While a European tour is always going to be at least a little bit of fun, we’ve been hearing back from so many Aussie bands this year about the absolute joys of playing in one place above all others: Spain.

The crowds go absolutely nuts for rock bands, even those shipped over from the opposite side of the world, and on every tour diary we run, Spain seems to be an undeniable highlight. Melbourne hard rockers Palace of the King are one of these bands, having just wrapped up the Spain leg of a European tour and feeling absolutely spoilt by the crowds.

Taking their new record Valles Marineris to eager punters, they’ve returned with a first-hand account of their trip, and a lesson to all Aussie rock bands: tour Spain. Now.

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CHAPTER I

And we’re away! Welcome to the first tour diary entry for our second European POTK tour.

Day one was all travel. A couple of long haul flights until we arrived in Spain, collected our bags from oversized luggage along with Alain Johannes from QOTSA/Them Crooked Vultures etc. (legend) and all convened at the hotel where we presented our tour manager Max with his killer POTK denim jacket hand sewn by the one and only Travis Dragani (he’s pretty handy with a needle and thread).

Yesterday was our first show day at Rocksound in Barcelona which coincidently was the venue in which we performed the last show of our previous European tour. Sadly the promoter who booked us, Javier, passed away earlier this year but Rocksound still rocks on in his honour.

Castellon, Spain

Before the show, we headed into the city early in the afternoon to wander around and check out the sights of Barcelona. On return to the van however, we discovered that the passenger side window had been smashed and some iPods, a phone, guitar pedals, cameras and Sean’s passport had been stolen. It obviously wasn’t an ideal way to start the tour of course but we gathered ourselves, swept the glass out of the van and headed to the venue to get on with business.

Currently we’re en route to Castellon; traveling along the beautiful coast line of the Mediterranean in the warm Autumn sun through the green hills and winding roads which feel like you could jump out the window of the van into the warm shiny blue water below.

CHAPTER II

I remember our last show here in Castellon very fondly so I was hoping for a repeat of last time and I wasn’t disappointed. In fact it was bigger and better! The place was packed with even more people than last time and they were singing twice as loud. It’s such a great feeling being able to fly to the other side of the world and have a room full of people come to see your band and enjoy it so much. It’s something we’re hugely appreciative of.

Hotel room view Castellon, Spain

The highlight for me was Trav’s drum solo tonight. Because the backstage room was too hard to get to between the end of the gig and the encore I just jumped in to the audience at the end of the set and watched the drum solo at the start of ‘Free’ from there and it was awesome. I was screaming along with the Spanish mosh pit too!

Tomorrow we rock Murcia.

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CHAPTER III

Hola! Great gig tonight at the Garaje Beat Club in Murcia. Being a larger stage, we were able to spread our wings a little more tonight without worrying about getting knocked out by a guitar headstock.

Live in Murcia, Spain 1

The drive today took us through thousands of acres of olive and orange trees. We also travelled through the occasional hilly, rocky town – at the centre of which there was usually a crumbling castle placed on top of a mountain. One can only imagine how the view from the castle has changed over hundreds of years…

Tonight the guys are at the bar downstairs celebrating a great show and tomorrow we drive to Tarragona for the next instalment of POTK Europe 2016.

Live in Murcia, Spain 2

CHAPTER IV

Hola from Tarragona everyone!

I know you’d Iove me spill the beans and get all ‘Motley Crue – The Dirt’ in my diary entries but unfortunately for you I was in bed sleeping and looking after my voice while the afterparty kicked on downstairs last night… You’ll be happy to hear that things got messy for some and everyone had a great time but no one threw up in anyone else’s bag this time; which Seany managed to do after a particularly big night on our first European tour.

Live in Tarragona, Spain

Tonight’s show brings us to the end of the first week of shows and we’ve already travelled 1,100km with many more to go.

The gig was in what felt like a western-inspired indoor/outdoor type of building with sawdust on the floor and rock and roll memorabilia all over the walls. We hadn’t played this venue on the last tour so we didn’t know what to expect but it was awesome. Our first sold out show of the tour! A bunch of legends even came from Barcelona to catch us again which was great.

Seany had to be set up on a road case beside Harri because the stage wasn’t quite wide enough initially but it worked great and he had everyone dancing around him and looking over his shoulders all night which was funny to see.

Tomorrow is a day off so I’ll touch base after the next show.

CHAPTER V

Yesterday was largely spent driving from Tarragona to Ourense which took about ten hours with a stop in Madrid to fill out paper work and pay for Sean’s replacement passport at the Australian embassy. Sean and I jumped through the hoops to get upstairs and sort things out with the very helpful Scottish woman at the embassy. Naively I thought everyone at the Embassy would be Australian…

Once we arrived at our accommodation in Ourense, I caught up on things there while the other guys went out to get a well-earned feed and a drink. They returned sporadically throughout the night with Max and Sean stumbling in as the sun came up after hanging in the bar downstairs all night playing DJ and drinking.

Piccaso's house in A Coruña, Spain

CHAPTER VI

We woke up in Ourense this morning to the sound of the kids from the school bouncing around the courtyard below our accommodation and we then proceeded to head down to the club and load out pushing road cases down the cobblestone pathway around the parents, grandparents and younger siblings waiting to pick the little tackers up for afternoon siesta.

During the drive today to León it was more obvious than ever that it was Autumn with all the deciduous tress showing their gold and yellow coverage before dropping their leaves for winter. Musically, Max took over the AUX cable and we listened to The Ramones, Dirty York (from Melbourne; Max has also toured with these guys) and some French music. The long drive the other day was spent largely listening to Leon Russell and Leonard Cohen; a bit of an ‘in memoriam’ session after they both passed away recently.

Wandering León, Spain

It wasn’t until talking to Max today in the van that he explained to me about the Spanish being under a dictatorship until the 70’s and that meant they were not getting any of the western music or cultural influence before that. So suddenly when they became a democracy all the rock n’ roll music flooded in causing a glacial cultural shift for teenagers at the time.

This serves as some kind of explanation for me as to why you can be sitting at a restaurant here in Spain and the music in the background can be Master of Puppets era Metallica or Iron Maiden! Music and particularly rock music is such a huge part of the culture here passed on down from those teenagers who were blown away when the flood gates opened in the 70’s to their kids who come to the gigs here.

Dinner in León Spain

CHAPTER VII

Tonight’s gig at Sala Mardi Gras in A Coruna was always going to be a good one. Last year it was one of the highlights of the Spanish leg of the tour and tonight lived up to it! Great venue, great sound and great crowd just like last time.

There were multiple technical issues as we powered through our non stop 90 minute set of rock but the momentum never dropped. Travis broke the front skin on his kick drum and performed running repairs without a hiccup assisted by Max. Patching the hole where the beater hits the skin with tape and cardboard every time there was a guitar or keys intro.

Live in Murcia, Spain 3

The running repairs got us through without the audience even noticing and all this while Anthony had issues with his Bass input jack making it cut in and out until the spare guitar could be deployed. In the end none of this technical stuff caused the vibe of the show to drop and thanks to Max we were able to rock all the way to the end of the encore.

The drum solo became like a Paul Stanley rave tonight with a call and response thing going which was hilarious to hear from the band room…

Badam buddu blap blap boom “YEAH!” Bibadum bibadum blam blap bam bam “YEAH!”

A Coruna is a beautiful seaside city positioned on the Atlantic and although the weather was a little rainy it was still as I remembered it. Beautiful. It was a nice feeling returning to this place after remembering it so fondly. Tomorrow we get up and visit Picasso’s house and then drive to the show in Cangas which was also awesome last time.

CHAPTER VIII

Madz, Trav and I visited the Picasso residence in A Coruna this morning. After pressing the buzzer on the busy street we were allowed entry in to the old unassuming apartment building. We then proceeded to climb the worn wooden stairs to the front door three flights up where we were welcomed by a very nice Spanish woman and then treated to a guided tour of the family home and some amazing artwork by Picasso and his father. I didn’t know his father was an art teacher!

The drive from A Coruna to Cangas took us through hilly terrain with epic Big Sur/Great Ocean Road-esque views of the moody wintery blue/black Atlantic Ocean crashing on the shore line. As we approached Cangas the water settled in the Harbour to a calm pool surrounded by tree-covered mountains and Casa-covered valleys which was very picturesque.

Live in Murcia, Spain

Last year’s show in Cangas got really crazy with Gilps crowd surfing his way to the bar at the back of the room after I politely declined the invitation (more like resisted being torn off stage by the ankles…) from the rabid rock heads at the front of the stage. We were hoping things might pick up where we left off 12 months earlier and they certainly did… Cangas goes off! Best gig of the tour so far and close to best gig ever for POTK.

No one sings like the Cangas crew and they were certainly in fine voice tonight. As expected, I was almost forcibly pulled from the stage during the show but I politely declined again…

After the second encore we jumped off the stage and hung out with our Cangas brothers and sisters while the boys drank beer and DJ’d on the bar’s Spotify playlist until late.

STARRING:

Tim Henwood – Vocals/Diary Entries
Matthew Harrison – Guitar/Local Beer Sampler
Leigh Maden – Guitar/Madzipedia
Sean Johnston – Keys/Still Quitting…
Travis Dragani – Drums/Snoring Loudly
Anthony Licciardi Garcia – Bass/Swearing Loudly
Max Longin – Tour Manager/The Warden

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