The last day of tour was a home town show in London and it was nice to get that feeling of being home again. We took the van again to The Unicorn in Camden and were there from around 4pm so we had plenty of time to load in. Again I took charge of all the merch loading in and setting up. Although this time as punishment for not doing any loading in Tom had to help me out! After that I then set up my laptop on the merch desk to get cracking with more editing. 

At around 6pm my boyfriend arrived at the venue as a bit of moral support at the last gig. We headed down to Camden town to get some food and I brought Ricky’s GoPro with me to film some candid footage of the town centre. After a lovely filling burrito we walked 20 minutes back up the road to the venue to have a quick drink before the gig kicked off.

Callous were on first and managed to draw in a bit of a crowd which stuck around for the rest of the night. I got the chance to jam out with Defences being front and centre of their crowd which was loads of fun then it was back to work with High Rise. As the last night of tour and the crowd numbers looking up Dan finally got to crowd surf, which he was really happy about. What a way to send off the tour!

We took some time after to get a couple of group photos of High Rise and all the bands/crew together once we mostly loaded everything out. The venue were quite eager to close up as their staff don’t get paid after 11 and there was one bar guy left waiting on us. Whilst packing up we seemed to attract a rather interesting drunkard from the streets who began babbling incoherently before he started to get aggressive. Not only did he kick my boyfriend but also began hitting/prying off Defences’ license plate on their tour van! Fortunately for them their drummer and driver Kyle was prepared for anything (and I mean absolutely anything!) and had some spare screws around to fix it. Whilst all this was happening Gaz from Callous was straight on the phone to the police.

That’s when we discovered something… Dan had left his jacket and car keys in the now locked up venue which we needed to get home. After trying to think of several other ways to get home Cherry from Defences spotted the venue staff walking down the road so we chased after him and got the venue reopened. That saved our journey home! Thinking that’d be the end of our troubles I joined Jovic across the road to get some pizza for the journey home. As soon as I got there Jovic and two of Defences told me to look out on the pavement by the door and I saw a trail of blood. Apparently they had just seen someone get stabbed in the foot! I have heard of various things like this happening in Camden but had never been one to experience it, even with all the times I’ve spent in Camden at gigs.

Once our food was ready we headed back towards the van to see a police van had arrived so we went to see what was going on. Turns out the police turned up to deal with the homeless drunk man Gaz had called in about. The man had been starting to let his trousers and all sorts go and as we turned the corner we saw the police had to restrain him on the floor. Finally that was the end of our troubles in Camden and time to go home.

As sad as it was that the tour had ended I know everyone couldn’t wait to sleep in their own beds, get plenty of rest and some proper food down them! I’m sure it won’t be the last I see of the boys and hopefully I’ll get to work with them together again on future projects and tours.

By this point in the tour my laptop had ran out of core memory storage so my passport air device came in very handy to get on with the rest of the work I needed to do. Unfortunately on the way to Tom’s house I lost all the data on my phone by updating iTunes without backing up my phone so I lost tour photos and videos including video diaries. It was restored back to when I last backed it up in December which was irritating but it could’ve been worst and I could’ve lost a lot more. Luckily I was able to handle this and I hadn’t lost all my camera tour photos. 

In the end we decided to take a chance on using the van for the drive to Norwich. We all met up at Tom’s house again and made our way to the venue. As soon as we got onto the M25 we were stuck in traffic as ambulances came racing by and we soon came to a standstill as the M25 got closed off. Like most people we decided to use this as an opportunity to stretch our legs and enjoy the sunshine that was blazing down upon us. After awhile some of the guys decided to take a walk up since the news report was that the traffic wouldn’t be moving again for about an hour. Fortunately after about half an hour we saw the others running back towards us as the cars were beginning to move again and we were finally on our way. Somehow we made it there before Callous who were driving straight from Folkestone!

The local opening band that were supposed to play pulled out that night so it was just us three again. We only managed to draw in a couple of locals to the gig as a karaoke night was going on next door, and The Brickmakers wasn’t exactly town centre. It was nice to have a night of all the bands playing to and supporting each other though.

This night was also surprisingly my busiest night of the lot as all the bands asked me to shoot their sets I was working all night. I also decided to take charge of merch and did the whole layout as well as bringing it in then packing it away. I really liked the lighting at this venue too but it was a bit odd to be shooting a bigger stage with a barrier compared to all the other venues we had visited. Defences were finally able to put their whole production to use since there was a bigger stage with more space for their LED lighting stands and side stage scrolls. It was great fun shooting all of the bands and chatting with the sound guy after as he also does photography, we even exchanged details.

As I got to Tom’s house the next day I was informed that the van was having more trouble when they were getting home from Maidenhead (immobilizer stuff) which meant it’d be safer not to take it to Folkesone. Instead the plan was to use cars instead. We had three in total - Dan’s, Sam’s and Ricky’s. Everyone else set off and it was just me, Ricky and Tom left in the house waiting on Tom’s clothes to be washed and dried! Eventually we set off in Ricky’s car and everything was going to plan. That was until we literally reached Folkestone and were 6 minutes away from the venue - car problems again! We had just come off a round-a-bout and had to pull over to the side of the road. Ricky had called for the RAC but it didn’t look like they’d be getting there for a while so Sam came in his car to pick up the gear in Ricky’s car as well as Tom and I. It was a good thing Folkestone isn’t too far away and we made it in time for loading in and soundcheck. We had our fingers crossed that Ricky would also make it to the venue in time for the set later on. Plan B was to have Dan on guitar and Ryan back on bass. He wasn’t able to make the whole tour due to work but he was able to come to this date. In the meantime Tom, Dan and I headed out into town to get some well earned fish and chips because that’s what you do when you’re by the coast! 

Defences were first on this time round then Callous Calligula and High Rise. The venue was fairly busy as it was a saturday so it was nice to have a good turn out. Fortunately Ricky made it in time to play as his dad waited by his car for the RAC and he drove his dad’s car to the venue. This date was also when I got some of my favourite photos on the whole tour, there was plenty of white light and a nice selection colours in rotation. The only real down side was that there wasn’t any space to take photos from the front so I had to go behind the sound desk at the side then jump on stage.

Afterwards we packed up into our cars and headed on home via a service station for a late night meal at our favourite fast food place on tour - McDonalds. (We might as well have been sponsored by them at this point.) Sam dropped us all off home and we tried to get as much rest as we could before the drive up to Norwich.