Tour blog. Day 1.

Tonight I start touring my show John Peel’s Shed. I’m going to write a blog on every day of the tour. I know lots of people say that kind of thing when they start out on something like this and don’t get past Day 3, but I’m going to try and still have this running by the last date in Penzance on March 17th. It won’t be interesting, but it’ll be thorough.

My first date is Hull. I went to see my first ever gig in Hull, at the ice skating arena, Blur supported by Super Furry Animals. I’ve also seen Space in Hull, so it doesn’t hold entirely positive gig memories. I’ve been really nervous about this for the last few days, but as I’ve been back at my mum and dad’s since yesterday I’m much more relaxed. Life is much easier once your mum has made you a casserole and your dad is driving you places.

The last thing I had to do in Norwich before I left for my tour was present my Future radio show.



Normally this is something I do every Tuesday with writer, wit and Guinness drinker Tim Clare, but because of his work commitments I was left alone this week. This meant I didn’t really talk that much, I just played loads of good songs, any radio show that starts with Roxy Music is doing something right. I played The Specials, Blur, The Kinks, Pixies, Velvet Underground, Talking Heads. It was so much fun, and also it really sunk in how important Future Radio has been to me. It was when researching my book Radio Head I first visited the station, and gradually became more and more involved, recording my own show called John Peel’s Shed in 2010. It was after listening to those shows that Tom Searle of Show+Tell suggested trying to turn it into a live show, and since then it’s been at Edinburgh, on Radio 4 and is now about to be toured around the UK.

My phone broke a couple of days ago, so until my replacement arrives I’ve been using my crappy replacement one. It doesn't even have predictive text. The last time I used it was when my phone broke in the first week of last year’s Edinburgh, so I’ve been having a nostalgic scroll of my inbox and sent messages from what was one of the most fun months of my life - all of them planning things Edinburgh related; drinks at the Pleasance, climbing Arthur’s Seat, telling people I’d go and see their show and then the next text an apology for not going.



I was so nervous before my shows in Edinburgh I spent most of my time playing the Formula 1 game on the phone. I’ve been playing that this morning. I’ll probably play it in my dressing room in Hull, 20 minutes before I’m due to start when there are a hundred more useful things I should be doing. My highest score is 97.

Have a look here for full details of the tour.