Post by Catfood on Nov 16, 2007 23:45:20 GMT -5
The decision to go to Leeds rather than Reading this year was made based on the opinions of a couple of friends whose opinions I trust telling me that Leeds was the better festival. To be fair, I didn't notice a hell of a lot of difference between the 2 sites, other than the drive down to Leeds being about 3 hours less than going down to Reading. For this reason and this reason alone, I think Bramham Park is where I'll be spending my August bank holiday weekends in future.
Though to be honest, after an excellent Download, I wasn't expecting much out of this year, the lineup for the most part was a load of crap and it was hard to get that excited about any of the headliners. But in the end there was enough to see and do to make it worth my while.
Thursday:
The journey down begins at the stupidly early 3am with Mark driving me and Mathew down to Boston to meet Kev, Rob and festival newbie Stu before heading off to Leeds. The journey passes mostly without incident, probably because I'm not driving. Kev manages to get us slightly lost, but we manage to find our way to Bramham park without any problems, Kev and co arriving about 10 minutes before us due to him knowing a shortcut and not letting any of us know about it. The first thing that you notice about Bramham Park is how nice the whole area looks, I've a feeling it won't look quite so nice after a few days, but for the moment it looks great. Anyway, we unload the cars and make our way into the campsite, the security...sorry, the Customer Protection Officers(I think they were called) are friendly enough, but they are ultimately useless as they are simply checking peoples tickets and not bothering to search anyone. This is never more obvious when later that day I went to visit a friend and it turns out that he managed to smuggle in a huge amount of weed and pills. Anyway, joining up with us at the festival is Carl and his girlfriend, Michelle and Adam and his girlfriend Hannah who are camped somewhere else. And so, we find a spot big enough to camp, pitch our tents, get the booze from cars and start the days drinking. Rob manages to upset Michelle within an hour of being their by being completely tactless and Kev manages to scare off our female neighbours who keep borrowing Stu's mallet with the line "Any time you want a hammering..." They don't talk to us again, this is already shaping up to be a good weekend. As the morning goes by, a lot of beer gets drank, except by Stu who is t total and must have the patience of a saint for putting up with us all, Family Guy gets drunkenly quoted far too much and Adam pops by to say hi before going to bed. At about 12pm we all decide to go and get our wristbands and after that, me, Carl and Michelle decide to go and visit our friend Scott who is the one that brought in all the drugs. We don't stop too long and head back to the camp, the mornings drinking has taken its toll on me at least and I hit the hay for a couple of hours. I wake up with a pounding headache, which quickly disappears with the aid of a couple of paracetamol and the shock of the fact that its just under £5 for a chicken burger. And so the drinking and the talking of drunken gibberish begins again for a few hours before a me, Carl, Michelle and Mat decide to take a walk up to the arena to check out the late night entertainment. We swing by Scotts camp to see if he fancies coming to the arena, he doesn't, in fact he doesn't leave the tent all weekend. Anyway, Carl and Michelle stay with Scott and I wander off to the arena with the intention on checking out some of the bands on the Topman Stage, but it seems that everyone has had the same idea, the stage is packed(for the first and last time all weekend) I can hardly hear anything from the stage's puny speakers and what I can hear is drowned out by the disco cheese coming from fairground rides behind me. I give up and go and see what the Alterntive Stage has to offer. I end up watching Diary of an Opium Eater. Now, I like my pretentious rock music, but this is just dull, the band seem to be playing the same intrumental track over and over again, after a couple of tracks, I've had enough and head back to to campsite and spend a good hour or so walking around completely lost and trying to find my campsite, something I haven't done since Download 03. Eventually I get back to find that everyone but Rob is asleep, Mathew seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet, so I try phoning him only to get through to some bloke who has found his mobile, but intends to return it. So I set off to try and find this bloke, but its dark, I'm drunk and there are far too many people about, so we agree to meet up the next day. With that, I head back to camp, drink some more and chat with Rob before finally calling it a night and crashing out myself.
Friday:
I'm the first one up and to be honest, not feeling too bad considering the amount I drank the day before. Mathew still hasn't come back to his tent, so I decide to give it an hour or so before going to find him. By the time I leave to look for him, everyone is up and Kev decides to join me for something to do. I check in the crash and Medical tents and they know nothing about him. So we head back to the campsite before I remember that one of the doors doesn't lock on Marks car and going to see if he has crashed in the car. I get about halfway there before I bump into him looking completely hungover and lost. Apparently, he ended up being taken to the crash tent by security, where he spent the night and on waking up was given bacon sandwichs and a cup of tea. Anyway, there is the issue of his missing phone and the guy who has it is phoning to arrange a meeting place by the arena entrance, again we fail to meet due to amount of people and the guy agrees to hand the phone into lost property and to his credit, he does. I would have liked to have met the guy, even if it was just to say thanks. Anyway, its a day of bands, perhaps the best day of the whole weekend. So me, Mat, Kev and Stu all decide to head into the arena and head straight for the bar before heading into the NME stage to catch the last few songs by Late of the Pier, whose indie dance rock thing is really really enjoyable, the geek in me really enjoyed the bit where they started chucking in bits of Legend of Zelda tunes. With that, we head to the bar again and then into the Lockup tent for Sonic Boom Six. Sonic Boom Six should have been one of the highlights of the weekend, but the sound in the tent is fucking terrible, you can't actually hear anything but noise unless you are more or less right at the front. The other thing that goes against them is the fact the they are using the festival as a showcase for their worryingly Paramore-ish sounding new material. It ain't great and it drags down the set, not impressed. I would have liked to have stuck around for Municipal Waste, but the awesome I Was A Cub Scout are playing in the Carling Tent, so with a brief stop for more cider, I head their and catch most of their set. Playing before a more appreciative audience than the last time I saw them, they seem to have grown in confidence, "Our Smallest Adventure" is a bit of a dud live, but songs like "I Hate Nightclubs", "The Hunters Daughter" and the closing "Pink Squares" are all amazing. As the last song ends, the singer hands his guitar to a roadie and climbs into the crowd and is totally overwhelmed by the response he gets, he actually looks quite worried as he is mobbed by an absolutely huge crowd. Perhaps the best band of the weekend as far as I'm concerned. As I leave the tent, I notice that Billy Talent are playing on the mainstage, I watch for a couple of songs and to be fair, the singer isn't as annoying as the last time I saw them and they do appear to be putting on a decent show, but compared to I Was A Cub Scout, they just seem so totally ordinary and I wander off in search of other amusement. I end up in the Lockup tent where the sound hasn't improved at all and Ignite are playing, they suck and I take a stroll to the bar and catch a bit of New Young Pony Club from outside the NME tent. They suck too. So I decide to go and take in a couple of comedians for a couple of hours before Hugh Lennon comes on. Now I know hypnotism takes a while to set up, but Hugh Lennon really isn't doing anything new once he has people hypnotised and as a result his act is really really dull. I sit through most of his act before leaving 20 minutes before the end to catch Lights Action! on the Topman stage. Lights Action! are also really dull, there a million emo bands out there doing exactly the same thing as they are. But it gives me a chance to bump into Mark and Rob who I haven't seen since leaving the campsite in the morning. We head for the bar before going to watch the Lostprophets, well I saw watch, I quite drunk at the point and couldn't actually be arsed to get up so sat on the floor singing along. There is nothing big, clever or original about what the Lostprophets do, but they have enough good songs to do a really enjoyable set. After that, we headed to the Lockup tent, only to find that The Gallows were on, so we beat a hasty retreat so that we could get some food and cider. We returned however to watch most of Turbonegro, who are putting on an awesome show, the sound is almost perfect so we can sit and watch them from the back of the tent, after missing them at Download, it was good to have seen them. With that, we decide to check out the Smashing Punkins, instigating a 4 song rule, that if they hadn't impressed us after 4 songs, we would leave. About 3 songs in, the play "Zero", which is great but everything else is shit so we go back to the camp and drink. Eventually everyone comes back to the camp, Carl and Mat have the same opinion, both Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumkins were crap, the fire officer comes over and tells us to keep the fire under knee height, which would be fine if the wood that they sell didn't burn as if it had been soaked in petrol and the night ends in a drunken haze.
Saturday:
I feel rough, there can only be one reason for it, the booze and to be honest I don't feel like drinking at all. Add to that the fact that its the worst day for bands, I've a feeling it could be a long day. Plus I am a bit short on cash, so I decide to go and get my bank card from Marks car, only to discover that he went into the nearest town to buy tobacco on Friday and has moved it. So I wait for him to wake up and and show me where the car is, it turns out that it is now parked in the furthest carpark away from where we are camped. So me and Mark set out for his car, with me complaining all the way, though my complaints were nothing compared to Monday. Anyway, I got my bank card and got back to the camp, before heading out to queue to use the cash machines with Mathew, who the night before dropped his wallet, someone handed it back to him, minus the money. On the way to the cash machine, we discovered that there was actually a Burrow Hill cider stall at the bottom of the hill of our campsite, so with cider in hand we went and queued. Now I know from experience that waiting in line for a cash machine at a festival is a painful experience and one that I try to avoid like the plague. This year was no exception and to make matters worse, every single other line seems to be moving faster than the one we're in. Anyway, an hour later and a few quid better off, we make our way into the arena, though I don't know why, there was nothing that either of us wanted to see and I still didn't feel like drinking. The first band we saw, were The Grit on the Lockup stage, not helped by the shit sound which was surprising considering how good it had been for Turbonegro. But even with the shit sound, they were fairly dull so we left and I got a pizza that would struggle to call itself food outside of a festival and we hang around the main stage while I struggle to force the pizza down. During this time, Little Man Tate arrive on stage and suck badly. We grab a cider and acting on a tip off from a newspaper, we go and check out a band called Hooks for Hands, who may or may not be the Kaiser Chiefs under an assumed name. To be fair, it was a pretty poorly kept secret as around the Carling Stage there is a crowd safty barrier to prevent the tent from overcrowding. We get there early and catch the end of Turbofruits who are shit beyond compare, simply repeating "volcano volcano volcano" does not make a good song. And then, the "secret" is out, the slight breeze is lifting up the curtain at the back of the stage and you can clearly see the Kaiser Chiefs drumkit backstage, it is roughly about this time that I bump into Kev and Stu. Kev says that this was the highlight of his weekend, but after 2 songs, I'm bored stupid, how the Kaiser Chiefs are one of Britains top bands I will never know because they are fucking shit. The song "Everything is Average These Days" ironically sums them up nicely, me and Mat leave, well try to as we can't get past the barriers for loads of disappointed people pressed against them. We evetually get out, when the security run off to stop people climbing over the toilets and running into the tent. The only reason I went is to say that I saw them, its amazing what you will do when there is nothing good on any of the stages. Anyway, with nothing to watch for a good 3 hours or so, we spend most of the afternoon in the Alternative tent watching increasingly dull comedians with Mathew trying his hardest to get me to drink something bless him. Though, around about 3 o'clock, a miracle happens, I stop feeling so ill and actually manage to drink without wanting to throw up. And so, after a few more comedians, we go and check out Big D and The Kids Table. Not the most original band on the planet but very very good at their Rancid inspired punk, personal highlight being the fantastic "Hell on Earth". Then its to the bar and back to see Capdown, who aren't great, it may have been the sound at the back, but they weren't fantastic and on that performance it is hard to mourn them calling it a day. I leave about ten minutes from the end for more cider, I may have been sober for most of the day but I now totally intend to make up for it. I head into the NME tent to watch Enter Shikari, it seems a bit hypocritical for them to be playing this stage as at Download they had a big rant about how much NME sucked. Anyway, they walk on to the Antiques Roadshow theme tune and come out in an combative mood, eclipsing their Download performance, they actually play like they want to be there. Yes, the set is still patchy but they play all the shit songs first, leaving the second half of the set full of the good stuff, I was surprised that they left of "Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour", I guess they must be sick of playing it. I meet up with Mathew and we start back for the campsite before bumping into Rob and Mark again, who have actaully made the effort to come into the arena for the first time that day, having been playing drinking games with Carl and Michelle for most of the day and are both completely pissed. We spend ages chatting before me and Mat decide to get some food from the Jack Daniels bar. There is a massive wait for the food for some reason, though I didn't mind so much as it meant that I could watch Middleman on the Topman stage who are fantastic with an amazing amount of energy that drew your attention to them, even while waiting in line for a cold burger. No one else agreed with me though. And with that, there was no one else that we wanted to see, we caught a bit of The Living End on the Lockup stage, but after a few songs, decided they were dull. We decided we couldn't be arsed to hang around to wait for Jimmy Eat World so we headed back to the campsite and drank while Mat went and watched Ash. There is only really one problem, the main reason we left the arena was so that we could avoid catching any of Razorlight, but for some reason tonight the wind is blowing from their direction and we can can hear every terrible song. However thought they were big enough or good enough to headline needs to be shot. Anyway, 12o'clock comes around and I'm ready for bed and attempt to go to sleep before Carl comes to the rescue with a pill and I'm awake for the rest of the night. Surprisingly so is everyone else, Rob is slaughtered and is staggering around calling himself Uber Rob, Kev is kicking the fire and it seems that everywhere I go, the smoke follows me, its all a bit surreal. Eventually everyone goes to bed apart from me, Mark and Mat who sit around the fire, trying to keep warm, before I decide that at 5.30am its time for bed.
Sunday:
I get about an hour and a half sleep, but I wake up feeling fine, Mathew is still awake and decides to go for a stroll around to find random people who he can annoy in the early hours of the morning. Mark has gone to bed and doesn't actually move for the entire day and Carl and Michelle are feeling equally rough. In fact, I think the only other person up is Rob. Adam pops by to say his goodbyes as he is leaving in the afternoon, no one cares. Anyway, a few hours later, me, Kev and Stu head into the arena, there are no bands on that we want to see but Stu wants something to eat, so we wander around all the stalls until he finally finds something to eat, we head to the bar, cider for me and Kev and water for Stu. On the Mainstage is Paramore who still suck though they're easy enough to ignore. We're hanging around the Mainstage when The Dead 60's come on and they aren't bad, we catch half of their set before heading for the Carling Tent to catch Kids In Glass Houses. I caught the last 2 songs of their set at Download and they really impressed me, here they sound bored. Actually, the singer sounds bored and the band sound as if they can't be arsed, despite their claims that they are having to best time ever, you find it hard to believe when their last and biggest song "Me Me Me" is played with zero passion. It is then that we discovered the bar behind the Carling stage, a fantastic idea but they don't serve cider so Kev is forced to drink the wine that they sell. It is foul, but it is strong and Kev gets nicely pissed on that. There is no one that I want to see until Angels and Airwaves so I let Kev talk me into stopping to see Mute Math and I'm glad he did. Not the heaviest band in the world, they are certainly one of the most interesting, putting on one hell of a show, everything that could be used as a drum became a drum and the singer/keyboardist/percussionist doing flips over his keyboard so he could get to the drumkit. Though the star of the show was the drummer, quite clearly the worlds most pissed off musician. When his kit starts to fall apart at the start of the set, the look in his eyes is scarey, a stick breaks and is hurled across the stage, its great entertainment and you don't mind so much that you can't really hear the singer. We head to the bar and after his last recommendation was so good, I stick around to check out Director. Who are shit, I sit through one and half songs before the shit music overwhelms my desire to sit on the floor and I leave. I head for the Mainstage to catch Angels and Airwaves, who I quite like on CD. While waiting for them, I bump into Kev and Stu who lasted about a song longer than me and decided to check out Angels and Airwaves too. I really wish I hadn't bothered, the band cannot live, Tom sings every line as if it is the greatest thing ever writen which is annoying. But the crunch comes when he decides to talk to the crowd after 3 songs and he comes across as total arsehole. "These earpieces that we all have in are playing motivational tapes as we play" he says, it might of been funny if he hadn't said it so seriously. Anyway, we decide to leave and head back to the Carling tent to watch Cobra Starship. To be fair, Cobra Starship have 3 good songs, 1 which they play at the begining of their set, the other 2 at the end, but there is a sense of fun about them that goes down well on a drunken Sunday afternoon. Carl, Michelle and Mat walk in during the last song and we all head to the bar while Kev and Stu go to watch Panic At The Disco! Carl wants to watch Dinosaur Jr, so we all head to the NME tent. Dinosaur Jr are possibly the best band of the day, J Mascis looks like they just wheeled him out of some old folks home, but the music, which I have never heard before was fantastic. After that, we headed back to the campsite, Carl was not feeling well due to too much of everything and crashed pretty much as soon as he got in his tent. It was slightly worrying to note that the burger vans that had been merely a few feet away from our tents had upped and left, with the riots at Leeds festival being quite legendary, we began to fear the worst. We hung around the campsite for a long while, before heading into arena again to see if the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were going to be any good. But before we even get there, Mat suggests a Burrow Hill cider with brandy(suicider) is a good idea. I agree and we make our way into the arena, in search of a kebab because I hadn't been able to find one all weekend and wanted one really badly. In the end I had to settle for some mexican wrap, by which time, the Chilli Peppers had begun. I instigated the 4 song rule, which to be fair, didn't last as after the third song, I'd had enough and we walked away. We stopped for another suicider on the way back to the camp where we sat and listened to the Chilli Peppers, they didn't seem to get any better. Then the suicider takes effect, I feel like I've been dosed with a handful of sleeping pills and rather lamely go to bed. No insane tales of last night crazyness. I just went to sleep and missed out on what sounded like a good night. One of our neighbours got punched out and Stu who was terrified of the gas explosions before I went to bed turned around and said that it was one of the best nights of his life. I wake up at 4.30am to go to the bog, everyone is asleep and its a bit depressing. I try to get back to sleep, but its a bit like going to bed in a nightclub.
Monday moring comes around, everyone is talking about the last nights events and I feel incredibly lame for going to sleep so early. We pack up all our stuff and head home, well we would if we hadn't of got stuck in 5 hour long traffic jams to get out of the festival carparks. Oh well. Hopefully next year will bring better bands, shorter carpark queues and me staying awake on the last night.
Though to be honest, after an excellent Download, I wasn't expecting much out of this year, the lineup for the most part was a load of crap and it was hard to get that excited about any of the headliners. But in the end there was enough to see and do to make it worth my while.
Thursday:
The journey down begins at the stupidly early 3am with Mark driving me and Mathew down to Boston to meet Kev, Rob and festival newbie Stu before heading off to Leeds. The journey passes mostly without incident, probably because I'm not driving. Kev manages to get us slightly lost, but we manage to find our way to Bramham park without any problems, Kev and co arriving about 10 minutes before us due to him knowing a shortcut and not letting any of us know about it. The first thing that you notice about Bramham Park is how nice the whole area looks, I've a feeling it won't look quite so nice after a few days, but for the moment it looks great. Anyway, we unload the cars and make our way into the campsite, the security...sorry, the Customer Protection Officers(I think they were called) are friendly enough, but they are ultimately useless as they are simply checking peoples tickets and not bothering to search anyone. This is never more obvious when later that day I went to visit a friend and it turns out that he managed to smuggle in a huge amount of weed and pills. Anyway, joining up with us at the festival is Carl and his girlfriend, Michelle and Adam and his girlfriend Hannah who are camped somewhere else. And so, we find a spot big enough to camp, pitch our tents, get the booze from cars and start the days drinking. Rob manages to upset Michelle within an hour of being their by being completely tactless and Kev manages to scare off our female neighbours who keep borrowing Stu's mallet with the line "Any time you want a hammering..." They don't talk to us again, this is already shaping up to be a good weekend. As the morning goes by, a lot of beer gets drank, except by Stu who is t total and must have the patience of a saint for putting up with us all, Family Guy gets drunkenly quoted far too much and Adam pops by to say hi before going to bed. At about 12pm we all decide to go and get our wristbands and after that, me, Carl and Michelle decide to go and visit our friend Scott who is the one that brought in all the drugs. We don't stop too long and head back to the camp, the mornings drinking has taken its toll on me at least and I hit the hay for a couple of hours. I wake up with a pounding headache, which quickly disappears with the aid of a couple of paracetamol and the shock of the fact that its just under £5 for a chicken burger. And so the drinking and the talking of drunken gibberish begins again for a few hours before a me, Carl, Michelle and Mat decide to take a walk up to the arena to check out the late night entertainment. We swing by Scotts camp to see if he fancies coming to the arena, he doesn't, in fact he doesn't leave the tent all weekend. Anyway, Carl and Michelle stay with Scott and I wander off to the arena with the intention on checking out some of the bands on the Topman Stage, but it seems that everyone has had the same idea, the stage is packed(for the first and last time all weekend) I can hardly hear anything from the stage's puny speakers and what I can hear is drowned out by the disco cheese coming from fairground rides behind me. I give up and go and see what the Alterntive Stage has to offer. I end up watching Diary of an Opium Eater. Now, I like my pretentious rock music, but this is just dull, the band seem to be playing the same intrumental track over and over again, after a couple of tracks, I've had enough and head back to to campsite and spend a good hour or so walking around completely lost and trying to find my campsite, something I haven't done since Download 03. Eventually I get back to find that everyone but Rob is asleep, Mathew seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet, so I try phoning him only to get through to some bloke who has found his mobile, but intends to return it. So I set off to try and find this bloke, but its dark, I'm drunk and there are far too many people about, so we agree to meet up the next day. With that, I head back to camp, drink some more and chat with Rob before finally calling it a night and crashing out myself.
Friday:
I'm the first one up and to be honest, not feeling too bad considering the amount I drank the day before. Mathew still hasn't come back to his tent, so I decide to give it an hour or so before going to find him. By the time I leave to look for him, everyone is up and Kev decides to join me for something to do. I check in the crash and Medical tents and they know nothing about him. So we head back to the campsite before I remember that one of the doors doesn't lock on Marks car and going to see if he has crashed in the car. I get about halfway there before I bump into him looking completely hungover and lost. Apparently, he ended up being taken to the crash tent by security, where he spent the night and on waking up was given bacon sandwichs and a cup of tea. Anyway, there is the issue of his missing phone and the guy who has it is phoning to arrange a meeting place by the arena entrance, again we fail to meet due to amount of people and the guy agrees to hand the phone into lost property and to his credit, he does. I would have liked to have met the guy, even if it was just to say thanks. Anyway, its a day of bands, perhaps the best day of the whole weekend. So me, Mat, Kev and Stu all decide to head into the arena and head straight for the bar before heading into the NME stage to catch the last few songs by Late of the Pier, whose indie dance rock thing is really really enjoyable, the geek in me really enjoyed the bit where they started chucking in bits of Legend of Zelda tunes. With that, we head to the bar again and then into the Lockup tent for Sonic Boom Six. Sonic Boom Six should have been one of the highlights of the weekend, but the sound in the tent is fucking terrible, you can't actually hear anything but noise unless you are more or less right at the front. The other thing that goes against them is the fact the they are using the festival as a showcase for their worryingly Paramore-ish sounding new material. It ain't great and it drags down the set, not impressed. I would have liked to have stuck around for Municipal Waste, but the awesome I Was A Cub Scout are playing in the Carling Tent, so with a brief stop for more cider, I head their and catch most of their set. Playing before a more appreciative audience than the last time I saw them, they seem to have grown in confidence, "Our Smallest Adventure" is a bit of a dud live, but songs like "I Hate Nightclubs", "The Hunters Daughter" and the closing "Pink Squares" are all amazing. As the last song ends, the singer hands his guitar to a roadie and climbs into the crowd and is totally overwhelmed by the response he gets, he actually looks quite worried as he is mobbed by an absolutely huge crowd. Perhaps the best band of the weekend as far as I'm concerned. As I leave the tent, I notice that Billy Talent are playing on the mainstage, I watch for a couple of songs and to be fair, the singer isn't as annoying as the last time I saw them and they do appear to be putting on a decent show, but compared to I Was A Cub Scout, they just seem so totally ordinary and I wander off in search of other amusement. I end up in the Lockup tent where the sound hasn't improved at all and Ignite are playing, they suck and I take a stroll to the bar and catch a bit of New Young Pony Club from outside the NME tent. They suck too. So I decide to go and take in a couple of comedians for a couple of hours before Hugh Lennon comes on. Now I know hypnotism takes a while to set up, but Hugh Lennon really isn't doing anything new once he has people hypnotised and as a result his act is really really dull. I sit through most of his act before leaving 20 minutes before the end to catch Lights Action! on the Topman stage. Lights Action! are also really dull, there a million emo bands out there doing exactly the same thing as they are. But it gives me a chance to bump into Mark and Rob who I haven't seen since leaving the campsite in the morning. We head for the bar before going to watch the Lostprophets, well I saw watch, I quite drunk at the point and couldn't actually be arsed to get up so sat on the floor singing along. There is nothing big, clever or original about what the Lostprophets do, but they have enough good songs to do a really enjoyable set. After that, we headed to the Lockup tent, only to find that The Gallows were on, so we beat a hasty retreat so that we could get some food and cider. We returned however to watch most of Turbonegro, who are putting on an awesome show, the sound is almost perfect so we can sit and watch them from the back of the tent, after missing them at Download, it was good to have seen them. With that, we decide to check out the Smashing Punkins, instigating a 4 song rule, that if they hadn't impressed us after 4 songs, we would leave. About 3 songs in, the play "Zero", which is great but everything else is shit so we go back to the camp and drink. Eventually everyone comes back to the camp, Carl and Mat have the same opinion, both Nine Inch Nails and Smashing Pumkins were crap, the fire officer comes over and tells us to keep the fire under knee height, which would be fine if the wood that they sell didn't burn as if it had been soaked in petrol and the night ends in a drunken haze.
Saturday:
I feel rough, there can only be one reason for it, the booze and to be honest I don't feel like drinking at all. Add to that the fact that its the worst day for bands, I've a feeling it could be a long day. Plus I am a bit short on cash, so I decide to go and get my bank card from Marks car, only to discover that he went into the nearest town to buy tobacco on Friday and has moved it. So I wait for him to wake up and and show me where the car is, it turns out that it is now parked in the furthest carpark away from where we are camped. So me and Mark set out for his car, with me complaining all the way, though my complaints were nothing compared to Monday. Anyway, I got my bank card and got back to the camp, before heading out to queue to use the cash machines with Mathew, who the night before dropped his wallet, someone handed it back to him, minus the money. On the way to the cash machine, we discovered that there was actually a Burrow Hill cider stall at the bottom of the hill of our campsite, so with cider in hand we went and queued. Now I know from experience that waiting in line for a cash machine at a festival is a painful experience and one that I try to avoid like the plague. This year was no exception and to make matters worse, every single other line seems to be moving faster than the one we're in. Anyway, an hour later and a few quid better off, we make our way into the arena, though I don't know why, there was nothing that either of us wanted to see and I still didn't feel like drinking. The first band we saw, were The Grit on the Lockup stage, not helped by the shit sound which was surprising considering how good it had been for Turbonegro. But even with the shit sound, they were fairly dull so we left and I got a pizza that would struggle to call itself food outside of a festival and we hang around the main stage while I struggle to force the pizza down. During this time, Little Man Tate arrive on stage and suck badly. We grab a cider and acting on a tip off from a newspaper, we go and check out a band called Hooks for Hands, who may or may not be the Kaiser Chiefs under an assumed name. To be fair, it was a pretty poorly kept secret as around the Carling Stage there is a crowd safty barrier to prevent the tent from overcrowding. We get there early and catch the end of Turbofruits who are shit beyond compare, simply repeating "volcano volcano volcano" does not make a good song. And then, the "secret" is out, the slight breeze is lifting up the curtain at the back of the stage and you can clearly see the Kaiser Chiefs drumkit backstage, it is roughly about this time that I bump into Kev and Stu. Kev says that this was the highlight of his weekend, but after 2 songs, I'm bored stupid, how the Kaiser Chiefs are one of Britains top bands I will never know because they are fucking shit. The song "Everything is Average These Days" ironically sums them up nicely, me and Mat leave, well try to as we can't get past the barriers for loads of disappointed people pressed against them. We evetually get out, when the security run off to stop people climbing over the toilets and running into the tent. The only reason I went is to say that I saw them, its amazing what you will do when there is nothing good on any of the stages. Anyway, with nothing to watch for a good 3 hours or so, we spend most of the afternoon in the Alternative tent watching increasingly dull comedians with Mathew trying his hardest to get me to drink something bless him. Though, around about 3 o'clock, a miracle happens, I stop feeling so ill and actually manage to drink without wanting to throw up. And so, after a few more comedians, we go and check out Big D and The Kids Table. Not the most original band on the planet but very very good at their Rancid inspired punk, personal highlight being the fantastic "Hell on Earth". Then its to the bar and back to see Capdown, who aren't great, it may have been the sound at the back, but they weren't fantastic and on that performance it is hard to mourn them calling it a day. I leave about ten minutes from the end for more cider, I may have been sober for most of the day but I now totally intend to make up for it. I head into the NME tent to watch Enter Shikari, it seems a bit hypocritical for them to be playing this stage as at Download they had a big rant about how much NME sucked. Anyway, they walk on to the Antiques Roadshow theme tune and come out in an combative mood, eclipsing their Download performance, they actually play like they want to be there. Yes, the set is still patchy but they play all the shit songs first, leaving the second half of the set full of the good stuff, I was surprised that they left of "Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour", I guess they must be sick of playing it. I meet up with Mathew and we start back for the campsite before bumping into Rob and Mark again, who have actaully made the effort to come into the arena for the first time that day, having been playing drinking games with Carl and Michelle for most of the day and are both completely pissed. We spend ages chatting before me and Mat decide to get some food from the Jack Daniels bar. There is a massive wait for the food for some reason, though I didn't mind so much as it meant that I could watch Middleman on the Topman stage who are fantastic with an amazing amount of energy that drew your attention to them, even while waiting in line for a cold burger. No one else agreed with me though. And with that, there was no one else that we wanted to see, we caught a bit of The Living End on the Lockup stage, but after a few songs, decided they were dull. We decided we couldn't be arsed to hang around to wait for Jimmy Eat World so we headed back to the campsite and drank while Mat went and watched Ash. There is only really one problem, the main reason we left the arena was so that we could avoid catching any of Razorlight, but for some reason tonight the wind is blowing from their direction and we can can hear every terrible song. However thought they were big enough or good enough to headline needs to be shot. Anyway, 12o'clock comes around and I'm ready for bed and attempt to go to sleep before Carl comes to the rescue with a pill and I'm awake for the rest of the night. Surprisingly so is everyone else, Rob is slaughtered and is staggering around calling himself Uber Rob, Kev is kicking the fire and it seems that everywhere I go, the smoke follows me, its all a bit surreal. Eventually everyone goes to bed apart from me, Mark and Mat who sit around the fire, trying to keep warm, before I decide that at 5.30am its time for bed.
Sunday:
I get about an hour and a half sleep, but I wake up feeling fine, Mathew is still awake and decides to go for a stroll around to find random people who he can annoy in the early hours of the morning. Mark has gone to bed and doesn't actually move for the entire day and Carl and Michelle are feeling equally rough. In fact, I think the only other person up is Rob. Adam pops by to say his goodbyes as he is leaving in the afternoon, no one cares. Anyway, a few hours later, me, Kev and Stu head into the arena, there are no bands on that we want to see but Stu wants something to eat, so we wander around all the stalls until he finally finds something to eat, we head to the bar, cider for me and Kev and water for Stu. On the Mainstage is Paramore who still suck though they're easy enough to ignore. We're hanging around the Mainstage when The Dead 60's come on and they aren't bad, we catch half of their set before heading for the Carling Tent to catch Kids In Glass Houses. I caught the last 2 songs of their set at Download and they really impressed me, here they sound bored. Actually, the singer sounds bored and the band sound as if they can't be arsed, despite their claims that they are having to best time ever, you find it hard to believe when their last and biggest song "Me Me Me" is played with zero passion. It is then that we discovered the bar behind the Carling stage, a fantastic idea but they don't serve cider so Kev is forced to drink the wine that they sell. It is foul, but it is strong and Kev gets nicely pissed on that. There is no one that I want to see until Angels and Airwaves so I let Kev talk me into stopping to see Mute Math and I'm glad he did. Not the heaviest band in the world, they are certainly one of the most interesting, putting on one hell of a show, everything that could be used as a drum became a drum and the singer/keyboardist/percussionist doing flips over his keyboard so he could get to the drumkit. Though the star of the show was the drummer, quite clearly the worlds most pissed off musician. When his kit starts to fall apart at the start of the set, the look in his eyes is scarey, a stick breaks and is hurled across the stage, its great entertainment and you don't mind so much that you can't really hear the singer. We head to the bar and after his last recommendation was so good, I stick around to check out Director. Who are shit, I sit through one and half songs before the shit music overwhelms my desire to sit on the floor and I leave. I head for the Mainstage to catch Angels and Airwaves, who I quite like on CD. While waiting for them, I bump into Kev and Stu who lasted about a song longer than me and decided to check out Angels and Airwaves too. I really wish I hadn't bothered, the band cannot live, Tom sings every line as if it is the greatest thing ever writen which is annoying. But the crunch comes when he decides to talk to the crowd after 3 songs and he comes across as total arsehole. "These earpieces that we all have in are playing motivational tapes as we play" he says, it might of been funny if he hadn't said it so seriously. Anyway, we decide to leave and head back to the Carling tent to watch Cobra Starship. To be fair, Cobra Starship have 3 good songs, 1 which they play at the begining of their set, the other 2 at the end, but there is a sense of fun about them that goes down well on a drunken Sunday afternoon. Carl, Michelle and Mat walk in during the last song and we all head to the bar while Kev and Stu go to watch Panic At The Disco! Carl wants to watch Dinosaur Jr, so we all head to the NME tent. Dinosaur Jr are possibly the best band of the day, J Mascis looks like they just wheeled him out of some old folks home, but the music, which I have never heard before was fantastic. After that, we headed back to the campsite, Carl was not feeling well due to too much of everything and crashed pretty much as soon as he got in his tent. It was slightly worrying to note that the burger vans that had been merely a few feet away from our tents had upped and left, with the riots at Leeds festival being quite legendary, we began to fear the worst. We hung around the campsite for a long while, before heading into arena again to see if the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were going to be any good. But before we even get there, Mat suggests a Burrow Hill cider with brandy(suicider) is a good idea. I agree and we make our way into the arena, in search of a kebab because I hadn't been able to find one all weekend and wanted one really badly. In the end I had to settle for some mexican wrap, by which time, the Chilli Peppers had begun. I instigated the 4 song rule, which to be fair, didn't last as after the third song, I'd had enough and we walked away. We stopped for another suicider on the way back to the camp where we sat and listened to the Chilli Peppers, they didn't seem to get any better. Then the suicider takes effect, I feel like I've been dosed with a handful of sleeping pills and rather lamely go to bed. No insane tales of last night crazyness. I just went to sleep and missed out on what sounded like a good night. One of our neighbours got punched out and Stu who was terrified of the gas explosions before I went to bed turned around and said that it was one of the best nights of his life. I wake up at 4.30am to go to the bog, everyone is asleep and its a bit depressing. I try to get back to sleep, but its a bit like going to bed in a nightclub.
Monday moring comes around, everyone is talking about the last nights events and I feel incredibly lame for going to sleep so early. We pack up all our stuff and head home, well we would if we hadn't of got stuck in 5 hour long traffic jams to get out of the festival carparks. Oh well. Hopefully next year will bring better bands, shorter carpark queues and me staying awake on the last night.