Backstage with the Bottlemen

Another long, but excellent day! One for the memory banks! Meetings, kit sorting and general grafting meant that the day flew by before driving over to Liverpool to see  Catfish and the Bottlemen perform a sell out gig at the Echo Arena in Liverpool.

I've been incredibly lucky to have been on the guest list, so after arriving at the venue, we were ushered straight down to 'catering' for a big feed with the band.

And I should mention that we parked underneath the stadium on a ramp that led up onto the actual stage! As we arrived, I spotted Bondi, the guitarist. He was super nice and showed me how to sign in. I was parked underground next to the double decker tour bus and 5 massive lorries that had transport all the gear. 

I was amazed at how relaxed the band were as we ate and they caught up with their family and friends. They were due on stage soon and the noise of the support band (Little Comets) made the room reverberat a bit. Rob and co went off to their dressing room, while our security guy took us out to our seats, where we had reserved just to the side of the stage - and above the mayhem of the standing crowds! All 12,000 of them!

The band came onto deafening cheers and the crowd sang louder that the band at one point!

Total rock and roll - an amazing performance. The light show was choreographed so that the lights went out at the end of a song, or went crazy as the crowd did. What a show!

All too soon, the final song was sung, the band left the stage and the lights came up. It was pretty cool to also see the military operation that was taking place to clear the place up. There were 40 people just on the band's road crew, but the stadium must have had hundreds more.

Our special wristbands allowed us back stage to the after show drinks area, where I met some interesting folk and had some good chats  before it was time for us to get going back to Wales. 

The road crew we already half way through dismantling the set and loading the lorries by the time we left. Serious logistics...

Sadly, we had to disappoint the crowds of fans who were waiting with anticipation outside the stadium's underground car park. They'd already taken a few photos at the windows of the Skoda as we were driving away before they realised that there were no international rock stars inside! Just little old us! What a night! A late one, but one that I'll remember for a while!