton’ is just one letter away from being ‘Amp Tone’. I think I may be onto something there, in fact...that’s definitely what it is. So it was an apt place for the next stop on this here headline tour, as the other boys all have tone knobs on their guitars. Hows that for an intro?



Anyhoooooo, the day started off very badly for Mr. McKenna, Mr. McTrusty and Mr. Kneale (ME) as we all slept in past our 11am van call. This was mainly due to Mr. Kneale (ME) sleeping through my alarm, but to be fair - I’m not either one of their mum’s, they are perfectly capable of getting themselves up. Well, they should be. The problem was that I’ve got too comfortable with my alarm sound - I need to switch it up every couple of weeks as it eventually starts to become part of whatever dream I’m having instead of entering the dream and destroying it - thus waking me up. So we walked to the van like three very sleepy souls, and it was not the nicest start to the day to be fair.



But, even with the slumber escapades of the ‘Atlantic Three’, as we’ve been dubbed by the local authorities (wanted for crimes against sleep patterns), we still made it to Southampton quite early - which always a good position to be in. We were playing The Joiner’s Arms, which I think most people just call Joiners as it sounds less like a homosexual sailor’s pub. A swift load in and set-up made for a relaxing soundcheck where we tried to run through some brand spanking new songs before giving up around fifteen minutes later when we realised we’d forgotten most parts to all the songs. Oooooooooops.



The dressing rooms in Joiners are situated upstairs in what I think may have used to be someone’s flat - although it now looks like it may be a crack den. But it does have character. Junkie character. And there was a little room that looked like it may have been used to hold someone kidnap. So, a relaxing place to hang out. Apart from that small snobbish point, the venue does treat bands exceptionally well - which is unfortunately very rare for the UK. Both times we’ve played here we’ve been served some tremendous pasta for dinner - simple but delicious. And the shows are all properly advertised and promoted, which again is something that you find doesn’t happen all the time in other cities. Maybe we’ve just got lucky with Andy, the man who’s promoted both the headline shows we’ve played here - who is as bearded as he is kind. He also plays in a great band called Burn The Fleet who you should check out. And he can get you free cinema tickets if he likes you.



The show itself was amazing. So near to being sold out, the crowd were great and were pretty much up for it from the get go - thus causing the room to become as hot as the sun, nearly. There was a little moment when I thought I may pass out, which would have been very embarrassing and would have made me look like a little girl. But I held it together with the aid of water, a towel and a performance coach called Hans who we keep in a flight case for times like this. His powerful words, daring me to ‘wet my pants’ and go for a ‘little nappy nap’ and then slapping me in the head gave me the strength to not ‘pussy out’ - his words, not mine. A great show then, and the perfect remedy for our sub-par performance the previous night. We couldn’t really be much further away from home without crossing the water, and it was pretty inspiring to see so many people singing along. We left a happy bunch of ‘pussies’ as Hans calls us. What a great guy.