Day 2: Two drummers, one kit at London Popfest
24th February 2012
Bob: I wake up in Brighton to some extremely sad news. Andy’s dad has passed away. The tour as a whole is suddenly thrown into doubt. Even if we carry on our bereaved drummer will not be joining us. It’s a sombre few hours as we ponder our next step. Tunabunny offer the services of both Jesse and Brigette as cover for Andy. Over breakfast we make the decision. The tour will go ahead. It seems to make some kind of sense. At least for now. We head to London with significantly more trepidation than we could have imagined.
The train journey is a good icebreaker. I realise that Mike never stops talking and has an anecdote for every occasion. It’s a music nerd love-in and I’m enjoying it. At least we are nerds for the same music.
The Grosevenor is deep in residential Stockwell. The Americans joke it’s like Attack the Block country. I’m relieved they didn’t say Harry Brown. That film sucked.
The gig itself is a messy joyous thing that has me grinning every time I turn round to see both Jesse and Brigette hammering away at the same drum kit. They have literally NO FEAR and want to do as many songs as possible. We manage 6, which is nothing short of a miracle. I’m sure Andy will find some comfort in the fact that it took two drummers to replace him.
Tunabunny are fantastic tonight. A completely different set to last night, it’s raucous and beautiful. My girlfriend nudges me and declares that the T-Buns are the best band we’ve shared a bill with. She may be right.
We are all buoyed by the news that Andy will be rejoining us on stage in Preston. One more round of double drummer action to go then. Oh – and some driving. Lots of driving, and all of it by Americans.
Helen: So yeah, we wake up to the shitty news that Andy’s dad has passed away. Feel so awful for him, it was sudden and unfair. The tour and my anxieties about it suddenly and obviously feel pretty inconsequential. Over many interweaving phone conversations the band talk about how we are gonna proceed - or otherwise – with the tour under the circumstances. We are blessed that our tourmates are Tunabunny: they were sensitive and sweet and supportive and enabled things to go ahead and were brilliant. I have never seen two people drum at the same time on one drumkit. And they stepped up with such grace and warmth and understanding and a sense of fun that I felt kinda emotional. It made me understand something about why we bother doing this strange being in bands thing, but I’m too inarticulate to describe what that is. Whatever. Everyone was good to us that night. Thank you London Popfest.
Day 2 and I’m already wondering if Tunabunny could get any more persuasive; they are startlingly good.
It is my job tonight to navigate Scott and I safely back to my house after the show. All things considered, I decide it is better to fire thousands of questions at him about his life in quick succession whilst taking him on an extensive midnight tour of central London.