Hello Canada………………….. Bonjour! and may I first apologise for putting you through yet another nonsense filled piece of what can only be described as errr drivel from someone who really should know better by now. As our Big 4 experience ended with what I can only describe as permanent disfigurement (from our transport) and life long memories I’m happy to say the excitement didn’t, Canada was next on the tour schedule and then 3 weeks in America, our carbon footprint would match any sasquatch by the end of 2011 and poor old Nick would be spending so much time in the air, he had started to show signs of growing a nice set of tail feathers and had asked Karl to add a cuttle fish bone to the rider at some of the shows!
As with our normal!! way of doing things, Nick would be spending the best part of a day getting to Toronto (ooops there goes that footprint again!) Karl would be driving up with Sheila and her niece and nephew, our long suffering crew Andy was already in that part of the world with his girlfriend Cathy visiting relatives, that just left Brian, Ed and myself to get on a flight at Heathrow….on our own without a safety net (Karl telling us what to do or Andy pointing to where the toilets were)….in other words we would have to think for ourselves! Easier said than done but we thought we had better try as the stage in Toronto/Montreal might look a little sparse with just Nick and Karl! Not wanting to have another ‘missing the flight’ adventure we decided that we should get to the airport in plenty of time as you never know how long 100 miles can take on English motorways. With a fair wind in our sails we arrived at Heathrow with enough time to spend a small fortune on a warm beverage!
Canada has always held a special place in my heart ,as its where my favourite band, the mighty Rush hail from, Canadians have a reputation for politeness, apologising is practically a national greeting I had heard, a lot like us brits who say sorry for everything even when it’s not our fault (why do we do that? When someone bumps into you in the street and it’s clearly not your fault you say sorry!!! In a lift and someone else has obviously left a stinky one to share, you want to say sorry!!Why do we do that?) With Brian Ed and myself safely through Heathrow and onto the flight we congratulated each other, we had ‘come of age’ we had negotiated the headf*** that busy airports clearly can be without the help of any sensible members of the band and as long as the plane touched down in Toronto and not some strip of dirt in Kenya we had achieved what normal people do every day. We arrived after a fairly eventless 5 or so hours (apart from Ed’s in flight entertainment console breaking down, leaving him to eavesdrop other folks movies to pass the time, I’ve always found it fascinating what people watch at 30,000 feet to kill the boredom, men by and large (I am generalising here a bit) go for action movies or documentaries, woman-rom coms, kids- cartoons and teenage boys spend the duration of the flight trying to find the porn!) We arrived at Toronto airport YYZ ( another Rush link and yes we all kept our luggage tags as mementoes…) and after I had been quizzed by an over keen immigration officer for what seemed like hours when it was only a few minutes we were re-united with our guitars and just like magic Karl appeared to take us to our hotel in his dodge wagon, it was good to be all together again and after a few hugs and greetings we had some food with an old friend of Brian’s who has lived in Toronto for years called Neil Brown, in fact Neil’s elder brother Tim was DH’s first manager and DH used to rehearse in their dads garage, that was nearly 200 hundred years ago when Brian used to play a white flying lute, in fact that’s where some of the ideas originated for DH songs, ‘its a string driven thing’ later became ‘its electric’ and ‘ doth I be evil? …(work that out for yourself….do I have to do everything?)also there to meet us was a guy called Bruce Pegg and his son, again from the midlands Bruce has his own Record label ( city boy, in fact he was wearing a Leicester City football top, maybe the only one this side of the grand union canal). It was after the meal that things started to get a little strange for me……..as we retired to our rooms to catch up on some much needed Zzzzz’s I would be sharing (again) with Ed and his constant night time companion Mr Snore……true to form Mr Snore appeared thirty seconds after Ed’s head hit the fluffy pillow giving me very little time to prepare for the aural assault that I had learned to expect and the rest of the band had learned to avoid at all costs! By 3am I had maybe had 20 minutes of rest (which on the Ed-o-snore-o-meter is pretty good going) it suddenly went eerily quiet, was he dead? was he playing nocturnal hold your breath?….(don’t try that at home kids just carry on trying to find that elusive adult channel) …the silence was let’s say, uncomfortable in a ‘thank god’ he’s shut the F*** up way, its then that the alter-ego of Mr Snore came out…as I drifted into slumber and my blood pressure returned to a more suitable number for sleeping, I heard it ! was I now fully in the land of nod or was I still waiting for the Sandman to eeeerm enter? Then I heard it again, no mistaking it, the sound of a cat was clearly echoing around our hotel room! I was pretty sure I hadn’t packed one in my carry on luggage, and I hadn’t noticed a basket in the corner of the hotel room or litter tray for that matter for a resident feline to park its dinner, it had to be Ed….but I still wasn’t sure. Over the years I have had many awkward conversations with people over many awkward subjects but with the arrival of the Canadian dawn chorus I made up my mind, I had to know if Ed was errrm mad or I had dreamt the whole thing (indicating that I may be mad I guess) ‘dude, has anyone ever suggested that you might do things in your sleep that are eerrm a little, how can I put it, strange’? I enquired, ‘like what chap’? no other way to say it I thought ‘like making the noise of a cat in your sleep, you weird f%%% ’ ! any normal person would deny any knowledge of such activities and would deflect the question making out I had dreamt it , not Ed…. yeah I have been known to sound like Bagpuss in my sleep and someone once said to me I sound like a menagerie when I’m out cold! Thank goodness, I hadn’t dreamt it and Ed was as I had suspected for some time now…absolutely barking mad! As we all sat down to breakfast and Ed tucked into a saucer of milk and a bowl of wild rocky mountain feline formula roasted venison and smoked salmon cat food (that’s the secret to his bright eyes and glossy coat I thought) we had a little matter of playing DH first ever gigs in Canada. We were to play mid afternoon with Megadeth and Motorhead headlining. We pulled into the backstage area just as the local radio station played ‘closer to the heart’ by some local Canadian band whose name escapes me, what more could I have asked for, living out my greatest ambitions with some great friends and some kick ass rock and roll tunes (I’ve said it before I know but I still can’t believe I’m in DH even after all this time).

The stage set up was a little different to Sonisphere although just as imposing, there were two stages, one to set up, one to play, our stage would towards the end of the day be hosting Motorhead. Their gear was already set up and Lemmy’s rig was without doubt, the biggest backline I’ve ever seen! It was so big that the top cabs had to be strapped down just in case they fell over and took out not only the crowd but most of the tents and car parking area. With the dressing rooms (again) too far away to get to before the show and the Canadian heat really forcing itself on us lilly white poms we decided that Karl’s dodge van would be our changing room, again to the amusement of the crews of the other bands! A familiar face appeared backstage to watch us in the form of Fred Kowalco, Megadeth’s guitar tech, what a really really nice chap, Megadeth would be on the opposite stage later that evening and it was really great that he came over to give us a little support.
The Toronto sunshine was glorious with a cloudless sky and warm breeze on our faces as our intro fired up and with our usual hug and words of wisdom from Karl we hit the stage to deliver our message to the now significant crowd that were waiting for DH’s first Canadian show. The stage was just a little smaller than Knebworth giving Brian and myself the opportunity to ‘twin guitar pose’ during The Prince as our guitar leads could just about stretch to allow us. The audience was fantastic, jumping around to Am I Evil? (yes I doth!) etc giving us such a buzz, it’s one thing to play on the other side of the world but when an audience go wild and are really into it, it takes it to another level. Again after what seemed like a few minutes of our set, we finished knowing that we had made some new friends with a job well done. With our dressing room still errrm parked backstage! we quickly changed and got our gear packed away and headed to our real dressing room (the one without wheels or a gear stick) It was at this point that the heat really got to me and I just slumped in the dressing room with a face the colour of a baboons arse! It took me a good 30 minutes to join the land of the living after copious amounts water to re-hydrate me. With so much water came the obvious reaction….I needed a pee! Following the signs to the ‘gents’ (although I could have so easily just followed my nose as they were let’s say more than fragrant) I found myself in trap number 2 flanked either side from Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano and Megadeths bass player Dave Ellefson what do you say at a time like that? Nice hat? Good boots? Watch where your aiming that thing? In the end I opted for a comment about the smell of the facilities which they agreed with, God! I thought….Knebworth it was Kerry king and his raw chicken now it was……half the big 4 and their toilet habits….. I could write a book about all this if I could only write!

Brian and Karl had a chat with Dave Mustaine whose dressing room was next to ours he said he was so glad we were out there ‘doing it’ and taking the band forward, we then stripped the dressing room of choc’s, beer and jagermister boxer shorts! (the sponsers of the show) The plan was to drive half way to Montreal and stay over at a hotel in a town called Kingston. Kingston is a beautiful town where the St Lawrence river flows out of Lake Ontario, it was the first capital of the united provinces with lots of historic buildings and centuries of history and a really relaxed atmosphere and in the true spirit of adventure once checked in at our motel with a willing eagerness to explore where we were staying……….we went to the pub! Food was more important than expanding our cultural awareness we thought and by now Ed was so hungry he was rubbing his face round our legs under the table we were sat at, purring to his heart’s content waiting for a bowl of Salmon and Trout grain pellets! As we all tucked into our Saturday evening food we reflected on another one of those ’special days’ and toasted what was to come…..Montreal.

As the Canadian dawn chorus introduced us to another bright and sunny day we went down to breakfast at the motel, it was very basic but served its purpose and was full of normal people going about their normal days business except for the fact they had heard that and English rock group had stayed the night, I’m pretty sure they had never heard of us but still wanted us to sign various bits of paper for them which we were more than happy to do(I suspect they thought we were Black Sabbath or similar, we hadn’t the heart to tell them any different) Once fed and watered we headed on our collective way to the city of Montreal. Our journey was about 170 miles and again we would be playing mid afternoon on the smaller of the 3 stages so we needed to get there as quick as possible, again with Karl piloting his trusty Dodge we seemed to arrive in no time (either that or I was out cold as the jet lag/Mr snore took its toll) This particular show was the one I was the most apprehensive about, we were on the 3rd stage which was a little out of the way, we again were playing mid afternoon and would hit the stage as Anthrax were half way through their set on the main stage, I didn’t anticipate much of an audience as it was easily a ten minute walk between our stage and the main two, maybe people would show up late after Anthrax or maybe they wouldn’t bother and opt for another burger and beer not losing their place in front of the main stages. The local crew at the 3rd stage couldn’t have been nicer, they won’t mind me saying, they were a little older than some local crews and I guess had seen it and done it all in their careers. Asking us questions about England, about the BBC, one even said he had an English newspaper (The Telegraph I think) everyday and liked to keep up to date with what we were up to back in the ‘old country’.
With Devildriver onstage before us, my heart was lifted as there was a sizeable crowd enjoying what they had to offer, I just hoped they would stick around for us. Unfortunately as they finished off their set the crowd dispersed leaving about 20 people eagerly awaiting DH, my heart sank, but people or not we intended to give them ‘the works’. As we set up our provided backline (Marshall for me and a brilliant Mesa boogie for Brian that he fell in love with, despite having more dents than a teenagers first car it was easily the best boogie we had both heard, in fact he still mentions it from time to time even now) my Marshall on the other hand seemed content with picking up a local radio station which isn’t anywhere near the job I was about to ask it to do, the backline crew said they would sort it out while we got changed (again in our mobile dressing room or as we affectionately came to call it ….Karl’s dodge ) As our intro fired up and our hug completed again with wise words from Karl, the local crew had sat back in their deck chairs ready to see what these Nglisshhh had to offer and much to my relief we had a crowd! Wow a real crowd that had (I guess) opted for us over a burger/ beer and maybe even Anthrax (although they would only miss maybe the last 15 minutes of Anthrax or the first 15-20 minutes of us) We entered the stage to an almighty roar which just lifts your soul to another level, that’s when I realised my amp wasn’t working! During our intro we go onstage at a certain point with just enough time to check everything (quick tune up—check to see your flies are done up!) but when your amp refuses to make a noise a kind of dread enters your body, oh f*** I thought, then with about 20 seconds to go I noticed that in an attempt to cure my amp from picking up the local radio station, they had switched the whole thing off, what kind of cure is that? (Imagine going to kwik fit because your exhaust is making a god awful noise, the mechanic comes back and informs you he’s fixed it, by not turning the engine on your exhaust isn’t making that god awful noise anymore!) I have to admit that I panicked! You may or may not be aware that as guitarist’s, we not only embrace 1950’s technology in the form of valve amps, we demand 1950’s technology in the form of valve amps and there are certain protocols that you have to adhere to, like waiting for the valves to warm up before you turn the standby off, in my blind panic I switched both on at the same time and it seemed to take an age for the amp to spring into life and make any kind of noise (you can’t get better than a kwik fit fitter!!) with that disaster averted and with the addition of Heat of the night we performed what I have no doubt in saying, was our best show in the 6 years I’ve been in the band, every cog was lined up in the right place, the crowd, the sound, the stage, the songs, I had the time of my life for the 40 or so minutes we were on stage, and judging from the reaction of the crowd, so did they. Even the aging local crew passed comment as we left the stage ‘that was great- and you’ve hardly got any tattoos between you ‘! Again all too soon we were off and getting changed and heading for the main artists area where the ‘dressing room was’ and food and drink (all I seem to write about is when we eat, but as I learned on my first few DH gigs you have to eat when it’s there because you never know when you will eat again)as we arrived there was a gazebo sited in the middle of the area where Kiss, resplendent in all their make up and costumes, were doing their meet and greets for some of their many loyal fans, we had dinner, and watched what was going on, bemused by the whole experience. During dinner, we met up with a good friend of Karl’s from NYC called Roman, little did I realise at the time but Roman would be sharing and filming our biggest adventure to date when we did our US tour he would be coming with us (more of that when I get round to it)

We stayed around to see Kiss on stage and Brian and Karl met up with Girlschool who had played the main stage and like me had had a few technical issues but had enjoyed the experience, then we met back at the van and headed for our hotel and a couple of drinks followed by our much anticipated beds (well a basket for Ed). The following day Karl dropped Brian, Ed and myself off at the nearby airport, Nicks flight wasn’t till much later so he would be dropped off nearer the time, its then that the icing on the proverbial cake happened. With yet another airport warm beverage in hand (the avec s’il vu plait et un bol de nourriture pour chat pour mon estrange ami) we planted ourselves where we could watch the world go by (literally as we were by the escalator)stare into space and recap in our minds the last 4 or so days, all of a sudden out of nowhere we were joined by Mikkey Dee (Moorhead’s drummer) who chatted to us for about an hour about all kinds of stuff until he realised he might just have missed his flight back to Sweden, and then he was gone leaving us a little ‘did that just happen?’. It was a nice ending to another chapter in our 2011 antics, with our homeward flight un-eventful (Ed’s entertainment console was even fixed…… kwik fit again I suspect!) we drove home knowing that in 3 or so weeks we would be off again and before that we had a little matter of a visit to the US embassy in London to sort out our visa’s ….tbc
Photos Bruce Pegg.