We had to start early in the morning and after a late night plus already being tired, we were feeling it. The van was parked in a loading zone that started at 8am. The locals told us that we could cop a 12 euro fine. We thought, that’s it,?.. let’s sleep in a bit and take the punt. The punt worked, no fine.

We had a 6hr trip to do from Bilbao to Santiago de Compostella and needed some time up our sleeves in case the van did it’s magical “I don’t want to start this time thing” again. It did it when we changed drivers. I’d just done my half and we grabbed a bite and fuel. No start, then it started again, we are now thinking it’s something to do with a faulty/ moody immobilizer? (we have later found it happens more with Danny’s Key than mine… it’s kind of fun?)

So I get all comfy for my sleep in the car and I wake to a pretty solid juttering noise. Danny was like “hey man the steering shudder has come back and it’s bad”. I’m like “Yeah shit, pull into this petty station”. We couldn’t see or find anything. Then Danny suggested it may be a specific wheel and to get out and inspect the van oncoming. I did and he was right, the front right was wobbling like a bitch. After more inspection we saw the tire itself was distorted. We tried for the life of us to get the bloody wheel off. We needed leverage but had none. Danny wanted to stand on the wheel brace and bounce downward, I was worried he’s slip and round the nuts (or his own) and then we’d be buggered. So only being 75 kms away from SDC I suggested we proceed but only at 80kms max incase the tyre blew out. And didn’t she just!

We were about 25 kms from SDC and right in the solo of ‘Shoot To Thrill’ (I’d put on Back In Black to boost morale) fucking bang! Danny did a good job to hold her straight, brake and veer into the slip lane without crashing. The tyre was cactus!

So we now had the shit job of tying to get these bloody nuts off. We both pulled muscles in our necks to do it. The dickhead that detailed the van, sprayed the rims and I reckon the paint welded the nuts to the rim a bit (which felt like a mig weld), plus they have probably ben on there for ages. Standing on the wheel brace did the trick and didn’t strip the nuts.. sick! We threw the spare on and boom baby, no shuddering steering wheel, no wobble, no pull to the right… thank every deity in the book. *Do you reckon the wankers at Renault in Biarritz we took it to could have found such a minor problem?

Santiago is an amazing small city. There is a lot of great and some very old architecture and really cool shops, bars and restaurants. We walked around for a while waiting for the venue to open as we had no idea where we were staying yet. Went to a big shopping centre, walked in and there was a snooker tournament going on, in the middle of the place, about 30 tables, weird shit, we laughed and then found a supermarket.

The venue was small probably 100 cap maybe 120? We had a smooth load in and sound check. The show was cool, maybe 70-80 heads in. The crowd was a bit shy but rocking by the end, chanting and shit, it was pretty rad. The people are amazing here, so passionate about rock n roll! One dude had driven from Portugal to see us and another guy drove his daughter an hr. It’s pretty amazing to us that people even know us here. In Oz we have built up the band by playing. Aussies don’t actively seek out new music as much as people do over here, we’ve never been here and these venues are all full! And these shows are all ticketed not just walk in see what’s going on. It’s bloody awesome, most say they have seen us on youtube.

After the gig we went to get the van and some prick had parked us in with his car. *See Bad park post for photo. I had to ninja the van out around this wankers car. Danny successfully guided me into the front of his car making a nice dent and then I let his tyre down (to the fucking ground) after we were out. Fuck him! The parking attendant was cool and let us out for free, we had to remain composed as we were pissing ourselves whilst leaving.

Went back to the venue got an absolute Castanza out the back. The venue had now turned into a club. It’s been a long time since I was in a club, but these people were civil and not all munted pills heads in a seedy vibe like home. We had a few beers, it got late fast and then it was stumps. Big Day, looking forward to an easy Sunday.

-Higgsy