PFC on Tour 21: It's a Cranleigh affair

We arrived early in the sumptuous villagy surroundings of Cranleigh with a few hours to kill, having driven for 7 hours. It should be noted that Tom did all of the driving.

At a service station on the way down Tom was accosted by a German man who claimed to be a businessman whose wife was pregnant and was on his way to Dublin. He’d left all his sterling and his credit cards in London and was unable to pay for his petrol but assured Tom that if he leant him £80 he would repay him £1000 the next day. After a lengthy conversation, the gist of which was that Tom- or any of us- didn’t have £80, the man got back into his car and drove off. We saw him a few minutes later drive back into the services and accost another man. Presumably he kept doing this until someone fell for his scam.

Once in Cranleigh we ate fish and chips (Tom and Matthew) and Pizza Express (Ben and Brendan) and began setting up the show. Like last night’s gig in Glasgow, the show was in another converted church. Unlike last night’s gig, which was in a 200ish seater venue, tonight would be packed if we got 40 in. Which we did.
The show had the feeling of a town meeting with most of the audience knowing one another. Tom began with a backstage announcement, “Cranleigh, tonight you are family!” and it really felt that way. Perhaps there’s something to be said for driving 7 or so hours before each gig for helping us get ‘in the zone’.

We took a bunch of pictures so this entry will be more photo-diary than anything else. Enjoy.

Matthew gave the Blue Whale a new lick of paint, the fumes (and the 16 hours of driving) overpowered Tom. Tom was so tired, he was able to sleep almost anywhere. This slightly disrupted Ben and Matthew's musical push-ups warm up routine. But only slightly.The backstage was a kitchen. Here's Brendan about to put our travel guitar in to bake at gas mark 5. Not content with his push ups, Ben decides to use tonight's gig to teach himself to read. Note promoter Jon Briley skulking about in the background, planning ways he can disrupt our show with his dodgy sound-cues. Finally the audience start arriving. If only someone had made a handy to sign so they knew which room to go to...