The time is 7.47am. I’m sitting at gate D26 at Amsterdam airport waiting to board my flight home. The tour is over and The Temperance Movement touring party has dispersed (temporarily) and scattered to various destinations via varying methods of transport.
There are always mixed feelings at the end of a tour. Excitement at getting home and seeing friends and loved ones and also tinges of sadness at the thought of leaving our strange little tour bubble.
Last night in Haarlem was the end of an era as we said farewell to merch salesman and stock control manager, Mr Tom Tunstall. He was way over qualified for the job anyway and will soon be putting his dashing good looks, sophisticated charm and infinite capacity for absorbing knowledge from books to better use. We’ll miss you Tom but if things don’t work out as a professor of English literature, you know where we are.
James Pepper (guitar/backline technician and assistant TO the tour manager) will particularly miss Tom Tunstall as the two have become inseparable friends during their time with us. He, however, will not be leaving us as he is serving a lifetime apprenticeship. We have legally adopted him and frankly, I doubt anyone else would want him. Only joking Pepper, you’ve done an incredible job and the thought of losing you to another band is too distressing to contemplate. You are an inspiration to us all and your unwavering positivity has been like a rock for us to cling to in our darker moments!
As this diary entry appears to be tuning into some kind of overblown acceptance speech, I should also take the opportunity to thank our tour managers, Iain “Mr G” Graham and Neil “Doddy” Dodd. Two tour managers who couldn’t be further apart in style and character but who, in a head to head battle of tour managerial and sound mixing abilities, are worthy opponents. We salute you!
So, last but by no means least, I’d like to thank all of you for taking time out of your lives and coming to the shows. Let’s face it, they’d be pretty sad affairs without you! We’ll be popping up at festivals over the coming months so hopefully we’ll be seeing some of you then. We wish you all a fantastic summer and until the next time,
Be lucky, be happy!
– Nick
