RRRRROOOOOXXXXXXXOOOOORRRRRRR!!!!
Well, I'm back and whilst I have been away I have been thinking about how to blog about what has just happened. I discussed it with Alex (photo later) and he reckons that a lengthy run-down would be the way to go rather than what I was going to do which is:
That was awesome....
It's been a few days though and I think my memories are worthy of blog space. Here goes (I'd do a toilet now if I were you, this could be a biggy):
Friday
Friday was a bit of a rush. I was up in plenty of time and everything was packed and ready to go. Alex showed up early and we shot off to Tesco to pick up some booze - 1 crate of Lager, 1 crate of Bitter. In hindsight it might not have been the best idea ever because it meant hauling a full crate of booze and a huge rucksack a-piece all the way from Swansea to Donington!! On the way to Tesco Alex reminded me that he has not yet appeared in this blog. There is no particular reason behind it and I may have mentioned him in passing back in the days when I didn't use names. His absence will be more than rectified here.
We finally managed to get on the train and it all went quite smoothly. There was a hairy moment when we thought we might miss a connection but otherwise no real problems. The further along we got the more the train filled up with festival goers to the point where the train was packed and the festival atmosphere was already evident.
We got off the train and then headed for the buses that had been put on specially for the event. There was a queue and no bus as yet so we got some chips and curry from a local shop. The bloke in the shop was well aware of the festival but was of the old school of rock and thought that Alice Cooper would make a surprise visit. I doubted it - it used to be a classic rock festival but now it's beer and noise.
The bus was packed and we were on the top deck. We immediately struck up a conversation with some guys from Wiltshire who were desperately trying to drink their beer. They had bought 2 crates of Stella but they were bottles and wouldn't have got past the first gate so they had to be drunk or abandoned. They also had a big bottle of Smirnoff to polish off too. Alex and I, after much discussion and head scratching, had cracked a few tinnies on the train so we carried on drinking on the bus.
Once inside we were searched and given the all clear to carry on to the campsite. The tents went up easy enough:
but I was a little worried that my idea about buying the cheapest possible tent wasn't the best one I had ever had. Still, there wasn't a cloud in the sky so I didn't have a thing to worry about.
The site itself was great and had practically everything you need (except showers) so we grabbed some food and sat around being travel-dazed and a little shell-shocked. This soon wore off when we got back to the tents and for the first time we could just chill and soak in the atmosphere - I was as happy as a pig in shiznit. Photos don't really do it justice but here's one of Alex amongst the tents anyway:
By the time we had got our heads back together it was getting late. Alex by this point hadn't slept for 30+ hours so we decided it might be best if we avoided the revelry and just went to bed. This way we could be up early and catch as much of the show as possible.
Saturday
First day of the festival proper and it was a scorcher. I slept in fits and starts throughout the night but I woke up at 6am and just couldn't get back to sleep. I thought I had better leave Alex to it so I went off and had a walk around the site. By the time I had done everything I wanted to it was 8am and the whole place was heaving. I thought it might be best to wake Alex so we could avoid queues for cash and the like so I gave him a "knock" which he wasn't to pleased about!! After breakfast we joined the queue for the cash machine which was already trailing off towards the back of the site. Just before we got there the machine stopped working and so we waited around for an engineer to come out and restock it or whatever. The heat was too much in the end and we decided it would be worth risking our place in the queue. We sat down in view of the machine and while our backs were turned the machine suddenly sprang back into life. If we had waited another 5 minutes we would have been first in line instead of having to wait another 45 minutes.
Some of the organisation lacked inspiration. There were only 3 cash machines in the whole festival which needed to cater for around 50,000 (at a guess) people!!
By the time we had got our money the queue to get into the arena had grown out of all proportions and it looked like the chances of getting in to see the early bands were slim to say the least. We went back to the tents, picked up a couple of cans for the wait (no beer to be taken inside) and joined the queue. The queue was VERY deceptive because it actually only took 10 minutes to get in. What we had previously thought was a snake-queue kind of affair was actually just a mass of bodies!!
The rest of the day was spent racing 'round making sure that we caught at least part of the set of each band we wanted to see. There wasn't much clashing between bands and if it wasn't for "Amen" deciding that they could run-on everything would have been on time!! Strange for a festival!
I have decided that this isn't the place to go through a running commentary of everyone we saw but the real highlights of the day were (in no particular order) Murderdolls, Ministry, Reel Big Fish, Soil and Marilyn Manson.
I got some great photos on the day so if you are desperate to see any of them use the contact button and I'll mail then to you.
Whilst we were watching Marilyn Manson we hooked up with some lads from Preston who had come down to see Iron Maiden. They really didn't like Marilyn Manson but once I had explained to them that despite him being a complete git the music excellent they soon began to agree:
One of the most amazing things about the weekend was that each band played almost exactly what I wanted to hear but I just wish the Ministry set had been about an hour longer.
Because of a clash we only managed to catch the end of Iron Maiden but I've seen them a few times before so it was no great loss - at least Alex got to see them and that's good enough for me.
By the time Maiden were finished and it was time to leave the arena I had drunk far too much. I don't usually drink but I had managed to plough my way through a stupid amount of booze and found myself sitting on the floor leaning against a marquee talking about trivial crap. In other words, I was having the time of me life. My last real memories of the day are:
1) Counting my cash
2) Discovering that I didn't have much (enough for breakfast at a push)
3) Discovering Alex had even less
4) Buying a burger for both of us
5) Sitting around a fire (which might not even have existed) smoking a joint with our neighbours whilst being harrassed by someone who had "just got out of hospital after being punched in the face by a metal fist"
6) Suddenly feeling the urge to lie down...
Sunday
Owwwwwwww.
I woke up at about 6am again and raced off to the toilet. My head was hurting a bit but I was still mostly drunk. I got back into the tent, tried to sleep and (this bit is not for the squeemish) had to errrrr... find a carrier bag (sickness, for the use of). For the next 12 hours I was sicker than hell. The whole reason I don't drink isn't because of some kind of pious delusion or because I have an addictive personality, it's because it makes me feel like hell the next day!!
We had no money, I had no stomach and the cash machines were closed until 2pm. Once again, whilst our backs were turned, they came on early and the queue was instantly 2 hours long - I'll repeat that - 2 hours long!! It stretched from the cash machine at one end of the field to the moshpit at the other!! I (literally) couldn't stomach the wait and spent the time lying on the grass being slowly roasted by the sun. Alex meanwhile (absolute bloody trooper) stood in line and waited. After a while I discovered I could stand up without having to hurl so we took it in turns to stand in line. Once again Alex waited for the majority of the time because I was busy being a wuss.
Finally we got the cash we so deperately needed and raced off to buy a bottle of pop - it was much appreciated. Within minutes I was back on my feet and happy, I even felt good enough to scarf down an ice cream followed a little later by a hotdog. Soon enough I was fully recovered and looking forward to a bit of rocking-out.
During the time I spent on the floor there had been some great bands on and even though I felt like hell I was still able to listen to and appreciate them. Now I was back in step I really wanted to parteh. The musical highlights were (again in no particular order) The Darkness, Stone Sour, Evanescence, Less than Jake, Zwan and, of course, Audioslave.
The weather had been brilliant all day but it had started clouding over and there was the smell of rain in the air. Just as Zwan started up there was the first flash of lightning. Soon after, despite what Alex thought, the heavens opened and we were subjected to one of the heaviest showers I was ever caught in. everyone was drenched and a good number of people just walked away from the crowd. I was worried about my tent but not worried enough to miss out on the live action. Ironically just as Zwan finished the sky cleared and there were a few hundred drowned rats waiting for Audioslave to come on - poetry.
Three things of real note happened during the day which don't really fit into what has already been mentioned:
1) I caught a Less than Jake T-Shirt that was thrown into the crowd
2) We were "treated" to a Finnish cello quartet called Apocalyptica who did weird metal style music including a Metallica cover
3) Metallica turned up out of the blue:
Actually I wasn't too annoyed. I've seen Metallica a couple of times before and didn't really rate them. Alex would have liked to have seen them and I kind of wish he had. I was watching Stone Sour at the time and personally I think I got the better end of the deal.
We didn't drink at all for the whole day. I told Alex not to let me stop him but I don't think he was in a drinking mood either. We were both soggy but surprisingly happy when we got back to our tents and decided that we should get some sleep in preparation for the next days travelling. My tent was an absolute disaster site. Despite not having anything touching the side it had leaked quite susbstantially but the things I needed to keep dry were still dry!! It was a miracle! Whilst I dried up the wet areas I had to put some things in the "porch" area and when I looked out I saw a sight which summed up the whole festival experience:
Muddy shoes and sunblock - classic
Monday
As planned we were up early but I had a decision to make - do I:
1) Ditch the beer which had caused me so much pain and discomfort on Sunday morning or
2) Ditch the tent which had, miraculously, kept me warm and dry despite the fact that it was a single skinned travesty of a tent...
In the end the decision was simple - the tent was left to a group of lairy 'ooligans to be burnt. ROCK AND ROLL.
The journey back was easy going and I got home just before Alison got back.
It's all over - the festival has gone and now all I have is the memories and 90 odd photos. I wouldn't have missed for all the world and if there is another one next year I'll be first in line for tickets.
I'll leave the last word to a happy Dibbie:
If I remember anything I've missed I'll do updates later!!
Updatey #1
I forgot a couple of hugely important facts!!
Firstly there were no elligable women ANYWHERE (apart from on the stage - but they were a bit out of reach). My crisis has long since died though so I'm not too bothered.
Secondly....
Word of the Weekend: ROXOR
Mood of the Weekend: Solid Exuberance
Well, I'm back and whilst I have been away I have been thinking about how to blog about what has just happened. I discussed it with Alex (photo later) and he reckons that a lengthy run-down would be the way to go rather than what I was going to do which is:
That was awesome....
It's been a few days though and I think my memories are worthy of blog space. Here goes (I'd do a toilet now if I were you, this could be a biggy):
Friday
Friday was a bit of a rush. I was up in plenty of time and everything was packed and ready to go. Alex showed up early and we shot off to Tesco to pick up some booze - 1 crate of Lager, 1 crate of Bitter. In hindsight it might not have been the best idea ever because it meant hauling a full crate of booze and a huge rucksack a-piece all the way from Swansea to Donington!! On the way to Tesco Alex reminded me that he has not yet appeared in this blog. There is no particular reason behind it and I may have mentioned him in passing back in the days when I didn't use names. His absence will be more than rectified here.
We finally managed to get on the train and it all went quite smoothly. There was a hairy moment when we thought we might miss a connection but otherwise no real problems. The further along we got the more the train filled up with festival goers to the point where the train was packed and the festival atmosphere was already evident.
We got off the train and then headed for the buses that had been put on specially for the event. There was a queue and no bus as yet so we got some chips and curry from a local shop. The bloke in the shop was well aware of the festival but was of the old school of rock and thought that Alice Cooper would make a surprise visit. I doubted it - it used to be a classic rock festival but now it's beer and noise.
The bus was packed and we were on the top deck. We immediately struck up a conversation with some guys from Wiltshire who were desperately trying to drink their beer. They had bought 2 crates of Stella but they were bottles and wouldn't have got past the first gate so they had to be drunk or abandoned. They also had a big bottle of Smirnoff to polish off too. Alex and I, after much discussion and head scratching, had cracked a few tinnies on the train so we carried on drinking on the bus.
Once inside we were searched and given the all clear to carry on to the campsite. The tents went up easy enough:
but I was a little worried that my idea about buying the cheapest possible tent wasn't the best one I had ever had. Still, there wasn't a cloud in the sky so I didn't have a thing to worry about.
The site itself was great and had practically everything you need (except showers) so we grabbed some food and sat around being travel-dazed and a little shell-shocked. This soon wore off when we got back to the tents and for the first time we could just chill and soak in the atmosphere - I was as happy as a pig in shiznit. Photos don't really do it justice but here's one of Alex amongst the tents anyway:
By the time we had got our heads back together it was getting late. Alex by this point hadn't slept for 30+ hours so we decided it might be best if we avoided the revelry and just went to bed. This way we could be up early and catch as much of the show as possible.
Saturday
First day of the festival proper and it was a scorcher. I slept in fits and starts throughout the night but I woke up at 6am and just couldn't get back to sleep. I thought I had better leave Alex to it so I went off and had a walk around the site. By the time I had done everything I wanted to it was 8am and the whole place was heaving. I thought it might be best to wake Alex so we could avoid queues for cash and the like so I gave him a "knock" which he wasn't to pleased about!! After breakfast we joined the queue for the cash machine which was already trailing off towards the back of the site. Just before we got there the machine stopped working and so we waited around for an engineer to come out and restock it or whatever. The heat was too much in the end and we decided it would be worth risking our place in the queue. We sat down in view of the machine and while our backs were turned the machine suddenly sprang back into life. If we had waited another 5 minutes we would have been first in line instead of having to wait another 45 minutes.
Some of the organisation lacked inspiration. There were only 3 cash machines in the whole festival which needed to cater for around 50,000 (at a guess) people!!
By the time we had got our money the queue to get into the arena had grown out of all proportions and it looked like the chances of getting in to see the early bands were slim to say the least. We went back to the tents, picked up a couple of cans for the wait (no beer to be taken inside) and joined the queue. The queue was VERY deceptive because it actually only took 10 minutes to get in. What we had previously thought was a snake-queue kind of affair was actually just a mass of bodies!!
The rest of the day was spent racing 'round making sure that we caught at least part of the set of each band we wanted to see. There wasn't much clashing between bands and if it wasn't for "Amen" deciding that they could run-on everything would have been on time!! Strange for a festival!
I have decided that this isn't the place to go through a running commentary of everyone we saw but the real highlights of the day were (in no particular order) Murderdolls, Ministry, Reel Big Fish, Soil and Marilyn Manson.
I got some great photos on the day so if you are desperate to see any of them use the contact button and I'll mail then to you.
Whilst we were watching Marilyn Manson we hooked up with some lads from Preston who had come down to see Iron Maiden. They really didn't like Marilyn Manson but once I had explained to them that despite him being a complete git the music excellent they soon began to agree:
One of the most amazing things about the weekend was that each band played almost exactly what I wanted to hear but I just wish the Ministry set had been about an hour longer.
Because of a clash we only managed to catch the end of Iron Maiden but I've seen them a few times before so it was no great loss - at least Alex got to see them and that's good enough for me.
By the time Maiden were finished and it was time to leave the arena I had drunk far too much. I don't usually drink but I had managed to plough my way through a stupid amount of booze and found myself sitting on the floor leaning against a marquee talking about trivial crap. In other words, I was having the time of me life. My last real memories of the day are:
1) Counting my cash
2) Discovering that I didn't have much (enough for breakfast at a push)
3) Discovering Alex had even less
4) Buying a burger for both of us
5) Sitting around a fire (which might not even have existed) smoking a joint with our neighbours whilst being harrassed by someone who had "just got out of hospital after being punched in the face by a metal fist"
6) Suddenly feeling the urge to lie down...
Sunday
Owwwwwwww.
I woke up at about 6am again and raced off to the toilet. My head was hurting a bit but I was still mostly drunk. I got back into the tent, tried to sleep and (this bit is not for the squeemish) had to errrrr... find a carrier bag (sickness, for the use of). For the next 12 hours I was sicker than hell. The whole reason I don't drink isn't because of some kind of pious delusion or because I have an addictive personality, it's because it makes me feel like hell the next day!!
We had no money, I had no stomach and the cash machines were closed until 2pm. Once again, whilst our backs were turned, they came on early and the queue was instantly 2 hours long - I'll repeat that - 2 hours long!! It stretched from the cash machine at one end of the field to the moshpit at the other!! I (literally) couldn't stomach the wait and spent the time lying on the grass being slowly roasted by the sun. Alex meanwhile (absolute bloody trooper) stood in line and waited. After a while I discovered I could stand up without having to hurl so we took it in turns to stand in line. Once again Alex waited for the majority of the time because I was busy being a wuss.
Finally we got the cash we so deperately needed and raced off to buy a bottle of pop - it was much appreciated. Within minutes I was back on my feet and happy, I even felt good enough to scarf down an ice cream followed a little later by a hotdog. Soon enough I was fully recovered and looking forward to a bit of rocking-out.
During the time I spent on the floor there had been some great bands on and even though I felt like hell I was still able to listen to and appreciate them. Now I was back in step I really wanted to parteh. The musical highlights were (again in no particular order) The Darkness, Stone Sour, Evanescence, Less than Jake, Zwan and, of course, Audioslave.
The weather had been brilliant all day but it had started clouding over and there was the smell of rain in the air. Just as Zwan started up there was the first flash of lightning. Soon after, despite what Alex thought, the heavens opened and we were subjected to one of the heaviest showers I was ever caught in. everyone was drenched and a good number of people just walked away from the crowd. I was worried about my tent but not worried enough to miss out on the live action. Ironically just as Zwan finished the sky cleared and there were a few hundred drowned rats waiting for Audioslave to come on - poetry.
Three things of real note happened during the day which don't really fit into what has already been mentioned:
1) I caught a Less than Jake T-Shirt that was thrown into the crowd
2) We were "treated" to a Finnish cello quartet called Apocalyptica who did weird metal style music including a Metallica cover
3) Metallica turned up out of the blue:
Actually I wasn't too annoyed. I've seen Metallica a couple of times before and didn't really rate them. Alex would have liked to have seen them and I kind of wish he had. I was watching Stone Sour at the time and personally I think I got the better end of the deal.
We didn't drink at all for the whole day. I told Alex not to let me stop him but I don't think he was in a drinking mood either. We were both soggy but surprisingly happy when we got back to our tents and decided that we should get some sleep in preparation for the next days travelling. My tent was an absolute disaster site. Despite not having anything touching the side it had leaked quite susbstantially but the things I needed to keep dry were still dry!! It was a miracle! Whilst I dried up the wet areas I had to put some things in the "porch" area and when I looked out I saw a sight which summed up the whole festival experience:
Muddy shoes and sunblock - classic
Monday
As planned we were up early but I had a decision to make - do I:
1) Ditch the beer which had caused me so much pain and discomfort on Sunday morning or
2) Ditch the tent which had, miraculously, kept me warm and dry despite the fact that it was a single skinned travesty of a tent...
In the end the decision was simple - the tent was left to a group of lairy 'ooligans to be burnt. ROCK AND ROLL.
The journey back was easy going and I got home just before Alison got back.
It's all over - the festival has gone and now all I have is the memories and 90 odd photos. I wouldn't have missed for all the world and if there is another one next year I'll be first in line for tickets.
I'll leave the last word to a happy Dibbie:
If I remember anything I've missed I'll do updates later!!
Updatey #1
I forgot a couple of hugely important facts!!
Firstly there were no elligable women ANYWHERE (apart from on the stage - but they were a bit out of reach). My crisis has long since died though so I'm not too bothered.
Secondly....
Word of the Weekend: ROXOR
Mood of the Weekend: Solid Exuberance
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