Belle Rock's

City and Colour- Camden Roundhouse

2011-10-20T04:54:00.000-07:00

Went with Bec to finally go and see Dallas play. Excited doesn't even cover it.Support was ok but nothing special, like everyone else I just wanted Dallas to come on stage. When he did it was amazing, I can't even begin to describe how good he was live. You could have heard a pin drop through most of the set as everyone was so into what he was singing. Definitely one of the best voices live I've ever heard, we both managed to get goosebumps throughout the gig, despite it being in a boiling hot room. Managed not to cry! Which was surprising but I think I was just too happy to even register being sad during his songs, which normally reduce me to tears. I have too much love for Dallas after that gig, very happy I bought a live recording of it - which is now being played to death on repeat. I need to see him again!

Reading Festival 2011

2011-09-02T16:14:00.001-07:00

Glastonbury 2011

2011-07-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

Back again for another year of working with security. This year I went with Carmen, another festival virgin. Apparently I want to corrupt all of my close friends with cider and music. No complaints so far though!

We went up on the Wednesday again and started work on the Thursday. As soon as we had got all our wristbands sorted we went off to explore the festival. We had a good wonder around, as best as we could the mud was already insanely deep and impossible to walk in. Our goal was a cider and then to watch the sunset on the hill, which was one of the best bits from last year so I really wanted to see it again. I was a little sad as the day was really cloudy and any decent sunset was out of the question. I swear Glastonbury is magic, as soon as we sat down on the hill the clouds broke and we watched a perfect sunset. Carmen was pretty speechless at the view, I was glad she was somewhat impressed as that part is so special to me.

Our alarms were set for a somewhat alien time of 6.30am, this is coming from the girl who considers 12pm a poor lay-in. After a lot of blindly stumbling around attempting to get ready we ambled off to the catering tent to find out what our positions were this year. Thankfully no orange tent for us this year! I was positioned right behind the Pyramid stage and Carmen was a minute down the road by the press tent. This meant I saw a lot of bands and 'entourages' going on and off the stage, which was pretty cool. I think my best spot of the weekend was Jay-Z, who might actually be the coolest man on earth. Another cool person was Chris Martin, surprisingly he was really lovely to me and polite, unlike Plan-B who was a total princess. I didn't particularly enjoy his manager shouting in my face about his issue with walking an extra few metres and through a tiny bit of mud. I learned that no matter how big a bloke is, they are all little girls about mud!

On the Saturday night we caught most of the Chemical Brothers set, which was incredible to watch. The light show was memorising, I was very happy when they played 'Hey Boy, Hey Girl,' We went off to see Professor Green afterwards, who I loved when I saw him at Beach Break and again he was great at Glasto.

Sunday's line-up caused us a bit of a dilemma, Beyonce or Queens? I knew that Beyonce's set would be incredible and very big and sparkly, but having been a Queens fan for so long I don't think I could have lived with myself if I opted for Beyonce over them. So we watched them play and they thrashed through a beautifully heavy set and to my intense joy they play 'Make it Wit Chu', this confirmed that Josh Homme is a very, very sexy man.

Now I just need to go to Glastonbury in 2013 as a regular festival goer!

Beach Break Live

2011-07-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

16.6.11-20.6.11

Mine and Bec's first time at Beach Break, and it was Bec's first ever festival. Hadn't really heard much about Beach break until this year, we decided to go after a good chunk of our favourite bands were announced to play it.

The festival itself is tiny compared to the others that I have been too, which turned out to work really well. The campsite and main arena had a really chilled out vibe, that is lacking at Reading festival. I think this was mostly down to the crowd all being over 18 and students.

First act we saw was Ed Sheeran on the rainy Friday. We've been fans for a while of his music, well ever since I saw him on Jools Holland. His set was great, and oddly enough his rapping worked amazing well. If you don't know Ed Sheeran is a very white, auburn haired 20 something year old. This isn't a combination made for a good rapper, but he pulled it off with credibility. The highlight had to be when he played 'The A Team', he got a good sing-a-long for that. Later on that night we saw Professor Green, who we've decided is oddly attractive, and Tinie Tempah. Both brilliant sets. Apart from the initial being crushed at the start of Tinie's set. I got my angry face on, which isn't that angry considering I was wearing a ripped Alton Towers poncho, and pushed us back a bit.

The next day was the day we were both looking forward to the most. Three of our favourite bands in a row - WAS, Example and then White Lies. WAS were hilarious as usual, the crowd was a little disappointing for them, but still we loved their set. Slightly embarrassed myself at the end as Bec dared me to yell 'I LOVE YOU KEITH', having a little cider in me I accepted the dare and went on to shout at the quietest point in their set. Example was brilliant, the crowd was completely with him and he went down very well with the student audience. White Lies were headlining that night, I was interested to see how everyone reacted to their set after Example. I was pleased when everyone had loads of energy for them and their set was brilliant. We had met two nice guys earlier in the night and out of nowhere during 'E.S.T' they lifted me and Bec onto their shoulders. This was amazing, we could see across the entire crowd and Harry looked straight at us. It was really fun and an oddly intense experience being above the crowd, you can never get an idea how big the crowd is when you're on the floor level with everyone else.

Finally the weather was beautiful on the last day. We spent most of the day sunbathing and listening to some really great bands on the mainstage. Later on we watched Katy B who we both enjoyed and afterwards Magnetic Man were playing. Their set was awesome, again I got lifted up onto a nice mans shoulders and the crowd lost their shit during 'I Need Air'.

For such a small festival Beach Break was brilliant, I prefer it to Reading as it has a much nicer and chilled out vibe. I would love to go again if it has a decent line-up.

Take That

2011-07-01T11:38:00.000-07:00

15.6.11

Mother Swales surprised me with tickets to go see Take That, honestly we went because Robbie was there. Controversial, but still we've both been a bit sad about Robbie Williams for many years.

To my dismay I found out that The Pet Shop Boys were the support act, not one of my favourite bands. Their set was bearable, well just about. I'm not ashamed to say I only enjoyed 'West End Girls'. There's only so much camp pop and men dancing with cubes on their head you can take to be honest.

Take That came onto the stage as a foursome to start with, which meant a lot of puzzled looks between me and my mum and a few whispers of 'WHERES ROBBIE?!??' sad but true. They opened with 'Rule The World', then went on to sing a few more songs they recorded before Robbie had rejoined Take That. After this the lights fell dark again and the first few notes of 'Let Me Entertain You' rang out, this caused mass hysteria with the crowd dominated by (intoxicated) middle aged women. As soon as Robbie came out the whole venue went crazy. He did a handful of his best songs from his solo career, I probably shouldn't have this opinion, but for me it was the best part of the night. After this slight indulgence from Robbie, the band came out as they currently stand today, five members. They put on an amazing show, using a huge metal human as a big part of their stage show. There were people throwing fire around, a huge waterfall and people flinging all over the stadium. I enjoyed the show more than I should have, and joined the middle aged women in cheering on a group of middle aged men doing some dodgy dancing.

We Are Scientists - Nottingham

2010-11-28T10:13:00.000-08:00

27.11.2010

Went with Bec and Emily to Rock City. Got a good spot at the front, the the support band were already on. They reminded me a lot of The XX, so quite good but a bit dull for support. The next band 'Goldheart Assembly' were a lot more like WAS so we really enjoyed their set.

WAS were great as usual, we got shoved forward during, I think, 'Nobody move nobody get hurt' and ended up on the barrier. Textbook came on and Keith jumped down to the crowd and came right to us. Even better he looked at me, nodded, then put the mic to my face and I sang! Amazing. I was holding his head as I sang which was insane. After I think I smiled for about 5 hours.

Edit this setlist | More We Are Scientists setlists

Linkin Park - Birmingham LG

2010-11-13T11:02:00.001-08:00

9th Nov 2010

Linkin Park were spot on as usual, but unfortunately I was still feeling ill from a few days before and didn't really enjoy them playing. Bit of a shame but I'm sure I'll go see them again.

Muse at Wembley

2010-09-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

11.9.10

Best gig I've ever been to! Everything about it was epic and ridiculous.

They came on with 'Uprising', but before they arrived on stage a whole load of 'protesters' came out to the crowd with banners and flags. When they walked on stage everyone went crazy, being at the front was insane. They played each song to perfection and used Wembley to put on an amazing show. For 'Undisclosed Desires' Dom and Chris came onto a small stage that moved into the crowd then finally up above our heads. Dom's drums were rigged so they came alight after he hit them, which looked amazing in the dark. They played an intro for a few minutes then Matt came back and joined them on the moving stage. I swear Matt looked at me, ha.

The most insane part was during 'Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 1 (Overture)' when a huge 'UFO' came out and slowly crept around the arena. About half way through a woman dressed as an astronautic popped out and began spinning in air, it was really beautiful.

'Knights of Cydonia' was beyond epic. When the last riff kicked it everyone went completely nuts and a huge pit broke out. I think I started the pit I'm not sure!

Such an amazing gig, everything about it was ridiculous and we all loved every second, can't wait to see Muse again.

White Lies were good as usual, although Harry's voice did brake a lot and they played a surprising amount of new material, which was good, but not great for a Muse crowd.

Reading Festival 2010 - Sunday

2010-08-30T17:31:00.000-07:00

Sunday -

* You Me At six
* Limp Bizkit
* Kele
* Weezer
* Paramore
* Blink 182

Reading Festival 2010 - Saturday

2010-08-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

Finally the sun came out!! I celebrated by having a shower at home before the drive up and wearing a nice dress. The day was really nice, I can't believe that a pint of cider was £4! Disgusting, but I did enjoy it very much though. We started the day a little later so we really just saw the bands which we wanted to see, which was nice to do.

Saturday -

* Mystery Jets -

Really good set, me and Nay were very excited they played 'After Dark'. I danced a lot. Blake did look like a scarecrow though.

* 3OH!3 -

Ahhh they were brilliant! Loved their set, lots of TUNES.

* The Maccabees
* Dizzee Rascal -

Only saw a bit as Katie got hit in the head with a wellie!

* Crystal Castles -

Pure insanity.

* Enter Shikari -

Mental live, loved shouting at a guy pushing past me during 'No Ssssweat' "YOU DO THIS EVERY FUCKING TIME!" Classic timing.

* Pendulum -

Spot on as always.

Reading Festival 2010 - Friday

2010-08-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

Me, Katie and Naomi went as first time campers this year. Getting there was fine, our biggest pain was getting up our tent. It took 8 people well over an hour to get the damn thing up. Once we got the tent sorted it started to rain, and that's where our troubles began! The mud began to get really bad but we stuck it out for a night, until our tent flooded so we made the decision to drive home every night. This was a bit of a nightmare but it was made worth it by the bands. We camped in purple where the rest of Chippenham holed up as well.

Friday -

* Frankie and the Heartstrings -

We'd never heard of them before, and I can see why! Did not enjoy their set at all. the lead singer was very annoying and slightly camp. The songs were all over the place and the set didn't flow very well.

* Young Guns (acoustic) -

We caught the end of their main stage set which was really good, then later on we caught them doing an acoustic set on the BBC introducing stage. They did a brilliant cover of Ellie Goulidngs 'The Writer'

* A Day to Remember -

Angsty band, which I enjoyed!

* Billy Talent -

Really good set and kept the crowd happy.

* The Big Pink
* Lostprophets -

For some reason Ian seemed pissed at the crowd and they in return didn't respond very well to their set. The songs were good, Ian's voice just isn't very strong.

* Biffy Clyro -

Loved this set, got a bit emotional when they played 'Many of Horror'....uni memories!

* Mumford and Sons -

Best band of the day. I've never seen the NME tent to rammed when it wasn't a headliner playing. The girls sat outside, but I couldn't resist and ran into the huge crowd. Fortunately I met some nice guys who looked after me during their set.

I should also mention we waited for Guns and Roses for over half an hour, then we gave up. I found out later they only bothered to come on stage an hour and a half late, not cool! When I watched them on the BBC coverage Axl Rose was just embarrassing.

Glastonbury

2010-07-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

23rd-28th June 2010

Me and Emily went to work this years Glasto with 'Specialized Security'. Basically they're the people who secure all the main areas like the Pyramid stage and so on. When we got there we waited outside the main gate to get let in for a while. Finally someone from the security came and got us and took us into their compound. We were pretty nervous when we first stepped in as me and Emily stood out like sore thumbs! Put it this way everyone else there either had no teeth or were huge burly blokes. Once we got our rooms we settled down and got woken up at 6.30am the next day. This was a horrific start for me as 12pm is a poor lay-in for me. We tramped to the catering tent and met some surprisingly nice people. All the girls got bunched together as there were so few of us. Then we were given our positions for the weekend. Me and Emily got put in the 'Orange Tent', a place for people to charge their phones. This concept was lost on me as I assumed a festival was about seeing some bands not ringing your mate Dave at home?! Anyway we were given some truly delightful orange polo shirts to wear, just in case we couldn't quite be marked out as security they gave us some lovely baseball hats too.

Our jobs were extremely dull as it mostly involved standing at a gate alone checking peoples bands in the sun. It was all made worth it though as we got to see some amazing bands and luckily worked with a bunch of really cool people who were lovely to us. One of the best parts of our tent was that it had a mini pyramid stage which hosted some surprise bands.

Friday -

Ellie Goulding - She was the first person we had heard of that played in our tent. She was amazing and it was great as I just hid at the back and watched her set.

Newton Fawlkner - He was really good, he's also a very nice man in person. I chatted to him for a while after his set. The crowd, small as they were, didn't let him go for ages as he was so good. My favourite part was his cover of Blacksteet's 'No Diggity'. It just goes to show a white man with ginger dreads can have soul!

Lissie- Never heard of them before but really enjoyed their set. The crowd wouldn't let them go either.

Gorillaz- We just caught the start of their set. They were pretty good, some of their set was a bit random and the crowd didn't really know some of the songs. When they got to their main songs it was great, especially when Snoop Dogg came out!

Saturday-

Tine Tempah- Me and Emily were excited to see him as his songs are pretty much our uni anthems. When he came on we stood at the front and danced, as casually as we could. He was great and I smiled at him as he swanned off into the VIP area.

Muse- They were stupidly good. Too good. Well not too good just immense. Saw all of their set and it was flawless. When the Edge came out to play 'Where the streets have no name' it was insane. I was super happy when they played 'Map of the Problematique' which is my favourite Muse song. Matt Bellamy is beautiful.

Sunday -

We Are Scientists- Our supervisor was amazing and let us run off and watch them play. They were as good as they were the last time I saw them, if not better. I was pleased Emily enjoyed them too as I bang on about them so much! We managed to get ourselves on camera a few times too.

Glastonbury was beautiful, if not hard work but it was worth it.

Chase & Status

2010-05-12T17:42:00.000-07:00

11th May 2010

Went with Bec, Emily and Eeva to Rock City to see Chase & Status...

The first support act was some DJ's who were pretty good. They played some DISGUSTING dub-step which we all enjoyed. The next support act was an angsty rap duo who were very intent on shouting "SHOTINGHAM!" at us. Everyone seemed to enjoy being paraded as the murder capital of England so it went down very well.

It was completely insane when Chase & Status finally came on. We were at the front so we were involved in a lot of pushing about. I managed to get a few cheeky back-punches in, which was nice. They were really good live and everyone loved it, apart from Emily whom we lost within the first song!

Robots In Disguise

2010-04-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

31/03/10

Me and Chrissy have been fans of the Robots for a while, we found them through the Mighty Boosh. The gig was upstairs in the Carling in the tiny bar bit. The Robots weren't scheduled to be on for ages so we got a few pints in before....which were bloody expensive!! Blimey, it was about £3.80 for a cider, which is RIDICULOUS!

The first band on, 123 and In, were pretty good. They weren't particularly original, as their stuff reminded me a lot of YouMeAtSix and a little of Enter Shikari. But they were enjoyable all the same.

Scream Club were on next and were brilliant, in a weird European electronic way. They were so obviously from Europe (we later found out that their German..) as they tried a little too hard to be 'cool' but it kind of worked in a cool geeky type manner.

When the Robots came on finally, they were good. Not the best band I've ever seen as they were a bit all over the place, but good fun to see with Chrissy. Best song was 'Wake up' and 'The Sex has mad me stupid', shame they didn't play arguments.

White Lies - Nottingham

2009-11-25T16:24:00.000-08:00

25/11/09

Best gig bar Linkin Park, they were amazing beyond belief.

Went with Lizzie to Rock City, never been there before and it's a nice venue. Waited half an hour to get in and managed to get front row again! The two support bands were actually really good. the first was Violens - they reminded me a little of Vampire Weekend mixed with Jack Penate. The lead singer was a bit of a perv and asked the girl by me if she wanted to meet later!

The second band Asobi Seksu were fronted by a tiny Chinese woman who was badass. They were quite odd but overall we liked them alot.

Finally around 9 White Lies came on with Farewell to the Fairground. The crowd was amazing and was into every song they played. Harry's voice is so gorgeous, he looked at me LOADS which made my night as i was singing along to everything. They did a Talking Heads cover which was cool, Harry looked at me as if to say WOW YOU DONT KNOW THE WORDS TO THIS!?!? I later got kicked in the head about 8 times by crowd surfers, and my ribs are bruised to shit - totally worth it though. They have defintely improved with playing as Harry wasn't as shy as he was the first time we saw them play. It was an intense gig as everyone was so into the music and Harry seemed to look at us all really intently. Best songs were The Price Of Love and Unfinished business.

I need to see them play again!

Farewell to the fairground

A place to hide

Farewell to the fairground

Jack Penate - Nottingham

2009-10-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

25/10/09

Jack played in my SU bar which is amazing as I live literally over the road. Went with Aneesh and managed to stand bang in the middle on the front row.

The support act were bizarre, but we enjoyed them all the same. I think their name was Theoplis London, or something similar. They were from New York and played hip-hop, rnb stuff. The lead singer was insane and kept licking his lips at me and Neesh!

Jack was amazing as usual, he came on with 'Everything is new'. He played an accapella version of 'Learning Lines' which was cool and he played my favourite 'Pull my heart away'. He spat his beer out into the crowd at some point and managed to hit me square in the face, cheers for that Jack. The best part was during 'Tonight's Today' he came and stood literally right in front of me, so I gave him a huge hug...then he crowd surfed right onto my head! It was immense. Sadly we didn't meet him after as security were a bunch of bastards, but we still love Jack!

Florence + The Machine

2009-09-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

17.09.09

Went with Chrissy to the Bristol Academy, got their early enough to be one from the front. We knew the support was going to be the XX, which we were not particularly excited about - having seen them support Jack. They were ok, a little repetitive for my taste.

After them they set the stage up with loads of flowers and bird cages, so it looked really cool for Flo. She came on to 'Kiss with a fist', after that every song was brill. Her voice is amazing! Best songs for me were 'Howl' and 'Between two lungs'.

Reading Festival

2009-08-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

Reading Festival Saturday 29th Aug 2009

I went up for the day with Chrissy this year, I learned my lesson from last time and we got the shuttle boat to the festival! Really lovely day and the weather was perfect too.

Dinosaur Pile-Up

We weren't familiar with this band before Sat, and just went to watch to fill time. They were pretty good and i enjoyed their set. They played rocky stuff, which went down well at Reading.

Spinnertte

Brody's voice is amazing and we both really liked their set, even if the crowd was a little dead.

Fightstar

Ha I know, busted?! Despite laughing about the band they were really good! They were quite heavy and Charlie has a good voice, so we had fun. They started a few decent pits as well.

Enter Shikari acoustic

This was a nice surprise on the BBC introducing stage, we wandered past and saw a load of people stood in front - more than normal - so we stopped to find Enter Shikari were about to play. They were introduced by Edith Bowman, I didn't see her, only heard. They played three songs - Juggernauts, No sleep and adieu. I really loved the acoustic versions especially 'No Sleep'.

No Sleep

Juggernauts

Juggernauts 2

Eagles of Death Metal

I think we missed the first song, but we managed to catch the rest of their set. I love them anyway so it was cool to finally see them play. I was expecting Josh Homme to be on drums but they had they guy from Queens. We later found out that Josh and Dave Grohl were side-stage watching with their kids! Eagles were brilliant and the crowd kept chanting 'Eagles! Eagles!' which was nice. Me and Chrissy had a good dance to most of their songs.

Cherry Cola
Boy's bad news

Enter Shikari

The front, where we were, was total chaos! Brilliant though. Pits kept erupting right by me and Chrissy so we had to slide over to the left quite a bit. Really good set, especially loved it when the band told everyone to crowd surf and about 40 people went over the front!

Them Crooked Vultures

The NME tent was too packed for us to actually get in so we watched a few songs from the outside on the screen. Of what i saw they were very good.

You Me at Six

I know a few songs of theirs and they were really fun to watch. Best song was 'Kiss and Tell', the 'Poker Face' cover was cool too.

The Maccabees

We were a little tired at this point so we went and got some cider and watched from outside. I managed to catch my two favourite songs - 'Toothpaste Kisses' and 'Can you give it', so i was happy.

The Prodigy

This was the only let down of the day! We got a good spot quite near to the front, but we didn't even realise they had come on stage it was so quiet! It didn't get any louder and we felt lame dancing to such quiet music so we left! I imagine they were actually good, its just the sound didn't carry at all, and most people in the crowd were yelling 'Turn it up!!'. I was a little sad we didn't catch White Lies instead, who are pure awesome.

Glasvegas

When we saw the line up we laughed about seeing Glasvegas again, but as the Prodigy were lame we went and watched them play. We got right on the barrier and had such a good time! We were both surprised we liked their set so much.

Video
Video 2

Rise Against

This set was in the lock-up tent which is really tiny compared to the other tents. It had a nice atmosphere and Rise Against were great. We had enough room to dance around without getting crushed which was nice as well.

Again we met some lovely people this year and I LOVE Reading!

Jack Penate - itunes festival, camden

2009-07-04T11:10:00.000-07:00

3/7/09

Blimey, twice in a month!

itunes are doing a a series of gigs at the Camden roundhouse, featuring a different band each night. The tickets are free and Jack happened to be playing just before i leave for my holiday, and also my 18th!

I took Jessie as my plus one and met her at Paddington. My train was over an hour late, which was really annoying :\ We got the tube to chalk farm around 7 and walked straight in and got 10 free itune downloads which was nice of them. Then venue is a big circle and was really cool. We managed to stand about two people from the front slightly to the right and had a great view of the stage, which was set back from the crowd.

I didn't really like the support band 'Golden Silvers' they had a few cool songs but they mostly sounded the same and used the keyboards way TOO MUCH!

Jack finally came on he was brilliant. The crowd wasn't as good as the thekla crowd, as most people didn't seem to know Jack's new stuff. Me and jessie danced loads and Jack looked our way a few times, mostly because we were the only ones waving around to his new stuff! I think it was during Pull My Heart Away, i was the only on in my area singing, and Jack looked right at me for ages! Right after the song he said it was lovely to see people singing to his new stuff, WHICH WAS ME! Kid Harpoon came out and sang 'Give Yourself Away', he was pretty good. Anyway overall fab night and managed to catch the last train home. Can't wait to see it on TV and to buy it on itunes.

Jack Penate - Bristol thekla

2009-06-25T05:01:00.000-07:00

24.06.09

It seems to be a habit for people to buy me Jack Penate tickets for my birthday! Which is a very,very good thing.

Me, Jessie and Chrissy got the train up to Bristol, got lost, then found the right way and went to the pub to wait for a bit. When we were queuing outside the Thekla, i think it was Chrissy, said ooo was that jack! I didn't believe her, but then he just strolled past in a big black hoodie! We didn't go up to him as hie seemed to be going somewhere.

Got let in around half 7 and waited for a bit. The support act came on, The XX. They were ok for about three songs then they went a bit Glasvegas and sounded the same for the rest of their set.

We managed to be pretty much on the front row, the venue is sooo tiny! Jack came on to 'Everything Is New', which was really cool live,as they had a load of drums. I think he played most of his new stuff, can't think of a new song that he didn't play. Which was fine by me as i think his new album is better than the first! He did play 'Torn on the platform, 'have i been a fool' and 'spit at stars'. He came over to where we were standing loads of times and looked at us quite a bit too. It went crazy when he lept into the crowd at the end of 'Lets all die', he jumped right by me and chrissy! So i managed to ruffle his hair and shove him back on stage, which was fun. Last song he played was 'Tonight's Today' which was great.

At the end of the gig we had to wait for Jessie's dad. So we thought we'd sit by the exit of the Thekla to see if Jack would come out, there was about 20 of us waiting i think. He came out after about 20 mins and signed stuff for everyone, he was really lovely and asked to make sure everyone had got something signed. So me and Chrissy handed over our tickets. At one point he was signing something for someone and he looked right at me, which was very exciting haha. Then he offered to do some photos too, so me and Chrissy had ours taken. I went up first and was such a dork! He was very nice and put his arm around me and had his photo taken, then i took one of him and Chrissy.

Overall a very good night and an amazing birthday present!

Videos:

Let's All Die, Jack jumps in the crowd

Be The One

Tonight's Today start

Tonight's Today chorus

Tonight's Today end

NME awards tour Bristol - Florence and the machine, White Lies, Friendly Fires and Glasvegas.

2009-02-16T04:21:00.000-08:00

15/02/09

Went with Chrissy to the Carling, well now the '02' but i don't like that so i refuse to call it that!

All the pictures and video were taken by chrissy :)

Florence and the machine

She was on first and i was really impressed, her voice was brilliant and powerful. I didn't know many of the songs, but we really enjoyed them anyway. Chrissy has a few pictures and videos so I'll hopefully add those later. Florence was a bit mental, but i liked her dancing! 'Kiss with a fist' and 'Dog days' were my two favourites.
Kiss With a Fist

White Lies

They were my favourite band, every song that they played was awesome. Same as before i only really knew one song, which was a shame as i really want to see them again now i know all their songs. The lead singers voice was gorgeous, really deep and smooth sounding and he was rather cute (!) Best songs were 'To lose my life' and 'farewell to the fairground'. I got the album as soon as i got back, best CD i've heard in a long time. As i know all the songs now i think my 'now' favourites would be 'Price of Love' and 'Unfinished Business'.

Chrissys video

Friendly Fires

They were funky, we had fun doing some interesting dancing :S. Florence kept dancing on the side of the stage, and then finally came out and pretty much danced like a ho-bag on the lead singer, which was oddly funny. They were good, just not as good as White lies i thought, some of the songs were a tad random. Best track was 'Skeleton Boy'.

FF and Florence

Paris

Glasvegas Quite a lot, well all of their songs sounded the same. Not that they were bad songs just a little repetitive. The lights and strobes were cool and they super loud. Best song was 'daddy's Gone' the part when everyone sang along was nice too. I wouldn't go out of my way to see them again.

Twilight - film

2008-12-20T14:37:00.000-08:00

Ok so its not a gig, but i don't care. I was so excited for this film, because i love the book.

Overall i enjoyed it and thought it was a good adaption of the book. I just felt it was a little lacking, and for whatever reason i didn't love it completely, i think seeing it again will make me like it more. I had quite low expectations anyway, so i wasn't disappointed or anything. I did definitely sit there with Chrissy smiling the whole time like a complete loser, haha.

One of the main things i had a problem with was Edward's sparkling. I thought it was a huge shame they didn't make more of the meadow scene (what meadow!? they just led on a tiny patch of grass) and when he finally turned around it just looked like he was sweating. Don't get me wrong there is NOTHING wrong with Rob Pattinson's body, the sparkling effects just didn't do him justice. In the book it's described as being really obvious and amazing, but in the film i thought it was way too subtle.
Also i thought the build up of Edward and Bella falling in love was rushed. It was like 'oo i hate you' 'oo no wait i love you now' in 5minutes! Saying that i did love Edward's reaction the first time he 'smells' her, he looked like he was going to throw up which was funny.
One last moan, when Jacob is telling Bella the stories on the beach, they changed it so he doesn't say straight to her 'o yeah they're vampires' Which i thought was a shame because that bit in the book is cool. Whereas in the film she finds out on google...

So what i did like.... I loved all the actors i thought they were great. All of the Cullen's were really well casted, shame they had so few lines.
My favourite scene, I'm not really sure why, is the bit when Edward is trying to save Bella by sucking out James' venom. Rob's song in the background (which is my favourite) really made that scene, i felt a bit teary eyed at that part(!). I liked how they changed it to Carlisle shouting at him to stop, i guess it made it more dramatic compared to him resisting and stopping of his own accord.
Another scene i really liked was the baseball one, muse in the background was awesome. All of the soundtrack was amazing, having robs own songs in there was really cool, i love the black ghost song too. The way they managed to show all the vampires moving all stealthy was cool, especially Alice (Me and chrissy have attempted copying her on the Wii, and failed). The Nomadic vampires were pretty cool too, i love that line Victoria says about having the wicked curve ball.
Also when Edward and Bella walk into school together and everyone stares. Rob in his funky sunnies, i loved it. The prom scene was yummy too, the part at the end, wow. Oo and i liked how they added Victoria watching them, such a lead on for a sequel.

One last point, i loved how they took some quotes straight from the book. I was so excited they kept the heroin line. And they also did a few nice things that only people who read the book would understand - the apple,Stephenie's cameo and Edward smiling when Jessica first talks about him.

I think I'll go see it again and ill probably enjoy more the second time.

EDIT: So i did watch it again, online I'll admit. I liked it a LOT more the second time around. I didn't think the relationship was as rushed as i first thought it was. And all of the things that annoyed me first time around were less annoying this time. I'll definitely be buying it on DVD when it comes out.

Pendulum at the Swindon Oasis

2008-11-30T09:27:00.000-08:00

not my picture, from someone 'cool'

29/11/08

Woo! it was brilliant!

Went with Jessie and Chrissy, got the train up to swindon and walked 5 mins to get to the Oasis. I was surprised Pendulum were even playing in swindon! and i had no idea what the venue was going to be like, but i was pleasantly surprised. The hall was pretty big and had all the lighting and huge speakers.

We waited outside for a while, it was freaking cold! Once we finally got in we walked straight into the hall and stood a few rows from the front slightly to the right side. The support act was two random DJ's they were ok for like 15 mins, but then they went on for way over half an hour. Some songs they did were cool (rage) but the rest was lost on me. After they finally left Pendulum came on pretty quick after. I can't remember the setlist too well, but they played all my favourites (granite,different..) and some oldies too. Once they came on everyone went mental and started raving away, which was fun to be in. Some nobberts attemted to start a pit but it sucked a bit seeing as there was like three people in it! So it was a brill night, and im left sore all over today!

Other peoples vids :
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gmJbwErvsvQ

Update

2008-11-09T07:48:00.001-08:00

im just sorting out my blog, so it'l be crap for a while :)

Reading Festival

2008-11-09T07:35:00.002-08:00

22/08/08

FRIDAY READING REVIEW!!!
awesome day.

Anti-Flag- Me: Ok, wasn't very impressed, they were more pop than punk if im honest. When they yelled political stuff at us it annoyed me. We get it you don't like Bush.
Jessie: I liked them, they were American..and punky

Get Cape.Wear cape.fly-good, we wern't really paying attention him as we were getting food XD

Blood Red Shoes- very good, inside the tent was fun :D

Dizzee- really fun, shame his stupid trousers were so low (PULL THEM UP!) i thought they'd fallen down at one point because they were so low, haha.

Jessie: ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo he was SIK BLUUUUUUUUUUUDDD

Fix up

Just a Rascal

Serj Tankian- not very good, his mic was too low and was very odd!

Jessie: he bored me, he was ok in an odd sort of way tho

Biffy Clyro- great, seen them once before. Great band and the set was good.

Jack Penate- aww jack i love him, he was brill and i really liked the new stuff he played. Digged his reggae style dancing :D Can't believe they ripped his shirt off!

Jessie: ahh he was gd, apart frm gettin crushed evry 5mins haha

Fratellis - we were waiting for the loo at this point! Im not a huge fan anyway.

Queens of The Stone Age - really really good, it was dark by this point so everyone was dancing and having a good time.

Jessie: ahhhhhh yessss tht was kllll wiv our druggy buddies

No one Knows

Rage Against The Machine - AMAZING, wow they were so good (shame we had leave early!) They came on in orange boiler suits and bags over their heads, good stuff - opened with Bombtrack then went into Testify. The atmosphere was great for Rage, only went a bit scary when we got crushed! Thankfully we had been with a group of guys that got us out alive!
It wasn't too crazy and most people were lovely, One of the guys we talked to did get pissed on! Ahaa it was quite funny but gross at the same time.

Jessie: yh the atmosphere was ELECTRIFYING haha

Spice Girls

2008-11-09T07:35:00.001-08:00

I can't remember this very well seeing as i must have been about 8! It was at earls ourt and i went up with my mum, and we were about a million miles from the stage. Good times.

Destinys Child

2008-11-09T07:34:00.001-08:00

03/06/05

My first concert with Jessie and Chrissy! I remember that we were very far away, but we had a great time despite that! Lots of dancing and yelling 'uuhhooo uhhooo uhoooo'

Jack Penate

2008-11-09T07:33:00.002-08:00

10/10/07

Pete and Jess took me, I'm sure the tickets were birthday present. Before the gig i had no idea who Jack was! We listened to his CD on the way up, which i really liked. He was brilliant live and i had a really good time.

Pendulum

2008-11-09T07:33:00.001-08:00

06/05/08

Went with Jessie and Chrissy, we had suuuucccchhhh a good time. Shame our glow sticks got taken off us! We stood just above the main pit bit and raved around for the majority of the gig. Pendulum were awesome, best songs were Granite and Voodoo people.

We Are Scientists

2008-11-09T07:32:00.002-08:00

23/04/08

I was desperate to go see this band, but the carling show had sold out and by complete random chance i entered a competition on NME.com and won 3 tickets to the show i wanted to go to! So i was super excited to go. I went with pete and jess to the gig, we went and stood up on the balcony and had a really good view of the stage.

The support band 'Oxford Collapse' sucked, big time. The best part was when Keith came on stage a played the tambourine!

WAS were super good and played pretty much all my favourite songs, including Cash Cow which is my all time favourute song EVER!

Video: which has terrible sound.

Cash Cow

Milburn

2008-11-09T07:32:00.001-08:00

16/09/07

Again went with Pete and Jess, this time it was upstairs in the smaller bar/gig part. Hadn't really heard much of Milburn before the night, but i really enjoyed it and the support band The Envy Corps were great too, a tad odd though.

Chicago

2008-11-09T07:31:00.002-08:00

18/12/04

Still the best musical i've been to.

Mamma Mia

2008-11-09T07:31:00.001-08:00

26/12/07

This was a Christmas present from my Nan, so i went with her and my mum on boxing day. It was a little manic trying to get there, which was pretty funny seeing my nan and mum running down Bristol highstreet. The show was great and all the Abba stuff was really clever.

Billy Elliot

2008-11-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

09/08/07

Went with mum, Jean and Katie Morrison. Katie had busted her leg so getting through London was interesting! Really great show, loved the dancing.

High School Musical

2008-11-09T07:29:00.002-08:00

18/07/08

Yay! I went to see it for my 17th birthday, very grown up i know. We were a little worried waiting outside as we were older than evryone else by about 10 years! But once inside there was plenty of people our age. The show was based around the first film and was brilliant!

The Lion King

2008-11-09T07:29:00.001-08:00

17/12/05

The Rocky Horror Show

2008-11-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

11/05/07

Went to see it for Chrissys 17th birthday. We all went dressed up as Magenta, which meant being a tart in a french maids outfit - i was a bit red-faced walking up bath highstreet.

The show was really good and everyone got up and danced at the end, which is always nice.

Kanye West

2008-11-09T07:27:00.000-08:00

27/11/07

Second big concert with jessie and chrissy. We got there early and managed to be pretty much on the barrier! Which was so cool, i think if we couldn't see as well it would have sucked a bit. He had Common as a support act, who was really good - during a free-style he mentioned us! Which was super cool.

Kanye had a huge set and loads of violin players dressed as funky aliens. He was brilliant, best song was 'Jesus Walks' - which is my favourite anyway and 'stronger' which he ended on. Only slight downpoint was a bunch of fat chavs pushing their way to the front and shoving giant spliffs in our faces, actually it was pretty funny in the end.

The Goth Detectives

2008-11-09T07:25:00.002-08:00

28/07/08

Went with chrissy to this special one-off gig that Russell Brand and Noel Fielding created. They had a few guest acts on as well- James Cordon, Matthew horne and Simon Amstell.

Russell was by far the best comedian of the night, he was hilarious! His stand-up was brilliant and i thought pretty clever. Noel was really good as well, although i think i'd heard some of his material before which was a shame. The other acts were funny as well.

The Mighty Boosh

2008-11-09T07:25:00.001-08:00

29/10/08

Went with Chrissy on the 29th Nov, in Bristol. We went dressed up as 'future sailors' from the show, had sexy sailor hats as well - a very difficult look to pull off! Anyway we got there and we were fours rows from the front, so we saw EVERYTHING! They were so funny, Bob Fossil is by far the most random character ever, he came on and made us all stand up and copy his dance moves. "Grab the ham sandwitches!" hahaha i love him.

Feeder at Colston Hall

2008-11-09T07:24:00.000-08:00

08/11/08

Went with both of my brothers, i got them the tickets for birthday presents and thought i might as well go along too!

Got to Bristol early so went for a drink in a random pub, then walked (or ran because it was pissing it down!) to the Colston hall and went to the bar in there for more drinks. Went into the main room around 7.50 to wait for the support band, who were called 'The Chemists'. They were brilliant! Really impressed, they had a Editor vibe but a bit heavier. After they left waited around for a bit for Feeder, i went off and bought a nice tote bag for a fiver. Then they came on and were awesome! Played a really good setlist, mixture from all their albums. Highlight for me was Tracing Lines and Lost+Found.

Videos:

Feeder at the Thekla

2008-11-09T07:23:00.000-08:00

31/05/08

Super cool venue, it was a boat! One of the smallest gigs i've been to, loved it and would go to the Thekla again.

The gig was a promo/warm up show for Feeder, before they released 'Silent Cry' and toured all the festivals. The show was 18+ and i very,very,very nearly didn't get in, luckily the secruity guard who asked me to step aside got distracted so i ran in while he wasent looking. We stood on the balcony which had a really good view of the stage, we were so close you could see them blink! They played a really good setlist and it was a great night.

Linkin Park at Projekt Revolution

2008-11-09T07:21:00.002-08:00

Projekt Revolution, its Linkin parks summer tour that they usually just do in the States but they brought it here for a one-off special show.

We left about 9am to go to milton keynes bowl, took about two hours to get there. The longest part was trying to find parking and then queing to be bag checked. Finally got in about 1pm sadly i was too late to get a golden circle band, but i wasen't too fussed. Grabbed some food and headed up onto the hill to sit and much away. First band on was Innerpartysystem, they were ok, i can see that they would be better on CD.

After them it was the Bravery, they were shizz. The blokes voice was terrible and off, so i wasn't impressed by them at all. Next along the line-up it was Enter Shikari, they were alright i suppose, couldn't really understand what he was yelling about and his screaming was crapola compared to the likes of Chester. The drummer was pretty annoying, running around like a right spud - i wanted to ask him to sit down!

Next N*E*R*D came on, i was a bit sceptical about them and expected them to be shizz but i was really impressed! Played a few songs i knew and kept the crowd going really well.

Pendulum were next along, i wasn't as impressed by them compared to when i saw them in Bristol. But still pretty good.

Second to last was Jay-z, i watched him the night before on glasto and he was amazing. So i was expecting a lot.. and i was not disappointed wow, he was sooo good. Loved the part when he rapped over the Prodigy, that was awesome.
Between jay and LP people got bored so everyone started a bottle war, which was pretty funny until we got covered in beer about 5 times!

So! the main event...linkin park! They came on about 9pm. all the lights went up and a new intro to One Step Closer started, everyone was really pumped clapping and yelling. Then one by one LP emerged out! As soon as the main riff kicked in everyone went mental jumping and moshing.
After what felt like 5 minutes they went off, we all knew they'd come back so the chanting started...WE WANT MORE!! so they came back out played some more then left us again! Most of us knew well enough it wasn't the last encore so started yelling again, then finally Chester runs out yelling "YOU WANT MORE LP?" *cheers* "YOU WANT MORE JAY-Z?" *louder cheers* "HOW ABOUT FUCKING BOTH?" *even louder cheers* then boom jay-z strolls out and they go into numb/encore! It was so much fun, everyone was singing along and going mad. Jay left the stage then then ended with Bleed It Out, which was so awesome, i felt like the ground was shaking because about 60,000 people were stomping and clapping away. Best bit was the whole sing-a-long part, i was on Mikes side, yelling "ooooo ooo!" Then all of a sudden they were finished! Can't believe Ive seen them now for the third time, its definatly not enough! So I'm just going to have to wait until they're back! 1000/10 for LP

Videos:

Numb/Encore

Linkin Park at Nottingham

2008-11-09T07:21:00.001-08:00

24/01/08

Yaaay! I was so excited to go to this gig. I went with Dad up to Nottingham, i was a bit worried our seats wouldn't be very good - but we could see everything!

Biffy Clyro came on first and were really good, i enjoyed their set and knew quite a few songs.

LP had a huge white 'kabooki' (i know thats not how you spell it, but i can't be bothered to find out) which casted their shadows all big and funky. They came on with 'What I've Done', in itself is an amazing song but not a really strong opening song in my opinion. Again i met some lovely people so we were dancing and singing together. I think my highlight was 'Bleed It Out', which surprised me because i wasen't a huge fan of that song before. Also 'A Place For My Head' was really exciting because they hadn't played that in a while - "you tried to take the best of me - GO AWAY!!!" ahh heaven. 'My December' was a nice surprise as well, Chester was incredible on that.

Linkin Park at the Astoria

2008-11-09T07:20:00.000-08:00

03/05/07

Best gig i've ever been to, EVER!

First reason why was that i was lucky enough to get a meet and greet, which meant i could go and actually meet the band face-to-face. Which is amazing on its own. Went up on the train with my mum, she didn't have a M&G pass so she had to go off into another line. It was cool because i met some really great people in the queue, who im still friends with after over a year. So we waited for a while, then we got let into the Astoria and got given stickers to get into the M&G. Ran down a few stairs into a small room with a stage at the back. I was expecting to go into another room to meet them so i was caught completely off guard when the band just walked onto the stage! Everyone went crazy yelling and taking pictures. Joe was the last to walk out, messing around posing for pictures on the stage :) The first lot of people went through then it was my turn!

Pheonix was the first on the table,so i handed over my Hybrid Theory cover and said hey. He was really cool, he started talking about football it surprised me he knew about it, so i was a bit lost for anything normal to say! Next along was Mike, it was just unbelieveable to meet him, i kind of stared at him for a second then tried to pull it together and gave him a probably manic smile! Then said something about my art (i used him as my artist in GCSE) After mike it was Rob and Brad, my album cover had already been passed along so i had a second with me just standing like a moron in front of them, i said hey and they smiled and thankfully they said hi back!

Then it was chester, to be totally honest it meant the most when i met him, i love the rest of the band but chester is what got me into them and i just think he's lovely. I half expected him to be small and scrawny in real life, but he was so gorgeous! So i tried to take in the "moment" and gave a half sane smile and said hi, to my amazement he didnt call for security but reached out and shook my hand! Being pretty shocked at the whole thing i asked him if he wouldnt mind if i took a photo, but really really REALLY politely- i think i said please about a million times!
so that was that, joe was sort of busy posing for a photo and the guy was trying to get me away (ha!) so i said hi and had to run off, after i think i ran up the stairs and yelled " OH MY GOD!!!"

So the actual show:
We ran out into the main pit area and stood around there for a bit, at that point i had forgot about my mum so i called her up to try and find her. It was a tiny venue only like 2000 people and i was already freaking hot so i left and went up onto the balcony which had a way better view of the stage. Waited for around an hour then the lights went out and Joe came on and started Scratching his decks, the riff of one step closer keep banging out then the whole band came on and played OSC, you can imagine how mental the whole place went!

set list was:
One Step Closer Lying From You Somewhere I Belong No More Sorrow Given Up Papercut Don't Stay From The Inside Numb Pushing Me Away Breaking The Habit What I've Done Crawling In The End Faint

They were beyond amazing and chester had superman pants on which he showed to us all, which was nice of him.

Good night overall i think