I thought it would be nice to annotate it so you know what everything is…

There are 3 things in there which aren’t tech… can you spot them?

First up was a band from Canada called Cancer Bats, I have heard lots of their stuff in the past on CD and Spotify etc. But live, not good, partly because the sound was terrible, there was just something about the performance which didn’t quite seem right. Some very fake comments between songs – “Lets make this the best night of our lives”, and others. This led to concerns before Billy T started along the lines of the bad sound quality, however they were totally unfounded.

Billy T sounded great, the mix was just right and they played exceptionally tight. Always helps when you know the 3 albums they have, no songs sneak past. The crowd involvement during Devil on my shoulder worked! Its such a brilliant line, and the melody is just top notch!

You can see more of my pictures here. Were you there?

Check out the rest on Flickr, or check out where I’ve been / going on my Last.FM account.

Were you there? Get in touch!

Basically Alcopopular3 is the latest compilation from Alcopop records, this is slightly different though, its only available as a bottle or mp3’s. Brilliant!

Anyway, the tweets, I got exclusive access to the tracks, a perk of knowing Jakkychamp, and each day for the next two weeks I will be reviewing a track in one tweet. The first word is the band name. So yeah keep an eye out and see what you think, hopefully I will drive some sales – LOL.

Proud to have received a special mention already!

Peace.

Can I see the band?
Is the sound good?
Can I get to the bar?

Of course Gallows were their usual awesome selves, midway singer Frank Carter got bored and went and partied on the middle bar instead of the stage. The bar staff didn’t seem to like the idea too much…

Gallows have also made a good start into social media, they have a Myspace (what band doesn’t?) but they were talking to the venue organizers in the days leading up to the show through Twitter, they also have a Youtube and a LastFm, a good start chaps!

…Or not. Time for some more beers, well ciders! First thing, outside of the campsite for the day was Bish and Douch’s comedy. A mixed bag, some of it was funny, some of it was only funny because by lunch time I was drunk again and some wasn’t funny. I won’t go into specifics, because I believe I already did this with the guys when I was drunk later on.

First mission back to the campsite for the day to grab some more beers, via a mates campsite. Nothing really happening so must be time to hit the arena. Rollo Tomasi, the only good band I remember seeing on the Saturday, in fact the only band I remember seeing. As everyone who I saw after this point will know, I was wearing flop flips (very similar to flip flops but with my own swing on things). Now, flop flips aren’t ideal festival footwear at the best of times, but in a moshpit, on a concrete floor, with some over sized mofo’s in with me, they are a really bad idea. Not till I got outside the Barn did I realise the extent of the damage. One toe nail half off, the rest smashed to s**t. Of course being the big man I am I caused no fuss… yeah right, I think everyone in the whole festival heard about my now bleeding, broken, uber disgusting feet, I’d apologise, but they really hurt!

Its ok though, there was a happy ending, cider made everything better! Almost all of the rest of the day kind of blurs, I remember lots of being stamped on (people bored of my feet stories I guess), I remember spending some time back in the car park with Mickey Finns (fake Apple Sourz), and I remember dancing like a hero in the D&B Barn. All of these were done by/with the person I mentioned in my Friday post, so all was good chilling/dancing/partying with people from your past is always surprising amounts of fun.

A good change for this year was the fact they allowed us into the camp site on the Friday night. Something to do with the increased number of tickets available, the organisers felt that they would need to get people in before Saturday morning. This seems fair, rather than the normal rule where only people who have previously arranged to enter on the Friday, who were coming from far away, would be allowed in. That’s basically where the carnage started.

After pilling everyone into Elly (that’s my car’s name btw), we trooped the few miles up to Steventon. Not surprisingly there was no queue to get in, and no real traffic in the village, making me think that the camp site might only have 20 people in it for the night. Park up, and rules are rules, time for a beer! First beer at a festival always has to be in the car park. This is admittedly a Download tradition which strives from having to drive for 2 hours and then normally sit in traffic for hours. Maybe we don’t deserve one after a ten minute drive? But who’s to say! We get in to the festival and realise I was gravely mistaken about the number of people already there, there must be a thousand people there already. Brilliant!

First things first, get the tent up. For me, I had a nice compact two man tent which I was having to myself, this only took 20 mins to get up. Chair out, beer open and relax. Relax and watch a fellow camper who was having a bit more trouble with his tent. After just over an hour he finally got the outside up, polled, and pegged. Just to realise it was inside out and the guide ropes were facing inwards and the inside layer clips outwards. You can imagine the hysterical laughter which ensued.

Clearly time for a little wonder, in fact a little wonder turned into a mission back to the car to get some more beers / the food. Never a bad thing! I picked up the bottle of Gin which I got given at the football awards, thanks [censored]!

I was quite pumped about this Friday night, normally I’m too tired from work to do much constructive on a Friday, however this one was different. I knew there was an old, close, good acquaintance from my past who was going to be there and I was really looking forward to catching up with her. As was to become apart on the Saturday night, the disco tent in hindsight was clearly the best place to meet up with her.

The disco tent this year was powered by peddle power. Ace idea for all those [censored] heads.

The rest of the night was spent drinking Bulmers and gin in front of the singing hippy guy in his camper van. Always worth a gander, especially when there is little else to do. Relatively early night, in the tent and thinking about sleep around 3.

Who’s coming? Comment me and we’ll have a beer.