Here we go again - Off on another European touring adventure!
I’m back out on the road again with my frequent collaborator Ian Russell to bring the good word of Dan Thomas to the masses in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. This is my third tour in the EU and I honestly LOVE being over on the continent - there’s just something about the audiences here that just reach a whole other level.
We left my house in Potton at about 6:30am to drive down to Dover, hop on a ferry to Dunkirk, then hit the road again over to Amsterdam for our first show at Checkpoint Charlie Cafe, finally getting there about 6pm (and that’s 7pm our time if you take in the 1 hour time difference).
This is easily some of the tougher parts about being on the road - the absolutely mammoth drives on fairly tight schedules. You can feel pretty drained before it’s even show time (especially when you’re the idiot doing all the driving too!), but Checkpoint Charlie is an absolutely cracking place to get you in the mood to play a show. It’s not in the absolute centre of the city, so you don’t get tons of utterly drugged-up tourists, but it’s not so far off the beaten track that no one goes there - It actually feels like a perfect sweet spot! Jaro, the manager there, is also an absolute dude and a real music lover, so it’s always a pleasure to hang with him before and after the show and he makes you feel right at home (and they always feed us really well!)
It was a pretty great show to start off the tour, although coming down with a cold which has obviously been brewing for a few days now wasn’t exactly helpful - I’m feeling a bit rotten and that’s not the best way to start off a tour that runs for 3 weeks across 2 legs, but I’m hoping a bit of rest here and there will do enough to keep the worst of it at bay!
Currently writing this from the home of our brilliant couch-surfing host, Arne. He’s a Norwegian man who’s been living here in Amsterdam for most of the past 20 years. His living room (where I sit as I type), is awash with graphic novels, board games, Pratchett novels, sci-fi and gaming models and an assortment of 3D printed, hand-painted Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures - I am clearly amongst my own kind here and it may prove to be incredibly difficult to leave!
Day off tomorrow (yes, I know, so soon into the tour, but sometimes schedules be like that), so I’m going to use it to rest up, drink a shed-load of water and try to do things restorative for my body - it’s so important to look after your health in this ridiculous game!
See you tomorrow!
D