We’ve met so many wonderful people on our journey round the USA and have a truckload of great memories. It would be wrong not to mention everyone so that’s what we’re going to do. We have been hosted; fed; cheered and helped to such an extent that of everything it is the hospitality of the American people we have met along the way that will remain with us all. If you have been missed;  that is only because Dave is a Duffus and got his notes wrong.

Firstly; we want to thank everyone that came to our concerts; bought our CD’s and merchandise and partied with us there. From the moms and dads sitting on the bleachers in New York state; to the guys stage diving in Oroville Washington; without you guys it would have all been for nothing. We had a blast; and hope you did too.

The schools

A huge thank you to all the schools that hosted a gig; put us up; fed us; helped with staging; got us a hotel room; let us chill out on your couches.

Fort Covington; thank you to Sheila Mannix and all the other folks; loved the warm up gigs and really appreciated the hotel after driving through the night to get to you.

Columbia City; thanks to Denise Parker and Warner for all their hard work, to Pete and Vec for putting us up and to Trent for his efforts at the schools. We wish you well and hope to see you in 2011. Particularly remember Warner and co moshing in the Baptist church!!!

Buena Vista; thanks to Mark wheeler and the County Inn & suites and to the students that spent the evening jumping round through the gig. Good times.

Raceland KY. What a week we had here. I think we played 5 or so gigs; at Baptist churches and the High school. We were fed to a standstill every day by so many folks. Thanks especially To Rose Molinary; Zene and Johnny; the ladies that fed us each lunchtime and all the good folks we met. A particular mention must be made of the Raceland Elementary school; who still hold the record for the loudest crowd; what a blast!!

Leesburg FL. Thanks to Shannon; Amber; Don and Roger for all their hard work and enthusiasm  for the concert and our lady host; who’s name I have lost who put us up for a few days whilst the van was being fixed.

North College FL. Thanks to Kim Scarboro and her team for all the help and support for this lunchtime gig at the college; and for the hotel accommodation. We had fun and hope you all did too.

Lake Mary FL. Thanks to Erica and her family for all the work you put in for the concert; putting us up when Dave was ill; a great meal; great hotel for two nights; buying all that merch and a great time on the night. It was much fun to see families out together having fun at the gig. Good memories.

Crested Butte; Thanks to Colette Kraatz and all the folks up the mountain to hosted us so excellently. To CBMR Darren Cole for the ski passes; to Flat Iron Sports for the Ski hire; the Lodge for the room and for a fun night at 10,000 feet. A particular thank you must go to the mountain rescue team for bringing Joe down after his boarding crash and keeping him safe.

Mount Angel OR. Thanks to Troy Stoops and his team for all the work they put into the concert and for our three families that hosted the band for a couple of nights. We had great fun in Mount Angel and really appreciated they way they promotion was done.

Oroville WA. Huge thanks to Lacey Forrester for organising the concert and particularly the welcome when we got there. It made our day to see you folks standing out in the cold with your welcome banners after our 7 hour trip through the snow covered passes to get to you. The gig was great as were your families that hosted us for a couple of nights.

Belfair WA. Thanks to Tonya Beattie and her friends for all the work they put into the concert; the preparations; the enthusiasm and our warm up band on the night. Also to the folks who loaned us their vacation cabin for the night and took us out for the Mexican meal. We have good memories of Belfair and hope to see you again.

The Couch surfing hosts.

To Annie and her mum in St Pete’s. Thanks for putting us up for 4 days and all the fun we had whilst waiting for the van to be fixed. Thanks especially to Annies mum for driving Chris and Dave back to Leesburg .

To  Dan and his friends in Gainsville. Thanks for the hosting guys; it was great to crash at a students pad and we really enjoyed the times we had at the party and the support you gave us at tim & terry’s.

To Marty and Christine in Houston. You guys are just fabulous. Our best wishes and prayers go with you on the birth of your second child and a particular thanks for the Bubba’s buffalo burger. Excellent!

A special thanks to Mike and Mary Kay in Port Clinton. You folks took us in; got us a gig and took great care of us on our trip back to Baltimore. Mike; your coffee was not surpassed on the trip ( sorry everyone else; but this guy has it sorted!!! ) and the ride in the Firebird was a definite moment I shall not forget. Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou.

Our base

Thanks goes out to Bert & Lynne from the Basignani vineyard for hosting us for the first week whilst we configured the van.  Along with John and  XXXXXX who helped us on the van. Thanks for the pizza and the steak meal and for holding onto our gear whilst we were buying it ready for the tour.

The bars and clubs

Thanks to all the bars and clubs where we played and all the other bands we played along with. We can honestly say we didn’t meet a band with bad attitude; just a load of people having a good time.

Five spot soul food NYC

The Nail Philly

The Nine lounge NYC

H2O bar Virginia each

Third Street dive Louisville

23^rd psalm Nashville

Pangea Cafe Clearwater

The Dungeon Orlando

St Petersburg Pier

Doozers bar Jacksonville

Tim and terrys  Gainsville

Notsuoh Houston

BFE  Rock club Houston

Head hunters Austin

Deans Credit Clothing Houston

Bora Bora Oklahoma City

The Bands

We played with some great bands and sadly can’t remember them all but we would especially like to thank the Aviators from Baltimore; Digamy from new York ( great party guys ) Armageddon 3 from Orlando and the stereotype take over from Houston and hope we can work with all you guys in the future.

And finally

We’d like to thank Susan for all her work in organising the tour; our friends and families for supporting us whilst we were away and hope that everyone we came into contact with had a positive experience of Brittle bricks. That in some small way; we have added some value into lots of peoples lives and that we may get the opportunity to see you again somewhere along the road we call life.

Guys; I'm typing this now I've had a decent amount of sleep post Christmas day. Crikey; USA seemed a while ago but we start at Dec 12th.

So' we've done crested Butte and are heading up to Oregon for our gig in Mount Angel. being not far from the pacific coast we decide to get to the Pacific on the monday to confirm an actual coast to coast tour. Sooooo we're driving along in the customary Oregon pouring rain when the van starts to act funny. After a pull over we have yet again ; another flat tyre. Walking up the road I find a friendly baptist church pastor and his team who put me in touch with the local tyre shop and so yet another new tyre later ( plus a few hours ) we make it to the coast. Brittle Bricks; coast to coast.

Making it to Mount Angel High school; we meet up with Principal Stoops and his team; great bunch of folks. loads of press coverage; posters etc etc and the next day sees a great gig in the school. Our thanks to all at mount Angel for hospitality and the great memories ( Chris!! )

On Wednesday we arrive at belfair on time and do some liaison with the middle school; though to be fair dave's Kareoke rendition of sweet child of mine is a bit like car crash telly! The folks treat us to a great Mexican meal in the evening and have us put up in a lovely chalet by a lake for the evening. Thursday morning arrives and we do some liaison in the high school whilst Phil has an oil change done on the van and we then head off to Oroville; 7 hours away for our penultimate gig.

The weather is pretty horrible in places; and the mountain passes do give "spud " the van a bit of trouble. But we arrive in time and are greeted by Lacey and some supporters with posters etc etc. Tell you what; it made my day; 7 hours in the van all worthwhile to find these folks had stayed out in the cold; dark and it was snowing; just to greet us. That was just ace.

The gig at Oroville is brilliant; a small crowd but all totally into it; stage diving; singing along; just fab. Lots of good memories and again just fabulous people.

the journey back to Belfair is a difficult one; again the roads are pretty bad with ice on the passes etc; but again we get to Belfair for our last gig on schedule. Set up goes well as does the gig; with a gaggle of screaming fans and plenty of folks staying around. A Huge thanks to all involved.

So at 10.30pm; our monster trip back to Washington DC begins.

Phil gets us a few hours down the road whilst it's not snowing. And the following morning we awake to far too much snow. Cautiously beginning the mornings drive; we're heading down some snow and ice covered interstate at about 50mph; when we have the biggest blowout I have ever experienced. ?yes a real moment; in a high vehicle on just 4 tyres; and it's Sunday 11.00am; miles from anywhere. We think we hit a piece of chain from a lorry wheel

6 hours later; much consternation and a few police checks; we're on the way again; and have to drive through the night to make up the 10 hours lost ( 6 to the tyre and 4 to the weather) Phil takes the late shift and encounters snow and wind you can hardly stand up in. daves shift is not much better. But the good news is come Monday morning we're travelling along our plan C route ( the other 2 closed due to snow ) towards Denver.

Another bad mountain pass ; where all the pseudo 4 x 4's needed a tow up the road and we're into Kansas and we actually think we're getting back on track. We plan a meet back in Kentucky with Rose and her friends in raceland; to drop off gear; do some Christmas shopping; and chill out before the last 7 hours to the airport; and we think it's all but over. Oh how wrong we are.

50 miles west of Louisville spud starts making a bad noise. Dave ( who's driving) thinks it's a hole in an exhaust pipe somewhere and pulls over to have a closer listen. Phils asleep but there's a town a mile up the road so we head for that. The town turns out to have 4 buildings. We remove the internal engine cover and have a listen to the engine. NOT good. So after a diesel teckkie comes and has a listen; spud is pronounced dead; major mechanical failure in the top end; that's an engine removal ( $2,000 ) and that's just to see what the issue is. Seems we're not going to have it easy at any point on this tour.

The other 4 get a lift from a local to Louisville airport to collect a hire car for use to Washington DC; whilst Dave gets a ride from the guy taking spud to a friends house in Louisville for scrapping and offloading of $5,000 of gear. Spud; even post mortem; is very heavy; so heavy that the tyres on the rescue vehicle flatten and the side walls squeeze together; still the driver seems unconcerned!!!! SO we drop the van at Roses sisters Rachel's house; for her brother Ryan to get the kit and scrap the van. Thanks folks; you kentucky people are mighty helpful. We get to Rose's house late in the evening and Dave works till late into the night to get the airline packing done in time; to avoid the weight surcharges.

Dec 22nd arrives; our fly day. we have till 4.0pm to get t the airport and thank God; this part of the trip goes off without a hitch; as does the plane boarding and the flight to Paris. We arrive at Charles De Gaulle airport 20 odd minutes late and get to the gate for our connecting flight to Heathrow with just enough time to call home and say; we're actually going to get home pretty much on time. So we get on the plane and wait for 2 hours whilst the plane is de-iced; a runway closes; de iced again and finally off we go.

Arriving at Heathrow just two hours behind schedule ( a major positive given the situation ) but naturally that's not the end of it; the luggage is still in Charles De Gaulle as I type!! Maybe tomorrow eh.

So we're home and no ones killed anyone. what an adventure; we need a good 10 days just to sleep and process everything that has happened. Tomorrow I start the monster thank you list; which i reckon will take all day as there are sooo many folks we need to acknowledge for everything done for us.

ltrs

Brittle Bricks

So it's Christmas eve and we've made it home; the luggage hasn't made it yet but there you go.

The last 4 gigs have been great; much to tell so a major blog will be along later but right now; just tooooooo tired.

ltrs and happy Christmas

It's been a few days since the last update as we've all been far to busy racing down the Crested Butte Ski runs ; either on boards; or Skis.Owing to some additional driving we arrived in the resort a day early and had an extra day to enjoy the slopes. Chris is the fastest boarder and Phil did clock himself on one slope at over 40mph. Joe gets the award for the biggest wipe out having face planted the piste on Monday and knocked himself about some. dave gets the award for the most runs in a day at 18 ( even if they were on the easy slopes ) and Alex wins best trick for the jump off the ramp. Our thanks to all the folks at Crested Butte who supported us during the week.

The gig last night went well with a good turnout an a great solo artist from the high school to kick things off ( Jesse ) So we're leaving Crested Butte with some great memories; notably the meal at Maxwells; a steak house; where Joe had cheese; Dave had chicken and Chris had Pizza for dessert!! Do we need therapy or what? Bit worried about our mixing desk which seems to be getting a little tempermental; but maybe it was also suffering from the altitude; like the author; who has found that 9500 feet above sea level takes a while to get used to; making the gig a big ask on the lungs. still we did not fail.

Take care all and we'll be on our way home in 1 week now.

So we arrived in Texas and have been hosted by the most excellent Marty and christine via couch surfing; together with their 4 yr old son Miles; who's a great laugh. Notsuoh was an interesting place to play as we played prior to poetry night!! still it was fun and the folks there seemed to enjoy it. We'd cooked Marty and Christine pork chops which was a total hit. The following day we played the BFE rock club in north houston; best venue to date with a great stage; fabulous sound system and a really grreat pair of sound guys. it wasn't so much the sound they sorted for us ( which was excellent ) it was the way the worked with us; just really positive and professional. Thanks guys. frankie the club owner was a great guy and I don;t know if he knew at the time but got stickered all over his back by his loyal patrons and staff ( lol) totally want to play there in 2011. Friday sees us playing headhunters in austin; outside on their porch just as the weather turns cold! Our hands were freezing up ; the picks went solid and the sound system ahem left something to be desired. Still we have played Austin Texas; the self proclaimed live music capitol of the world. Saturday night we played Deans credit clothing (next door to Notsuoh) in central Houston with our new friends the Stereotype takeover. The crowd was dead small; but looking around central Houston on the night ; it was desperately quiet everywhere. TSTO ar are a great bunch of folks; loadsa fun ; with an amazing drummer!! Sarah the manager is easy to get along with and we're really hoping to hook up with this lot in 2011.

So come sunday the guys are shattered; we make it to church where Marty plays bass and wish our most excellent hosts goodbye as christines mum has planned a baby shower for the new baby now expected in just two weeks! Christine;l you're amazing; how do you have so much enery when 38 weeks pregnant!! Our thoughts prayers and best wishes are with you and your family.

So we have decided to take a different mental approach to the next 12 days; considering that we are now officially on holiday till decenber 9th ( with just 1 gig Dec 1st for good measure) Monday we chilled out at a nature park; where the lads were free to spend the day shooting each other with BB guns. I'm told they were embracing the American way; drinking beer and shooting stuff! I'm sure that's a line from a movie somewhere ( lol)

Tuesday saw us chilling again at a different park; though the night was very cold for those of us that didn't take precautions.

Today ( wednesday ) we're off to Oklahoma City to take in a museum which among other things holds the worlds largest collection of stuff owned by Adolf Hitler ( more on that later!!!! ) then it's two days to Crested Butte for skiing/boarding.

Take care all; we're on the home run now!!

Dave Alex Chris Joe and Phil.