Black Shuck! Black Shuck!
RAAAAAHR! Hooooly black shuck :D I tried to de-festivalise as much as I could but not with much success - I still have black nail varnish, purple tinted hair and a Leeds Weekend 2003 wristband on! I keep meaning to cut it off and keep it but then not XD;
So I went to Leeds: I had four hours sleep, got up 5.30am, got home 4am, and then got another 6 hours sleep. I didn’t eat for 37 hours and drank only water [in limited amounts, although I got water thrown over/at me in liberal amounts.] I got trampled on and returned battered, bruised and exhausted.
It was amazing. I’d do it again without a second thought. And will do it again: 2004, this time for the full weekend. Next year I’ll be nuts enough to camp and possibly return with food poisoning or tetanus or something like that :D [Josette informed me that the toilets are disgusting. How lovely :D I refused to use them but I guess if I’m staying the full weekend next year, I have no choice --;] And this time I’m taking my Aeresu with me! Yes! Even if I have to kidnap her and smuggle her in >D Huahahahaha.
So I wrote a lovely detailed entry on the day. Beware, it's really, really long. o_o;
Travelling
I got up at 5.30am; I knew that it’d take me a while to get ready and I wanted to speak to Rinoa-aki-chama before I left. Kumiko-chama was online also, so I rambled whilst applying black zombie eye make-up. Wahey.
I ended up wearing my squall-pants [I.E. a pair of bootcut trousers that resemble the ones that Squall Leonheart wears. A lot.], a black studded sleeveless top, my SoCo hoodie [in case it cold, which after 7.30pm it did.] and my Mr. Tell bracelet too [It was something to do with SoCo fan pride… er… y’know, just in case they missed the huge ass logo on the hoodie :X]
I did my traditional Raye-thing - I nearly walked out without my ticket. Good stuff.
Bastard 471 didn’t turn up until 7.45 >/ So I was late meeting Rach >/
Caught the Metro, v. hyped.
Changed for the Piccadilly Metro but ended up getting on a Altrincham Metro by accident XD; So we changed a third time at St. Peter’s Square.
Got the train at 9.13am. It only cost £12-ish, not bad really.
The train took about 1 ½ hours, in which time we spent rambling and gossiping about various things, way over-excited. [Can one really be over-excited about a thing like Leeds? XD XD]
Got a call from Rach’s brother, Christian; apparently the stage collapsed on Friday when SOAD played. Whoops. Didn’t really daunt us. She agreed to one-bell him when the best performances came on and hold up her mobile so that he could hear. XDD Awwwww.
Got lost [just a biiiiiiit!] in Leeds looking for Sovereign Street. Oops. Oh well, next year we’ll know where we’re going and everybody’ll be all like “They know exactly where they’re going! ::admire::” XDDD
Got on the shuttle to Bramham Park, when we finally found the stop. Cost us a scandalous fiver ONE WAY. >_>;
Finally got there. Went to pick up Rach’s ticket, hoping that I had everything I needed to prove that I really paid for it. x____o Thankfully, all I needed was my Visa Electron card and a print of the confirmation. Which I had both of. I’m so proud of myself T^T
The first gate was named “Rachel’s Gate”, which we found really amusing since there was BOTH me and Rachael XD; I mean, they spelled it wrong but still :O It was the only gate with a name. And it was OUR name. It had to be fate :O We took a photos, but not one of those stupid ones with one of you pointing at the said sign X3
The last hurdle/ mistake was when we got inside. Amazingly enough, when the main entrance opened, we got right near the front and were almost one of the first in. ALMOST. Apart from the fact that we were the ones who forgot to get our tickets exchanged for wristbands. Whoops. Talk about egg on yer face.
So we went alllllll the way to the wristband exchange. Had a conversation with the guy who put my wristband on for me - he was from Bolton too :D :D Yay for Boltonians! We had a bit of a wait going in after that, since we had to go allll the way back, but it wasn’t really that bad.
And then after a quick bag check for cans/ knives/ booze etc., we were in!
The Acts
We missed most of Violent Delight due to the whole wristband saga, but we got there in time to see their last song - which was ‘I Wish I Was a Girl’. I’m glad I saw that one XD; I only wish I could have seen ‘All You Ever Do’ ;-; But yes, we saw them and although we didn’t get right near the front, we got pretty close. I saw Rodney! <3333 And DJ Ken XDDD [Which, as we all know, does not stand for Deejay XP]. They were so good, for what I saw *-* I got to chant “Motherrrrr! Whywasn’tIagirl, whywasn’tIagirl, whywasn’tIagirl, whywasn’tIagirl, whywasn’tIagirl?” XDDDD And! We got VD stickers because they were handing them out free <3333
Bowling for Soup were the first real performance we saw, and they were over on the Main Stage. They played ‘Punk Rock 101’, ‘The Girl all the Bad Guys Want’ [a great performance], ‘Emily’ and bunch of new/ random songs/ songs I haven’t heard before. They were actually really good, one of my favourite performances of the day. Fat Mike said “Okay, who loves fat people here?” XD XD The main guy was really funny and had a really cool Union Jack guitar! [And good hair.] He was just quipping all the way through the performance. The main things I remember are that they had minds like gutters [similar to Blink, actually], him telling us that we were a much a better crowd than Reading [>D >D muaha, Reading’ll have been full of stupid toffs] and him telling us to play a trick on the rest of the bands. “Everytime a band tells you to make some noise”, he said “I want you guys to do this! ::blows a raspberry:: Now you try it!” So he made us all do it, and then went: “MAN! That sounded like the world’s biggest fart! We just made a world record, guys!” XDDD; And then later, when the performance ended - “Come see us in October, guys! YOU GET HUGS!”
Other guitarist: Yeah, we give every fan a hug :D :D
Bless them XD;;; I think Rach is going seeing them with Steph. It was a really fun perforamance [in that they were amusing and the songs were good], so mayhap I will go and see them. And get my hug. XD
We stuck around the Main Stage for the Finch performance, even moved forward a little bit [Which was a blessing as the guy in front of us during the BFS performance smelled really bad --; Like sweaty feet --;] because the next performance was to be Finch. Nate of Finch has had some sort of huge image overhaul; he’s chopped off his long hair, and has gone for short, spiky black with brownish highlights. And he didn’t look sweaty. XD; In fact, he looked pretty good. Really good, actually. ._.; My thoughts were along the lines of “If Aeresu saw this, she would be eating her words about Nate” XDDD; [Which were, I believe, along the lines of “He’s a great singer in a great band but that’s ALL”. Whoo. Not anymore :D] Finch has a guitarist that looks like a taller, slightly better looking version of what Nate used to look like. <-- o_O
Finch, to my disappointment, were admittedly the worst performance I saw of the day. They got off to a good start - a really good performance of ‘What it is to Burn’, my favourite song by them. I remember everybody singing ‘Like a bad star…’ *-*. Things went downhill after that, though. Firstly a load of guys who were obviously pissed/ high/ both got really out of hand and I got really badly mashed/crushed/groped/head-butted >__> It was awful, so me and Rach moved a bit farther back. To be honest, I could have dismissed that as things were just as bad during the AAF performance [see below], if not worse [Which is worse, suffocation/strangulation or being headbutted?]. But the songs weren’t that great, either. They just performed a bunch of really random and new songs after that. I was very disappointed that they didn’t play ‘Letters to You’… but they didn’t play ‘Perfection through Silence’, or ‘New Beginnings’, or ‘Three Simple Words’, or ‘Ender’, or anything like that. In fact, I don’t think they played anything else off the What It Is to Burn album. In truth, the actual performances were good - it’s just the songs that weren’t. So I was disappointed in Finch, but judging by the actual performances and ‘What it is to Burn’, I think they’d probably be very good on their own, on their own tour or something. I’d go and see them again. [But not a third time if they disappoint me again.]
OK Go were wonderful. I was really looking forward to seeing them since I’ve liked them for quite a while [Read: Raye The Hippy loves Ok Go, Phantom Planet and The Darkness. Oh, and Damien is pretty. And owns a guitar]. They sang lots of songs, including a new one about trains that “Mark wrote when he was high on magic mushrooms” XDDD. They also played ‘There’s a Fire’, ‘Bye Bye Baby’, ‘The Fix is In’ [one of my favourites - In the first line of the song, “When we got to Boston…”, Damien changed the words to “When we got to Leeds” :D :D] and ‘Don’t ask me’ [another favourite, and it was really amusing to hear Damien yell “Don’t fucking ask me!” at the top of his voice.] They also played ‘Get Over It’ which I love, and that was a really great performance - in the middle before he chants “Get a job Get a life”, he stopped to talk to the crowd. And he shouted “It’s getting so hot in here! When I shout ‘It’s getting hot in here’, I want you guys to shout ‘So take off all your clothes’, okay?” So we did, and we were pretty loud. “Wow,” he said. “You guys were much better than Reading! We did The Darkness there, nobody knew the lyric. What was that? Jay-Z? Was that Jay-Z?” …And then somebody told the poor bloke that it was Nelly. XD “Nelly. Okay, we’re gonna do the Nelly thing from now on.” Then they did something they called “Jazz reggae”, which was rather amusing. The climax, though - and it was a climax - was when they did ‘C-C-Cinnamon Lips.’ Damien told us that it was something Mark wrote when he was heartbroken over a girl and that we should all feel sorry for him since he was a drug addict XDDD. And then he said that they were going to do something very embarrassing for a rock band and that we all should support them: And to C-C-Cinnamon lips, they did a really amusing boy band dance. It was hilarious - they were even laughing themselves by the end. I can’t put in words how funny it was to see them doing this choreographed dance. So I took a lot of photos, and I will post them as soon as they are developed. [I’d hoped, though not expected, that they would play “Return”, which they didn’t, but it was still wonderful. I’d have travelled to Leeds just for that one act.]
Alien Ant Farm were up next. The main guy had changed his hair - it was longer [i.e regular short length] than I’ve ever seen it and the middle was gelled into some sort of semi-mohawk. It looked good, despite the poor description. We got too close to the front and paid for it - I nearly got strangled when everybody started crushing each other --; We moved a bit further back but after awhile got a bit squished - only more comfortably so- there too. [::roffles:: I told Rach that she looked like she was humping the guy in front of her, and now deserved her title as Queen of Whores]. They played ‘Movies’ - my favourite song by them - and ‘Smooth Criminal’, which [despite the fact I never liked that one all that much] was a really great performance and got everybody moving. They also played a bunch of new stuff which I can’t remember the names of, apart from “Sarah” since it was imouto’s birthday and that’s her name. They were all rather good though. I had hoped they’d play “These Days” because I really like that song and it was recent for them over here but they didn’t T-T They were really good though, really nice with the crowd too. If I liked Alien Ant Farm before, I now love them. Or at least like them a whole lot more.
Saw Staind, who to be totally honest, I was not really very impressed with. Their music was a bit… same-y, and I wasn’t familiar with anything by them. After a while I was thinking “just shut up! o_o;”. And they weren’t very good with the crowd. I don’t think I remember them saying a word, not a word at all. They walked on, performed, and then walked back off. But Rach liked them. And a couple of things by them weren’t bad, so yeah.
Next up was The Darkness *-* Knowing that the remaining acts we planned to watch were Electric Six, Placebo, Blink 182 and Linkin Park… I must admit that at this point, The Darkness was the band I was most looking forward to seeing. I was really excited.
And The Darkness did not disappoint.
A woman from BBC Radio One was there to introduce them - the only act to be introduced - and called them “England’s fastest rising stars”, or something of the like. I got a photo of the stage backdrop they had. Everybody was just screaming at her to get off stage so The Darkness could come on though XD; When they finally came out, everybody was screaming. Justin was dressed in his trademark ridiculous 70s/80s style rockstar outfit. This time it was a pair of tight black and white striped flares XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD ::rolls over:: Rahr, and he had this tattoo along his waistband line of flames. XDDD He later pulled off the pants - he had [wait for it XD] tight white leather flares, that laced up all the way up both the outer and inner of both legs XDDDD Rock on Justin! They started off with Black Shuck, which I knew Rach had heard but I hadn’t. Soon enough everybody was chanting - and I mean chanting, and loudly - “BLACK SHUCK! black shuck! BLACK SHUCK! black shuck! That dog don’t give a fuck!”, which was both amusing and a lot of fun. They also played ‘Growing on Me’, ‘Givin’ Up’ [Which goes, “I’ve given up giving a fart” XDDDD], ‘Get your hands off MY woman, motherfucker!’ [For this he asked us if we wanted the dirty or clean version. He made us say “dirty” multiple times in a really dodgy tone of voice. XDD Very funny. And at one point they sang “Get your hands off my woman Martha” I swear, but don’t quote me on that.], ‘Love on the Rocks with No Ice’, a few I hadn’t heard… and ‘I believe in a thing called love’ <3333 [The only thing that I believe… is that The Darkness rock :D XD] He made us do the thumbs-up, famous from the “Everything is a-ok” line of the song. He also made us point. XDDD It was an incredible performance, possibly my second favourite of the day. I’d kill to see them again. When he was thanking us and such, it sounded like he was about to cry. Me and Rach shared this “AWWWW” kind of glance. XDDD Funny stuff. Bless ‘im. But yeah, The Darkness rocked. In a big way. <333 I’m officially a darkling now. Fear. >DDDDD
/edit ::ROFFLES:: I just read Rach’s blurty post on the Leeds festival and was reminded that we decided that Justin, The Darkness lead vocalist, really reminds us of Rik Mayall XDDDDDDDD ::rolls over and dies::
We went off to buy a disposable camera because the battery had gone in Rach’s camera, and whilst we were wandering I saw a group of guys wearing very cool t-shirts: A guy in a red Something Corporate t-shirt, a guy in a blue Finch t-shirt and a guy in a black Drive-thru Bands t-shirt. It was the only SoCo merchandise I saw anywhere… on anybody that day. In anycase, I was going to take a photo of them merely because they had such good taste in music and one had Andrew hair, but then I couldn’t get at an angle where it wouldn’t be blatantly obvious what I was doing. So I chickened out :D Oh well.
By the time we got the camera, we realised that Electric Six would be playing so we hurried back to the Radio One stage. Unfortunately we found that the timetable somebody had lent us earlier [we were too cheap to pay £6 for a programme] was wrong, or that Electric Six came on a bit early. So we missed most of the act =\ We got there in time to hear the end of ‘Gay Bar’ and a song called ‘Radio Ca-ca’ [which was quite catchy] though :D Shame though, since it was the end of the act we couldn’t get close enough to see them properly.
It was about 7.30pm and I was dying of thirst by this time, so we went in search of the water fountain and refilled one of the water bottles. I’ve never been so grateful for such bland, chemical-tasting water in all my life X3 On the way back though, I heard something playing:
Raye: o_O… Is that a Placebo recording, or Placebo live? [Between acts they played random music. It sounded like Kerrang 2003 CD or something.]
Rach: …Let’s go an have a look ._.;
So we did, and sure enough Placebo were on slightly early too. But we only missed the first song or so, so it didn’t matter too much. They played ‘Special K’, ‘The Bitter End’, ‘This Picture’, ‘Where is my Mind?’ and a few others. Although I really liked Special K and Where is my Mind?, I can’t really pick out a favourite song - the overall performance was just really great in general. *^^* Brian has such a feminine and yet not girly voice :D
After Placebo we got a lot closer and sat down for a while. We were in a position where we had a GREAT view of the left screen, and a pretty good side-on view of the stage - going into the moshpit to see Blink and Linkin Park would have been suicidal. We wouldn’t have returned alive --;
Blink-182 were good, wholesome, cuss-a-lot fun. I wouldn’t recommend them if you’re a prude or have a clean mouth XD XD; They were great with the crowd, and really funny. These are the funnier dialogues that I remember:
Mark: Wow, we’re rocking so hard that Travis’ll probably need a new drum kit o_o;
Tom: FUCK THE DRUM KIT! ::sarky voice:: C’mon guys, let’s all give the DUMB drum kit the finger!
[Yes. They made us all give “the drum kit” the finger. XD Funny stuff.]
--
Mark: Next we’re gonna play…hey, somebody isn’t listening.
Tom: ::points to guy in the audience:: HEY YOU LISTEN, FUCKER!
--
Mark: [you guys are great, blah blah ramble]-and we’re having fun!
Tom: Yeah, we’re all having fun… except for me, because I suck ::mock sniffle:::
--
Mark: You guys are gorgeous! You’re just as good as Reading were!
Tom: Fuck that! You guys are MUCH better than Reading! I love you much more! In fact, I love you much more than ::points to Mark::
Mark: >_> Yeah, I love you guys more than him too!
I know they said other funny things, but I can’t remember off the top of my head right now.
The songs they played were: ‘All the Small Things’, ‘The Rock Show’, ‘What’s my Age Again?’, ‘Reckless Abandon’, ‘Stay Together for the Kids’ [ß I was really pleased about this one because I didn’t think they’d play it and I like this song best XD;], and a lot of random and new songs. I was pleasantly surprised by Blink, I must admit. They’re not exactly one of my favourite bands [far from it XD; XD;] but they gave a really good performance, were really funny and were good with the crowd.
The last performance of the night was timed for 9:45pm-11:00pm, and it was Linkin Park. I was quite looking forward to seeing them - I’d heard good things about their live performances, and I like a few of their songs and music videos. I knew that they were unlikely to play 327523075 songs that I’d never heard of and therefore there was less chance of ending up bored.
And they ended up being, Rach and I agreed, the best performance of the day.
They weren’t really funny - not many quips, if any - but they were really lovely guys, so nice. They sounded really genuine, we thought, when we discussed it later. And Chester = <3333 I always love his hair X33 And he can’t half scream/ screech XDDD He kept telling us how “fucking awesome” we were, how much better than Reading we were [you know it >P], and how much they loved the UK and how great it was :D :D They said something like it was their favourite place, or something like that :D That just made the crowd love them even more X333
They played a LOT of songs, and they were allll really good *-* The ones I remember are: ‘One Step Closer’, ‘Papercut’, ‘Numb’, ‘Faint’, ‘Somewhere I Belong’, ‘Pushing Me Away’, ‘With You’, ‘Crawling in my Skin’, ‘In the End’, ‘Forgotten’, ‘Points of Authority’, ‘Runaway’, and ‘A Place For My Head’, but they did play a lot more x__o
The only thing that marred [it didn’t really mar it - it was just a mild annoyance, like an itchy mosquito bite] was these two girls behind us who were just being really loud and annoying and rude, shouting bitchy things at the band [like going “blah blah” really loudly when Mike was talking >O] and at us >_> They were the last act >_> If they didn’t like them, they should have left >_>; Fucking tossers >\
Coming Home
I don’t want to go on too much about getting home since I’ve bored you all enough already really; but suffice to say that I nearly fell asleep on the shuttle, and we waited until 1.45am for the train. There was these drunk girls on the train making a fool of themselves. >P Hahahaha. [It’s always funny when you aren’t the pisshead.]
Got back to Piccadilly and waited for Rach’s mum to pick us up. [My Dad pick me up, at 2.30am? Ha. You must be kidding, mate. It takes aggro to get him to pick me up anywhere in broad daylight. So Rach’s mum kindly gave me a lift T^T]. She had to get up for work in about 3 hours. Poor dear.
Got home. Ate salt and vinegar crisps. Crawled into bed. Slept for 6 hours.
The End, Thankyou and Goodnight, Elvis has left the building.
So I went to Leeds: I had four hours sleep, got up 5.30am, got home 4am, and then got another 6 hours sleep. I didn’t eat for 37 hours and drank only water [in limited amounts, although I got water thrown over/at me in liberal amounts.] I got trampled on and returned battered, bruised and exhausted.
It was amazing. I’d do it again without a second thought. And will do it again: 2004, this time for the full weekend. Next year I’ll be nuts enough to camp and possibly return with food poisoning or tetanus or something like that :D [Josette informed me that the toilets are disgusting. How lovely :D I refused to use them but I guess if I’m staying the full weekend next year, I have no choice --;] And this time I’m taking my Aeresu with me! Yes! Even if I have to kidnap her and smuggle her in >D Huahahahaha.
So I wrote a lovely detailed entry on the day. Beware, it's really, really long. o_o;
Travelling
I got up at 5.30am; I knew that it’d take me a while to get ready and I wanted to speak to Rinoa-aki-chama before I left. Kumiko-chama was online also, so I rambled whilst applying black zombie eye make-up. Wahey.
I ended up wearing my squall-pants [I.E. a pair of bootcut trousers that resemble the ones that Squall Leonheart wears. A lot.], a black studded sleeveless top, my SoCo hoodie [in case it cold, which after 7.30pm it did.] and my Mr. Tell bracelet too [It was something to do with SoCo fan pride… er… y’know, just in case they missed the huge ass logo on the hoodie :X]
I did my traditional Raye-thing - I nearly walked out without my ticket. Good stuff.
Bastard 471 didn’t turn up until 7.45 >/ So I was late meeting Rach >/
Caught the Metro, v. hyped.
Changed for the Piccadilly Metro but ended up getting on a Altrincham Metro by accident XD; So we changed a third time at St. Peter’s Square.
Got the train at 9.13am. It only cost £12-ish, not bad really.
The train took about 1 ½ hours, in which time we spent rambling and gossiping about various things, way over-excited. [Can one really be over-excited about a thing like Leeds? XD XD]
Got a call from Rach’s brother, Christian; apparently the stage collapsed on Friday when SOAD played. Whoops. Didn’t really daunt us. She agreed to one-bell him when the best performances came on and hold up her mobile so that he could hear. XDD Awwwww.
Got lost [just a biiiiiiit!] in Leeds looking for Sovereign Street. Oops. Oh well, next year we’ll know where we’re going and everybody’ll be all like “They know exactly where they’re going! ::admire::” XDDD
Got on the shuttle to Bramham Park, when we finally found the stop. Cost us a scandalous fiver ONE WAY. >_>;
Finally got there. Went to pick up Rach’s ticket, hoping that I had everything I needed to prove that I really paid for it. x____o Thankfully, all I needed was my Visa Electron card and a print of the confirmation. Which I had both of. I’m so proud of myself T^T
The first gate was named “Rachel’s Gate”, which we found really amusing since there was BOTH me and Rachael XD; I mean, they spelled it wrong but still :O It was the only gate with a name. And it was OUR name. It had to be fate :O We took a photos, but not one of those stupid ones with one of you pointing at the said sign X3
The last hurdle/ mistake was when we got inside. Amazingly enough, when the main entrance opened, we got right near the front and were almost one of the first in. ALMOST. Apart from the fact that we were the ones who forgot to get our tickets exchanged for wristbands. Whoops. Talk about egg on yer face.
So we went alllllll the way to the wristband exchange. Had a conversation with the guy who put my wristband on for me - he was from Bolton too :D :D Yay for Boltonians! We had a bit of a wait going in after that, since we had to go allll the way back, but it wasn’t really that bad.
And then after a quick bag check for cans/ knives/ booze etc., we were in!
The Acts
We missed most of Violent Delight due to the whole wristband saga, but we got there in time to see their last song - which was ‘I Wish I Was a Girl’. I’m glad I saw that one XD; I only wish I could have seen ‘All You Ever Do’ ;-; But yes, we saw them and although we didn’t get right near the front, we got pretty close. I saw Rodney! <3333 And DJ Ken XDDD [Which, as we all know, does not stand for Deejay XP]. They were so good, for what I saw *-* I got to chant “Motherrrrr! Whywasn’tIagirl, whywasn’tIagirl, whywasn’tIagirl, whywasn’tIagirl, whywasn’tIagirl?” XDDDD And! We got VD stickers because they were handing them out free <3333
Bowling for Soup were the first real performance we saw, and they were over on the Main Stage. They played ‘Punk Rock 101’, ‘The Girl all the Bad Guys Want’ [a great performance], ‘Emily’ and bunch of new/ random songs/ songs I haven’t heard before. They were actually really good, one of my favourite performances of the day. Fat Mike said “Okay, who loves fat people here?” XD XD The main guy was really funny and had a really cool Union Jack guitar! [And good hair.] He was just quipping all the way through the performance. The main things I remember are that they had minds like gutters [similar to Blink, actually], him telling us that we were a much a better crowd than Reading [>D >D muaha, Reading’ll have been full of stupid toffs] and him telling us to play a trick on the rest of the bands. “Everytime a band tells you to make some noise”, he said “I want you guys to do this! ::blows a raspberry:: Now you try it!” So he made us all do it, and then went: “MAN! That sounded like the world’s biggest fart! We just made a world record, guys!” XDDD; And then later, when the performance ended - “Come see us in October, guys! YOU GET HUGS!”
Other guitarist: Yeah, we give every fan a hug :D :D
Bless them XD;;; I think Rach is going seeing them with Steph. It was a really fun perforamance [in that they were amusing and the songs were good], so mayhap I will go and see them. And get my hug. XD
We stuck around the Main Stage for the Finch performance, even moved forward a little bit [Which was a blessing as the guy in front of us during the BFS performance smelled really bad --; Like sweaty feet --;] because the next performance was to be Finch. Nate of Finch has had some sort of huge image overhaul; he’s chopped off his long hair, and has gone for short, spiky black with brownish highlights. And he didn’t look sweaty. XD; In fact, he looked pretty good. Really good, actually. ._.; My thoughts were along the lines of “If Aeresu saw this, she would be eating her words about Nate” XDDD; [Which were, I believe, along the lines of “He’s a great singer in a great band but that’s ALL”. Whoo. Not anymore :D] Finch has a guitarist that looks like a taller, slightly better looking version of what Nate used to look like. <-- o_O
Finch, to my disappointment, were admittedly the worst performance I saw of the day. They got off to a good start - a really good performance of ‘What it is to Burn’, my favourite song by them. I remember everybody singing ‘Like a bad star…’ *-*. Things went downhill after that, though. Firstly a load of guys who were obviously pissed/ high/ both got really out of hand and I got really badly mashed/crushed/groped/head-butted >__> It was awful, so me and Rach moved a bit farther back. To be honest, I could have dismissed that as things were just as bad during the AAF performance [see below], if not worse [Which is worse, suffocation/strangulation or being headbutted?]. But the songs weren’t that great, either. They just performed a bunch of really random and new songs after that. I was very disappointed that they didn’t play ‘Letters to You’… but they didn’t play ‘Perfection through Silence’, or ‘New Beginnings’, or ‘Three Simple Words’, or ‘Ender’, or anything like that. In fact, I don’t think they played anything else off the What It Is to Burn album. In truth, the actual performances were good - it’s just the songs that weren’t. So I was disappointed in Finch, but judging by the actual performances and ‘What it is to Burn’, I think they’d probably be very good on their own, on their own tour or something. I’d go and see them again. [But not a third time if they disappoint me again.]
OK Go were wonderful. I was really looking forward to seeing them since I’ve liked them for quite a while [Read: Raye The Hippy loves Ok Go, Phantom Planet and The Darkness. Oh, and Damien is pretty. And owns a guitar]. They sang lots of songs, including a new one about trains that “Mark wrote when he was high on magic mushrooms” XDDD. They also played ‘There’s a Fire’, ‘Bye Bye Baby’, ‘The Fix is In’ [one of my favourites - In the first line of the song, “When we got to Boston…”, Damien changed the words to “When we got to Leeds” :D :D] and ‘Don’t ask me’ [another favourite, and it was really amusing to hear Damien yell “Don’t fucking ask me!” at the top of his voice.] They also played ‘Get Over It’ which I love, and that was a really great performance - in the middle before he chants “Get a job Get a life”, he stopped to talk to the crowd. And he shouted “It’s getting so hot in here! When I shout ‘It’s getting hot in here’, I want you guys to shout ‘So take off all your clothes’, okay?” So we did, and we were pretty loud. “Wow,” he said. “You guys were much better than Reading! We did The Darkness there, nobody knew the lyric. What was that? Jay-Z? Was that Jay-Z?” …And then somebody told the poor bloke that it was Nelly. XD “Nelly. Okay, we’re gonna do the Nelly thing from now on.” Then they did something they called “Jazz reggae”, which was rather amusing. The climax, though - and it was a climax - was when they did ‘C-C-Cinnamon Lips.’ Damien told us that it was something Mark wrote when he was heartbroken over a girl and that we should all feel sorry for him since he was a drug addict XDDD. And then he said that they were going to do something very embarrassing for a rock band and that we all should support them: And to C-C-Cinnamon lips, they did a really amusing boy band dance. It was hilarious - they were even laughing themselves by the end. I can’t put in words how funny it was to see them doing this choreographed dance. So I took a lot of photos, and I will post them as soon as they are developed. [I’d hoped, though not expected, that they would play “Return”, which they didn’t, but it was still wonderful. I’d have travelled to Leeds just for that one act.]
Alien Ant Farm were up next. The main guy had changed his hair - it was longer [i.e regular short length] than I’ve ever seen it and the middle was gelled into some sort of semi-mohawk. It looked good, despite the poor description. We got too close to the front and paid for it - I nearly got strangled when everybody started crushing each other --; We moved a bit further back but after awhile got a bit squished - only more comfortably so- there too. [::roffles:: I told Rach that she looked like she was humping the guy in front of her, and now deserved her title as Queen of Whores]. They played ‘Movies’ - my favourite song by them - and ‘Smooth Criminal’, which [despite the fact I never liked that one all that much] was a really great performance and got everybody moving. They also played a bunch of new stuff which I can’t remember the names of, apart from “Sarah” since it was imouto’s birthday and that’s her name. They were all rather good though. I had hoped they’d play “These Days” because I really like that song and it was recent for them over here but they didn’t T-T They were really good though, really nice with the crowd too. If I liked Alien Ant Farm before, I now love them. Or at least like them a whole lot more.
Saw Staind, who to be totally honest, I was not really very impressed with. Their music was a bit… same-y, and I wasn’t familiar with anything by them. After a while I was thinking “just shut up! o_o;”. And they weren’t very good with the crowd. I don’t think I remember them saying a word, not a word at all. They walked on, performed, and then walked back off. But Rach liked them. And a couple of things by them weren’t bad, so yeah.
Next up was The Darkness *-* Knowing that the remaining acts we planned to watch were Electric Six, Placebo, Blink 182 and Linkin Park… I must admit that at this point, The Darkness was the band I was most looking forward to seeing. I was really excited.
And The Darkness did not disappoint.
A woman from BBC Radio One was there to introduce them - the only act to be introduced - and called them “England’s fastest rising stars”, or something of the like. I got a photo of the stage backdrop they had. Everybody was just screaming at her to get off stage so The Darkness could come on though XD; When they finally came out, everybody was screaming. Justin was dressed in his trademark ridiculous 70s/80s style rockstar outfit. This time it was a pair of tight black and white striped flares XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD ::rolls over:: Rahr, and he had this tattoo along his waistband line of flames. XDDD He later pulled off the pants - he had [wait for it XD] tight white leather flares, that laced up all the way up both the outer and inner of both legs XDDDD Rock on Justin! They started off with Black Shuck, which I knew Rach had heard but I hadn’t. Soon enough everybody was chanting - and I mean chanting, and loudly - “BLACK SHUCK! black shuck! BLACK SHUCK! black shuck! That dog don’t give a fuck!”, which was both amusing and a lot of fun. They also played ‘Growing on Me’, ‘Givin’ Up’ [Which goes, “I’ve given up giving a fart” XDDDD], ‘Get your hands off MY woman, motherfucker!’ [For this he asked us if we wanted the dirty or clean version. He made us say “dirty” multiple times in a really dodgy tone of voice. XDD Very funny. And at one point they sang “Get your hands off my woman Martha” I swear, but don’t quote me on that.], ‘Love on the Rocks with No Ice’, a few I hadn’t heard… and ‘I believe in a thing called love’ <3333 [The only thing that I believe… is that The Darkness rock :D XD] He made us do the thumbs-up, famous from the “Everything is a-ok” line of the song. He also made us point. XDDD It was an incredible performance, possibly my second favourite of the day. I’d kill to see them again. When he was thanking us and such, it sounded like he was about to cry. Me and Rach shared this “AWWWW” kind of glance. XDDD Funny stuff. Bless ‘im. But yeah, The Darkness rocked. In a big way. <333 I’m officially a darkling now. Fear. >DDDDD
/edit ::ROFFLES:: I just read Rach’s blurty post on the Leeds festival and was reminded that we decided that Justin, The Darkness lead vocalist, really reminds us of Rik Mayall XDDDDDDDD ::rolls over and dies::
We went off to buy a disposable camera because the battery had gone in Rach’s camera, and whilst we were wandering I saw a group of guys wearing very cool t-shirts: A guy in a red Something Corporate t-shirt, a guy in a blue Finch t-shirt and a guy in a black Drive-thru Bands t-shirt. It was the only SoCo merchandise I saw anywhere… on anybody that day. In anycase, I was going to take a photo of them merely because they had such good taste in music and one had Andrew hair, but then I couldn’t get at an angle where it wouldn’t be blatantly obvious what I was doing. So I chickened out :D Oh well.
By the time we got the camera, we realised that Electric Six would be playing so we hurried back to the Radio One stage. Unfortunately we found that the timetable somebody had lent us earlier [we were too cheap to pay £6 for a programme] was wrong, or that Electric Six came on a bit early. So we missed most of the act =\ We got there in time to hear the end of ‘Gay Bar’ and a song called ‘Radio Ca-ca’ [which was quite catchy] though :D Shame though, since it was the end of the act we couldn’t get close enough to see them properly.
It was about 7.30pm and I was dying of thirst by this time, so we went in search of the water fountain and refilled one of the water bottles. I’ve never been so grateful for such bland, chemical-tasting water in all my life X3 On the way back though, I heard something playing:
Raye: o_O… Is that a Placebo recording, or Placebo live? [Between acts they played random music. It sounded like Kerrang 2003 CD or something.]
Rach: …Let’s go an have a look ._.;
So we did, and sure enough Placebo were on slightly early too. But we only missed the first song or so, so it didn’t matter too much. They played ‘Special K’, ‘The Bitter End’, ‘This Picture’, ‘Where is my Mind?’ and a few others. Although I really liked Special K and Where is my Mind?, I can’t really pick out a favourite song - the overall performance was just really great in general. *^^* Brian has such a feminine and yet not girly voice :D
After Placebo we got a lot closer and sat down for a while. We were in a position where we had a GREAT view of the left screen, and a pretty good side-on view of the stage - going into the moshpit to see Blink and Linkin Park would have been suicidal. We wouldn’t have returned alive --;
Blink-182 were good, wholesome, cuss-a-lot fun. I wouldn’t recommend them if you’re a prude or have a clean mouth XD XD; They were great with the crowd, and really funny. These are the funnier dialogues that I remember:
Mark: Wow, we’re rocking so hard that Travis’ll probably need a new drum kit o_o;
Tom: FUCK THE DRUM KIT! ::sarky voice:: C’mon guys, let’s all give the DUMB drum kit the finger!
[Yes. They made us all give “the drum kit” the finger. XD Funny stuff.]
--
Mark: Next we’re gonna play…hey, somebody isn’t listening.
Tom: ::points to guy in the audience:: HEY YOU LISTEN, FUCKER!
--
Mark: [you guys are great, blah blah ramble]-and we’re having fun!
Tom: Yeah, we’re all having fun… except for me, because I suck ::mock sniffle:::
--
Mark: You guys are gorgeous! You’re just as good as Reading were!
Tom: Fuck that! You guys are MUCH better than Reading! I love you much more! In fact, I love you much more than ::points to Mark::
Mark: >_> Yeah, I love you guys more than him too!
I know they said other funny things, but I can’t remember off the top of my head right now.
The songs they played were: ‘All the Small Things’, ‘The Rock Show’, ‘What’s my Age Again?’, ‘Reckless Abandon’, ‘Stay Together for the Kids’ [ß I was really pleased about this one because I didn’t think they’d play it and I like this song best XD;], and a lot of random and new songs. I was pleasantly surprised by Blink, I must admit. They’re not exactly one of my favourite bands [far from it XD; XD;] but they gave a really good performance, were really funny and were good with the crowd.
The last performance of the night was timed for 9:45pm-11:00pm, and it was Linkin Park. I was quite looking forward to seeing them - I’d heard good things about their live performances, and I like a few of their songs and music videos. I knew that they were unlikely to play 327523075 songs that I’d never heard of and therefore there was less chance of ending up bored.
And they ended up being, Rach and I agreed, the best performance of the day.
They weren’t really funny - not many quips, if any - but they were really lovely guys, so nice. They sounded really genuine, we thought, when we discussed it later. And Chester = <3333 I always love his hair X33 And he can’t half scream/ screech XDDD He kept telling us how “fucking awesome” we were, how much better than Reading we were [you know it >P], and how much they loved the UK and how great it was :D :D They said something like it was their favourite place, or something like that :D That just made the crowd love them even more X333
They played a LOT of songs, and they were allll really good *-* The ones I remember are: ‘One Step Closer’, ‘Papercut’, ‘Numb’, ‘Faint’, ‘Somewhere I Belong’, ‘Pushing Me Away’, ‘With You’, ‘Crawling in my Skin’, ‘In the End’, ‘Forgotten’, ‘Points of Authority’, ‘Runaway’, and ‘A Place For My Head’, but they did play a lot more x__o
The only thing that marred [it didn’t really mar it - it was just a mild annoyance, like an itchy mosquito bite] was these two girls behind us who were just being really loud and annoying and rude, shouting bitchy things at the band [like going “blah blah” really loudly when Mike was talking >O] and at us >_> They were the last act >_> If they didn’t like them, they should have left >_>; Fucking tossers >\
Coming Home
I don’t want to go on too much about getting home since I’ve bored you all enough already really; but suffice to say that I nearly fell asleep on the shuttle, and we waited until 1.45am for the train. There was these drunk girls on the train making a fool of themselves. >P Hahahaha. [It’s always funny when you aren’t the pisshead.]
Got back to Piccadilly and waited for Rach’s mum to pick us up. [My Dad pick me up, at 2.30am? Ha. You must be kidding, mate. It takes aggro to get him to pick me up anywhere in broad daylight. So Rach’s mum kindly gave me a lift T^T]. She had to get up for work in about 3 hours. Poor dear.
Got home. Ate salt and vinegar crisps. Crawled into bed. Slept for 6 hours.
The End, Thankyou and Goodnight, Elvis has left the building.