DOG DAYS and collective naps

After launching debut EP Return the Day, London five-piece Dog Race set out on an autumn tour in the UK and Europe. Here, guitarist James Kelly records their rollercoaster ride of beer and Buckfast, drunken bumper car driving and karaoke, dodgy hotels and group naps – not forgetting the obligatory celebrity death...

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Our tours start the same way as those of any other rock’n’roll band, with meticulous planning and rigorous logistical roadmapping.

As a self-managed group, admin responsibilities are divided up and tackled by the most organised members. It’s then the job of the less organised members to try their hardest to ruin those plans.

As a group made up of full-time, nine-to-five workers, any band activities are stuffed into the moments we can find: evenings are spent rehearsing, weekends are spent writing and performing, and tours have to be booked off in advance, meaning there hasn’t been much room for non-band-related holidays in the past two years. This also adds a layer of logistical bureaucracy to touring; nothing is more anti-punk than waiting for your manager to approve your holiday so you can play a show.

One thing we can always count on: whenever we're on the road, there’s a high-profile death. Now, we're not saying there’s something going on, but by the seventh or eighth time, it stops feeling like coincidence, and more like something we should keep an eye on.

Day 1: Belgium

Our first stop is SMG Music Fest, an hour outside Brussels, in the village of Sart-Messire-Guillaume. It starts with a quick drive down to the Channel Tunnel, where we are greeted at the border by the usual workers - over the past year, the tunnel has been our home from home.

The long drives through Europe are made more uncomfortable by the fact we are usually travelling in a five-seater car with a full boot and an even fuller roof rack. A spin-the-wheel situation determines most big decisions in the band: sleeping arrangements, track running order, and where you sit in the car.