(no subject)
thursday
so, thursday afternoon i headed off to donnington. got in via the media entrance and met up with ross, one of the VF crew. we went to our camping area which was actually meant for security and performers (cue loads of midgets running about at random) and set up my tent. i ended up sharing with a photographer called katie (she photographed system if you check the website) who was cool. she does loads of photography in portsmouth and photographed the coral last week or something. anyway we all chilled out for a bit then went and watched the VF people play football in the campsite. quickly tired of that, so me, katie and lucy (another writer) grabbed some food and watched a couple fighting (was proper full on fist fight as well) before heading back to the tents. we ended up sitting in a random tourbus that another writer had brought down for the weekend drinking snakebites and got to bed at about 2am.
friday
up bright and early for the team meeting at 10am which lasted about 2 minutes. decided to go and wait at the snickers stage for flogging molly who were the first band i had to review. the place was empty because the arena wasn't open til some stupid time like half 12. so i was right at the front for a long time, but it was definitely worth the wait cos they were fucking awesome. considering they were pretty much opening the weekend, they were really well received by the crowd and i wrote my favourite review of the weekend for them. next it was fozzy who were shit, really crap and only there because of chris jericho. lordi were equally bollocks and got another scathing review. underOATH were alright but i was severely put off by the who 'we're here in the name of the lord jesus christ' shit. my review of them was quite crap cos i was in 2 minds about them so it was edited quite heavily by the VF team, but it needed to be cos i wasn't really that bothered and it showed. then i was free to do my own thing, but by that time i'd missed colour of fire (their last ever gig too, pretty gutting), biffy and tokyo dragons so i just hung around the snickers stage and caught the bled (damn cool, was impressed), inme (crap new stuff, really poor performance), my chemical romance (worked the crowd up a treat) and the used (awesome). had nothing to do so nipped back to the tent for food before grabbing the end of feeder's (really really dull) set. poor feeder; i did feel for them as hardly any people watched them. after that i went and got some beer and chatted to some of the other VF people til about 1am. ross said my reviews were excellent :D
saturday
another early and pointless team meeting. i wasn't starting my reviews til half 2 so i wandered around with lucy, hollie and a baked potato. watched city on fire and quit your day job (boring, boring) then the dwarves (ace!). got the end of panic cell's set (alright i guess) before reviewing the answer (darkness rip offs), the*ga*ga*s (not bad), johnny truant (pretty damn good, nice and heavy) and towers of london (shite). wanted to see reuben at the snickers bowl but as it was running late only got half an hour of random skateboarders before i had to go and write up my reviews. it was late by then so i went and saw chimaira (absolutely amazing) and got the end of velvet revolver's fairly dull set (even though slash was looking pretty good). then wormed my way to the front for sabbath. bless ozzy, he's so old and fragile. tried his best but didn't quite pull off an explosive performance. still, was pretty awesome seeing a proper legendary band. everyone else was knackered that night so we all went to bed dead early.
sunday
pretty busy day. started off fairly quietly with the mascara story (yawn), send more paramedics (pretty cool), no hope in new jersey (boring music, hot guys) and engerica (thumbs up) before i reviewed the saints (old, generic), still remains (ok), 3 inches of blood (nice and heavy) and the glitterati (eh). then it was a case of literally running across the site to get my reviews in before mastodon at the snickers stage. now THERE'S an awesome live band. i was right in the middle of an ace pit and got properly battered. ace fun. then i ran back to napster for 80s matchbox who i only got 15 (ace) minutes of before heading all the way over the snickers stage for funeral for a friend, the not-so-secret band (they printed them on the timetable things people had round their necks, dumbasses). ffaf were alright, only 4 news songs played though which was odd seeing as their new album's out today. then it was back to the napster stage for deftones' chino's side project team sleep who were actually pretty good. at that point i knew i had an hour before system so i went over to try and get near the front at the main stage. i didn't realise but it was running about half an hour late so i got the majority of slipknot's set too. i really don't like slipknot but i have to admit they put on a pretty cool show despite them being shit. there was a stupidly long wait for system but the crowd were kept entertained by some slutty girls flashing on the big screens. when system actually came on it wasn't anywhere near as electric as i thought it would be. i was right at the front but no-one around me was getting into it at all. despite this they were immense and played almost all of toxicity which made my weekend. really awesome. it was kinda ruined by them just upping leaving after 'sugar' with no kind of finale at all. no encore, no fireworks, no big scene, just them walking offstage. ah well. after they were done the whole VF crew went over to the backstage party where there were various band celebrities wandering about. stood and chatted to guy from 80s matchbox for ages which was pretty cool, he's a nice guy. back to the tent where i just crashed and slept for an age.
monday
somehow me and ruth got on the first derby bus that arrived even though there was a 3 hour queue waiting for them. haha. was back here for 11am.
celebrity sightings
- underOATH signing allsorts for people and having an earnest discussion with someone in a 666 t-shirt
- lead singer from the others yelling and running about backstage
- feeder soundchecking on thursday afternoon in front of about 10 people
- queens of noize in the press area having serious spack attacks over various bands
- slash being interviewed (only saw from a distance though)
- ville from HIM being mobbed by some 15 year old girls (he runs funny)
- accidentally walking into half of chimaira in the dark
- reuben drinking by the gates into our tent area
- nick from qotsa/the dwarves doing coke backstage (haha)
- lead singer of towers of london chatting up hollie
- chatting to guy from 80s matchbox
everything else
- was FUCKING FREEZING the whole time, yet i got sunburnt. i'm actually bright red.
- was hardly allowed backstage at all yet still blagged entry into loads of places normal people aren't allowed
- security people on the snickers stage being really funny guys
- having nice toilets!
- VF crew were all ace people; one of them lives in manchester so will probably meet up with her again in september
- my reviews getting all round approval from the team
- saw some people from ecclesbourne (katie and gabrielle)
- finding out to my astonishment that 4000 people applied for what i did, with 12 being picked in total (was dead chuffed about that)
- got chatted up by some randoms, including a hot 19 year old (well, he was hot until i found out he didn't know who the clash were) and a really cute girl
- being hungry for most of the weekend
- FUCKING LOW PLANES FLYING OVERHEAD AT ALL HOURS
- befriending various stall people and getting free doughnuts
- wandering about in the press area felt really fucking cool
- there were SO many hot people there
- growing to love moshpits with a passion. have a thousand bruises but love them all
in conclusion: FANTASTIC weekend. feel really proud to have being praised so much on my first real attempt at professional journalism. my reviews aren't all up yet so i'll have to wait and see if they've edited the sunday ones much. the saturday ones are identical to my own, and friday's pretty much the same. i'll be in touch with ruth again for certain as she's said i'd be able to write for her website. basically it's an excellent start to what i hope will end up as a career. i'm so pleased it all went so well. was a pleasure seeing loads of bands i ordinarily wouldn't get a chance to see as well.
i'm in a totally metal mood too. raaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh.
[EDIT] i have some photos which will go up soon. not just yet though.