'Instore at Tower records in Southampton' - By James Clarke

This turned out to be a bizarre one! The boys had travelled down to Southampton from Birmingham overnight, they woke to be greeted by tour manager Kumar informing them that the manager from the new Tower Records store in Southampton has been on the phone and there was a problem! The store had only been open a fortnight and had not yet got their performing licence from the local council - this meant they could not have anyone performing in the store! The council had contacted them the day of the instore show to remind them of this - something the manager knew nothing about! So here's the dilemma: Dum Dums were booked to do and instore performance and signing session, lots of people were expected, yet they couldn't perform in the store! Most bands would have given up and either cancelled the whole thing, or just done the signing...but not the Dums!

Within minutes their quick witted crew had come up with a solution! So off they went to the Ferryman & Firkin pub a few doors away from Tower Records to ask a favour! The pub obliged, and agreed to let the boys do their set in the pub as opposed to having to cancel it and disappoint all the fans that had turned up! (Apparently they were quite pleased to have a 'well known chart act' playing on their premises!) So the day was saved! The boys performed in the pub and then went back to Tower to do the signing session....all of which went without any further hitches - Job done!