An Extraordinary Tour – To Kill A King on their European tour

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.

Hamburg was a show where the venue had been upgraded, leading to one irate fan calling us ‘douche bags’ as if we’d chosen to be more popular than he was happy with. During the gig itself some of our fans were engaged in bubble blowing down at the front, which made for an interesting juxtaposition during songs about abortions and funerals.

Cologne came next, featuring tour’s smallest venue that appeared to double as a strip club. Before the show we recorded a session outside in the street that put the gig in some jeopardy, such were the affects of the freezing winds on our hands and fingertips. Back in the warm we managed to work up a fine sweat to a very appreciative crowd, although none of them were excited enough to have a go on the pole by the front door.

Amsterdam was next. Our collective stomachs demanded the famous local chips should fill them and a walk around town to find these took in the local sights of the central station, the canal and several ladies of leisure on the look out for pleasure in return for your treasure. We were sharing our venue with Scottish noise warriors MOGWAI, who are LOUD. This made the acoustic numbers performed by SPRING OFFENSIVE and us slightly less intimate than intended. Due to MOGWAI’s early finish and a lax policy regarding which gig you’d paid for, many of their fans spilled into our room, leading to a larger crowd, which was no bad thing.

Our show in Wiesbaden followed, taking place in a sprawling left wing cultural centre. Ben made use of the onstage architecture, using moments when he wasn’t stroking his keyboard to perform chin-ups that had a small portion of the mostly female crowd whooping with delight. This partly explains the crowd’s insistence on not one but two encores.

After this point my mind turns to mush. This was the tour where none of us shaved. By the end of it Ralph led the way for density of facial foliage, with Ben putting in a decent effort with an overgrown goatee that resembled the whiskers of a walrus. Waistlines expanded at the rate of three inches per hour; I now weigh 110kgs.

Our deepest thanks go to everyone who came to see us play. There are some places at home where it’s a struggle to get people to our gigs, so being able to play our first headline tour in foreign fields to rooms that were mostly full or sold out was really humbling, as well as telling us we’re doing something right.

Thanks also go to Pelham Groom for saving our tour, everyone who let us stay, Alice James for planning the tour and Siobhain Brackenridge for carrying out said plan, Christina Doerr for her merchandising and Germanic knowhow and Jamie Tinsley for his sound skills.

We’ll see you soon Europe, you were most kind. Josh

—

TO KILL A KING