Bloodstock 2010!!
I'm very behind on my book and film reviews, but I'm going to write about this while it was quite recently!
Despite not liking metal as much as I used to, I always enjoy Bloodstock, and this one was no exception! I had won VIP tickets in a competition, so that made it even better. We arrived at about 1pm on the Thursday, dropped Ben off at the Drop Off Point (as he didn't have VIP!) and then drove to the VIP bit. We got a goody bag which included a tshirt, the 10 year anniversary one which was cool, and some other things including a couple of those lanyard things, and some wristbands. Bit of a shame there wasn't a band times thing in there, which we expected, but luckily I'd printed them out beforehand so thats ok! We put our tents up - with the novelty factor that we could actually see the car from the tent rather than having to walk about a mile! - and then went to take Ben's things to him. It was then when it got bad!! I have never seen so much rain at a festival before!! and we were totally in the open, with no cover! When we got to the campsite and found some cover, we were so wet that I felt like I'd been in the shower with my clothes on. We had to wait for a while for Dani and the other people that Ben was camping with, so we dried out slightly and made some friends, which was nice, hehe. When Dani etc arrived we went to get changed whilst Ben put his tent up. I've now decided that skirts are the way to go at festivals, so much easier to walk in the mud in than trousers. There were some bands on, and a "comedy hour" which we were going to go see, but as it was muddy and rainy we just sat at Dani's tent and drank Ikea cider, hehe! It was a nice evening, despite the weather.
Friday was when the bands properly started, and also was the fancy dress competition, which totally failed!! Katie had made an amazing costume, but she didn't even get to enter due to the total lack of organisation. Apparently the only way to enter was to be seen by someone from the Hobgoblin stand during the day, and them giving you a ticket. Despite us standing by the Hobgoblin stall for a while talking to someone, Katie didn't get a ticket, and then when we asked the person at the Rock Soc tent how to enter, he said just to turn up at the alloted time. So we did that, and they wouldn't let her enter! It was ridiculous, as although I am biased towards her, her costume was far better than most of the costumes (the pope as a zombie? oh how original!) and she'd put so much work into it. And the guy who won was just someone with a penguin head and cows udders...stupid! She's written an angry email now to them, so hopefully someone will respond! But anyway, apart from that annoyance, it was another good day. Raining on and off so obviously it was still really muddy, oh and I had to carry around with me a cricket bat all day (being dressed as Shaun of the Dead!) but it was good! We saw quite a few people we knew, and some great bands! The bands we saw were:
Opeth - so brilliant! I've seen them twice before, but they weren't as good as this before. They played a great mix of songs, lots of my favourites. I love his voice, and the contrast between the clean and growly bits.
Sonata Arctica - they were good, one of Ben's favourites so he was pleased to see them. Apparently they didn't play their best set, but I liked it.
Cathedral - another band I've seen before, but they were very good too!
Ensiferum - until I saw them I thought they were called Enisferum, haha, they were good anyway!
Ross The Boss - I had to see these really - they are the closest I will ever get to seeing Manowar I think, so I didn't want to miss that opportunity. The "Ross" in the name is a guitarist from Manowar (I think its the guitarist!) who plays with what was a Manowar tribute band! For this performance they were also joined by Scott Columbus, the drummer from Manowar. It was good as the whole crowd were obviously really into it and sang along to all the Manowar songs! A fun band to watch.
On Saturday morning I woke up and it was pouring with rain! However I then fell back asleep and luckily when I woke up again it was dry, although overcast. Although I didn't wake up early enough to actually go to the arena and see Andromeda, I could hear them really clearly from the campsite and they sounded pretty good! I think I'm going to look into them a bit more, apparently they're a bit proggy which might be interesting. The next band on was Leaves Eyes, and although I really dislike female fronted metal, they were ok. The main guy (well he seemed to be the main guy, apart from the woman, as he did a lot of the talking!) had the most amazing hair! :) We then went for a bit of a walk around, looked at all the stalls and things, and then came back to see Edguy, who were ok, but not as interesting as I'd remembered them being. We then saw a bit of Amorphis who were ok, but not as good as I had thought they were going to be, having looked them up on the internet beforehand. The main guy has amazing dreadlocks though! :) Devin Townsend was someone who everyone seemed to be really excited about, but even though I had heard the name I wasn't sure who he actually was (we saw a quite appropriate tshirt actually - "Who The F*** Is Devin Townsend", haha) so we had to text someone. Having found out he was from Strapping Young Lad I thought it would be a bit too metally, but I actually really enjoyed it. It was nowhere near as heavy as I thought it would be, and really good. He was really nice as well it seemed, there was a delay in them starting, but he came out and told the crowd and apologised and everything, so that was nice. I was really looking forward to Fear Factory as I do like their more electronic-y type stuff, and of course their cover of "Cars" - but of course this being Bloodstock they were a lot more metal than I would have liked, although it was good. Would have been great if they did Cars, but oh well :) Children of Bodom were next, and i don't think we actually saw all of them, as they were just a bit boring actually. We just sat at Dani's tent again for the evening, which was nice, apart from having to walk to get to it, which was hugely muddy and slippery. Oh, and I had the best food - there was a Calzone stall, which at first glance seemed quite expensive, but you got loads and loads and it was really yummy! I hope they have that stall again next year. They also had a Pizza Express stall, which looked quite nice, but you got more at the Calzone stall! Oh and did I mention the strawberry cider?? I hope they have that again next year too! :)
Sunday it was actually really warm and sunny, for a change! Katie had decided that she wanted to drive home on Sunday evening, like last year, so we packed up all our tents and bags, got a bag of supplies for arena (food, drink, raincoats..haha) and went to sit in front of the main stage for most of the day! As we were putting our tents etc away, we didn't get to the arena in time to see Doro, but from what we heard she sounded really good. The first band we saw properly was Korpiklaani who were fantastic! They were just such a fun band, and really got the crowd actually dancing, haha. They have a violin, and accordian player as well as the "normal" metal instruments, and I really like the sound they have. The next band, Gwar were one of my least favourite of the weekend. Their music was ok, nothing special at all, but they basically just messed around and sprayed liquid at the crowd, which must be why everyone likes them. Apparently whatever they sprayed doesn't come off for a while either!! I suppose I'm glad I've seen them so I can see what the fuss is about, but I don't personally think they are worth all the fuss! The next band were Gojira, who were ok, it probably sounds a bit weird, but I enjoyed hearing the tune but not the vocals. Plus we were quite far back in the crowd at this point, so I couldn't really see the band. The next band were my favourite of the weekend (possibly apart from Opeth!) - The Prophecy. They were on the Sophie Lancaster stage, and there was a shockingly small crowd for them, but it was probably because Bloodbath was on at the same time, and they're some kind of supergroup with people from Opeth and other bands in them, so everyone wanted to see them. They missed out by not seeing the Prophecy though! They were slightly similar to Opeth in the fact that they had both clean and growled vocals, but I also thought they were similar to both Paradise Lost and Anathema in the style of music, and the clean vocals were similar to Nick Holmes from Paradise Lost's vocals, which was excellent. I think both bands are from Yorkshire, so that could explain the similarity in voices. They were really great though, I'm definately going to get one of their cds. When they'd finished I went back to the main stage, and found Katie and Ben had been joined by Dani and Dudley. They showed much ingenuity in getting cans into the arena, haha, which I think everyone does by the Sunday! The next band was Cannibal Corpse who actually just seemed to only play one song for their entire set!! And it was black or death metal (I'm never sure which!), so the vocals were rubbish! As was the whole band actually! The ;ast band of the weekend were Twisted Sister. As the last band last year, Europe, were unexpectedly brilliant, I had quite high expectations of Twisted Sister, and I was quite disappointed! They started well, but then about half way through they seemed to run out of songs, had a long pointless drum solo, and the frontman talked way too much. The songs I knew - we're not gonna take it, and I wanna rock - were really good, but they didn't really have much else in their set. We left a little before they finished, and as we were walking away they did a little tribute to Dio, and sung Long Live Rock N Roll, which was good, with the whole crowd joining in. But apart from that I wasn't too impressed by Twisted Sister.
I forgot to mention - half way through the day they announced one of the headliners for next year, with a snazzy little video to go with it! The headliner announced was Immortal, who feature in many of the "funniest black metal pictures" lists, so although I don't like their music at all, it should be rather amusing to see them!!
After this we walked back to the VIP car park (the long way round, as Ben couldn't get into the VIP area!) and rearranged the car so that we could all get in and drive home. The journey home was really good, its a pretty easy journey, and until the last half of the M1 there was hardly any traffic. We got back about 2.30am.
Overall, a most excellent weekend! Its almost like my holiday for the year, so despite having to camp, I always have a really nice relaxing time, seeing some great and not so great bands, and the people watching is always amazing!! I'm already looking forward to next year, can't wait to see what other bands they announce! :)
Despite not liking metal as much as I used to, I always enjoy Bloodstock, and this one was no exception! I had won VIP tickets in a competition, so that made it even better. We arrived at about 1pm on the Thursday, dropped Ben off at the Drop Off Point (as he didn't have VIP!) and then drove to the VIP bit. We got a goody bag which included a tshirt, the 10 year anniversary one which was cool, and some other things including a couple of those lanyard things, and some wristbands. Bit of a shame there wasn't a band times thing in there, which we expected, but luckily I'd printed them out beforehand so thats ok! We put our tents up - with the novelty factor that we could actually see the car from the tent rather than having to walk about a mile! - and then went to take Ben's things to him. It was then when it got bad!! I have never seen so much rain at a festival before!! and we were totally in the open, with no cover! When we got to the campsite and found some cover, we were so wet that I felt like I'd been in the shower with my clothes on. We had to wait for a while for Dani and the other people that Ben was camping with, so we dried out slightly and made some friends, which was nice, hehe. When Dani etc arrived we went to get changed whilst Ben put his tent up. I've now decided that skirts are the way to go at festivals, so much easier to walk in the mud in than trousers. There were some bands on, and a "comedy hour" which we were going to go see, but as it was muddy and rainy we just sat at Dani's tent and drank Ikea cider, hehe! It was a nice evening, despite the weather.
Friday was when the bands properly started, and also was the fancy dress competition, which totally failed!! Katie had made an amazing costume, but she didn't even get to enter due to the total lack of organisation. Apparently the only way to enter was to be seen by someone from the Hobgoblin stand during the day, and them giving you a ticket. Despite us standing by the Hobgoblin stall for a while talking to someone, Katie didn't get a ticket, and then when we asked the person at the Rock Soc tent how to enter, he said just to turn up at the alloted time. So we did that, and they wouldn't let her enter! It was ridiculous, as although I am biased towards her, her costume was far better than most of the costumes (the pope as a zombie? oh how original!) and she'd put so much work into it. And the guy who won was just someone with a penguin head and cows udders...stupid! She's written an angry email now to them, so hopefully someone will respond! But anyway, apart from that annoyance, it was another good day. Raining on and off so obviously it was still really muddy, oh and I had to carry around with me a cricket bat all day (being dressed as Shaun of the Dead!) but it was good! We saw quite a few people we knew, and some great bands! The bands we saw were:
Opeth - so brilliant! I've seen them twice before, but they weren't as good as this before. They played a great mix of songs, lots of my favourites. I love his voice, and the contrast between the clean and growly bits.
Sonata Arctica - they were good, one of Ben's favourites so he was pleased to see them. Apparently they didn't play their best set, but I liked it.
Cathedral - another band I've seen before, but they were very good too!
Ensiferum - until I saw them I thought they were called Enisferum, haha, they were good anyway!
Ross The Boss - I had to see these really - they are the closest I will ever get to seeing Manowar I think, so I didn't want to miss that opportunity. The "Ross" in the name is a guitarist from Manowar (I think its the guitarist!) who plays with what was a Manowar tribute band! For this performance they were also joined by Scott Columbus, the drummer from Manowar. It was good as the whole crowd were obviously really into it and sang along to all the Manowar songs! A fun band to watch.
On Saturday morning I woke up and it was pouring with rain! However I then fell back asleep and luckily when I woke up again it was dry, although overcast. Although I didn't wake up early enough to actually go to the arena and see Andromeda, I could hear them really clearly from the campsite and they sounded pretty good! I think I'm going to look into them a bit more, apparently they're a bit proggy which might be interesting. The next band on was Leaves Eyes, and although I really dislike female fronted metal, they were ok. The main guy (well he seemed to be the main guy, apart from the woman, as he did a lot of the talking!) had the most amazing hair! :) We then went for a bit of a walk around, looked at all the stalls and things, and then came back to see Edguy, who were ok, but not as interesting as I'd remembered them being. We then saw a bit of Amorphis who were ok, but not as good as I had thought they were going to be, having looked them up on the internet beforehand. The main guy has amazing dreadlocks though! :) Devin Townsend was someone who everyone seemed to be really excited about, but even though I had heard the name I wasn't sure who he actually was (we saw a quite appropriate tshirt actually - "Who The F*** Is Devin Townsend", haha) so we had to text someone. Having found out he was from Strapping Young Lad I thought it would be a bit too metally, but I actually really enjoyed it. It was nowhere near as heavy as I thought it would be, and really good. He was really nice as well it seemed, there was a delay in them starting, but he came out and told the crowd and apologised and everything, so that was nice. I was really looking forward to Fear Factory as I do like their more electronic-y type stuff, and of course their cover of "Cars" - but of course this being Bloodstock they were a lot more metal than I would have liked, although it was good. Would have been great if they did Cars, but oh well :) Children of Bodom were next, and i don't think we actually saw all of them, as they were just a bit boring actually. We just sat at Dani's tent again for the evening, which was nice, apart from having to walk to get to it, which was hugely muddy and slippery. Oh, and I had the best food - there was a Calzone stall, which at first glance seemed quite expensive, but you got loads and loads and it was really yummy! I hope they have that stall again next year. They also had a Pizza Express stall, which looked quite nice, but you got more at the Calzone stall! Oh and did I mention the strawberry cider?? I hope they have that again next year too! :)
Sunday it was actually really warm and sunny, for a change! Katie had decided that she wanted to drive home on Sunday evening, like last year, so we packed up all our tents and bags, got a bag of supplies for arena (food, drink, raincoats..haha) and went to sit in front of the main stage for most of the day! As we were putting our tents etc away, we didn't get to the arena in time to see Doro, but from what we heard she sounded really good. The first band we saw properly was Korpiklaani who were fantastic! They were just such a fun band, and really got the crowd actually dancing, haha. They have a violin, and accordian player as well as the "normal" metal instruments, and I really like the sound they have. The next band, Gwar were one of my least favourite of the weekend. Their music was ok, nothing special at all, but they basically just messed around and sprayed liquid at the crowd, which must be why everyone likes them. Apparently whatever they sprayed doesn't come off for a while either!! I suppose I'm glad I've seen them so I can see what the fuss is about, but I don't personally think they are worth all the fuss! The next band were Gojira, who were ok, it probably sounds a bit weird, but I enjoyed hearing the tune but not the vocals. Plus we were quite far back in the crowd at this point, so I couldn't really see the band. The next band were my favourite of the weekend (possibly apart from Opeth!) - The Prophecy. They were on the Sophie Lancaster stage, and there was a shockingly small crowd for them, but it was probably because Bloodbath was on at the same time, and they're some kind of supergroup with people from Opeth and other bands in them, so everyone wanted to see them. They missed out by not seeing the Prophecy though! They were slightly similar to Opeth in the fact that they had both clean and growled vocals, but I also thought they were similar to both Paradise Lost and Anathema in the style of music, and the clean vocals were similar to Nick Holmes from Paradise Lost's vocals, which was excellent. I think both bands are from Yorkshire, so that could explain the similarity in voices. They were really great though, I'm definately going to get one of their cds. When they'd finished I went back to the main stage, and found Katie and Ben had been joined by Dani and Dudley. They showed much ingenuity in getting cans into the arena, haha, which I think everyone does by the Sunday! The next band was Cannibal Corpse who actually just seemed to only play one song for their entire set!! And it was black or death metal (I'm never sure which!), so the vocals were rubbish! As was the whole band actually! The ;ast band of the weekend were Twisted Sister. As the last band last year, Europe, were unexpectedly brilliant, I had quite high expectations of Twisted Sister, and I was quite disappointed! They started well, but then about half way through they seemed to run out of songs, had a long pointless drum solo, and the frontman talked way too much. The songs I knew - we're not gonna take it, and I wanna rock - were really good, but they didn't really have much else in their set. We left a little before they finished, and as we were walking away they did a little tribute to Dio, and sung Long Live Rock N Roll, which was good, with the whole crowd joining in. But apart from that I wasn't too impressed by Twisted Sister.
I forgot to mention - half way through the day they announced one of the headliners for next year, with a snazzy little video to go with it! The headliner announced was Immortal, who feature in many of the "funniest black metal pictures" lists, so although I don't like their music at all, it should be rather amusing to see them!!
After this we walked back to the VIP car park (the long way round, as Ben couldn't get into the VIP area!) and rearranged the car so that we could all get in and drive home. The journey home was really good, its a pretty easy journey, and until the last half of the M1 there was hardly any traffic. We got back about 2.30am.
Overall, a most excellent weekend! Its almost like my holiday for the year, so despite having to camp, I always have a really nice relaxing time, seeing some great and not so great bands, and the people watching is always amazing!! I'm already looking forward to next year, can't wait to see what other bands they announce! :)