We waited outside our hotel for our tour bus, our very first REAL tour bus. The bus was really big and pretty cool inside. There were 14 beds, a kitchen, cooler, fridge, microwave oven, 2 lounges (upstairs and down), 2 TVs, DVD player, video and CD player plus an office. Now, beyond the usually suspects (the 4 of us in addition to you know who) we had our merchandise guy, Frazer (who wouldn’t join up though until we play Swansea in Wales on Sunday), our sound guy and technician (Kose and Troels) were not due till Friday, at the Borderline show and we had 2 new additions to the LOVE family, tour manager Ross Elliott, and driver, Derek Crosby. Our manager, Glenn Povey, was to stay behind and do work on our behalf. Good on him, I say!

So, we rolled out to central London to pick up our gear from Matt Snowball and then we headed to the Borderline, where we were met by Love fans just as it started to piss down outside! Dukie and a few other fans helped us out with some gear and then Ross had to find out why no one was at the venue to help out. But it all got sorted and then we sound checked and it sounded good.

Afterwards, Hannah showed up and chilled with us all backstage and we both had a pint of Carling (yuck) and then we met up with Jackie and all three of us headed up to the Angel, just off Denmark Street. After a pint each and watching England struggle against Portugal, Rusty, Daddyo, Chapple and our friends, Stu and Richard, showed up and soon were drinking pints as well. The game was late and us band guys had to get going (5 minute walk) back to the venue.

The crowd was light when we got back but thickened by the time we stepped onstage. We played for about 2 hours, I think. It was good fun and when I finally came out to meet friends my L.A. buddy, David Nolte, had showed up and had said ‘Hello’ to Hannah. As a mater of fact Hannah had had a few and was noticeably merry when I got to her/ But this I found charming and cute! We finished our beers and then Glenn Max invited us to Groucho’s for a private party. Hannah, Jackie, Hilary and myself walked to Dean Street and had more pints, although some of us had juice and/or mixed drinks. Afterwards Hilary dropped Jackie off at her car and then was sweet enough to drop Han and I off at Hannah’s flat. We were dead knackered but still it was such a fun night. We had the mad, mad munchies and walked to Han’s favourite chippy shop but it was closed. So we then went to the second choice, which looked dodgy, but, no matter, we were hungry. We got chips as well and went to Han’s to eat and watch Big Brother.

Mike Randle