Pete's Europe Tour Blog

Sweden Rock
9 June 2011

FM Tour Diary: Pete's Europe Tour Blog - Sweden Rock - 9 June 2011

3am… the alarm goes off, ah lovely, 2 hours sleep tops. Into the shower to try to feel at least slightly human before our biggest ever show in Sweden. The cab arrives on time at 4am and it's off to meet Steve and Jim before heading to LHR Terminal 5 for our 4.40am meet. Everyone has arrived on time and remembered their passports, splendid. Through security, quick breakfast and onto the BA flight which leaves nicely on time. We're flying into Copenhagen as it's the nearest airport to the Sweden Rock site. All the luggage arrives, we're good to go. As we come into the arrivals lounge we're met by 2 fans who have a pile of stuff for us to sign, nice one!

Our transportation is there for the 100 mile trip to the festival site. The weather here is a bit average to say the least, overcast, grey, drizzle. Jem's been up now for about 2 days, poor love, and he falls asleep in the back of the car. The weather's looking up, it's stopped raining. The weather may have improved but we're about 2km from the festival site and there's a huge tailback of traffic. It's 12.44pm and we're on at 4pm…

12.55pm and we're not moving at all, so much so the driver has got out of the car and is wandering around the carriageway and has disappeared. That's handy… Good, he's back but we're still at a standstill. No point getting stressed...

1pm and we've moved about 20 yards. I'm feeling a bit weary now and my eyes are quite sore, lord knows how Jem must be feeling. Stop, start, stop, start but at least we're now edging our way forward... 1.10pm, still a kilometre away from the site and the drizzle has started again... 1.23pm, no further forward, drizzle getting harder... We finally arrive just after 2pm.

Everyone is pretty chilled especially Jem who is actually, by now, just about comatose. Dan Reed is on stage sounding good. He finishes and the stage is ours for the taking. We're using hired backline and you never really know what you're going to get. Luckily it's all good, result! We're set up and soundchecked with time to spare, good work fellas.

Time to change, we're summoned to the stage, the intro tape goes on... "Please welcome onstage the mighty FM". A huge cheer goes up. Sweden remembers us! Woohoo! And we're off into Wildside, I Belong To The Night, Face To Face... The already decent crowd is swelling as each song passes. It's a good 'un. Sweden Rock rocks big time. We take our bow with the crowd chanting "One more song, one more song". Yes, a blinder, loved it, loved it, loved it.

Back in the dressing room we're told "10 minutes to the meet and greet". There's nothing quite like a nice relaxing time after a cracking show but unfortunately this was not going to be the one. We head over to the M&G and it's mobbed, fantastic! It's so busy we have to rush as we've got a flight to catch back to Stansted. We thank everyone and bid a fond farewell to Sweden Rock. Thanks one and all, mucho respect.

We get to the airport with no bother, check in and head to the restaurant section. Get ready for some classic Kirkpatrick price rants... "I've just spent 15 quid on two f***ing sandwiches, 15 f***ing quid". Or how about "A tenner for a f***ing pint, that's a f***ing joke" he declares supping a tenner's worth. We head to the gate and the plane leaves on time. Bye Sweden, hope you'll have us back real soon.

We arrive at Stansted 15 minutes early, all the luggage arrives too which is handy. Smudge is picking us up and Charlie is bringing the gear. The fellas arrive, we pile in Smudge's vehicle and head off for Peterborough. Everyone, despite being knackered, is in fine spirits. It's been a long but very successful day out for us FM boys. We arrive at the hotel just before 1am. I'm sharing with my roomie soundman Richard. Smudge has brought a cooler box with beers. I nab one for Rich and myself as a nightcap and it's zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

FOOTNOTE
We must be the only band that's played Sweden Rock and stayed in Peterborough the same evening. :-)