Thanx to Danielle Cope and Christine Zeiner, who went through this text.

One more P.O.BOX tour (the 5th one to be precise)! We are particularly excited about this one as we are currently recording our first full length at Loko Studio.
The recordings are almost finished as we leave home for Sweden. We’ll have to do some backing vocals and arrangements as well as the whole mix somewhere in
May when we get back home. It’s supposed to be released this summer for our extended tour through Eastern Europe. A new set list, new haircuts…the so far stable
six-piece French ska-punk outfit is ready for 7.000 kms of friendly cultural piracy.

After a 24h drive and 2.000kms (good first experience for Tchin, our new roadie, who is in chaged of the “dirty job”), we arrive in a small town in the middle of Sweden,
home of the new-school punk-rock, two hours North of Stockholm. It’s our third time there and the crowd is always waiting for us. 150 blondies dance to our new tunes.
Jay discovers carefully what it’s like to be the only six-stringed on stage…a new area has begun for P.O.BOX and the result is not bad at all…so let’s kill some more road!
Thanx to the Österling family who, once again, welcomed us as members of their family! And thanx to the pupils of the Haraldsbo Gymnasiet, where Seb did a training period
as a French teacher some weeks ago, who showed up to this gig !

We’ve been expecting the worst for this crossing of the Baltic Sea - remember last year . A rough sea, a million tarot games, some leftover weed and some sleep on the
boat’s dancing floor… Hello Estonia !

We’re early (probably the only time in the next two weeks), so we’ve got plenty of time to visit Tallinn, Estonia’s capital city, that none of us has ever been to. Some
sightseeing, cheap pizzas, Estonian cinnamon beer and tarot again under a friendly sun on a medieval terrace. We arrive at the Reggae Bar where we will play with a local
pop-punk band and a Finnish SxE HC band, The Lighthouse Project. Bang bang!!! There it goes…Finest D.C. hardcore and an apparently young Estonian band to start the
evening. We play last and again we’re really surprised to see how good the Eastern crowd reacts to our Western inspired ska-punk. In the Baltics, 50 people at the show
equals 50 people skanking in. A nice welcome gig.

One day later, 200 km further, here we are in Tartu, THE student town of this Northern baltic country. It seems like spring has arrived earlier here than at home. The
Rock’n’Roll bar is ready for us when we arrive. Extremly friendly guys and girls welcome us with a quick sound check, food and drinks. Two local bands share the stage with
us in front of partying students. Damian’s playing behind a Plexiglas wall which causes some trouble on stage but show happens to be nice never the less. Va Taip Vat, our
Lithuanain support cancelled the first shows until we get to Lithuania so we have to find new party bros… Nothing difficult over here. We get trapped in a student bar with silly
music and loads of alcohol until late - late not having the same meaning over here as at home . The typical trap! Tervi Seks dude !

Riga, the third edition. We really feel kinda at home here as we know most of the people that come to the show. Good food again, free drinks again, a crowded skanking venue
again (about 150people)! Loco Locals play as support tonight with their Latvian folk-ska. Apart from the fact that we had some terrible monitoring problems for Damian, the
show is great – the kids sing along to our melodies, microphone stands fly around… But always with a smile. We (re-re-re)taste the local drinks (and local coke for Seb)… Just
to be sure they’re still good! Edgars, our booker over here, joins us for one more night of partying. He’ll be with us until tomorrow in Liepaja.

We’ve heared a lot of this place during our former tours through the Baltics. The Fountain Palace seems to be a legend here. Liepaja, home of Mr. Louie Fountaine with his
bar/club, his resort hotel (where we’ll stay at) and his snack bar… And Europe’s whitest sand. We have the privilege to rock one of Latvia’s biggest venues tonight! The evening
starts with a fashion show (yes sir! A fashion show!!). 200 people show up for the show which makes the club look a bit empty but our set list is steady now, with a split up horn
section on the left and right of Seb, just as the bass and guitar. This bar is open until the last has gone and we decided to be these last guys to leave tonight. Bottles of transparent
and coloured drinks pass by and after we get gently thrown out, we go to this famous whitest sand to see the sun rising before we get to our hotel rooms for a bit of sleep and a
shower. Prieka !

Last year we played for the reopening of a squat here; it happened to be one of the very best gigs of the tour. And the year before we had rocked a cellar together with an amazing
Austrian metalcore band, The Plague Mass. Siaulai is always good for a surprise as it seems. Tonight we’re sharing the stage with Dr Green (ska-punk gods in Lithuania) and our promising support band for the next 3 gigs, Va Taip Vat. The venue has a capacity of more or less 100 people and almost 200 are waiting
outside…So… There’s almost as many people standing on the ground as jumping around and stage diving. Some of the kids know the lyrics better than some of our band members
- that’s for sure. This is no crowd! This is a part of our family! Fuck big stages and huge venues… Small, sweaty and intense – that’s how we like it. Thanx to Gabrielle for the
shelter: it’s always good to get a place to sleep.

A forth gig in Vilnius to end our trip trough the Baltics and a second (maybe last) time at Bix Barras. Va Taip Vat start the party with a good set and, as we expected, there are
some girls that came to see Natas who participated some local ‘Pop Idol’ edition a few months ago. Punk-rock goes trendy in Lithuania too as it seems… Apart from this ‘gossip’
and ‘people’ section of the evening, the evening is great. We play a show in front of a bar that cannot contain more people. People are dancing on the tables, in the stairs, some
are even dancing in front of the bar in the streets as the bar is so incredibly sold out (more or less 200 people). To celebrate that, we end up spending as much money at the bar
as we got for the show giving away free drinks to every one we could find. Thank you Vilnius and I sveikata! Thanx to Agne, Stepas and Rasa who, once again, gave us a place to crash.

Well, after a party like the one we had yesterday, we’re leaving Vilnius late, with our mates from Va Taip Vait, driving to Poland. When we finally arrive there (2hours late), the
promoters are seeing us as messies, as they thought we wouldn’t come. Anyway, we’re playing in an open-air festival, close to a wonderful lake. Va Taip Vat kicks off, and the
Polish people have been drinking while waiting for us, haha. Then a hardcore-ska band, from Olstzyn, comes on stage. 10pm, night is now absolutely there, it’s damn cold. We’re
giving the best we can for this show. The promoters, helped by some “security peeps” are standing in front of us, showing us their backs, to prevent any trouble. It seems that the
Polish people (probably 100) are now totally drunk, but they keep skanking like hell. Olive takes the time to break his bass guitar by jumping around too close to Seb. The night
ends at G11, a local club, talking about the underground scene, European networks, while drinking vanilla vodka and some Lech (local beer). Check out Hardcore.pl, Underground.org,
Independent.pl, Band.pl… Oh yes, I almost forgot: playing baby foot against the promoters, and winning, we won a support slot for Bad Religion, during their next tour (2007) where they
will play at Arena in Gizycko (we haven’t checked wheter it was a joke or not but well).

Last gig in the Eastern part of Europe, we say goodby to our mates from Va Taip Vat who are going back to Lithuania, and drive some 100 kms to reach Szczytno. We’re playing
in a very very very small pub, between a lake and a road. While waiting, tarot games (Olive is killing us all!) and coffees make us look like rockers at the end of their careers haha.
We’re playing in a corner of the pub, under the stairs, and about 50people are packing up in it, to check us out. It’s hard to describe those kind of gigs (which we like though), but it’s
always hard to believe that some Polish people, in a very small town, know your lyrics by heart and ask you to play “this” or “that” song. They are making the set list for tonight. We
end the night driving back to France, a 24h drive… Nasdrovie !

We spend the day and night driving back to France. 24h of driving and we finally get to see our home again.

We thought we would try to record an accoustic song, piano/violin/tears… for our upcoming full length. We chose Diving. We tried not to do a “cliché” song (in the vein of Simple Plan),
and tried to record that song in a different way… You’ll be able to hear the result soon, on this long awaited album.

Right, we are late, 3h late, because of some troubles with the van’s tires… So well, we saved some money on this tour, and all of our savings are used to pay for those tires…
Tonight, we’re playing with 2 great bands: 2nd Base, a Belgian band, playing melodious hardcore (think of Strung Out, NOFX and so on), and Happening Leek, a young ska-punk
band inspired by some English ska-core (Adequate Seven…). Ak, our former guitar player, shows up to say hi. After the gig, we drive to his new Belgian home, and are invited by
his neighbour, Ditch (it seems this guy is kinda known in the neighbourhood), a 45yo man, who offers us some special drinks! Santé!

First, this gig was supposed to take place at Glaz’art, with Korttex (formerly known as Kargol’s). But it has been moved to Péniche Alternat, with Okploïde. We decide to play, even if
the health of half of the band is kinda bad, hoping some people will show up on a Saturday night, so that we won’t loose any money on this show. Well, France is kinda tough as fare as
rock’n roll is concerned. 60 people attend the show. It is a hard time for Seb who lost his voice, for Damian who is totally sick, and for Jaws who is also in a bad health… The 3 of them
got sick in Poland some 5 days ago and haven’t recovered. We decide to cancel the gig in Limoges, which is supposed to take place tomorrow… With regret (we were to play in France!).
After the gig, we said goodbye to Okploïde, and drove back to our homes.