THE TEQUILA TOUR, PART ONE: FROM THE CROWN TO THE CAROLINAS…

Crown & Cushion Warm-Up

Hi there everyone – so begins our blog to attempt to describe the Tequila Tour, March-April 2011. We are still on the tour as I write this, but fear of forgetfulness and a massive build-up of new friends and fans, stories, photos and videos means that we must start writing things down now! So here goes my faulty and addled attempt to tell the stories of the tour so far…Aine will correct me and fill the gaps so it should be a reasonably lucid account! Our first stop off on the tour was The Crown and Cushion in London. This is a regular haunt of ours, and one facilitated by the wonderful Charlie Chalmers, (who admitted to having a ‘favourite’ surfchixxx….tut tut, Charlie, that’s like admitting to a favourite child!) but Charlie and John & Ruth are brilliant, and regulars Avril and Eddie (who suffered on, despite man-flu) and Fionnuala and Guido, and our resident studs Matt & Copper, legendary barlady Charlene, – thanks to you all for two great nights.  

Surfchixxx went on to Charlotte, North Carolina, to play the first two gigs of the USA Tequila Tour at Connolly’s on 5th, – such craic! Getting out of Atlanta Airport was quite the challenge, with Niamh wearing the “stupo crown” for all of the journey. (The Stupo Crown is the imaginary crown of stupidity, which is worn by the person who has most recently done something really stupid. On surfchixxx tours, it alternates pretty evenly between Aine and Niamh. It is a reminder that everyone f***s up from time to time!) Anyway, I wore the crown all the way to Charlotte, for reasons I will tell you when I see you. The first night was great craic, with the magnificent Franco Garcia turning up, with Johnny. Rob Cutwright was in the house too, and we had such a laugh, debuting ‘Horse Outside’ in the USA, and selling some well dodgy CD’s (At this point, the stupo crown was handed over!) For the Wednesday night gig, we were chuffed when we saw our Belmont Abbey Boys already there, waiting for us.

Aine & the Belmont Boys

Another surprise visitor was Aine’s roomie and best Berklee buddy, Livvy, who came all the way from South Carolina. Olivia not only came to the gig, but played an awesome guest spot, and then drove us back home! We also were delighted to see Amanda come in (with her sister & friends) and a whole clatter of Belmont people from the two trips over – also, have to say that the staff at Connollys were really cool-  we had two brilliant gigs, Jason’ Bone’ Mitchell got news that his brother got into Columbia that night, Rob came back for more dodgy CDs, and the craic was mighty! Thanks Charlotte. 

Special Guest Livvy Connors

A Belmont Boy Sandwich, yum!

 

And so it was onwards and southwards to Rock Hill, South Carolina and to McHales Pub for St. Patrick’s Day. This was a funny gig- funny in that we were playing outside, in about 80 degrees of heat and no cover, so after about 10 minutes, we could feel ourselves begin to burn up.

Slainte, McHales!

Blisters in the Sun! Paddy's Day, McHales

Stuart and the gang there were really cool, and it was great to see Katie and her peeps come by…thanks Katie!    We’ve loads of people to thank for this leg of the tour- Travis Feezell, Tom Timmons, Murph and the crew at Connolly’s, Rob, Liv, Franco, Adam, Amanda, Bones, Tracy, Stuart and the crew at McHales, and (for the Stupo Crown) the people at Atlanta Airport Car Rental…. saved our bacon. After the Carolinas, it was on to New York City, so we hopped in to the Chickmobile, programmed our GPS lady (whom we christened ‘Charlotte’) and began the drive Northwards to New York. The drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains, via Salem, Roanoake and Shenandoah was sublime, and we were making great time, despite a brief and unscheduled detour into the ‘burbs of Newark, and a comical double trip through the Holland Tunnell. One of the regular features of this trip has been finding out that the exit to wherever we wanted to go has been closed, and the detour has been…an education! But so far so good, and New York, we’re coming to get ya!…. to be continued!

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