The BIG TT TOUR 2004

Wednesday 2nd June.

At last, all the problems were resolved ( those minor hiccups like - the van was too small, the T-shirts were only just finished in time etc) and LoaDeD were ready to hit the road. The weather was superb. The now 2 separate LoaDeD band-wagons, Thunderbird 1 and Thunderbird 2, made the long haul to Liverpool, with enough spare time to push them and still make the sailing times (!!). If anybody saw a vehicle, trundling up the M6 with two wine bottles permanently tipped, and two pairs of red, flashing 'AC/DC' horns, that was the Thunderbird 1 girlies, (Andi and Karen). There were more 'props', so to speak, but more on that later. (video footage was taken, Martin had to make do with quick glances in the rear view mirror).

 When we met the guys in Thunderbird 2 for a coffee and pee stop, they reckoned that they didnt have such an eventful journey. Well, the wine was all in Thunderbird 1's posession; they dont let go of that very easily! Arrived safely at the docks with 'burger eating' time to spare. Now all that was left was many hours of boredom and patience waiting for the ferry. Mark and Duncan had a facination for the clock tower building next to the ferry berth - they were convinced it was home of ghostbusters!!!!

 So, at midnight, Steve actually filmed it in the expectation that Marshmallow man was going to abseil down the side. Was that the effects of a dodgy burger, too much beer or boredom for inactive minds ?? We'll let you decide.....

Thursday 3rd June

The midnight crossing was fine and the highlight was maybe reading the programme of TT events. The support for our friday Bushy's gig was to be a selection of George Formby impersonators!!!!!! 'Leaning on the Lamp-post' was NOT in our set list, so we didn't forsee too much of a clash of interests, although our impromptu version of 'When I'm Cleaning Windows' Meagadeth-style worried fellow passengers on the next seats to us. We arrived in Douglas about 3-00am. with a fine drizzle falling. How great was that going to be for setting up tents??? Mark and Marty, the respective drivers, found great amusement in lapping the Douglas round-a-bouts a dozen times before heading off for the camp site at Union Mills. Pitch black, raining and a very large field tested our skills at finding a good spot to set up 'Camp LoaDeD'. By now, we were knackered, two females suitably pissed, and pitching tents by headlights - did we care??? Did we hell !!! The following morning the happy campers awoke and were amazed by the amount of wheel tracks in the grass that seemed to mimic Clapham Junction. Blimey, did we miss the rally? errr no - we were the rally !! It was good to see that we had made a natural circle encampment of our tents - except for one couple who may well have failed geometry at school !!!! We were all amazed by the size of Duncan's weeny tent. To survive in it he must have dug down into the bowels of the Earth - hence gaining the name of The Hobbit. After injecting Steve with vast amounts of caffeine we set off for the Venue.

The place was open but no-one was at home, bit like Steve's head really! We phoned contact numbers, waited, phoned, waited. Finally, someone came and we were shown around. We managed to get the gear in and set up earlier than we thought. Had a phenominal sound check. Think we suprised them and they suprised us. It was like Christmas for Mark - who normally engineers our sound at gigs - to be able to relax and leave the strains of mixing to the Venue crew. It was fabulous to have so much time and effort put into our soundcheck, the attention to detail etc. Adie on the desk and Mark doing on-stage sound certainly deserve a mention. There was good feelings all round for the night ahead. Well, our stomachs were getting the better of us by now. Needed to set off to the other end of Dougie to find a watering hole and vittles. Then, with no time to spare, back to the Venue to change for a headline start. NO probs sharing the dressing room with the support girly singers. Have got to exchange 'G' strings somewhere!

The Venue is quite a fair size place. We had a good crowd, but the atmosphere was lost a little. As for the gig, awsome. The sound was terrific. Felt lost in our own atmosphere on stage. Rolled back to camp at bout 4.oo am. Coffees all round. The site wasn't as quiet that morning. First of all, we heard this poor excuse of a verbal 'revving' of a bike. Then, someone started up their bike and revved the guts out of it. Is this someone who really cares for their baby? Can they really afford a new engine every TT? Anyway, we managed to get some shuteye in the early hours and woke up to a brilliant sunny morning.

Friday 4th June

It was a good start to the day. We were all fired up, with a great feeling from the night before. ( Thats from on stage, not the dressing room!) We had a great brekky from the camp site cafe, more caffeine and off to check out . . . Bushy's!! We said a brief but warm hello to Martin from Bushy's, left him with the band wagon Thunderbird 2, and went shopping. There was alot more people around by now. We handed out our gig fliers to all the lucky, happy shoppers along Douglas sea front. Bikers, tourists, locals, dogs, penguins. . . . etc . ? The fun fair was set up, bungy rope things, stalls (candy floss, yum), the atmosphere was building. We felt another water hole approaching. Lunch was looming yet again. That done, back to 'The big blue and white stripey Tent' to set up and sound check once again. The dressing room left alot to be desired, although it had a great view; all of the sea front! There was not the same 'state of the art' PA either, but the Bushy's crowd and the bar staff more than made up for that. If any of you were there at the gig, cheers and thanks. With that atmosphere; the street crowd and entertainment, came the butterflies. Not pleasent winged creatures but our stomach ones. It's not stage fright, (they were awsome as well!) but more excitement. It symbolises what the TT is all about. And the racing too. Thought we would just mention that! Another great gig there everyone, always something special about doing a Bushys gig. Its brill to see everyone living it up and rocking the night away. Thanks again to all involved. Everyone there just makes it. Entered camp around 2.30 am. More coffees and beers. Warm night, more coffees and beers. Talked. Chilled. More idiots revving their poor bikes to smithereens. Watched the Hobbit disappear into his shelter. .

Saturday 5th June

It proved to be another loverly start to the day. Had good brekky from the camp cafe. Had showers, all be it cold ones. Think the Germans had arrived, got to the hot water first! Then off we set for Douglas yet again. We went straight to the Venue and parked Thunderbird 2 at the front. We were originally meant to sound check at around 5pm. So we had time to have a good 'walk about' down town, do some retail therapy, lunch, sus out the fair and watch some silly buggers on the bungy ball and various other attractions that scared you witless! When we got back to The Venue, we learned that the act that we were supporting that night, were late, errr - very late. Various members hadn't turned up yet and they were supposed to sound check before us. So, not only had we already stepped down from headlining the gig, we had to wait around to set up etc. An Isle Of Man Pink Floyd tribute band had reformed especially to do this evening and knicked our slot! Well, alls well that ends well?. . it got sorted.

 We have to mention Sharon and Phil from the Ministry of Loud disco from our home town. They actually text us from the mainland to say they had tried to get tickets to fly out to see us for the gig that night. But to no avail, there were no tickets at such short notice that evening. Big thanks to them for the thought, and see them at the next bike rally. Another mention has to go to Steve, who hunted us out at The Sulby Glen Hotel last year. He found us again this year. A great band follower from East Anglia. From the fact that he was totally bladdered, we doubt wether he remembers being there! At least he had a good time. LoADeD had a fantastic night, John and Kim made an excellant job of filming a DVD of us for the whole two hours. The lighting was brilliant and it all came together in the end.

 The two Lady Penelopys left with Parker in Thunderbird 1 and headed back to Tracey Island, (well, we are from Essex). LoADeD had to wait for the club to clear before we could load Thunderbird 2 and head off back to base at 4.30 am, only to find the girls and Marty fraternising with our German neighbours. Ironically, this being the D-Day aniversary, of which Mark and Dunc noisily reminded all who would listen, we all joined in relieving the Germans of their ammunition. (Or was it their crates of beer???) Still on a high from the tour so far, we were only too pleased to join in with the party. Although the rest of Tracey Island probably wished us onto a campsite over near Port Erin!!! One of the Germans was amazed by Steve's appearance, and immediately christened him 'Wooly' - wether it was relating to the inside of Steve's head or his by now totally dishevelled hair, who knows?? Who cares ?? A BBQ sparked up, and more German ammunition was sunk to some rowdy 'goings on'. Apart from cindered sausages, there was no way we were going to eat the toilet roll that was blazing away on the charcoal. And at 6 am, Hobbit dissapeared back to Middle Earth and the rest of us fell into our tents.

Mad Sunday 6th June

Yippeee, here we go again. A late morning surface for most. Followed by the usual brekky, showers etc. Once the sun had burned the mist away it was yet again, a gorgeous day. A few of us went over to the road side to video the David Jefferies memorial lap. It took approximately 45 mins to pass us. Thanks to all the guys who beeped and waved and flashed their lights as you passed. Brings a tear to the eye! Thunderbirds then headed off to John and Kims to watch the early edits of the DVD. We were all impressed with the sound quality, and how much he had achieved. John must have had less sleep than us! From there we left on an even bigger high. This rock n roll lifestyle, its great. We can put up with more of this. Off we went to the Big Blue and White stripey Tent, parked and took some crazy footage of Mark and Duncan doing their own street entertainment called 'Fire Farting'.

Don't ask. Please don't try this at home. It involved gas and lighters and flames, mmmm. Wot, no bum hair! ?? Andi vowed that after the crap start to the year, she was going to party till she dropped. Well, she did - in Thunderbird 2 and wouldnt get out 'till she'd drunk at least a litre of water! Didn't feel too well then? She implied that it was Karen's fault!! What a laugh those two had! We went to mingle in Bushy's and chat to the bar staff who, by the way, are a great bunch of guys and gals. Especially Batman and the likes. You all know who you are. The rock kareoke was due to finish, then Loaded could set up gear again. We sold 3 CDs on the strength of the sound check alone! We were cheeky enough to give a short 'taster' of what was to come whilst sound checking, and got a super response from the fast-swelling crowd. LoADeD then proceeded to play one of their best gigs ever. We were all up for enjoying this whatever happened and, boy we did just that!! Bushy's was heaving as usual. Not only side to side but front to back as well. You just know its good when you are louder that than the Men & Motors stage in the street!!!!! At one point there, the security guys had to come in and hold the speaker stacks down 'cos everyone was going wild. And some of you out there have got big mouths; you can drink and sing brilliantly at the same time. Wow. We were put off a bit early on by something outside the tent. First of all, we thought it was a piece of our equipment blowing up. Then the banging wasn't in time to our music so Mark and Steve kept looking at each other thinking one of them wasn't playing right. Then Mark realised that it was the 'bang the thing with the hammer thing, to make the bell go ding', thing outside of the tent just behind him. We had the video camera on the crowd for a few songs. Great to see all you budding film stars out there, itching to get on screen! Thats what we want, exhibitionists! Bit like our Jason, he works well in front of a camera, . . . apparently! We have heard that he likes to get his feet up higher than his head ? but thats a bit difficult on the Bushy's stage, it makes Steve's drums wobble! The Bushy's web-cam picked us up with various odd positions. When we all arrived back at base this time, the site bouncer was patrolling the grounds, so we decided that a fairly quiet caffine fix and bed was the best plan of action.

Monday 7th June

With the Port Erin gig a non-starter and the hottest day this week, we were grateful to relax in the sun and listen to some cool music, drink cool beer and fire up a BBQ. (not with Mark and Duncan's fire farting; that could be quite dangerous!) We lazed around, chatted, laughed alot and were really quite happy that we ended the tour with that fantastic gig at Bushy's. How would we have followed that?!?! Being in a band is like a 'family', and we all agreed that this tour bonded us better than anything previous. 'Parker' was on the band wagon and off the beer. So he drank cider instead; loads of it, and he was cooking. The BBQ that is. Heaven help us. Actually, he did really well. Sausage sandwiches were made ; Well, you didn't want to see them, talk about slapping things together! Parker and Hobbit appeared joined at the head - like siamese twins - by Walkman headphones and bopping around.

Who knows what they were listening to, you would never guess from the dance that they were doing! Mark was reciting excerpts from the Fast Show and having us all falling about with laughter. Steve the camera man proceeded to interview everyone on video. Pah, who needs Hollywood when LoADeD can make their own 'Oscar winning' classics! Jason slept his voice in the shade. As the afternoon wore on, we started to pack up camp to be able to head off back to Douglas for the last time this year. Most of the band members were tripping home that night around 11pm, while the others stayed an extra day to watch some racing and an extra evening partying. We all decended onto Bushy's yet again, watched Stage Fright who were great, as usual. Fond farewells were said to the Thunderbird 2 crew and they sailed off into the sunset, . . . .errr, its just like a Hollywood movie! The Thunderbird 1 crew enjoyed the street entertainment; the rocket car, the minis from the Italian Job, the firework display and the Red Arrows. After a night dossing in the ferry terminal, it was their turn to sail off into the sunrise!

So ends LoADeD's Big TT Tour for 2004, totally sucessful, packed with great memories. Bring on 2005

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