My Week with the Mentors

This was never going to be an easy tour.

Trouble started once the announcement was made, with a clandestine call to cancel one of the shows leaving me on the backfoot towards finding a replacement. Having support bands become less available than hoped also threw some surprises my way.

With energies devoted to resolving the immediate and sourcing alternatives, a lot of promotion didn’t happen as it should. It wasn’t an easy time of year either, with post-Yule fugue keeping folk away, even when they knew about the shows.

But I wanted a challenge, and through such adversity we made it work.

It was said that “Only Daryl could bring the Mentors back!”, given my warped sense of humour and sheer bloody-mindedness. But it was really nothing without the efforts of those like-minded souls who gave their all to make it happen.

Gratitude to Robert Smith for booking Stockport and Blackpool, Kurt and Hot Pink Sewage for fully embracing the insanity of the weekend, Rich at Vortex for opening up when all else failed, and Matt Thomasson for sourcing suitable support from genres I’m not as intimately familiar with.

The tour would have likely taken a different course without the work of these fine fellows; and especially the diehards down the front who braved the first week of the New Year to swear along with the songs.

But most of all I must thank the band themselves. I admit, given their decades of debauched press, I didn’t know what to expect from sharing their van for a week. But they all to a man proved themselves absolute gentlemen and a delight to work with.

With the band understanding that Rock ‘n’ Roll seldom goes to plan, I still take ownership of aspects of the tour which could have gone better. Learning from mistakes, growing from experience, and eager to improve.

Now for the next one…

Mentors UK Tour - January 2024

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