[andy42g]

Autumn 1994 I had graduated from University over here in the Uk and had taken off with some friends on a 6 week Jolly in the Far East. In north Thailand (Chaing Mai) we embarked on a 3 day "jungle trek" with a random mixed nationality bunch of fellow travellers who were in the same hotel as we were. There was one Canadian guy called John and after the trek thing he stayed with us as we moved on in Thailand and we ended up swapping a couple of cassestte tapes for our Walkmans. He got The Icicle Works and I got one with Fully Completely and Toad's Dulcinea on the other side. I just loved both albums instantly and got the CDs as soon as I got home. I was able to also pick up Road Apples and Up to Here straight away and first saw the band after travelling down to London for them on the Henhouse tour. What a gig that was - the crowd was like nothing I'd ever experienced before: seemingly everyone else was Canadian, it an atmosphere like I'd never felt before and I was utterly carried away by the whole thing. Chatting with people in the crowd it dawned on me just how much this band meant to everyone there. The Canadians seemed decent folk and were amazed that a Brit like me was so into the band. I remember, amongst lots of other incidents that night, being in a big group of folk right in the middle and shouting out "Courage" along with everyone else whist being bounced around all over the place. Have followed the band best I can ever since and seen all their London shows, but the two gigs in Amsterdam on the last tour were probably the highlight of my Hip fandom so far!