I recently found an old draft EP I had uploaded to Bandcamp but never published. It contained two iPhone (other phones are available) recordings of live ROTZ shows pre covid. One is an open mic at the Gladstone and the other is a ‘proper’ gig at The Admiral. 
I didn't have much of a recollection of these shows at first, but slowly details have started coming back to me. From the host going awol in the Gladstone, to the Pizza Me pizza and hecklers at the Admiral. (I wish my phone captured more of this! Apparently I start playing 3 Lions, which really winds them up.)

Anyway, this release is more for me. To have an archive of live material from my phone recordings, GoPro cameras, and some of the gigs my friend Dan has been filming over the years. Its nice to look back and be reminded of some of the things we have done, especially in this time before covid and after releasing my EP' The Old Guard. Which was inspired primarily by the 4 year demise of my sanity. Erm, lol. 

More shows will be added here and there.

Sleeve design by Yōkai

Night 7 - Oxford

The last entry in the tour diary was the final one I wrote on the road. I’m now back in the comfort of my flat and trying to pry off the anxiety of going back to work tomorrow. Its sunny outside which isn’t helping me concentrate. Bank holiday Monday beers are joyous but I haven't really stopped since we arrived back in Brighton on Saturday and the bank balance and health are suffering for it. 

Oxford was probably the lowest selling on the tour but the attending crowd certainly made it feel full. Within the walls of the Academy, were some of the most passionate InMe fans I had come across in my time with the band. Talking to them afterwards was a pleasure. 

During Daves solo acoustic rendition of Parting Gift, I hopped out to the corridor to change my t shirt for a St Agnes one I had acquired earlier from the merch desk. I don’t know if its tacky when bands do this but I did it out of sincerity, they were an absolute pleasure to be on the road with. 

I’m now finishing this section of the tour diary a few months later, its June and I’m trying to complete some of the writing I did on the road. I have started a lot of scripts recently about my experiences on tour but also detailing my other interests and in particular, a visit to Coventry for a Zzap Live! a Commodore 64 convention, which was ace. Hopefully some of this will see the light of day soon. First on the blog and then in audio format via my ‘From The Ziggurat’ Chanels.

We’ll see. 

Currently listening to Ocean Loader 2 by Six Leaves Left and new Muse tracks

It was a hot one last night in the Craufurd Arms. Sweat trailing the walls and haze obstructing our view but man it felt good. 

Before the show, I had to perform some routine surgery on one of my basses (well technically my friend Matts bass,) as there is a loose connection in the battery compartment which needed some attention. During the latter half of sound check, the volume started to dull when playing So You Know. I quickly switched to my backup and completed sound checking with that, so as to keep things moving.  

Unfortunately when I Came back from checking in at the hotel and a stop off at Tesco to purchase a set of Duracell 9 volt batteries, St Agnes sound check was complete and my gear was totally obstructed. I had to perform some Mission Impossible style acrobatics to navigate the stage and retrieve my basses and was also aided by one of the technical staff of the venue to grab my bag containing tools. 

The operation was a success and the gig went flawlessly. The lads wireless batteries held out the full gig and I remembered to tune my bass correctly into C# for our latest single Prove Myself, which I had neglected to do the night before. Oops.

We’re currently on route to Oxford for the last official date of the tour, with only Takedown Festival in Portsmouth left for tomorrow. We do have a couple of random festivals over the next few weeks and then will start planning for the latter half of the year and eventual Demons release. It’s a great time to be in InMe.

Currently listening to True (Special Edition) by Spandau Ballet

We are on the road to Milton Keynes, I have a Greggs tea.

We had a nice day off in Bristol and managed to actually take some band shots, something we have neglected to do on pretty much every gig I have ever played with the band. Our photographer TJ is great at organising this stuff. Band members individually can get stuff done but as a collective, we can be hard to orchestrate. 

Gold by Spandau Ballet has just come on the headphones. Like many songs of this popularity, I don’t think I’ve ever listened to it in detail. It’s one of those songs that’s so overplayed, the default response can be to groan. However, it’s fantastic. Clear production, catchy, sax (or similar blowy instrument) and great vocals. 

Anyway, back to Bristol. We played the gig on a boat called Thekla, which has a very interesting history, I would recommend you look it up. The most surprising part was hearing the whole ship sat at the bottom of the sea, dormant for years!

We didn’t have our regular soundman with us for this one but the in house guy Sam was chirpy and accommodating, taking good care of us. 

Following the gig, we went to Bristols own NQ64 for some hang times and games. I especially enjoyed the 80s section again and in particular Track and Field with a track ball instead of buttons, which I had not played before. I think I faired marginally better than the button basher one in Nottingham. 
Dance Dance Revolution was also on the agenda. I somehow won this, forcing me to stay on against another contestant. This was far more knackering than the gig and despite winning again, I bowed out on top, undefeated. Mental note - I really need to get back in the gym. 



 

Curren listing to Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (50th anniversary)

It’s our day off and we are currently on the road to Bristol, where we will stay the next two nights. Tomorrow we play Thekla, another one I did on my first tour with InMe, co headlining with Jäegermeister enthusiasts Raging Speedhorn. It’s actually a static boat, host to many bands on the touring circuit.

Last nights gig at the Rescue Rooms was again plagued by a couple of tech issues. This time, poor quality batteries I had purchased from the local convenience store rendered Gazzs wireless unit almost lifeless after less than an hour of use. Luckily he discovered this before taking the stage of the packed out venue. 

The gig overall went well and once again the crowd were incredible. Getting to witness the moshing and singing from the stage is something I’m truly thankful for. 

After the gig we wandered to the hotel to sort ourselves out and then it was onwards to NQ 64 arcade bar. I have found my happy place. Well, another one outside of the stage. ;) We hung out with some friends and played some arcade machines over a few beers. I liked having a range of things to play as well. From Sega Rally to Track and Field. House of the Dead to the Terminator 2 arcade game. Crazy Taxi, Guitar Hero and physical games like basketball, which a few of the folks got quite competitive over.

The old old ones are where my heart is, late 80s to early 90s seems to be my sweet spot.

I feel this blog getting a bit thin, so I’m not sure if there will be many more updates. I’ve adjusted to life on the road at the moment and don’t feel like I have much more to chat about. We’ll see what happens. Our day off today will be spent on the road, making content and conducting a photo shoot, something the band ALWAYS forgets to do when we get together for shows. Luckily we have our photographer TJ on the road with us to help get this stuff actioned. 

Hopefully some good pics incoming at least.

Photos by @tjx_photos

Butterfly Demons Tour diary night 3

Currently listening to Secret Life - Fred Again and Brian Eno

SOLD OUT

Well that’s always a nice situation to be in, play an awesome gig to a sell out crowd in Manchester, meet some lovely people, sell some merch and rock out with your mates.

The Breadshed was an interesting venue. The stage was an awkward shape meaning I was pushed to the side for a lot of the gig. Usually this is where Johnno would be standing but I didn’t want him hidden away in the corner so I took to the edge instead. In front at the barrier was a small section of the crowd that must have had the worst sound, because there were no speakers in front of them, they were literally next to the main PA speaker. Why it was designed like this, I’m not totally sure but it became a club night after so maybe it helps to have a more central PA system. We felt the vibrations of the bass lines echoing through our souls as we cleared out the dressing room before the club night started. 

We had a bit of an awkward sound check at this one, where it became apparent that something was affecting the volume levels. Long story short but due to the venues nature as a club night, the sound runs through a limiter, squashing the sound and making sure it doesn’t go too loud. It couldn’t be turned off so we persevered with sub optimal monitor levels throughout but being the 3rd night of the tour we were all locked in enough for it not to matter too much. 

A great night overall. There were some more issues with the hotel when we got there but everyone got to bed in the end. 

Just a short blog post today, nearly in Nottingham to play the Rescue Rooms tonight.

Current music Duke - Genesis

We are currently on route to Manchester and I’ve had my first cup of the tea of the day *ooo fascinating stuff Mike, tell me more.* This was from a Costa machine in a petrol station, something I’ve always avoided due to unwarranted paranoia about milk serving size and cleanliness. I broke the seal yesterday and am now totally there for a machine based hot beverage, (if there are no cafes or roadside service stations where one could be made by hand.) The lads all went to McDonalds and I am reminded that I could have got a much cheaper tea there and also avoided the tablet ordering system, so that I could use my touring cash at the counter. Next time. 

Despite a couple of technical issues, night 2 of the tour went a lot smoother. The room was deep as opposed to Norwich, which I personally prefer. Overall there is not a lot of difference in stage width, but having a tiny bit more depth between the mic and drum kit makes a big difference to me. That’s how it feels anyway. Not taking anything away from Norwich though, it was still a great venue. Having a deeper venue condenses all the wonderful faces into the view, when not obstructed by the mist of the fog machine.

Last night we played The Grove in Byker. Unfortunately not the one from the TV show that shaped part of my youth “MY FUCKING EYES LAD I CANNEE SEEE” but this was a large U shaped venue with a courtyard and massive TV screen. The bar was separate to the venue which the merch was set up alongside of. There was a free play Mortal Kombat arcade machine which excited me greatly when we arrived but of course when it became apparent I might have some time to have a game, the bar was packed and I needed a bit of quiet before taking the stage.

We managed to catch some more of St Agnes (and not St Anger as Davey G had to point out to me during a mispronunciation) set and I couldn’t be happier with what they bring to the stage and hope to catch the rest of the set over the remaining days. Absolute pros.
 

Sidequest - This Duke album by Genesis is good. 

I’ve been feeling recently that due to all the new fangled production methods and possibility of AI in current music, I’m tempted to use 2025 as a soft cut off and just work backwards through music. Of course not exclusively, there will be lots of good much to come in the future, including our very own Demons album! But as music gets more and more commodified for content, I find it comforting that there already exists more than enough music I’ll ever be able to hear that was made by humans, with feeling, thoughts and purpose. 

Sidequest complete.

A Quick shout out to Seth and Nadia whom I bumped into on my way to the venue, after a quick stop off at Morrisons and Weatherspoons. They helped me navigate my way back to The Grove after a couple of wrong turns and were lovely. It was quite an amusing situation I had not been in before. They asked if I was going to the gig, I said yes and left it a couple of seconds before mentioning I was in the band.There never feels like an unegotistical way to say that. It’s certainly not meant like that, but I guess we are conditioned through the media etc that it’s always some sort of flex (a word the kids use for ‘showing off’) but no, just a fact. 

Hmm, I’ve gone a bit Partridge.

Not much more to report. Got back to the hotel, ate some crisps and fruit and went to bed around 1am. No hardcore partying for me at the moment, no alcohol for me at all for now, actually. I’m enjoying the clear head in the morning but more importantly, not feeling like death on 4-6 hour drives is a game changer for my enjoyment of touring. Long rides coupled with an unhappy head and digestive system is… uncomfortable to say the least. I wouldn’t have managed this a year or two ago and have been desperately trying to rewrite my brain chemistry to not rely on alcohol so much. Work to do but getting there.

I think we get a 12pm check out time tomorrow so the beers may flow tonight, albeit after the show, because I can’t be needing a piss every three minutes during an hour and a half set. 
Challenge absolutely not accepted.

Photos by @tjx_photos

Currently listening to ‘Getting Killed’ by Geese

It was a long drive to Norwich, stopping off via Milton Keynes to pick up our sound-man. Motorway issues did not help, crawling along at minus one mile per hour due to a closed lane, but we got there. 

We were running behind but it was a pretty chill set up and when I say chill, I don’t mean in taking our sweet time but more trying to keep composure and not letting panic take over due to the extra travel. 

When our great support act, St Agnes had finished their set, we went to the stage for changeover. I was meticulous in my preparation, set up a Spare lead, vaselined my eyebrows (so if I sweat, it doesn’t pour into my eyes,) attached the strap that stops my glasses sliding off my nose and changed the battery in my second bass. I was going to do this in my primary bass but it was too cumbersome and we were too close to show time to mess about. I put the battery cover back on, did a second line check and placed it back into guitar world, which is the cool name for the fold out suitcase that holds our guitars. 

We are using a piece of music from Terminator 2 as our walk on theme for this tour, not the main theme but a the track called Trust Me, where Arnold as the T-800 takes out the police with a mini gun, leaving no deaths. Very considerate.

The music was cued, our time came, we walked on to the lovely crowd, full of applause, I plugged in my bass… no sound.

Somehow, I did not collapse from panic. All the lights are where they should be on the amp and fx processors, the patch is still selected, everything is on… feck… what is going on? We were now a couple of minutes into our opener 7 weeks and there is still no roar from the bass. The only thing I can think of doing is swapping to my other bass. That’s the only thing I have left to try. 

I switch and… sound.

I turn to the crowd come in for the chorus of 7 weeks, hope I’m in the ‘correct’ chorus, smile and crack on.

Then the thoughts start racing - I now have no backup bass, what if a string breaks, what if the neck falls off, what if I accidentally jab the headstock into the ceiling during a moment of heavy rocking? Also that horrible feeling that I had let my band mates down.

I had chosen not to drink alcohol tonight so I couldn’t even down some ale to help dampen those intrusive thoughts that stuck with me through the whole gig. So I spent the rest of the gig being hyper aware but also trying to give the best show I could in the circumstances. 

I wasn’t the only one with a technical problem. To the left of me, Johnno’s guitar cut out during our song Underdose. He dealt with it swiftly, swapping out his wireless for traditional, old school cable and we were back in business.

Despite the hiccups, I think we had a good show and it was lovely to meet a lot of the crowd afterwards. Early on my plan was to run and hide when we left the stage but making it to the end of the gig with such a supportive and kind audience waiting for us, was delightful.

Tonight, Newcastle.

Photos by @tjx_photos

We are almost there! Rehearsals are done and dusted and we hit the road in two days.

I’ve never seen so many merch boxes! Granted, I haven’t been in the band for the longest of times, so merch boxes a plenty were probably common place ‘back in the day’ but all I can think of when I see these 3 dimensional cardboard boxes is the desire to build a fort. 
My brother and I (Davey G for those that have visited him on the merch stand) used to play a game on the Sega Master System called Rampart. It was one of many ports and this one definitely ran the worst. The premise is that you would have two opposing areas of land and castles you could choose to build battlements around. You would both get some time on the clock to build up the walls to defend your cannons and absorb the oncoming fire. Once the round was over, you would rebuild your Curtain walls and try to take more land to put cannons in. Oh yes, the most important part, if you can successfully build walls around your castle with ample space and join them together, you get to place cannons. Davey G and I would have a gentleman’s agreement that no brother would strike the other brother until we had a few turns under our belts, slowly building up our defences.  Then after about five rounds, we would let all hell break loose. The Master System through this was probably uttering “kill me” under its breath as it tried to render all the sprite work, killings and destruction built up from our temporary treaty. Young us wouldn’t have been aware of the struggle it faced, as we were too intent on bashing those joy pad buttons, firing the cannons and enacting some medieval Armageddon.

Once the dust had settled, we would build again, ready for the next round. 

InMe have ordered some new merch designs for this tour, encouraged my our wonderful management. We have been keeping our heads above water for a while, with some classic logo designs but we have all wanted to pad out the collection with some graphics and lyric infused styles. Luckily our touring footprint compared to practically every other band we play with is quite small (for now,) so the boxes should sit neatly along side our gear and Dave McPhersons new ego stand, because why the fuck not, eh?

When you are projecting your heart into the the crowd, a little lift does not go amiss. 

Also, it’s gonna make great ‘content.’

A word that makes me shudder but at the same time, a word that’s doing wonderful thing for getting the band back in front of people’s eyes and ears. I’ve lost track of the amount of times folks have exclaimed that they didn’t know the band were still going or had more than two albums, the content is fixing this, slowly.  

Which is incredible, I remember a time where I was starting to rediscover a lot of the music from my youth through a website called play.com. It was a cd selling website and these cds were cheap! I was rebuying a lot of the stuff I had on vinyl but no record deck set up to play it on at the time. It was a magical thing, coming back to the music I loved as a Child and if content is helping people rediscover InMe and the fact we have more than 2 albums, bring it the fudge on.

Cool, that’s it for today. I plan to post a few more updates from the tour but I’m not sure in what style yet, whether it’s podcasts, the blog or something else. 

Regardless, thanks for following the journey and we’ll catch you soon!

Excited to be hitting the road with the lads, starting next week. 

Thanks to all those that came to our Butterfly Demons show 2 weeks ago. 

We had an absolute blast and hopefully we'll be doing it again…
 

Photos by https://www.instagram.com/alanswanphotography/

As it says in the title, you can now stream these two EP's on your favourite service. They shall be coming to Bandcamp over the weekend, I'm a bit behind on my admin. 

TQONV consists of demos mostly written in the covid times. I revisited them again recently and liked how they sounded, so I spruced them up as best I could and opted to release them. No fanfare or advertising, just nice to have them out there in the world, mainly for me to listen to. 

Wednesday I took to the stage at the Park Crescent for my first proper acoustic gig in over 5 years! Torrid; A Love Affair's Sarah joined me on vocals for 4 or maybe 5 tracks too. It was great to get back out there, despite being a little rusty and the two of us have decided to push forward with more of this sort of thing! 

I aso attempted to join the awesome Intoxicated Pigeon for a song and ended up trying to faff what should have been a dead easy solo, in the wrong key. Go me. 

Happy Friday. x

Next Friday ROTZ will be releasing two EPs. The first is a collection of songs recorded over the Covid period, that never saw the light of day. I felt they deserved a proper release over another addition to the Orphans collection, despite this being an excuse to draw the line and move on. 
It will be called The Queen Of New Vegas and mixes the electronic, bedroom recording aesthetic ROTZ was built on.The second is an ep of acoustic takes I recorded as part of a rehearsal for a gig in 2018. 

Going through a lot of my old files, I forgot how active I was as a solo musician before covid. Playing many gigs, open mics and local radio stations. I’m hoping to get back to doing this and to start, I have a gig as a featured artist at the Park Crescent next Wednesday. Supporting will be other open mics acts and my dear friend Intoxicated Pigeon. Date - 25th June.

The second gig will be in support of Matt Bonners new EP release at the Brunswick Cellar bar. I plan to pull out all the stops for this but will talk more about it closer to the time. The date is 28th August, a Thursday before bank holiday weekend. https://www.brunswickpub.co.uk/event-details/matt-bonner-no-longer-young-ep-launch

Catch you soon!
 

We had a surprising jaunt away with these chaps in November and have been asked to support them in June at the Concorde 2! A very special venue for all of us. 

It was one of the first big gigs I did with my first ‘proper’ band - Emphyrian, back in 2004 (9th June to be exact.)

ANT FARM SHOW

Very happy to announce we’re back supporting our boys in @alienantfarmofficial for their one off show in Brighton Concorde, June 17th! Days after they play @downloadfest. Thanks for having us again lads 

This is going to be one special night as this will be a hometown show for a few lads from the band. So definitely come and party with us.

Tickets available at TicketWeb right now

Don’t forget, we have The Confession Tour coming up, along with a tour supporting the awesome @massivewagons too….. all InMay!

Exciting times ahead for sure …….With even more news coming soon

Lots of love

InMe

x

The band will be hitting the road in May, for some of our own headline dates and also supporting Massive Wagons for a select number of shows! 

Check the ticket links below!

The Confession Tour is nearing

The Confession Tour is now less than a month away and we are chomping at the bit to get out there and play for you guys again!

There’s still plenty of time to get your tickets and come and party with us…

 

Check out all the ticket links below:

 

Friday 2nd May - Tivoli, BUCKLEY

https://www.gigantic.com/.../buckley-the.../2025-05-02-19-00

Saturday 3rd May - Teddy Rocks Festival, BLANDFORD FORUM

https://teddyrocks.co.uk/tickets

Sunday 4th May - The Booking Hall, DOVER

https://good-show.co.uk/events/2063

Thursday 8th May - The Parish, HUDDERSFIELD

https://www.seetickets.com/event/inme/parish/3370301

Friday 9th May - KK’s Steelmill, WOLVERHAMPTON

https://www.kkssteelmill.co.uk/event-inme

 

 

We’re also out playing some shows with the awesome @massivewagons in the middle of May. Awesome band, and we’re very grateful to have been asked to join them.

 

See ticket links for the Massive Wagons shows below:

Thursday 15th May - Junction, CAMBRIDGE

https://www.seetickets.com/.../massive.../junction-1/3247051

Friday 16th May - University, NEWCASTLE

https://www.ticketweb.uk/.../massive-wagons.../14035183

Saturday 17th May - Stylus, LEEDS

https://www.universe.com/events/massive-wagons-tickets-X0WC29?utm_medium=affiliate&ref=ticketmaster&irgwc=1&utm_source=219208-Bandsintown&utm_campaign=219208&awtrc=&clickId=3JcwlQSYrxyKWqXz1YU1iXMmUks1kw341wWRVw0&camefrom=CFC_BUYAT_219208&ircid=7559?ref=share-widget-buffer

Sunday 18th May - Tramshed, CARDIFF

https://www.skiddle.com/.../Tram.../Massive-Wagons/40422185/

We will see you guys very soon 

Big love all

InMe

x