Why you should always lock your roof box

Tuesday 24 April, 4am (Withington, Manchester): Our UK Tour kicked off tonight with a gig upstairs at Manchester’s Fuel Café. We headlined the show, supported by our new cheeky Northern friends Avenues and singer-songwriter Tom Barnes (accompanied by George, an extraordinary violinist who played her instrument like a lead guitar). A big crowd turned up and we ended up commandeering some of them for a bit of an all-nighter. It’s now 4 in the morning and Manchester isn’t here anymore because we drank it. We’re driving to Scotland tomorrow so I set my alarm for 10am. We’re due to ...

Al The Loveable Stoner

Tuesday 11 April, 6pm (Rond Point, Meribel, French Alps): Those of you who've met Tony will know that, just occasionally, things irritate him. I don't know whether it's the lack of meat in his diet, or his over-exposure to cheese, but there's a certain bio-chemical quirk in his personality that makes him particularly susceptible to getting bloody well pissed off. Ipso facto, he's spent the entire day fuming over last night's mysterious disappearance of his irreplaceable Lightyears jacket. He is therefore almost entirely overcome with joy when a chap named Al turns up at this afternoon's gig claiming to ...

“Poke me and I’ll hurl”

Previously on The Lightyears European Tour blog… …Monday 10 April, 11.30am (Lightyears Chalet, Saint-Bon, French Alps): Tony’s looking fragile this morning, having spent the entire night fighting a losing battle with a seriously hardcore stomach bug. Everyone’s nervous he may not make it out the door, let alone to the venue. And we have two gigs today. Outside, the weather is taking a turn for the worse…  Monday 10 April, 3.30pm (Somewhere in the French Alps): ………..Four hours later, we’re stuck in a snow-storm on the side of a mountain. Tony is just about holding up, although only really on ...

Postman Pat, Pete Doherty and puking

Tuesday 4 April, 3.30pm (Lightyears Chalet, Saint-Bon, French Alps): Everyone’s looking a bit battered by this point, as the hefty gigging schedule starts to take its toll. Tony is beginning to regret his decision to drum whilst standing up, on account of the fact that our 2-hour sets leave his leg muscles spasming like a crack addict with an embolism. He is now concerned that the audience will think he has Parkinson’s Disease. John is sitting on the sofa, head in a book, fingers in a rancid pot of vinegar, in a vain attempt to relieve the massive blisters ...