Leeds Leeds Leeds Leeds Leeds

I know I said in my last post that I've been pretty slack with updating recently and well, nothing's changed since then but I thought I'd make up for that properly now with a monolith of a blog post recounting my past weekend at Leeds Festival.

(NB: after spending three days so far writing this, I've decided to write a post for each day of the festival, mainly because no-one ever wants to read that much text in one go...)

I'd only been to one festival prior to this and that was Reading in 2004 when I camped with some friends for the weekend. Suffice to say that I pretty much made a promise to myself that I'd never camp again and no be fair this promise has been kept. The other reason that I'd not been to a festival since that first experience was because well, the lineups had never looked worth it. I mean £170 for a few bands I kind of want to see isn't exactly great value for money in my book. This year was different though (mainly because AFI played) but also because there were 20 or so bands that I was genuinely excited to see play. Plus I knew a lot of people who I'm friends with were going to be in attendance either for the entire weekend or for one day so with this in mind Apryl, Steph and I bought our tickets.

A few months rolled by and then before I knew it, it was the day before and I hadn't packed anything. Hastily throwing some t-shirts and my jeans in to a bag Apryl and I set off for t'north and after a pretty uneventful journey arrived at casa del Walker around 4pm. Steph was still at work so we hung out with her dad for a bit while he made us a brew and explained the various routes in and out of the festival site via the M1. Suffice to say, Mr Walker is amazing.

In the evening we had every intenton in making our first foray to Bramahm Park to watch Holy State play on the BBC Introducing Stage, but we were all too tired so we just got food in town with Stan, Saker, Niall and Liena and then went home to sleep.

Friday was day one proper of the festival and I was pretty excited. Not just because of all the great bands that were playing that day (most of them on the same stage) but also because I got to hang out with a bunch of awesome people who I hadn't seen for ages. Top of this list were the six dudes in Polar Bear Club, who I hadn't seen since early June.

Anyway, we headed off in dappled sunshine with a light wind blowing and caught the 40 minute bus to the site (vaguely interesting fact #1; the new Leeds Festival site is actually closer to York.) Having judged the weather to be not too bad I'd only worn a t-shirt and a windbreaker, but this decision was proved foolish when we got to the site and it was blowing a gale and drizzling steadily. Not to be peturbed we made our way into the main arena via 'wrist band exchange' where as the name suggests you exchange your ticket for one of those wrist bands that you see kids wearing seven months later in the hope that if they keep it on until next year's festival they'll get a free crate of beer (interesting fact #2; this doesn't happen as Carling don't sponser the festival anymore. Stop being a dirty mosher and cut that wrist band off, no one cares that you went to Reading three years ago.)

Once inside the arena the rain did actually stop and the sun made a brief appearance. Fortunately the rain that had been falling all morning wasn't that heavy so the mud bath I'd been anticipating hadn't occured and the ground still had most of it's grass coverage intact.

As I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, one of the main reasons that I was excited for this day was due to the prescence of Polar Bear Club, and Tracker had been good enough to organise passes for Apryl, Steph and myself so that we could actually hang out in the relative quiet of backstage, rather than out in the main arena. However, while speaking to Stan the night before he thought that these passes came with an 'optional' charity donation of £25. If this was true, it sucked so I headed back to the 'Guest Pass Enquiry' window near the entrance to the site and asked about our passes. Luckily the passes we had weren't the normal guest area passes but stage and dressing room access ones that were the same as the band's, and best of all there was no charge. Having picked my pass up successfully I headed back to find the others and tell them the good news. Lack of phone signal and our lack of forsight in arranging a meeting place meant that I didn't find them until just before PBC started to play, but they said they'd pick there's up after the set and just watch from out front.

Anyway enough inane rambling, on to the main reason over 70,000 people were stood in a cold West Yorkshire field for three days: the bands.

The first band I watched were Polar Bear Club and they kicked things off well. Although Goose's bass decided to break about two seconds in to the first song and no one seemed to know what was wrong with it, they soldiered on and had an impressive number of people singing along. A few minutes passed before the second song of the set while the problem with the bass was sorted, but when the band got going again they played pretty flawlessly and got a really good reaction from a tent that was, despite the early start, almost full.

After the set Apryl and Steph headed off to pick up their passes while I caught up with PBC, Stan and Saker. It was good to see all these guys as it'd been a while and they've all been pretty busy so it was good to hang out and what about what we've all been up to.

Next up were A Wilhelm Scream and although I only managed to catch the last couple of songs I was really impressed. It took me a while to get into this band on record and to be honest there are still some songs that I'm not a massive fan of, but live they are mesmerising to watch. This is largely due to the two guitarists, who have to be two of the most technically proficient musicians I've seen in ages; certainly in a punk or hardcore band anyway. If you gte a chance to see them live, you won't be dissapointed.

After another short break it was time for Municipal Waste and as expected, the tent was packed by the time they came on stage. I managed to meet up with Rob, Max and Victor before their set so we watched 'The Waste' together from out front. I've seen MW play before a couple of times in fairly small venues so I wasn't sure how they'd translate onto a bigger stage inside a tent during the middle of the afternoon, but I needn't have worried. Anyone who's ever seen or heard MW will know that they never let up when it comes to tempo, never straying from the break-neck speed of their songs that today get two huge circle pits going (interesting fact #3: as these circle pits are next to each other the singer refers to them throughout as "circle tits". Brilliant.) and puts a smile on the faces of everyone present. Hits such as 'Unleash the Bastards' and 'Thrash is my Business and Business is Good!' are given a raptuous, fist-pumping reception and the band leave to the the entire tent chanting, "Municipal Waste is gonna FUCK YOU UP!".

After a bit of a break while we eat, dodge the rain showers and generally hang out with everyone, Set Your Goals take the stage and the front of the tent is transformed into a surging mass of bodies singing along to every word, even those of the new songs taken from SYG's latest record 'This Will Be The Death Of Us'. The six people who read this blog will already know that I love Set Your Goals so they'll also know that any review I write isn't going to be especially unbiased. This one is no exception, sorry! This is my eighth time seeing SYG and today they, like every other time, are brilliant. It's especially nice to be able to hear some new songs played live having seen essentially the same set-list every time I've watched them previously and the new tracks they do give an airing to fit with their older outputs seemlessly. My personal highlight of the set though is Jimmy from PBC joining the band on stage to do the Hayley Williams 'rap' part. He nailed it. It's ironic though that the band who have the most summer orientated sound today, manage to play at the exact time as the first proper heavy rain shower of the day. I don't care though as I'm in a massive tent with a huge smile on my face the whole time.

After Set Your Goals, we said our goodbyes to PBC as they were all super tired and jetlagged having only arrived in the UK that morning and wanted to head back to where theywere staying to get some sleep. It's a shame we didn't get to hang out for the whole day as I've really missed them all, but we'll be seeing each other again when Apryl and I are in Portland and Syracuse in October/November so it's not all bad. But I digress...

Next up were Rival Schools, a band I've been waiting to see for about four or five years (basically since their album was released) but was never able to to. Today they sound massive and seem genuinely pleased to be playing their songs to the people gathered. To me the crowd seemed a little flat, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment and it was great to finally hear classics such as 'The Switch' and of course 'Used For Glue' in a live setting. Walter said they hope to return to the UK next year which is brilliant news too.

The Bronx played next and were, for me, the performance of the day. Few bands possess the energy or aggression live that these five guys do and they manage to whip the entire tent into a frenzy from the moment they launch into a frantic rendition of 'Heart Attack American'. Front-man Matt has incredible stage prescence and his speach about, "what we have in here is better than anything they'll ever have out there!" is delivered with a venom and sincerity few today can match. He also climbs the supporting pillar that holds the tent up, before front-flipping into the crowd below. So many bands seem to go through the motions live these days and play it safe, but The Bronx are one band that this accusation can never be levelled at. Truly inspiring stuff.

After The Bronx everyone we were with headed off to eat or watch some other bands, but Apryl, Steph and I stuck around to watch Thursday. I was a little apprehensive about seeing Thursday as the only time I've seen them live before today was at the Garage in London (obviously pre-refurbishment) and they were incredible. I've also not really heard too much of their latest record and the one before that is pretty average. I needn't have worried though as they open with 'Understanding In A Car Crash' from classic album Full Collapse and from there run through a pretty much flawless 'festival' setlist. Crowd favourites such as 'Cross Out The Eyes', 'Division St.' and a brilliant rendition of 'Jet Black New Year' are greeted raptuously by the the people who've stuck around and even the new songs they throw in sound great. I didn't really want to say anything here about watching from side of stage as I don't want to sound like some bragging dickhead, but fuck it it's not every day I get to see one of my favourite bands and favourite singers in this close proximity and the 40 or so minutes that Thursday are on stage are pretty special for me.

The day is rounded off by Bring Me The Horizon, who I know for a fact are hated by everyone who reguarly reads this with the exception of one person, but I honestly really like their new record Suicide Season and tonight they're on top form once they sort out the sound problems of the first couple of songs. Yes, a lot of their fans are idiots but that doesn't mean they don't write super catchy metal songs or put on a good live performance. Oh and new guitarist Jonah climbs to the very top of one of the supporting pillars and plays the end of 'Chelsea Smile' while procariously sitting about 40ft above the crowd; which is pretty cool to watch...