Friday: Reasonably OK day, sunny, saw a truck driver nearly ran over while I was eating lunch on the benches, the guy yelled in a northern accent, "I'll be here when you come back, I'll chin you later". Finished early, came home, worked out, ate, showered and walked to the Tap. Went into the newsagents and decided to get The Times rather than a tabloid like I normally do because I felt like expanding my mind. Sat down in the Tap and read it, marvelling that it had news in it that actually was news until Chris arrived. Before we left for the Manor Steve came down and told us we were gay for going to the Manor and leaving him by himself. The Manor was so fucking empty thanks to them cracking down on ID checking (they didn't even let the sixteen year old DJ in the Rock room in), walked around doing a head count, at most they only had fifty people all night and for the first time ever, the Indie room was practically deserted, I'll be glad to see the Manor go. Some kid came up to me and asked "You're Straight Edge right? So how come you walk like you're pissed?" Mills showed up after an hour of us being there, had to keep begging Chris to leave or just outright insisting that I go back to the Tap by myself, finally me and Mills ganged up on him and said we were going, Chris grabbed Rhiannon and we joined the massive queue for the Tap (they weren't doing any ID checks any time soon). It took me nearly an hour to get in but I still only had to pay four pounds as I got there right before midnight, Chris went back to the Manor with Rhiannon and Mills just got bored and went home before I got in, also one of the bouncers saw my Send More Paramedics shirt and started talking to me about the Return Of The Living Dead films. Found Steve with Liam and Zoey, spent the rest of the night with them talking bollocks and chatting with Zoey's fit friends, one girl who claimed to be a model for magazines like Zoo and Nuts(she certainly had the figure for it), said her name was Kali McBride (not sure if I've spelt that right) and told us to watch out for her name in the future. Left with Steve after two am to get some chips and a taxi home.
Saturday: Woke up about quarter past nine, got ready as quickly as possible and went straight to Chatham to get the shopping. Came home ate and went straight to Rochester train station to get a train to Victoria. Got the underground to Tottenham Court Road to get tickets for Lifetime, Neurosis and Sick Of It All at the Mean Fiddler box office. Walked to HMV and raided the Hip Hop section for Jel, Sole and Themselves. Got the underground to Camden, went to the Vegan Chinese place and had lovely, lovely food, had a J2O in the World's End then got in the queue. As soon as I got in the Underworld I headed straight for the merch table and got a sweet Shai Hulud zip up hoodies. Went to watch the first band, I hadn't heard of the opening band on the poster outside but I realised I recognised the guys on stage and that the original opener had pulled out when the singer said "We're Love That Kills from Canterbury" so I found a place to sit down and ignore them. They played four shitty songs and finished with a Hatebreed cover, words can not describe my contempt.
Remembering Never: I heard one song by them that I kinda liked so I was prepared to give them a chance. They were pretty good but most of their songs just sounded like long beatdown sections. The best thing about them was their singers between song banter
"This song is about Homophobia and how retarded it is." I wish more Metalcore bands took that stance.
"This song goes out to all the Vegan and Vegetarian kids, I should say earlier we went to this great restaurant around the corner from here, I forget the name, this Chinese place, I still full of that shit." Same place I ate before I went in, cool.
"This is our last few songs then Parkway Drive is going to come on and look pretty. This is our last day in England and I'm really going to miss . . . What's that place called? . . . Marks & Spencers, they have the best Orange Juice I've ever had in my life"
Parkway Drive: Hadn't heard them before but seeing all their shirts everywhere made me a bit weary. Really fucking generic Metalcore with Australian accents and stolen Iron Maiden tapping.
Shai Hulud: Wasn't sure how it was going to work out with their new singer. He was this really fat bloke, I thought I recognised him from somewhere and realised he was one of the singer from Zombie Apocalypse. Wasn't as good as I was expecting them to be, they played a lot of songs I couldn't remember the words to but I did get to sing into the mic at the start of Given Flight By Demons Wings which kinda made it worth it. The guitarist knocked my head with his guitar because he was so close to the edge of the stage (he noticed and apologised though) and I nearly head butted the singer when a stage diver bumped into him while he was standing over me. Towards the end of their set I went to the cloak room to get my bag and went to the bar for a couple of bottles of water then watched from the back. They played Solely Concentrating On The Negative Aspects Of Life which made me wish I was still down the front to sing along, then they brought out the singer from Remembering Never to do For The World (another one I wish I could have sung along to) and finished with Let Us At Last Praise The Colonisers Of Dreams (god damnit, why did they have to save all the best songs 'til last).
Went to Victoria, got some tofu and rice, got the train to Chatham then a taxi home.
Saturday: Woke up about quarter past nine, got ready as quickly as possible and went straight to Chatham to get the shopping. Came home ate and went straight to Rochester train station to get a train to Victoria. Got the underground to Tottenham Court Road to get tickets for Lifetime, Neurosis and Sick Of It All at the Mean Fiddler box office. Walked to HMV and raided the Hip Hop section for Jel, Sole and Themselves. Got the underground to Camden, went to the Vegan Chinese place and had lovely, lovely food, had a J2O in the World's End then got in the queue. As soon as I got in the Underworld I headed straight for the merch table and got a sweet Shai Hulud zip up hoodies. Went to watch the first band, I hadn't heard of the opening band on the poster outside but I realised I recognised the guys on stage and that the original opener had pulled out when the singer said "We're Love That Kills from Canterbury" so I found a place to sit down and ignore them. They played four shitty songs and finished with a Hatebreed cover, words can not describe my contempt.
Remembering Never: I heard one song by them that I kinda liked so I was prepared to give them a chance. They were pretty good but most of their songs just sounded like long beatdown sections. The best thing about them was their singers between song banter
"This song is about Homophobia and how retarded it is." I wish more Metalcore bands took that stance.
"This song goes out to all the Vegan and Vegetarian kids, I should say earlier we went to this great restaurant around the corner from here, I forget the name, this Chinese place, I still full of that shit." Same place I ate before I went in, cool.
"This is our last few songs then Parkway Drive is going to come on and look pretty. This is our last day in England and I'm really going to miss . . . What's that place called? . . . Marks & Spencers, they have the best Orange Juice I've ever had in my life"
Parkway Drive: Hadn't heard them before but seeing all their shirts everywhere made me a bit weary. Really fucking generic Metalcore with Australian accents and stolen Iron Maiden tapping.
Shai Hulud: Wasn't sure how it was going to work out with their new singer. He was this really fat bloke, I thought I recognised him from somewhere and realised he was one of the singer from Zombie Apocalypse. Wasn't as good as I was expecting them to be, they played a lot of songs I couldn't remember the words to but I did get to sing into the mic at the start of Given Flight By Demons Wings which kinda made it worth it. The guitarist knocked my head with his guitar because he was so close to the edge of the stage (he noticed and apologised though) and I nearly head butted the singer when a stage diver bumped into him while he was standing over me. Towards the end of their set I went to the cloak room to get my bag and went to the bar for a couple of bottles of water then watched from the back. They played Solely Concentrating On The Negative Aspects Of Life which made me wish I was still down the front to sing along, then they brought out the singer from Remembering Never to do For The World (another one I wish I could have sung along to) and finished with Let Us At Last Praise The Colonisers Of Dreams (god damnit, why did they have to save all the best songs 'til last).
Went to Victoria, got some tofu and rice, got the train to Chatham then a taxi home.