Recently beloved British indie folk band TO KILL A KING set off for their first ever European headline tour. They brought the songs from last year’s joyful debut album ‘Cannibals With Cutlery‘ as well as a lot of energy but also fear. It became an extraordinary tour, to say the least. Exclusively for NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION bassist Josh Platman takes a look back and shares his experiences with us.
A few weeks ago we set off on our first headline tour of mainland Europe. We were frankly terrified by the prospect of the near-empty rooms we assumed would follow. We hoped that some of those who saw us with BASTILLE would return, and also that our replacement drummer from support band SPRING OFFENSIVE would be up to the job of replacing our regular tub thumper Josh Taffel, who’d ended up on the wrong side of a slippers / fridge / hand equation moments before departure. Thankfully we needn’t have worried about either.
For the opening days of the tour we travelled by freezer. The heating in the back of the van was bust and this, allied to the sub zero temperatures, turned the windows to sheets of ice and left icebergs in our drinks, leading to the creation of Iced Ice Tea. There we were in a little mobile Narnia en route to Copenhagen, driving over bridges 8km long in gale force winds and trying not to die.
Next was a Berlin under attack from oceans of snow and -12C temperatures. This would be our first show with Pelham Groom of SPRING OFFENSIVE in the drum chair, and following a double-speed run through of the set on our thighs before we went on, everything went fantastically well. Groom was near faultless and truly earned his birthday drinks that followed. Once the clock had ticked past 12 Pelham’s celebrations were hijacked by Ben Jackson who believed that it was now his birthday. It wasn’t until the morning when his girlfriend told him that his birthday wasn’t until Tuesday that he realised he’d got his own birthday wrong, which was stunning.
A day off in Berlin and a session for ‘Joiz TV’ followed, whose offices were full of not only staff but their dogs too. This made for an interesting live session and interview with an ever-present fear that a dog/dogs could run onto the set at any moment. Luckily all the hounds behaved impeccably and the interview was uninterrupted.
