SLAM DUNK FESTIVAL, PRVIS, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, As It Is, Jimmy Eat World, Leeds, 26-5-18

 The songs that 26-5-18are crossed out on the set list couldn’t be played due to time constraints. (They were “Mirrors” , “Smoke” & “Holy” )

Again, i’d been really looking forward to this gig, for a couple of reasons : 1. Seeing PVRIS playing on a bigger stage. 2. The bonus of seeing Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes again. The only “downside” was that this gig would probably end up being the last one i can attend for a LONG time 🙁 (In the end, even though i shouldn’t have, i DID go to Ginger Wildheart + The Levellers at the Gliderdrome, Boston. There was no way i could miss that. So after that gig, it will be a long time before i can get to another)

Athula & Alice picked me up in the morning (on time 😉 ) & we drove to Grantham to catch the train there. Made good time getting there. Whilst in the waiting room, i saw a chap i often see at Boston train station. Poor lad, he’s obviously got some issues : He wears lots of thin clothes & all you can see is his eyes & his bare feet. When i point him out to Alice, she says that she knows him & doesn’t live far away from their place. It’s a small world….
For this festival, i’d bought one ticket & Alice would get the complimentary helper ticket for free. I’d also been liasing with Lisa B (PVRIS T.M. this time) about hopefully meeting PVRIS when we’re up there. I’d booked a different hotel to where i usually stay,partly due to cost being higher than usual. Once in Leeds, we checked where our hotel was & then went to get the wristbands/tickets/passes. Had prearranged to collect everything at the “Disabled Window” at the Leeds arena. Asked a security chap where said window was & he said “I don’t know. I’ll ask my manager” (Yup, we’re off to a great start). Eventually, i see the head of security & he’s also a bit unsure! When i finally get the wristbands & had gone back to Alice, i realised they didn’t give us the passes we need to meet PVRIS ! So once again, the head of security goes to the window to ask about those. By now, as it’s pretty warm & the last few nights i’d not had much sleep, i’m already feeling knackered & annoyed by all the tomfoolery going on. Guess what ? The passes were at the other collection point, back near the hotel !
As we were back down that end, i thought it might be a good idea to see if we could check in early (official time was 3pm). As luck would have it, we managed to get checked in around 14.10 🙂 We had a decent enough room, but i noticed a couple of things that were not right. Firstly, the TV could only get one channel ! Second, the toilet seat was broken !  Whilst we were there, Alice somehow watched “The Dangerous Summer” on her phone. I guess they must have been streaming it live.
We then decide to go try to get some food. I know a few Wetherspoons in Leeds. The first one, Beckets Bank, was absolutely rammed. No worries, theres a couple more 🙂 We end up at The Hedley Verity. Whilst there, i get a txt from Garry. I say “Come to here to meet us. We’re just about to have food”. A few minutes later he arrives. He decides to just have a beer & no food. The food i had was pretty rubbish tbh. Even with a steak knife, the chicken was hard work to cut! Ended up leaving most of it. After that, we all went to the “Rocksound Breakout Stage” as Alice wanted to see “Dream Straight”. What a joke that room was ! It was a really small room which was rammed. We see there’s a small balcony, which is about 6 steps up.It was pitch black trying to get up those stairs! If it wasn’t for Garry waving his mobile phone, i wouldn’t have a clue where he was! If fact, it was so damn dark you couldn’t even see where you were putting your feet! I certainly don’t think there was a Health & Safety issue there LOL. After that wonderful experience, we went to the underground carpark ! What ? Yes, you ready correctly! This was where a load of merchandise was being sold & throughout the day, some of the bands would be there. Alice wanted to meet “Dangerous Summer”. I didn’t realise that she was so into them. She showed them a tattoo she has on her ankle to do with the band. They seemed quite impressed about that.  After that, Garry left us to go get himself some food. We decide to go back to the hotel to have a little rest & also to collect the PVRIS photos. We hung there for a while. Later we went to the underground car park again ! This time it was because Alice wanted to meet “Dream State”. Again, i took some photos for Alice  We then go back into the arena (Jagermeister Stage) to watch Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes. During “Wild Flowers”, he certainly didn’t get as many girls on stage as in Nottingham 😉

Once again, they finished with “I Hate You” (But unlike Nottingham, he didn’t direct his Hate towards anyone )

As PVRIS are the next band, we stay there.  Tonight there set is shorter than it should have been. I think it was due to time constraints, that they had to miss playing three songs. They start off with “Heaven”

Next up is “St Patrick”. Again, they skip a song, so next it’s “Half”. That’s closely followed by “You & I “. The rest of the set comprises of “What’s Wrong”, “Winter”, “Anyone Else”, “No Mercy”

And they finish with a rowdy version of “My House”. Whilst it was a short set, it was still great 🙂 When they’ve finished, we go outside the venue. I see I’ve had a missed call from Lisa B (PVRIS tour manager). Also i got at txt saying “Please call me”. Then a txt saying ” security was very very tight, so i’ll come meet you to take you back to the bands room”. As we’d already checked out where the backstage entrance was, i thought lets see how far we can get. Just showed our wristbands at a table outside, then walked inside! There was no one around, so we just looked for a sign as to where PVRIS dressing room was. Found it easy. I knock on the door & Lisa comes. I think she’s probably a bit shocked that we got in so easily 😉 There’s quite a few people in the dressing room & Lisa kindly asks them to leave as we’re going to have a wee meet & greet with PVRIS.
We all say our hellos & have hugs etc. They ask me how i’m doing as regards health wise. I ask Brian if the proposed big London show which was meant to be at the end of the year, is still on. He replies “No, we’ve decided to leave it for a while & instead take some time to start writing for the next album”. This is also the first time I’ve met the drummer Justin. (Previous times we’ve met them he’s never been there). We have a bit of a chat & he soon leaves the room. But not before we get a full group photo or two 😉  I quickly take a selfie with Lynn  Then i show them the photos (Smallest one is Norwich UEA 2-4-16 when myself & Alice did the M&G) The bigger one is when i went on my own to see them in Birmigham 23-11-17 And boy did that gig lift my spirits! Never expected what would happen at that one 😉 & finally a photo from Brixton 30-11-17 where both myself & Alice went to & the band paid for our trains & hotel!
I suggest to them that we get another photo,of a photo of a photo , to carry on the tradition 🙂 Lynn, Alice & Alex hold the photos whilst Lisa (or was it someone else?) takes the photo  Our time with the guys seemed to fly by. Eventually we said our goodbyes & off we were going to see what was still happening. Unfortunately though, Alice had forgot to take the photos with her ! So i quickly send a txt to Lisa to ask if she could bring us the photos & we make our way back to the backstage entrance. As we’re going there,who should we bump into, but Alex ! I tell him that Alice forgot to take the photos with her, which i think he found amusing 🙂 Whilst we’re waiting for Lisa, we get a quick selfie with him 
I then notice Lisa running towards us with the photos in hand. Once again, thank you Lisa 🙂
By now it was around 10pm. We go to the Signature stage to watch a bit of “As It Is”. I think that the singer sounds a bit like Brian Molko. I took a couple of photos & filmed one song : 

The last band of the night we see is Jimmy Eat World. Again, i filmed one song.

After that, we made our way back to the hotel. Along the way, we had a look to see if any place like Tesco was still open as Alice was hungry.
I think it was around 11pm & was surprised to see a few places we closed. Carried on to the hotel. I reckon that even though Alice looked sleepy, she was as high as a kite after this day. Myself, i was knackered ! Alice then had the bright idea of ordering some food via room service. I thought it was quite expensive tbh. But she managed to change my mind 🙂

Early next morning, Alice got a txt to say she needed to be somewhere in town, earlier than had previously been arranged. She phoned Athula to ask him to bring some clothes/make up as time wise, it would be cutting things quite short. I could see she was getting wound up. Made sure we got to the train station early & Alice decided she needed to have a coffee so i waited opposite the shop. After a while i thought “Where is she? She’s not in the shop still”. I assumed she’d gone to the platform where i train was leaving from, so i made my way there. Once i got on the train, she wasn’t there. So i txt her to see where she was. It was only about 5 mins till departure! Fortunately, she gets there quickly. Hell it would have been a mess if she’d missed the train as would have had to buy another ticket! I think it was down to lack of communication that we didn’t get to the train at the same time. But it didn’t matter, as we both made it on time & were soon on the way back home 🙂 Athula picked us up at Grantham & drove us from there to Boston. A few days earlier, i’d ordered some new speakers for my PC & they could be collected on this day. So i asked Athula if once we’ve dropped off Alice, he could take me back to Tescos to pick up the speakers. No problem. Alice then said “But that means he has to go into town & then back to Tescos. Think we should stop at Tescos before dropping me off”. I said no to that as she needed to be at the meeting on time. Also it’s not as if it would cause any problems for Athula. Most certainly, i didn’t want to be blamed for her arriving late (especially as she had been wound up since the morning!) It was the logical thing to do dropping Alice off and then going back to Tescos 🙂
Finally, fate was not on my side today. When i got the speakers home, setting them up, i thought the bass sub sounds too weak. Upon inspection, i found it had a bad wire connection, so i had to return them ! Hilarious eh ?

But hey, at least the gig was great 🙂

MACHINE HEAD Rock city, Nottingham, 21-5-18

I was soooo looking forward to this show ! I took a later train than i originally planned to (gave me more time to relax). Once i got to Nottingham, i headed straight to my hotel, “Roomzzz”. Upon checking in, the manageress asked me “How are you? Which gig are you seeing tonight?”
(As i stay there so often, she always asks me those questions). I reply “I’m ok, but have a slight problem with a future booking”. I explain that i wont be able to come in June to see Stone Sour as i’ll be having more chemotherapy & ask if i could get a refund for the room i’d pre-booked. She said “Normally it would be non refundable, but, as it’s exceptional circumstances, I’ll phone through to central reservations, to see if we can get a refund for you”. Went to my room & 5 mins later she phoned me to confirm i CAN get a refund ! Phew ! That’s over £100 coming back to me 🙂 I then start thinking about if i can sell on the ticket for Stone Sour. I’d heard of “Twickets”, so thought I’d try it on there if none of my friends don’t want it. (I’d payed extra for the M&G so total cost was £146 !)
Didn’t bother going to my usual(s) for food, as I’d took some with me 😉 Phoned Rock City to confirm time for doors as on tickets it said 7pm ,yet on their website it said 6.30pm ! Doors were confirmed for 7pm. So stayed in the hotel for rest of the day.
Went to RC about 15mins before doors. Bumped into a lad i often see at gigs (Hi Tonito 😉 ) & asked him if he’d be interested in Stone Sour ticket. He’s already going somewhere else on the same date 🙁 After a while, they let us disabled people in. Again i got the best seat…one of the security said “Go to Bar 2 & ask for a seat”. Me “Which bar is that then?” He then said “Ah you can have this one i’m sat on!” Then told another security chap to take it through to the gig room. Very kind of him. Wish it could work this way always 😉 There were probably about 30+ people in there already as there had been a M&G earlier. Still managed to get my fave spot though. Whilst waiting, i see a mate Gary come in & he went up in the balcony. We then txt each each other about what was in store for tonight 😉
Rock City was absolutely RAMMED tonight. Totally sold out. There was no support act, just Machine Head playing a super long set, which was getting towards 3 hours long. A bit later i saw Richard M. & his Mrs making their way through the crowd to get near the front.
Tonight’s gig was just fuckin amazing, full on metal ! I ended up filming quite a few songs, but this is the only clip I’ve uploaded so far.

Afterwards, tried to meet up with Garry, but we didn’t manage it (I waited across the road for 5-10mins & thought he’d nipped of sharpish. Following day, he told me he was in the queue for car park as i was going into my hotel ! Oh well c’est La Vie ! Hope to meet up later in the year). I had a great time tonight. It’ll be one of the two gigs that i can do before i restart the chemotherapy on 30th May.

3-6-18 Slight edit, now a 2-cam mix of “The Blood the Sweat The Tears ” (thanks mate)  😉