Back from Reading and booking for next year…
Well we’re back from Reading and after a weekend of carefree fun I’m settling into a few days of post Reading blues and listening to all the albums of the bands I liked.
Over the course of the weekend I saw:
Sparta
Maximo Park (Part of)
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (Part of)
Enter Shikari (Stood outside and saw some of their set on a screen)
The Subways
Ash (Stood outside and saw some of their set on a screen)
Eagles of Death Metal
Angels and Airwaves
Nine Black Alps (Stood outside and saw some of their set on a screen)
Pigeon Detectives (Stood outside and saw some of their set on a screen)
Panic! At the Disco
Arcade Fire (Part of)
We are Scientists
Chilli Peppers (About three songs)
Fall Out Boy
Lost Prophets
Nine Inch Nails
Smashing Pumkins
In that mix are some bands that were fantastic and some that were average plus an awful performance from the Chilli Peppers (Sorry Dave and Pam! - although perhaps three songs is not enough to judge them on).
We had a great time and once I have the pictures and Gallery working I’ll post them - at the moment Charlotte has put a selection up on Facebook so you can check them out there!
More later…
Good Hunting
Many days in the life of man
Well I haven’t written a post for over a week, mainly due to the fact that after writing 1000 words of thesis/paper then writing an interesting post has kind of deserted me, and partly because it seemed a lot of effort to find the password.
I have several things that I can talk about though so this might be a long one… (in no particular order)
Duncan’s Stag Do
At the weekend Ian and I drove up to Nottingham for a day of stag activities, first off a daredevil driving challenge entitled Follow that Minibus. The plan was to meet everyone at about 10.00 so that we could pick up the minibus and get to the activities easily but it quickly became apparent that 10.00 was ambitious from leaving Halstead at about 7.45, but we tried. James gave us hope when he said the Bus driver was going to be late but we were still a few minutes shy.
A broken phone conversation revealed that we had only just missed them and we could actually see the minibus so we followed - now at this point the driver of the minibus had been informed we were behind him and had pulled over and waited for a minute for us to catch up, he also knows that we are not from Nottingham.
So he pulls away and drives straight through an amber light leaving us stranded at the traffic lights, that really sets the tone for the next twenty minutes while I fight through city traffic (in a city I have no idea about) following a minibus that obviously knows where the speed cameras are, has no lane discipline whaatsoever and is incapable of signalling unless he’s doing it wrong. The highlight of the trip was his overtaking manouever down a single carriageway that I would not have attempted in my car, this of course meant that I had to overtake to keep up as we have no idea where we’re off to. Ian’s text of “Perhaps this is a good day to die” says it all.
Quad Bikes
When we arrived at the correct location (the minibus driver dropped everyone at the wrong place first) we climbed into our overalls and onto the quad bikes that seemed rather fun, after a few mistakes I got the hang of them and by the time Tom decided to lead me off through the woods by himself I was really enjoying it!
Clay Pigeons
Shooting a gun is something that I’ve always had a slight curiousity for, perhaps its all the wargaming that I’ve done in the past but when you actually hold a weapon that was specifically made to kill people it’s a bit different. James did make the point that I’m allowed to drive a car which is more dangerous but I wasn’t convinced the comment was just about the car…:) After a brief saftey talk and not signing anything we were allowed to go and shoot at the clay discs. The actual shooting was really fun however and I scored a rather good 21/25 only bettered by Duncan who managed 22/25 (I would like to say I let him win due to it being his stag and all but that’s not really my way as people know).
Hooters
The meal was in Hooters where the food and chat was fun but the service was definately not, to be honest Ian and me were in a bit of a rush and although we enjoyed the company the fact we had to rush off meant that we were waiting to leave the whole time. After a rather good 2hr20 journey back to Halstead Ian was off to work meaning that he hadn’t slept for the whole day as he’d come to mine from work the previous day. I gave him the keys to his car and I coudn’t help but feel concerned for him driving back but he made it ok and from his blog seems to be fine now!
MUUUUUUUSE
Lest I forget Muse at Wembley. The stadium was awesome, awe inspiring some might say. It managed to be plush and massive at the same time. The parking was a bit steep (£20) but it all turned out ok in the end. My chemical romance weren’t all that good but Muse were mega - they opened up and never stopped. Everytime I see them live they remind me why I love them so much. So I have to say thanks to Ian for the ticket!!
Good Hunting
The D
Tenacious D, December 19th, Hammersmith Apollo, 7pm. They were awesome, I really enjoyed this gig. The gig itself was more a show/gig really as I was expecting but it was full of jokes, visual gags and rock! One of the funny parts wasn’t anything to do with the D but a giant No Smoking sign in the venue - next to which the D has placed a smouldering volcano! The D played all the main songs and treated us to all the props and gags that we were expecting including a giant jumping mushroom as well as rocking our socks off for almost two hours.
The D were so good in fact that losing one of our train tickets didn’t even detract from the experience. And again when we got outside to discover the black sack of stuff we’d got back from the coakroom wasn’t ours it was still a great night! Even when this morning we awoke to the bright misty morning it was all good…
…hang on it’s usually dark when I take Charlie to work, 8.45! FUCK!…
…that’s only two hours late! Charlie got to work at about 9.40 this morning, but still it was a good night!
The train home was an interesting experience what with bumping into a few hundred Kasabian fans on the tube and then Cradle of Filth fans on the train back to Colchester, it was obviously a good night for music in the Capital last night.
Seriously though all those worries about the D turned out to be unfounded and even thought their new record isn’t a patch on the old one they still rocked and I’m glad that I got to see them on this whistlestop tour of the UK. When Charile gets home with the camera I’ll put some pictures up.
At least all those chickens now know that he’s being punished for eternity…
Good Hunting
The D tonight
After the pick of destiny we’re all a tiny bit dubious as to what tonight will be like but nevertheless I’m looking forward to it! We should be heading down to London at about 5.00ish to try and get to Hammersmith by about 7.00 when the gig is meant to start - it’ll be a close call but we should make it!
I’m not sure what it’s going to be like, probably more of a show than a gig but we’ll wait and see…
Good Hunting