The band P.O.BOX went on its 3rd European tour this last April 2005, from East to West. 2 weeks, 7557km driven, 11 gigs in 8 different countries, some awesome gigs with bands the like as Big D and The Kids Table (USA), La Ruda (F), Easy Way (Portugal) or A Common Ground (D)...

The first gig of the tour being in Sweden (so more or less 2000km away from France), the first challenge for us was to reach the country safely. It seems our van, la Vanette, will never die! Two days spent on driving non stop were necessary to reach Falun in Sweden.

Driving, driving and more driving. We arrived in Falun at 10pm.

This night, we were playing at Valhall, a great venue where every Burning Heart Records' band has already played. Three local bands opened for us. Pull Out, Hyrd pe Plats and Mozkovitch. 200 people showed up, and it seemed (regarding the P.O.BOX shirts in the audience) that lots of peeps were already there when we played in the same venue in November 2004. The gig was really cool. This time Oliv' was lucky enough and didn't break his shoulder. A big thank you to the Österling family for everything they've done for us.

Heading to Kappelskär, on the Swedish coast, to catch a ferry to Estonia and the Baltic Countries (the trip on board lasted 1 night). We met really nice Swedish people on board, and spent our last Swedish crowns on some local beverages the whole night... GroJay left a souvenir on the upper deck of the boat, haha. A national folk songs contest took place, and damn we won it !

After 2 hours of sleeping, we arrived in Paldiski (Estonia). This day, we were playing in Riga (Latvia), so we had 300km more to drive. After 10mn of driving, it was Yul's time to leave a souvenir from the night. We did some sightseing in the city, and tasted the local liquor, Balzam, then reached the venue, Depo, a great club where Fabulous Disaster was to play 1 week later. One more time, the venue was totally packed (more than 200 peeps)... Lots of people attended the gig thanx to our performance at the Tabuns Festival in July 2004 (biggest fest. in this part of Europe). The crowd was totally crazy, and made Oliv', GroJay, Mamst and Yul stage diving one after the other. It was a pure blast !

After 2 hours of sleeping (again), we headed to Vilnius (Lithuania), 300km south of Riga. It remained only 7 of us in the van, as we lost our roadie Balag in Riga, where absinth and balzam are damn cheap. We arrived late at the club, Star Underground, and there we were welcomed by a very nice staff and an awesome catering, the one we've been dreaming of for the past 4 years! Some of us wondered if there was to be some people at the show as this was a week day, as there was an age restriction (18+), and as the local basket ball team was playing the final heat of the ULEB Cup (European cup)... Well, once again the venue was packed, once again it was obvious that our first tour in the Baltics (July 04) was still a good memory for the people there. 3 things we would like to say: it is sooooooooo fucking awesome to see 50 people singing the chorus' of your songs when you're soooooo far away from home; it is soooooooooooo fucking amazing to hear from our touring agency that some audio tapes of P.O.BOX (yeah! audio tapes!) are being sold in Russia and Lithuania; it is sooooooooooooo fucking hard to wake up after a night spent on drinking balzam.

We slept in a hotel (well, that's how they called it) during 4 hours (wow!), and were amazed to see that water you fill in your bath with before you take your bath in Lithuania has the same color than the one water has after you have your bath in France (erm, am i clear enough? haha). The gig we had on this day has been canceled due to "the death of the pope"... So we left Vilnius and drove to Berlin, where we had planned to spend a day off.

Arrival in Berlin at 9am. Sightseeing, shopping, museums... Thanx to Jana for having offered us a place to sleep, and for the washing machine !

Weroth (Germany), Liverock festival. Great bands on the bill, with our friends from Portugal, Easy Way; and the last gig of A Common Ground. Not less than 1.000 people were at the show, in this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. Wake Up Radio opened the gig, then came Coffee Shower from Italy with an explosive show between BigWig and traditional Cali punkrock. We were the only ska-punk band, so our show was a bit different from the others but people enjoyed it as hell, and that was the most important. Then, our favorite Portuguese from Easy Way conquered the audience with its catchy chorus. To conclude, A Common Ground gave the best ever for their last show: 2h of music, emotions, fireworks... Pure happiness!

After a looooooong night of...2h (we couldn't understand how our bodies supported that), we drove to Ath (Belgium) for the 3rd AthRock Festival. On the bill, several bands including La Ruda, and 1.000 people in the venue (well a big hall). Belgian people really deserve their reputation of "being the biggest party people in Europe". Our show was energic although we were definitely very tired. It was also Jaws' last gig of the tour, as he had to go back to France for some personal reasons. We watched a part of La Ruda's show, and left Ath, heading to Calais (France), where we had to take a ferryboat to reach England.

We were playing in Wales this night, in Swansea, where we were once again support band of our buddies from Big D and The Kids Table for the last 2 gigs of their European tour. We were joined for our UK gigs by Jonny, our UK label Power Pop Records' boss. After a football match with Big D (well, they call it soccer but that doesn't change the score) which we easily won (easy??? that's not enough!), we went to listen to the 3 local bands opening. Our show was ok, with one trumpet only, and the crowd, even if not skanking as hell, appreciated. The good piece of news (and bad as well) was that our merch was almost sold out, but we still had some shows on this tour !

Cold night spent half in the van, half under a tent in the middle of the english countryside. We arrived in Exeter, and realized how Big D couldn't wait to go back home in Boston to take some rest as they were to play the Warped tour for 9 weeks in June, July and August. Anyway, there wasn't a lot of peeps at the Cavern Club (where every indie ska-punk band from Streetlight Manifesto to Mad Caddies are playing when on tour ). Robolint opened the gig, with a totally crazy ska-punk in the vein of the Aquabats. We had to play for 30mn (as every support band), so we went straight to the point with songs such as Little Boy, Bully, Don’t waste your time, Da Pen or Death…. Big D offered us a surprise for this last show, asking to the crowd which song they wanted to hear and playing them. So we were luck enough to listen to some ooooold stuff with which we discovered Big D some years ago. They also spent like 3 whole minutes laughing on stage, remembering the first time we met 2 years ago, and a stupid story about the rabbit one of us had at that time, and who shitted on each member of Big D haha. Anyway, the time-to-say-goodbye was full of emotions (gniark), and we took some bands pix with them, then went to sleep at some Exeter's students who were nice enough to welcome us.

It was becoming more and more difficult to wake up. We headed to Liverpool, arrived at the venue, Heav'n and Hell, had some typical english food, jacked potatoes and fish'n chips, and did a quick soundcheck. The crowd? Well, let's say something like 20people. This was the less interesting gig of the tour. Any good point for this show? We saw a kick-ass band in then vein of Belvedere, called Morning Pizza. We left Liverpool to reach Bradford where we slept at Jonny's.

We spent the first real night of this tour (something like 8hours!!), and reached Leeds to do some sightseeing, playe football and frisbee in those huge parks England has. Sunny weather. 3 bands on the bill tonight, The Infested (ska-core "à la" Leftover Crack), Big Jesse (pure ska-punk), and us. Once again, not a lot of people showed up. Once again, no sleeping place and no catering. Once again, food and petrole were expensive. We couldn't wait to go back on the continent to play in Belgium the day after... Heading to Dover, our ferryboat left at 8am.

Leuven, pizza-coke catering, soundcheck at the venue, Albatros. 2 brit pop bands were opening for us. Lots of people this night (200?), whereas this was our first time there. It warmed us up to play in front of a real crowd (we missed that in the UK). After the show, drinking, drinking, drinking, in Belgium's pub (why is Belgian beer sooooo good and soooo cheap?).

Day-off today, we went to Maastricht (the Netherlands), where Yul's cousin and friend offered us a shelter for the night. For sure we celebrated the Queen's Day (national day) and visited the coffee shops. Tiphaine (Oliv's girlfriend) joined us for the last 2 days of the tour.

The whole city is in orange (national color), we drove to Hellevoestluis, near Rotterdam. The Q-Day Festival started at 2pm, 9 bands on the bill, the 5 first playing outside, the 4 last inside the squat. We were supposed to play at 9pm, as headliner. Lots of mohawks, lots of beers, some weed. We started the soundcheck at 10pm, and some people were already singing the songs. This was the last show of our tour, we were in one hand really excited, in the other hand already nostalgic. The squat was totally packed up with 150 to 200 people and the crowd was damn active. The gig lasted to short, bis, 2 more songs, thank you, load out (as would say Mamst)... as usual we surely have forgotten some of our stuff backstage but well, we'll notice that later. 500km to drive during the night to reach our hometown...

Well, how can we say it... WE CANT WAIT FOR JULY!!! While waiting, back to jobs, studies, schools... and rehearsals, rehearsals and rehearsals again to work on new songs for the upcoming debut-album, planned for the end of this year.

Allllllllu with no S