I have just had one of the single most amazing and surreal experiences of my life. KAINE just completed a 10 date tour with American Metal legends MORDRED.

KAINE wasn't scheduled to even be on this tour, instead FURYON were booked and ready to go when their singer Matt Mitchell was forced to withdraw due to a hemorrhaged vocal chords, throwing the whole thing up in the air with 4 days to go. Lee Farmery (drummer for FURYON) soon got in touch with us about the possibility of us coming on the tour last minute. We had first met and played with Lee earlier in the year as he played drums for MONUMENT on a number of the "Renegades" Tour Dates (with KAINE's bassist Dan Mailer also filling in for Chris Dale ex-Bruce Dickinson and TANK for the tour) seeing as FURYON is one of our drummer Chris MacKinnon's favourite this was a great experience for him.
 

After a conversation between myself, Dan and Chris we agreed to do to but we also knew Ant Murch (our lead guitarist) had no holiday time remaining and wouldn't likely be able to do the tour. We were unable to speak to Ant at this time as he was at work, but seeing that we couldn't really pass up a chance to play with MORDRED or miss out on playing essentially an O2 Academy tour on the UK & Ireland so we called Saxon Davids (a guitarist from our local area) and asked him if he would be up for doing the tour. Saxon agreed to come on board last minute and plans were made right away to rehearse the very next day. Saxon's band ENTROPY recently essentially split up leaving him the only member, he had been recording an E.P. already with Dan and had joined in on one of our rehearsals a month or so earlier while the ENTROPY thing was up in the air.

Ant was of coursed devastated about not being able to do the tour, but the choice was between doing the tour and essentially losing his job and going homeless. I and Chris were fortunate enough to get the time off work but Dan didn't have as much support from him employer who essentially allowed him the time off but unpaid and essentially told him not to come back into work when he returned. Dan drove straight to Davids to start showing him the songs ahead of the rehearsal the day before. We then had the rehearsal and everything went extremely well with Davids picking up the songs fast.  

We also managed to arrange and get some tour shirts printed and on Thursday evening we all met at mine ready to travel down south to meet Lee and Big Kev on Friday morning. We didn't get much sleep before we made our way down south for collection. We met, loaded the van and went straight to Wales to get the ferry to Ireland.
 

Dublin
Dublin was the toughest date for the band as we had absolutely no sleep and an extremely long journey. We met Mordred for the first time and straight away it was apparently how nice and supportive they were. Considering they had done big things back in the early 90s they were extremely approachable and fun guys to be around. The gig went pretty well and we enjoyed ourselves on stage at the Voodoo Lounge. When Mordred hit the stage I was astonished by just how good they were, considering this line up hadn't played together regularly in a number of years the tightness of the performance and the songs were fantastic and the crowd went absolutely mental for them. It's the first time I have ever witness a middle-aged mosh pit or old school stage diving, from literally old school Metal heads!
 

Belfast
We headed north and over the boarder to Belfast to play the Limelight the very next day. We were still very tired when we arrived and loaded in and the gig for us didn't run as smoothly as the Dublin show due to my wireless not working and only having a short cable which prevented me from rocking out on stage, with all the technical difficulties our set was also reduced which was disappointing. It was also the least favorable venue we played on the tour due to the fact the gig started so early and we were rushed to load out for a club night they had planned later in the evening and overall the venue seemed more concerned with that then the MORDRED show. The people at the gig also didn't take very kindly to us, taking to the internet of all places to slag us off after the show and our only unfavorable live review (first one ever) came that night. As ever bad reviews and criticisms are never good to read but it comes with the territory of being in a band. They were also not very appreciative of the support band CONJURING FATE who I thought were brilliant and also had a few band things to say about MORDRED too so likely just a tough crowd.
 

London
After a day crossing back over to England (and a night in my own bed) we headed back down south to London for our show at the O2 Academy in Islington. Ant joined us at this show and we played as a five piece. We went down extremely well and our performance received strong reviews and it was in complete contrast of the Belfast show. It was also an important gig for MORDRED as legendary Rock / Metal journalist Malcolm Dome was in attendance for the gig and gave them a great write up (which featured in Metal Hammer and Classic Rock among others) and a strong 9/10 for their performance.
 

Birmingham
We traveled to the midlands the next day to play the O2 Academy in Birmingham. This was again a tough gig for ourselves, this was in large due to the opening band selling tickets to play the show and the majority of their fan base really didn't take to us (some of which again had some less than flattering things to say about ourselves and MORDRED on the internet after). I always feel the whole Pay 2 Play / Ticket Selling things create this unnatural sense of tribalism and competition in bands and their fans. Clearly there were people at the show that felt forced into watching two bands they didn't like (us and MORDRED) in order for the band they did like to get the gig and naturally felt they were the better band and should have headlined. It was a bad atmosphere to play in for us really.
 

Glasgow
It's no secret that Glasgow is my favourite place to play in the entire world. It's a great, lively city and the people in Scotland are fantastic so I was extremely excited about this show and for me this was easily the best gig of the tour, although we did have some fans chanting for Mordred between songs while we played! It was good to see our friends in the excellent ENGINES OF VENGEANCE again and the guys from DISASTER AREA (another band we played with earlier in the year) had shown up to give their support which was greatly appreciated. We played the ABC O2 and on the same night as BLONDIE who played upstairs. We had a great set, as did Mordred and we had a good night out in Glasgow after (despite some bloke trying to grope Saxon's knob in the pub down the road), we even found a chip shop that was playing IRON MAIDEN!
 

Newcastle
We headed back to England to play Newcastle for the first time the next day. We met a few friends from the band CULLODEN before the show and I was even approached to be on Geordie Shore by their casting team, until they realized I was an East Anglian. The show itself went brilliantly and again we had a good time out in Newcastle after the show. The only issue we had that night was the sound on stage was challenging and I hurt my voice as I couldn't hear myself on the monitors and MORDRED also had a similar issue.
 

Sheffield
Once we had arrived at the venue we had a classic tour getting lost looking for the dressing rooms. It was very SPINAL TAP with Dan yelling "Hello Cleveland" as we wandered about with no luck. We also lost Chris for a good half hour. He had no idea where he was. The gig good show and we really enjoyed ourselves on stage. The opening band had a very challenging night as the audience was totally wrong for them and I think they left before anyone else played. MORDRED played a blinder and the people were really into their set
 

Liverpool
Liverpool was another great night for us, which was awesome as one of my best friends of over 20 years came down to see the show. The stage sound was great and despite my amp head blowing during the last song again another awesome gig. It also had the youngest audience the entire tour. MORDRED again put in an exceptional performance and the Liverpool crowd were really behind them.

Bristol
For us overall, Bristol was easily the worse date of the tour. The local support band had pulled out that day, which is pretty insane because the show was on the main stage at the O2 Academy there and absolutely huge. It's the sort of opportunity and experience any band should jump at! Anyhow we took to the stage and everyone remained seated on the balcony's and were pretty disinterested in us overall. Considering how big the venue was to see all of three people in the area below are not a fun experience! I had to borrow Saxon's spare amp head for the gig and the pots were a little dirty so my sound wasn't great in addition to this my wireless also refused to work too! It's also a pretty awful feeling being up there knowing how little people are getting into the music, I was told our sound was rubbish out front which may have contributed to the lukewarm reception and the ironic cheer we had when we were done.
 

Brighton
After the Bristol gig we went home ahead of the final night of the tour. In the morning I cleaned Saxon's pots in his amp head and got the amp sounding nice, tested my wireless to ensure it was all working, which it was and we headed down south for the gig. It was the last night of the tour so it was an emotional one but we were determined to have a good gig after the disaster that was the Bristol show. We played the Concorde 2 which is right on the sea front. After the two awesome supports we came on, again my wireless failed me (despite it working fine during the sound check!) so I had to risk it with a cable once more. We hit the stage and played a blinder of a set and seemed to go down really well. After our set I had a quick wash and headed down to the front of the stage to enjoy MORDRED, probably for the last time ever live, as a fan and I really enjoyed myself. At the end of their set MORDRED invited us up on stage as a thank you, which was a truly awesome gesture from them. Chris though managed to screw it up by missing the moment showering!

Being a support band for a known act on tour is tough. Many people come for the headline band only and aren't interested in anything else. Selling merch is a challenge as your competition with the headline band again and that's where people are going to spend their money. We must have made just about £100 on merch overall over the 10 dates! It's still more than we made on the "Renegades" tour earlier this year mind! It's also tough working the schedule, finding time to eat and sleep is also not easy and that makes being your best performance wise harder too.
 

To finish all I can say is what an honor it has been to support MORDRED on their comeback tour. Not only are they a great band, they are all thoroughly brilliant people too. They really couldn't have been more helpful or supportive of us, helping us out with money and even buying the merch and CDs from us at the end. We will miss them dearly, even if Chris did make off with their beer on the last night! A massive personal thanks to Art, Scotty, Uncle Pause, Jeff, Danny and Jimmy for everything! I am now a huge fan of their music and have been playing their tracks since I have come home! We also are very thankful for Matt Denny who helped organize this tour and worked with Mordred throughout for helping making this all a reality.

We are eternally thankful to Lee for enabling us to do this tour, so few people in the music game actually do anything to help us without wanting money in return. Lee provided us with the hotels, organization, the van and he even manned the merch table for us as well as great support and advice along the way. He also brought along Big Kev who helped drive us around and load/unload the gear every night and was extremely supportive too.  We had the time of our lives on this tour! Please support FURYON and MORDRED as they both thoroughly deserve it!

Until next time!