Chapter twelve - the professionals
Translation:
- Image one: We played in Switzerland, Portugal, Latvia, Lithuania, as well as on various festivals; we have some CDs out and a van…
- Image two: …which Dan puked all over. What shall we do now?
- Image three: We shall get a bus!
And now for the narration.
Chapter 12 - THE PROFESSIONALS
Another invaluable experience for Tortharry was double tour over Latvia and Lithuania in 1997 and 1998. For this occasion, the band got their first van, a green Peugeot. It was an older model, but in excellent condition with brand new upholstery, and the guys were really thrilled from having it; so much so that they did not hesitate to properly celebrate the occasion already when leaving Náchod. Since back then the Czech Republic was not in EU, the band had to spent approx. 45 minutes on the border crossing, passing the time in various ways, mostly however with drinking hard liquor, meaning that upon entering Poland (distant about 10 km from their homes) our guys were already completely wasted. Near Warsaw, the aftermath hit. First, while on a gas station, Martin got sick and leaning over the pump he threw up right at his shoes. After he was able to drive on, the band got underway only to be forced to stop about 15 seconds later. This time, it was Dan who got sick, and being too wasted to open the doors or windows, he christened the interior of the van with a massive hurl. Even after a heavy cleaning operation of both Dan and the van, Dan still bore the traces of the incident on the Lithuanian border, where guys bribed the customs officers with CDs and t-shirts to expedite their entry into the country. All got finally cleaned only after Tortharry reached their destination.
The year is 1998.
In the times of the Czech metal boom, when Tortharry were heavily touring abroad, they were also providing PA and sound services. For that purpose, the band bought a Karosa bus, with which they frequented various domestic metal shows, operating the sound systems and in lot of times, also performing. Quite memorable was the NUCLEAR STORM festival in 1998 in Slavičín, south Moravia. It was organized by their friend Láďa Pukyš in a beautiful outdoor venue adjacent to a football field, where the guys tested their football skills of penalty shots or of who scores the most goals as well as who catches the most shots. Quite often however, the ball flew everywhere else but the cage, giving Králík the task of returning the stray ball, which on one occasion turned out to be quite unfortunate for him, as he fell into a creek once a returned utterly wet and bruised from head to toe. Generaly speaking, Králík had a truly bad luck – during the Portugal tour he almost skinned his chest when making a dive jump into the sea; during yet another jump he lost his sunglasses he forgot to put away; and not to mention the loss of his front teeth which we covered in one of the previous issues. All this however was nothing compared to what happened the next morning.
The year is 1999.