Liverpool based LEAFBLADE, the side-project of guitarist/singer Danny Cavanagh from ANATHEMA, have issued the following tour blog update:

"Any abiding love of Zen and philosophy couldn’t possibly have been enough to equip us for what was to come: rising from sleep after just an hour and a half, intestinally annoyed by a very Naughty Kebab indeed, and preparing for a zombified sleep in a car through streaming snow.

We awoke, like something out of a Frankenstein movie, and made our way to the car. My lenses felt like someone had been trying to put the contents of a rabbit hutch down the back of them. Spirits returned slightly like a weak gin and tonic, and we left Poznan on a wing and a snowy prayer. It was like rally cross, and our driver had anticipated at least four and a half hours through the snow. The poor man was exhausted from the start, it seemed, getting more and more nervous as the journey commenced.

The motorway was down to one lane, the snow driving against us, maximum speed 50kmh. I slept intermittently, but Lord Dingbat, the hero of the hour, and quite possibly mortified at the risk we were under, kept the driver talking and in reasonable spirits as the journey commenced. The driver, though, misinterpreted here and there, thinking that we were annoyed at his pace. Ding reassured him: if we miss the flight, then we miss the flight.

The driver’s fears of the weather conditions and of his need to get us to Berlin Airport on time were increased after we passed by the wreckage of a large truck that had clearly crashed in the ice. I had been asleep, but apparently, the twisted mess of the truck had been a very moving image.

Time wore on, St. Ding kept the driver talking and relatively at ease, blessing him with holy water from time to time, but the man was clearly intent upon reaching Berlin Airport on time. There was nothing we could say to allay his fears; I thought there were tears in eyes at one point. But all ended in true rock ‘n’ roll theatre: we arrived at the airport, caught up in traffic , but went to the wrong terminal and had to double back.

Sand dripped through the hour-glass as the deadline for check-in time approached. Then, we spotted a sign for our terminal. The driver bolted up towards the entrance, brilliantly parking the car illegally against a barrier for which we had no money to get through. Super Haav went ahead to the check-in desk, while the Poets ambled in with the luggage, and within four minutes to check-in deadline, with even a quick minute to arrange some Furtive Baggage Weight Connivance, The Musketeers sorted things.

Five and a half hours in the car, with minutes to spare. Ding wanted to pay the driver a little extra, but with no time to spare, all we could do was shout a hearty thanks and abandon him at a barrier on a one-way road. He might still be there now, but we sincerely hope not. We are indebted to his careful driving, throwing us in at the airport in terrible conditions."

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