Over 100 million years ago an oyster like mollusc know as a Gryphaea lived out it’s life in a large colony at the bottom of a shallow sea on the western edge of modern day Europe. At the end of it’s life it sunk into the sediment on the seabed and over thousands of years was fossilised. The fossil lay in the sands through ice ages and continental drifts. When Homo Erectus left the African continent and started to spread across the planet the fossil lay undisturbed. When modern man prospered, through the agricultural, industrial and technological revolution, through every war, scientific advancement and human invention the fossil lay untouched until one day in 2011 a walker kicked it out of the sand in the tideline on White Park Bay in Northern Ireland and dusted it off. The walker gave the fossil to a band called Axis of and it was placed, as an emblem, inside a flight case with musical equipment. The fossil has since travelled across Europe and to the United States. It has travelled by boat, bus, van and plane. It’s been warmed by the sun on festival stages and covered in beer in dark clubs. It’s been to hundreds of venues, squats, dilapidated halls, radio stations, dusty fields, TV studios, pubs, podcasts and protest sites.
Touring for Axis Of is a tribute to true stories of sheer chance and coincidence like this one. In early 2015 we released The Mid Brae Inn and, along with our fossil, took to the road. The first part of the journey was a run of headline shows throughout the UK. Watch the video below for an insight.
