1. “Which one of you gentlemen owns this bag?”

The sight that greeted myself and Mary Janes singer Mic Christopher as we passed wearily but bleeplessly through the metal detector at the entrance to the Departures lounge wasn’t promising. Having decided that, given our rather shambolic and worse for wear state, walking through Customs en masse probably wasn’t a very good idea, our group had split into three separate couples in the hope that at least some of us could make it onto the plane home to Dublin without the hassle and indignity of being searched. Drummer Mark Stanley and bassist Karl Odlum had gone first. Two minutes later, guitarist Simon Good and Hot Press photographer Peter Matthews followed them through.

Oblivious to the final boarding call, Mic and I had remained at the bar, sharing a shaky pint of ice-cold cider bought with our last few sterling coins and trying desperately to pull ourselves together. Once we felt capable of making the short walk through to Departures we rose from our chairs and promptly fell back into them again. This standing business was harder than it looked.