leeds fest: 25th - 30th august 2010!

i was pretty gutted that the early entry meant missing 'scott pilgrim vs the world' on opening day, but seriously, i had nothing to be gutted about. i had such a good time at leeds, it was one of the best life expirences i've had, and i'm probably more lucky than i realise.

the lugguage we all took was stupid. loads of it. mine was a large percentage food, i think it was the same for leyla and liv. at one point me and leyla looked for somewhere to put the tent whilst liv waited in the middle of a field with all our things.
once everything was sorted, we just settled in, had an alcoholic drink and some instant bbq-ed bacon and sausages each and sat around. i thought the day would drag, but it didn't really cause we had some good banter.
we waited 1 hour and 20 minutes to get an over 18 wristband. very pointless thinking back.
early morning the next day, people from general entry were coming in. i was woken up by someone singing 'bob' by NOFX, which was a pretty nice thing to hear considering if i was at home, a NOFX song wouldn't be played by anyone else.
someone shouted "RAOUL MOAT'S DEAD"

ermm the next day we moped around again.
waited til the afternoon to go meet helena and aimee, which i chatted to for a bit. they were camped not far away, and we decided to meet as much as we could.
leyla bbq-ed a swiss roll, i had a bbq-ed apple pie, and liv had a mixture of noodles and mash potatoe. i'm sure that's exactly what all the top chefs would want to eat if they camped at leeds.

that night, the area with all the stages opened, and we spent the rest of the night there. were was a screening of kick-ass at one of the stages.
such a great film, loved seeing it again. also loved the fact we finally convinced liv into seeing it, and she actually liked it.
me and leyla were laughing through it as usual. something that caught on the whole week was repeating "MINDY was born"
oh and i don't like how everytime christopher mintz-plasse came on, loads of people shouted "MCLOVIN!" at one point i thought i should have my say and interupt them all with "he's actually called FOGELL, jeez..."
but didn't really do so well with that.

after that, on the 'introducing' stage, a couple of bands were playing. we only caught the headliner of that night 'get cape. wear cape. fly', who seemed pretty good. never really heard his stuff, but i'm aware his stuff gets compared to frank turner.

not a very nice sleep after that. the neighbours were loud, and there was a mini-stage by our tent that played music til the early morning.
although i say that, i only intended to have a nap before we went to see shutter island, and i ended up falling asleep totally.

got up sharpish the next morning to see the first bands.
moral dilemma at the lock-up stage 12am. it was empty, and we all stood by the barrier for them. i'd seen them support the king blues, i kind of wanted to see these to reassure weither they're that good or not.
i'm still quite undecided. i appriciate them as a uk underground band, and i do quite enjoy their music, but i don't think they're going to go very far. the bassist guitar strap broke during their set, and they just stood and spoke about it on the stage.
the following band however did not disapoint anyone in the audience. random hand, again i've seen them as a support act, but for sonic boom six. brilliant band, i'd say this was my favourite performance of theirs. even leyla and liv enjoyed them.

after that we stood and watched a bit 3oh!3, not anything i enjoy, but there were stages of music, i may aswell have watched something. frank turner was doing a signing during this set, so me and leyla left early to get there in time. liv went missing til about 10 minutes before the signing.
i was actually really really nervous to meet him since i started to fall in love with his music a lot this year.
when i was infront of him, he requested a high-5. i was shaking so much so i was embaressed about that. he signed my card, and i smudged it with my fingers immediately. shittttttt man. got a photo with him though, pretty nifty memory.

me and leyla went to see 'the rats', which was gallows secret name for leeds, whilst liv staged at the main stage for the rest of the day seeing some bands i can't recall.
literally only seen 3 songs by gallows, which seemed very well performed as usual. would've loved to have seen all of the set, but it clashed with frank turner who i also love.
ended up really early at the NME stage and caught the last 2 songs by kids in glass houses. they're a very boring band, and their performance did nothing for me other than make me impatient for frank.
frank did an amazing set. loved every song, i think i may have enjoyed that performance to when i saw him at the begining of the year. i was distracted by some older man in the audience who i couldn't tell if he was special or not. he clapped his hands in the weirdest way, and headbanged at everything. granted - he was enjoying the music, but folk punk doesn't need THAT much headbanging.

right after serj tankian was on. streams and streams of people left, and it was a pretty empty tent, which really quite confused me.
he did an amazing performance with a string quartet band on stage too. he obviously tried really hard, but it was sad that barely anyone was there to see it. also, people chanted "SYSTEM", which made me feel bad for serj, he obviously couldn't do anything SOAD related.
yeah it made me wish i saw him support foo fighters cause i can imagine tons more people would have been there to see it.

walked up to meet liv after that. main stage area was PACKED. dizzee rascal was on, his final song was bonkers. sadly, i know that song... he really did get an great response though.
met up with liv for a moment, and ditched her again to catch a song by cancer bats. should probably listen to them more, they're alright.

we went back to meet liv, but she dragged herself into the crowd for a good space for libertenes. i was quite suprised at how good they were. didn't have as much audience as dizzee, but again the audience did love them.

after their set, i had no bands to see, so i figured i'd wait at the lock-up stage for bad religion. the get up kids just started their set when i got there. i didn't like them, but when i was there i spent my time making it a little mission getting closer and closer to the front. i didn't expect to get very close, but once get up kids left, i found myself at the barrier.
i was literally shaking once i was there. it could've been cause it was so bloody freezing, or how fucking fantastic the thought of seeing one of my favourite bands right at the very front.
oh god, my heart stopped when they came on stage. they're all really much older looking in real life, but that doesn't erase their ability to perform as brilliantly as they used to when they were younger.
they opened with do what you want - perfect, fast pased, generally brilliant song.
"say what you must, do all you can, break all the fucking rules and go to hell with superman and die like a champion - yah hey"
got goosebumps at that point uirigubigtbki.
they played loads of songs, i wouldn't say they were really classics by bad religion, but any fan would know what they were. my favourite songs of the night were atomic garden, fuck armageddon... this is hell, and i want to concor the world.
i'd say their last 5 songs were the ones everyone would expect, infected, american jesus, generator, 21st century digital boy and sorrow.
generator is my all-time favourite bad religion song, and hearing it live blew me away, seriously. there's nothing better than hearing one of your favourite songs live. that made my night. not only that, but they did it fast, rather than their slow live version.
what suprised me most about them was the talk on stage. considering they sing about pretty serious subjects, their sense of humour is great. i was laughing at everthing greg was saying. my favourite speach of his was warning the audience not to use the fun-fair rides that were outside of the tent, and he gave an example story "person loses head after being flung 20ft off swings"
and i also love how at the end of their set, jay said "we'd also like to thank gallows because they've gave me hope that punk rock isn't dead"

bad religion were definitely my favourite lock-up performance of the whole weekend. i still can't even believe i've seen them now. during their set i was nipping myself to make sure it was actually happening. i'm so fucking lucky to have experienced them myself, a band that's been around for 30 years, not only that, but one of the best bands in punk music today. it was an honour being at the barrier of their show and have them grace my life in such a way they have. even if that was the only time i'd see them, i'll remember their performance forever.

after the set, i bought my first bad religion t-shirt, and put it on immediately. i was so fucking cold that night.
when we were going back to the tent, the mini stage was playing all the small things by blink. i was thinking to myself "this is the last time i'll hear blink til i see them" i didn't really know what to think about that, it was too good to be true.
after that was played, it was followed by sum 41 - FACE PALM FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE, ERGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

that night wasn't a very good sleep. we were probably the only people in our area going to sleep as early as we did. i think one of the main reasons i couldn't sleep was cause i just saw bad religion, and i didn't really have a problem sleeping the night before with all the noise.
i woke up in the middle of the night, at on the cealing of the tent, "inception" was written. i was shitting myself once i saw it, i was thinking "so this could actually be a dream?" i was so fucking confused and i didn't know what to do. even if it was a dream, at least i've got it all written in my blog so well enough to be a memory :)

the next morning we woke up a little later. got to the main stage in time for motion city soundtrack. i loved their set! i feel like it's made me appriciate them as much as i used to, considering i don't really enjoy pop-punk music. they're a band who do it right. i could even bare listening to their new songs which i've only heard once or twice. ahhh and they played 'the future freaks me out' which is probably my favourite song of theirs.

followed by the king blues. this was the 2nd time i saw them, and they did a perfect performance. sad that it was short set because they would've pulled off a longer one well. i eneded up being almost by the barrier, which was accident, but i didn't really mind at all.
the only thing i didn't like about their set was they played a new song no one knew. they did headbutt which was an exception, but i didn't know how to feel about the other one.

lost leyla and liv AGAIN, spent so much time looking for them that i ended up catching a bit of thrice. met them at the tent and prepared for the 2 hour gap of nothing. had food, then experimented with some alcohol i brought. cherry brandy, vodka and coke was lush, but i ended up running low on coke and used energy drink instead, which made me very hyper. leyla had a really really strong vodka and coke, and she was a bit drunk. we had fun drawing on the tent walls though, all the people who were playing and such.
i felt the need to bring in an alcoholic drink to the stages with me because the alcohol there was exceedingly expensive.
i got it in by hiding it under my arm and i felt very proud of myself.

limp bizkit just made me think of the 90's, it was just a blast from the past seeing them. it's a shame that whenever i do try and listen to them in my spare time i can't let myself listen to it all ahaha, they're just really cringey for me.
but i'd happily see them again.

after that set, we ran around to the other side of the stage, this was a start for me to get close for blink-182, or at least be on mark hoppus' side.
i was looking forward for cypress hill, generally because they're nothing like i'd usually listen to. yeah sadly didn't enjoy them. insane in the membrane would've been enough, ahaha. oh well.

WEEZER. oh my loooord. one of my favourite performances of the weekend. they were just so fun live. i love them a load more now that i've seen them. i've got to see them again.
what i love is that they played older stuff that everyone knows. surf wax america = fantastic live song.
they even covered wheatus's "teenage dirtbag", which ironically we'd been explaining to liv wasn't a weezer song at the start of the day. freaky shit man.
rivers was so close to me too, cause i moved even closer for a good blink space, and rivers had sat on the fence at the side of the stage, which was literally right infront of me. oh god. he really doesn't give a shit about anything, he's so fucking cool.

someone had a tom cruise cut out, and i found myself next to tom cruise. that was cool?

paramore after that. SO MANY HAYLEY WILLIAMS WANNABES IN THE WORLD EVERY SINGLE ONE SHOULD DIE. they're all fucking bitches too. i wasn't wanting to see these at all, but whatever.
people really pushed during these. couldn't name one of their songs they played apart from misery bussiness, and that one from the twilight advert. i appriciated them more when they first started out, personally i think hayley just wants a shit load of money more than anything.
such a relief when they were over. no one moved after their set - paramore fans are blink fans too. it made me regret not trying to move more for blink when weezer were on.
although i did get scared when loads and loads of people were falling over and toppling. people really really pushed, and i felt like i was going to die any moment. not that i would have minded if it was during blink, but i was too scared. someone came on stage and said "we don't want what happened in 2007 when foo fighters were coming on, there was a large number of injuries then, just step back 3 times everyone thanks"
the most people did was one.

it took fucking forever til blink came on.
shaking like fuck. when they did come on i just screamed my heart out. i couldn't believe it was happening.
ahhh i feel so weird even talking about it.
mark hoppus was right infront of me, the guy who i spent my high school years listening to instead of the teachers, my hero. not only that, but he was on stage with definitely the most talented musicain in the world, and ..tom delonge?
surreal.
i stood there for 2 songs, then i was still scared, so i started to walk further away. i basically ran. i regret it slightly, because my spot beforehand wasn't as bad. my neck hurt either way, so i just decided to go further and further back.
my view was nearly all blocked and i had to watch the tv for most of the night, which in a way i was gutted about.
i loved their set list. mainly cause they actually played my favourite song ever by them - don't leave me. ugh i can't believe i heard it live.
when i was walking back, i stood in the way of 2 young girls. i let them infront of me, cause i felt bad. it made me so happy seeing them sing along to every word, it reminded me of me and stacy when we were in high school. oh maaaan.

then for the encore, they put a black sheet over the stage, expect people on my side could see everything that was happening, and travis was being strapped onto his drums.
that man is a miracle. witnessing that man drumming with my own eyes has got to see one of the best things i could ever witness in my lifetime. he is flawless, i doubt anyone on earth could be that talented at drumming, and i'm not even being biased cause he's in my favourite band.
OH AND THEY PLAYED JOSIE. that was nice hearing live cause i didn't expect that :)
i've got to see them again. ever after i've seen them, i know i've got to see them again. such an honour to see those guys live too. they took up so much time during my high school years, and that's basically is a lifetime for some people.

i bought a blink and a NOFX shirt after that, and it was so hectic getting them. big audience for blink, but i couldn't see cause i was close maaaaaan.
that night i probably had the best sleep. mainly because i remember dreaming about mark hoppus' son. greatttttt.

we got up the latest the last day.
i spent all morning talking about blink :)
went to see crazy arm, and missed a bit of their set. they were alright. i prefered them when i saw them support frank turner.

i was so excited for the skints, but gutted i could only see a couple songs due to the clash with billy talent.
they played so well, i can imagine i would've enjoyed them more this time than last. the gutiarist said "put your hands up if you smoke weed"
me and leyla just stood there and laughed, so awkward hahahaha.

billy talent were great. can't identify the lead singers sexuailty, then me and leyla were trying to remember his name and she said "billy, obviously"
then i deicded it was ian dury and the blockheads. if you see a picture of the whole band, you'll understand.
yeah i feel like i wasn't fully in the mood for them, but they still met my standards. would love to see them again.

loads of people left for before gogol bordello, meaning a great space at the barrier was awaiting me.
they peformed brilliantly, execpt their set-list wasn't the best. too many new songs, and pala tute wasn't even one of them. they should've played faster and more energetic songs, that would've been ace.
my strange uncles from abroad would've made the whole setlist meet my standards actually.
start wearing purple was their best song, but sadly it was their last. oh well.
i still love them though, hopefully if they come back their set-list would be a bit better.

NOFX! fat mike walked on stage casually, not trying to make a show out of it - just perfect. i love how they don't even try and make a fuss like any other bands.
although i prefer when i saw them last year, they still played really well. pretty similar setlist with the addition of we called it america and creeping out sara.
my heart broke when they said they did a double setlist at reading and played the decline. ughrohogrbgkg.
and i like mike talking about blur on stage. killing the crowd.
oh dear, NOFX never fail to make me laugh.

after that i wasn't in the mood to see anything. so bored and tired. wasn't suitable sleeping though, so i went to the tent to get something to wear and drink.
brought my whole bottle of rose with me.
the guy tried to search me too... they're not allowed to search girls! and he asked me to shake my pockets :S

sat at the side of streetlight manifesto drinking wine alone. i couldn't be bothered to watch them, but they sounded pretty good.
hatebreed were on next and leyla came and stood with me for them. i couldn't let myself listen to them. they said something like "if the person next to you isn't moving, i give you permission to move them yourself" and i said "i know where to move" and i walked out.

found liv, and we sat together watching queens of the stoneage. they did a good set. a was a little more interested in theses than everything else after NOFX. basically sat and laughed through it.
loads of people choice to pee on the weezer advert with hurley from lost on, ahaha.
i missed against me! from being too lazy to go alone. thats my biggest regret of the weekend.

after that, we were lying down waiting for guns 'n' roses. god, i was looking forward for it being over if anything.
they weren't as bad when they came on, and an hour went fast.
ended up at the barrier for alkaline trio, i don't even know how. but i felt pretty drunk then, and it was the most drunk i'd been the whole weekend.
it was obvious matt skiba was drunk too, showing off infront of fat mike who was also on stage. he dedicated a song to tony blair...
when they finished guns 'n' roses were still playing and axl was moaning about shit, apparently this got loads of media attention. didn't really know what was happening.
i heard paradise city whilst going back to my tent, lovley bit of information.

that night wasn't the best of sleeps either. oh wellllll.
next morning we packed everything and went home. so weird.

yeah i've been writing this for a few hours now cause i've had nothing to do. can you tell i got lazy during the end? oh well whatever.

i've had this blog over a year now.
i'm guessing i won't use it as much as i did last year, but i intend to post important things that i want to remember rather than a whole analysis of my day. maybe weekly posts or something, i don't even know if i'll keep up with that. i get bored of everything.

i'm still yet to publish my germany/france stuff, and now i'm also working on a leeds post which will probably be on sooner than the europe one.

while i'm here i'm going to post other things thats happened recently.

got my college results back. 3 D's. it sounds pretty disapointing, but i'm really quite chuffed that i actually passed everything. bye bye tyne met!

i think it was last week, i gave blood for the first time. it was something i wanted to do since i was a kid, the idea of saving someones life in such an easy way is amazing. although when it did get closer to the time i got really scared and wanted to forget about the whole thing.
but after everything was filled out, no going back. all the nurses spoke to me, i felt it wasn't nessisary that every single one of them needed to, but whatever.
the guy who put the needle in my arm was talking about the cure to me, the conversation was quite dead though cause i barely paid attention to that.
oh and the needle going in the arm did hurt, and the nurses laughed at me when i said it did. well, it's not exactly a nice feeling, at least i don't want to lie to them.
after a pint of blood was donated, i was free to leave. i got my free cup of tea, and slowly had that. all of a sudden i felt really dizzy, and it came on so fast i felt like i was going to die or something. i don't remember blacking out, but before i woke up i felt like i'd just been asleep cause i had a bit of a dream. it was so bizzare, i opened my eyes and there were loads of nurses standing looking down at me, as well as my mam with eyes full of tears. oh god.
well basically after donating the blood it was traumatic and i thought anything could go wrong after that.
but everything was fine! i was left with a pretty bad bruise after that, which stayed for about a week. 1 in 7 people bruise apparently.
i got a letter from the blood donors saying they're hoping i haven't been put off, and i don't feel like i have really. i would do it again, maybe not this year though.

yeah i totally forgot i was writing this, i started this a few days ago, whoops. it just shows how silly i am with this.

well yesterday i had my interview with newcastle college. i was so much more nervous than i should've been, it was basically a casual chat rather than an interview.
first a group of us were shown around where we'd be having lessons and stuff, and it's basically like a tv studio. well, it is a tv studio cause stuff has been aired in there before, but there's an editing room aswell which looks really fancy and complicated.
when the interviews were going on, we were sitting in the editing room together. there were 3 other people waiting, and i thought i'd be too scared to talk, but i had a nice chat with them all. didn't catch any of their names though, although i'm sure they've got places, they all seemed pretty prepared with work and stuff.
oh and my interview went well! i'm never really good at them, and discussing media was easier cause it's something i actually like. although then again, i'm not an avid tv fan, and it didn't even cross my mind to decide my favourite tv shows before going in.. whoops.
stuck with saying friends and how i met your mother.
the only thing i wish i could've changed was admitting that i sometimes watch big brother. at least it's over and i can't embaress myself with my horrible taste in reality television.
my favourite part of the interview was when the teacher said "if you got a place, would you be happy and would you try your hardest?" and he basically asked me that again 2 more times but in a different way, until interupted him and said "i've never had the chance to do anything like this, the closest thing i could get was writing scripts in college, but nothing more after that" and his response was "would it make your day if you got a place?" and after that he said "because you have a place"
i had the cheesiest smile on my face after that, oh god.
i start in 2 weeks time :)

oh man i forgot what else to put, okay going to work on my leeds blog now bye byeeee

well i haven't been blogging lately, which i don't know why really. probably no motivation.
i've been working on a really long holiday blog, trust me it's taken me hours and i've still not completed it! taking a break now to do this blog. i need to refresh my memory a bit.

since i've been back home i don't think i've been up to that much. i'll point out some highlights.

when i came back home from holiday, my parents came back from dublin, where they'd been the the grown ups premiere. they met adam sandler and chris rock. my dad spoke to them about me, and adam gave my dad a shirt to give to me.
they also met bill nighy at the airport, and he gave me an autograph!

i became a bit obsessed with big brother when i got back, which i shouldn't have let myself into, but whatever. it's not my favourite series cause i don't like many of the housemates. but since the first few days i liked mario, and my opinion on him hasn't changed. i'd love to see him win, but i guess the repsonses i've seen looks like he'll probably not win.
although, i never know, rachel win a few years ago when everyone thought mikey would win...

i had a nice day a few days ago, i forgot the exact date, and i went to my auntie marias house. i spent it with my cousins who i haven't seen in a long time.

bought a couple new films; fantastic mr fox, and paperheart. i'm still expecting welcome to the dollhouse and the squid and the whale in the post. they'll probably take forever to get in the post...

6th of august was my sisters birthday, and i spent the morning with her. she got a make-over, and i got my eye make-up done at the same time.
we had a chinese that night for tea, and i haven't had a proper take away for god knows how long.

joe came to mine after he's been to rebellion, and we watched juno and drew random shit and spoke to john roecker, to put it short.

10th i saw big d and the kids table, mothwash, jb conspiracy, and newbridge downfall with joe. it was a very awkward gig, quite empty compared to other gigs, and i don't think big d have hardcore fans from here.

11th i saw toy story 3 with liv. it was a nice little film, and i cried at the end regardless how much i was trying not to.

can't really think of much else to put, but boring days really. still looking for work and stuff to do.

i wanna see sorcers apprentice and knight and day!

today was alright.

basically waited around to go to leylas. got the insurance sorted out, and looked through leylas old photos.
when i got home i ended up looking through my own. i don't have many on my hard drive, and it's kind of saddening. i need more photos.

tomorrow i leave for germany, so i can imagine i won't be blogging. idk, i might.

so tired now, i should take advantage of my last night in my own bed.

oh god why did i forget to blog yesterday?

it was good. i got up early to go to the first screening of inception. it wasn't as crowded as i expected it to be, but that didn't really matter.
the film was so much better than what i was expecting!

me and leyla then went to yates for our lunch cause i got vouchers for free burger and chips. we saved £12.50 :o
and we stayed in town for a bit after that.

can't be bothered to explain the rest of yesterday. but i figured i should do my blog for today here too before i forget another time.

did charity buckets in tynemouth. liv and alice paired up and me and leyla paired up.
time went by so quick. we saw emma the art teacher and it was so awkward.
we also saw a man that looked like seth green.

wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww bored of this.

today has been particularly boring.

i finished watching my 'how i met your mother' boxset, i seriously need to buy the next boxset as soon as i can afford to waste my money.

i phoned college about my resit. it was an awkward phonecall, because they thought i already knew what happened, but i gave them the wrong number and they left a message to that number.
they've marked my coursework apparently, but they need to contact me again about the exam or something. they better do it before the holiday, which is SOON.

okay boring day short blog.

today was fun.

met leyla sharpish at the metro. i was early, even though i told her i'd be late.
i needed to go to college to ask if i was too late to pay for the re-sit. of course, they were vauge about it. when the receptionist was talking to the exam person on the phone, she spent 5 minutes talking about where they're going on holiday. also, halfway through the call she whispered to me "i like your t-shirt!"

i'm still a bit scared about this all, but even if i don't do well, my course has a low entry requirement anyway, and i'm certain it would meet the criteria.

we went to town, moped about for 2 hours. i took a photo of the scott pilgrim display at forbidden planet, which improved from yesterday!


we also found a nice film book in waterstones that included everything is illuminated, eagle v.s. shark, and funny people :)
sexy book.

we went to see killers, which was an enjoyable film. apparently it didn't do very well. it was a little confusing, and not that funny. it helped being hyper during it due to the fact we ate shit beforehand.
leyla collected loads of more free film magazines from the cinema cause they have inception posters on the back. i think she has like 20 now, oh my goddddd.
inside theres a scott pilgrim picture, and she's going to give me them all :)

came home to sort things out to put in the box to germany.
went along to leylas and we tested out the tent for leeds. vair niiiice.

don't think there's much else to say, i'm too tired to mention anything else that happened.
ohh but i listened to the borat soundtrack before, thats why i said vair nice.