On Tour In The UK With Harrison Storm

It's safe to say that this tour has been filled with all sorts of firsts for me. For starters, it’s my first-ever big extended trip overseas.

I’ve spent one month in North America and as I write this from my accommodation in Ireland, I am three weeks into a one-month stint in the UK and Europe. The last few weeks have been extra crazy travel wise and spending each night in a different town or city has been a driving force in taking a moment every now and then to reflect on what’s been going on. Shows, festivals, trains, planes, taxis, handshakes, hugs, people, noise and everything in between can make time fly.

Initially, and for me at least, there seems to be two states of existence when travelling around playing music. There’s the crazy rush of movement, thinking and planning, getting from one place to another, that seems to be the more exhaustive and easily lost in.

Then there’s the space in between your steps as you walk across a road in a city you’ve never been. The peace and calm of breathing deep right before you perform in front of people you’ve never met before. Moments of therapeutic connection as you notice something that reminds you of home. And the things that just stop you dead in your tracks. A beautiful view, kind words from a stranger or a someone helping you lift all your gear onto a train carriage.

Two different states that overlap more often than not and as I suspect, begin to merge into one as your tour more often, for longer periods. But I guess I will find out in time.

I was happy to find myself in Manchester a few weeks ago for the start of Dot To Dot Festival, which was spread over two days in three cities across England. It was also the first day since I arrived in the country the weather was true to its reputation. Wet, cold and overcast. 

An unwelcome normalcy after being gifted with what seemed like weeks of sunshine since I took a step off the plane. I checked into my accom and lugged my gear up five flights of stairs (the elevator was out of order), entered nap mode briefly before I set off to search for the night's venue.

It was really cool to see the local people with festival wristbands on, filling the streets and going from bar to bar to check out bands they’d maybe not heard before. This festival was filled with up-and-coming artists and knowing that the people were just keen to see new music and try something new gave me that little bit of extra confidence that you sometimes need being somewhere new for the first time. 

Day two of the Dot To Dot Festival was located in the awesome city of Bristol, which hugs River Avon in south-west England. My journey south from the previous night's festival city of Manchester involved one of the most hilarious train rides I’ve been on. To set the scene, the carriage I found myself in was filled with elderly people. The lady I sat next to was heading to Bristol to visit her granddaughter for a week. Very sweet. This very normal train ride was quickly flipped on its head once we pulled into a station to collect the next batch of passengers.

Led by a man dressed in a very poorly worn Nurses outfit, a group of 15 boisterous guys decided to join our carriage, obviously on a bucks party (or as they call it in England, a ‘Stag Do’). Things got wild pretty quickly as cups were handed out by the party almost instantly and booze poured into every willing participant's cup on this three-hour long train journey south. All of a sudden I found myself in this hilariously weird situation, all before midday on a Saturday!

The mix of energy from the bucks party, coupled with the progressively more accepting drunk older people, my train carriage was now the place to be. I was on the Elderly Express, destination bucks party, proudly sponsored by Jack Daniels, stopping no stations for the foreseeable future. Safe to say it was the best train ride of the trip and I hope Heather got to meet her Granddaughter safely. I’m still laughing at the thought of her knocking on the door.

The perfect way to enter Dot To Dot Festival Bristol on a high. Once I’d checked into my room, I wandered the streets, ate a burrito, got some laundry done and even had a very brief nap before the nerves started kicking in about my set that night! New city, new people, new venue. I was excited.

I Uber’d to the bar I was supposed to be playing and was slightly confused because I couldn’t see a building. I only saw a ship. A ship named Thekla! Turns out Thekla is permanently moored in the harbour and has two band rooms inside! So cool, was about to play my first gig on a ship!

My night ended after a drink at this little beer festival on the street. I felt like the day had gone really well and it was nice to wind down in this sort of setting. This moment was definitely one of the ones that will stick in my memory from this trip and Bristol is on the list of places to visit again.

I was a little sad to find out that the train from Bristol to Nottingham for the final Dot To Dot show was just going to be a regular train ride, with no bucks party or old drunk people. It was a painful journey knowing the fun that had unfolded the day before. I briefly thought England compensated the overcast weather with party trains and how great that would be. A modern transport initiative where places with less than satisfying weather could look to adopt. But a guy can only dream. Nevertheless, I made it to Nottingham and was pleasantly surprised to find my accommodation was a tropical Caribbean themed room with palm trees and sunsets painted on the walls. The universe was listening.

Now my time in Nottingham for Dot To Dot was something I was really excited about. Not only because I was playing a new city, but because it was the night I was to watch Dermot Kennedy perform for the first time. For all who haven’t heard of him, he is an Irish singer-songwriter who I've been listening to a lot lately. There is something so stirring about his songs, the conjuring of emotions you suppress through day-to-day life, seem to be brought right to the surface with his music. In a way that feels refreshing and thought-provoking.

While the excitement of the night was brewing, the reality of my show came bearing down on me in full force. With the next day being a public holiday and the show day being Sunday, every pub was crawling with people lapping up the long weekend. I found myself in one of these bustling pubs for a gig and from my experience, they are the hardest ones to play. I was hugely thankful to the core group of music fans right up the front who seemed to be there to enjoy the songs and together we got through the gig unscathed. I think most crowds are deeply understanding when it comes to a noisey venue. They can put themselves in the artist's shoes. I appreciate that.

It was a nice surprise to see a familiar face in the crowd, someone I met busking in Melbourne maybe three years earlier had made their way down to the show. After the gig, a group of us decided to venture out to dinner at Pizza Express, then head to this cool underground bar before we embarked on the Dermot show.

Dermot Kennedy did not disappoint and to finally hear these songs I’d be listening to live, was awesome. It was cool to be in the audience this time around too, noticing the expressions on peoples faces as they soaked up the music. Almost everyone there was in their own little world, built around the songs this guy wrote and to see them all brought together in this venue to experience collectively, was a special moment. I was definitely in the 2nd state of tour existence then.

As I walked back through the streets of Nottingham to my tropical oasis room, a vegetarian falafel wrap in hand, I felt a deep sense of satisfaction for the past three days at Dot To Dot Festival. What a weekend.