19/07/98 - Day off.

During the day Alex Newport (ex Fudgetunnel/Nailbomb) turns up at the bus and takes Johnny, D and I into town. We walk past the fish throwing market and into the Sub Pop 'megamart'. We mill around looking at CDs and then get our picture taken by the sales assistant for the wall of fame they have going. We're next to BIS, Gavin from Bush and someone's dog. Top of the world Ma.

In the late afternoon some people we met last night arrive at the bus. They've come to take us back to their place for dinner. Steve, Jen and Craig. They're very nice people. They are the kind of people that make all of this worth while. On the way to their place Craig pulls the car over under a bridge.

"Wanna see the troll?"
"what?"

Under the bridge there's a giant concrete sculpture of a troll with a VW Beetle under it's left hand. Very odd. We head to the house. There Steve and Jen have prepared a veggie Mexican feast for us. There's all kinds of food and drink and we have a great time. Steve (see pic) has every Pitchshifter CD, cassette and LP except for two items. We sign all his stuff and he's a happy man. This guy even has a second generation copy the first Pitchshifter demo on cassette. Originally there were only 75 of those tapes made nine years ago. Steve is a serious collector. He's got more Pitchshifter stuff than me. I had to buy a copy of our first LP from a music shop because I couldn't squeeze a copy from the label and here's a guy living 4000 miles away with a copy of the first demo. It's a mad world.
On the way back to the bus there are hundreds of Garth Brooks fans lining the pavement. He's been in town for some festival and there are millions of his demon cracker spawn swarming the city. I can't resist it. I wind the window down as we drive by:

"Garth Brooks is a homosexual! . . . GARTH BROOKS IS GAY FOR SATAN!"

The horde hurl their abuse right back at me. Garth Brooks can't be gay.

He's white and he believes in God and he wears a cowboy hat just like John Wayne. More Snickers, more Coke. Yankee doodle doo.