Posted on August 3, 2009 - by Curvball

Leather Zoo Tour 2009

Leather Zoo on Tour

…catchy melodies in a classic punk suit are what they are all about. together with philosophical lyrics that have a whole load of attitude their music has all ingredients to be irresistible and make each song a potential ear-bug.

Wednesday 1st July

First gig is at the Black Market Venue in Warsop, which is a great place, and Kev the owner is a top guy. After the gig JK goes with his mate Chris to his Pub in Mansfield and open a 1.5 litre bottle of vodka.

Thursday 2nd July

Got a late start at 10.30am and go to find JK. We located him at the Pub with Chris and they both have been up all night on the vodka! JK gets to sleep in the back as we head towards Dover. We have an old but solid Tranny Van with 2 rally seats fitted in the back which is partitioned: half is JK’s bar with a fitted pink fridge and the other half has all the band gear in. We eventually get to our friends in Maastricht at around 8.00pm

Fri 3rd July

At about 6.00pm Maartje and Ingo return from their work and take us to the Apollo Youth Centre, with is only 5.4k from their house …but it’s in another country…Belgium!! It’s a great venue and there are 3 bands playing. We play last and afterwards get a great reception from all the folks there. We are given loads of free VERY strong beer and have a great party. The backstage is thick!

Sat 4th July

We get to the BaRRock Cafe at about 10.00pm set up and at first worry because the place is empty! But it fills up within 1 hour and we play to a really great crowd. The owner Daniel is a super cool guy and loves our 1st world war hand cranked air raid siren. We all sit out side in the street afterwards for a party and Daniel keeps cranking up the unbelievably loud siren. More free drinks and late night.

Sun 5th July

Today is the final of the Jonge Helden (Young Hero’s) band competition in Maastricht. It is an annual event that Maartje and her colleagues run for young bands. We have been invited to play as guests and also help with the judging. JK is nominated as our spokesperson and has to attend the judging panel. He is horrified by the formality of this and is worried about this role interfering with the more important task of getting through all his free beer tokens. So we agree to alternate the judging role, which actually Jamie adopts in the end. The winners are decided and they will visit the UK to play. Big party afterwards.

Monday 6th July

Lazy Day with YouTube and movies.

Tuesday 7th July

We drive to Braunschweig in Germany. It is 400k or 4 hours of driving. It’s a small private community of campers around a lake. It is an FKK site also which means naked club. We inform Jamie of the old tradition that all new members must run naked around the lake. He is too sober yet though.

Wed/Thur 8/9th July

Relaxing day at the campsite and we stay up until 3.00am but fail to get Jamie naked.

Friday 10th July

We drive to Aachen and at the venue there are signs up all down the street saying ‘No Parking’ due to an officially registered Protest in the street. There are over 50 Police attending and their main role is to protect the protesters, which is the venue, Hauptquartier (Headquarters) and us!!! Dieter the owner has had his live music licence revoked due to one person complaining about the noise. So he has registered a protest and here we are setting up to play our concert in the street out side the HQ. By the time we do a quick sound check the street is full of many people that know the gig is on but also lots of inquisitive by-passers. The sound is great as it echo’s around the close city buildings and we have a great time. Dieter takes a hat round the crowd for us and collects over 250 Euros’ which is nice on top of CD sales and T shirts Afterwards too many people try to get into the HQ where Dieter cooks us a fantastic Thai Chicken curry. Mel is taken to a Gay bar by 2 policemen who are now firm fans.

Sat 11th July

We have to get on the road to Braunschweig for tonight’s gig on the campsite. First we have to locate JK. He has just been thrown out of a night club at 9.30 am so has been on the streets for half an hour or so. He is hammered and jumps in the back to sleep the 4 hours drive. We have to play lots of covers along with the Zoo songs, as we are the only band there. It’s a great party afterwards with lots of crazy dancing into the early hours. Biff and JK go for a lap naked round the lake. Jamie is not tempted at all.

Sun/Mon/Tue 12-14th July

Late starts. We go to a large flea market, play a table tennis tournament GB vs. Germany. Germany win! Swim and go boating.

Wed 15th July

Left for Kiel around midday. The owner of the small but friendly Palenke Club greets us very warmly with a beer. The sales pitch outside on the window says “warm beer cold food lousy service” But it isn’t of course. In fact they have the best Chilli in the world here! Our accommodation provided is across the road in a kind of social centre with pool table. There is a huge industrial fridge there full of beer and a spirits table, which we are told we can help ourselves too. Eventually a crowd gather and we recognise some of them from last year. We have to play a few covers again for encore.

Thursday 15th July

We drive to Oer-Erckenschwick where the Sun Sucks Brain Out Festival is being readied. The organisers are all young and really cool people and as soon as we arrive they show us a tent that we can use and give us beer. All good!

Friday 16th July

A shower in the Youth Centre building and a beer fixes us up. We are 2nd to last to play at 9.30pm. The gig is going great on a big open-air stage and we have a HUGE sound but right at the end of our new Kit Kat song the power goes down and the stage is dead. It takes about 15 mins for them to find the problem and we get to finish the set with a really great crowd.

Saturday 17th July

Two hour drive to Heerlen in Holland so we can sleep in until 2.00pm. Jamie and JK had returned in the very early hours from a house party so are happy to sleep during the journey. We are sound checked by 7.00pm and Marcel the chilled out owner of the cafe Bluff tells us to start playing at around 11.00pm. So off we go to the coffee shop! The show is hot and furiously fast and we finish really quickly. There are happy dancing drunken folks there and we party with them and then drive to our Dutch friends Maartje and Ingo. They have been at a festival and only Maartje is still awake to see us. We are up chatting until 5am.

Sunday 18th July

Boring drive home.