Once again we find ourselves awake too early and in an airport.

This time, however, we don't have to play until tomorrow - a fact celebrated with a couple of pre-flight pints of shandy.

Two hours and some crap food later we board a coach in Gothenburg which (after a further three hours) deposits us in Vimmerby.

Typically for a small town in Scandinavia absolutely nothing is going on this evening so we catch a lift and travel the twenty kilometres to Hultsfred.

Singer Colin Doran at Hultsfred

There we spend the evening hanging out with the organisers of the festival and a few other good friends we met and toured with on our last trip to Sweden.

The festival site is awesomely picturesque. Pine trees surround the huge lake that flanks the main stage. You don't get that in Somerset!

The night ends drunkenly at Metropol, a bar/ venue/ university/ office/ best place in the world ever that we played last time.

Waking duty

I have never seen so many drunken people in my life and it is an amazing sight

The next day we once again head for the festival. As first band on we know our place and decide it's our duty to wake everyone up.

So, after a little while swearing at the rented equipment we shake the dust off our festival set and at least get a few of the early arrivers in the mood for some rock.

The rest nod along happily and a good time is had by all. We spend the next hour or so doing some interviews and finally get to eat. The food consists of bits of one of the four cows that were specially reared for the festival. Good work fellas.

Unfortunately, instead of hanging around the beautiful site drinking beer and watching bands for the rest of the day, we get back in a coach, drive three hours to Gothenburg, get on a plane, fly one hour to Stockholm, run like idiots, catch a connecting flight to Vassar in Finland, get on a coach for another hour and end up at a hotel somewhere at 1:30am where the sky is - confusingly - still light.

All we can manage is a few euros worth of the local beer before we fall exhausted into bed.

All-night daylight

"In the mood for some rock"

We leave for the Provinssirock festival site at a very respectable 3pm.

We battle our way through sound check with a new batch of rented equipment (damn those shipping costs) and I meet up with some old friends.

As the guitar player with the main opening band on the main second stage I feel it's my duty to inspect the area. It rocks.

One big stage, one smaller stage, a big tent and 22 Finns who have re-discovered daylight after a long winter. Everyone - and I mean everyone - is absolutely plastered.

I have never seen so many drunken people in my life and it is an amazing sight.

There are men in drag and people passed out on top of each other. The time? Six in the afternoon.

We bump into a bunch of people who actually have our album (even though the record label couldn't tell us if it was out here yet) and were excited to see us.

The show went well, with a small but dedicated crowd going nuts at the front of the stage.

Countless beers

The rest of the crowd resisted the temptation to get to the other stage early for American band Dream Theater and seemed to enjoy our set.

Larry Hibbitt: Late night drinking

After the gig we do a load more interviews, including one for MTV where a couple of the audience were thrown out for being drunk and disorderly. Good work. That done, we reason that if you can't beat them, join them.

Countless beers, a bottle of Slovakian vodka and a few White Russians later I find myself in the campsite drinking freshly brewed coffee and Baileys.

Thinking the time to be a respectable three or four in the morning I seek clarification from a newly acquired friend. He tells me it's eleven in the morning. I thank him for the use of his tent and stumble blindly off to find a cab.

It's midday by the time I find the hotel. I shower, have lunch and then watch England stuff Denmark by three goals. This sparks off a couple of celebratory pints of Koff and before long we're back at the festival doing it all again. By the time German group Rammstein leave the stage that night, we are broken people.

Finland, we salute you.