Friday highlights at Glastonbury - after the rain, came the sun and then came the music. N*E*R*D’s Pharrell Williams, Little Boots, Hot Chip, Gabriella Cilmi and Lily Allen all paid their tribute to Michael Jackson. The Specials offered their take on the Glastonbury lineup and revealed no love loss for Lady GaGa - Terry Hall called her ‘gross’ and ‘obnoxious’. Lady GaGa herself seemed to prefer to chat her way through her set rather than sing, Jack White’s The Dead Weather played a surprise set and headliner Neil Young proved there’s life in the dog yet…
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June 8th, 2009
Post War Years, one of a new wave of electronic bands sweeping the
Greg Rose: Are you looking forward to the tour?
Simon: Oh yeah, that’s the fun bit. Getting out on the road, seeing the country. That’s the whole point of being in a band, playing and travelling around.
GR: Do you miss home though?
S: Well, we all live together in
GR: Has that shaped the way you sound, living together?
S: Oh yeah, man. We’ve got this massive basement flat in Dalston that used to be a hairdressers. We’ve recorded the whole album there. We rented a load of gear and went at it every day in the flat for four months.
GR: Was that always the plan?
S: Well, we thought, we could do it in this great space that we’re comfortable with, or spend £10,000 on a recording studio; it was the obvious thing to do. I think a lot of bands like us are working like that; more electronic acts are going about their music that way.
GR: Didn’t you want to get away though, have an outside influence?
S: Well, we got a guy in called Glenn Stuart to mix it, because we were getting a bit stressed. It was great to get another opinion and perspective.
GR: Did you disagree with him much?
S: Not at all, he had lots of the same ideas as us. He is Radiohead’s engineer, he has done so much stuff, so he’s not afraid to get stuck in and can put up with our tantrums. It was so good to give something so precious to somebody that we trusted.
GR: What would you change about the album now?
S: Oh, loads. There’s always a little high-hat out of time that isn’t really out of time. You just get really anal about it. It sounds really rough because, well, we recorded it in our flat. It was never going to be the most polished, studio perfection.
GR: Would you want to the next album to be in that style?
S: We want to do something different. Next time we want to do it all live. But for a debut album, I think it’s really important to do it yourself. You owe it to yourself to do that first time around, the way bands like Clor did.
GR: What other acts would you put in that category?
S: Tom Vek, Hot Chip – they’re acts we admired in our late teens, we were just getting into electro when they came out. We made the decision to work this way a long time ago, whether we had any money or not.
GR: How weird is it having your record in the shop?
S: Oh, so weird. I’ve had mates ringing up saying ‘I just came from HMV and got your record’, it’s mad.
GR: Have you been tempted to go and put it at the front of the pile?
S: Haha, no but (fellow singer) Tom has. He took a little photo in HMV and stuck the album at the front of the rack. We’re pretty realistic though, we’re a leftfield electronic act, and we don’t expect to sell millions. It’s just wicked that people can actually buy what we’ve made.
GR: You sound so positive about everything – is nothing annoying you about it all?
S: We’ve just had an amazing year, we did our own thing, then a tour with White Lies playing sold-out venues, then went to
GR: It makes a difference where you play?
S: Having said that, small venues can end up being the best gigs - you have to do it all. You have to rock on whether you play to an empty room or it’s rammed. Like, we had an awful gig in
GR: How do you recreate the recorded sound live?
S: We trigger all the samples and noises onstage, loads of mini-triggers, so we can play everything live. It’s a big part for us to not have a backing track, not be playing to an iPod karaoke style. It’s better if we’re playing it all live. But sometimes it’s annoying because we fuck it up.
GR: Well, you sound a lot different live to on record still…
S: I agree yeah, there’s a lot more energy and everything doesn’t always go to plan, but I think that’s a good thing. On the album there are ballads, but live we crank them up.
GR: It isn’t just electronic music on the album though, is it?
S: No, we like all kinds of music and that comes into it. We were actually all massive Gomez fans, we used to go to every gig, plus groups like The Beta Band. Because we have three singers, we like different things – Tom’s into
GR: Do you think you will move back into the pop direction – where is your sound heading?
S: I don’t know – I know we want to play the next one live and sing a lot more, make a natural sound. It will probably end up getting weirder. It’s definitely what people do, they just get weirder.
GR: Just musicians or people in general?
S: Everything’s getting weird man. Moving to
GR: And musically?
S: People are into weirder music because they have so much more choice. They are getting more open-minded, which is great. It’s nice to get back to reality sometimes.
GR: Back to reality in your giant converted hairdressers?
S: Haha, yeah, that’s quite difficult. There’s no lights and there’s loads of people moving in at the moment, there’s boxes all over the floor and all of our promo stuff is strewn everywhere. There’s not even any carpet.
GR: What’s the strangest thing to happen at your gig?
S: Kiefer Sutherland. We were playing at the Buffalo Bar in
GR: Were you scared?
S: We went and asked him what he was up to, told him we were playing soon and said he should check us out. He said: “Yeah, kill ‘em dead!’ He was so pissed all he could say was that.
GR: What did you do?
S: What can you do? Jack Bauer telling you to “kill ‘em dead?” It could have been an order from CTU. It was bizarre. There are always really small, famous people. When you meet people off the telly they are always tiny.
Post War Years are embarking on a new tour of the
Sun 7 June EDINBURGH – Cabaret Voltaire
Mon 8 June
Tue 9 June
Wed 10 June
Thu 11 June
Fri 12 June
Sat 13 June
Tue 16 June SOUTHAMPTON –
Wed 17 June
Thu 18 June
Fri 19 June BATH - Moles
Sat 20 June WINDSOR - Firestation
March 13th, 2009
The Invisible are one of 2009’s ones to watch (see what we did there?) and I caught up with them recently in London to find out what it was about this new band that has got critics so darned impressed. Having met while working with Matthew Herbert and now counting Hot Chip and Foals among their fans and collaborators, The Invisible have just unleashed their debut album in to the world and are currently on tour with the Doves. Catch this video interview which also includes clips from their latest single London Girl…
November 21st, 2008
Download Eleanor Conway Presents: Buraka Som Sistema Podcast
Having won the MTV VMA for best Portuguese act following the release of their second album Black Diamond, Buraka Som Sistema are on the prowl in bringing credible urban world music to the masses. They’ve identified collaborators MIA, Diplo and Switch, Kano and Hot Chip as the metaphorical musical magpies that they are, and they join me on the first Eleanor Conway Presents: Podcast in association with music.virgin.com to share their musical inspirations behind their sound- the sound of Kuduro.
October 21st, 2008
Diesel sure knows how to party. By now, only sherpas in Tibet escaped the gossip surrounding the extravagant event, counted off in seventeen cities around the world. At least we finally found out where all that money on over-priced jeans has gone.
On October 11th, Diesel packed a huge tent in Brooklyn with gymnasts flying through the air, fire eaters, and thousands of thirty kids “ready for the floor,” as Hot Chip would say. Just seeing M.I.A. with her lumpy hump made the experience worthwhile (especially since she’s supposed to be (cough) retired); seeing her get the football stadium sized tent into an uproar while wearing spandex above her belly bottom was even better. She’s a powerhouse. The past week, N.E.R.D. has been making rounds around Manhattan - playing at various shows and concerts- but Pharrell as usual put on his party face and crunked it up for the special Saturday show. Other highlights? Hot Chip and Chaka Khan mashed it up; Joel and Benji Madden tried not to get booed during their DJ sets; Franz Ferdinand accompanying rapper T.I. through “Live Your Life”; and half the female audience singing along to Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman.”
We did have a couple complaints. Number 1, there was not nearly enough bars for the crowd (3 for 5,000 people? You do the math). The audio was tricky and it was hard to get a good view. Regardless, kudos for a clothing brand turned lifestyle brand turned music loving party host. If only other companies took notes from Diesel on how to turn up the volume and celebrate music, fashion and everything in between.
September 2nd, 2008
When looking at the vast array of festivals the summer offers on these shores alone, the only way to find your own niche is to voyage relentlessly until no stone is left unturned (or at least until the following festival season when another colossal wave of up-and-coming weekend shindigs are destined to battle it out to get hold of any loose change on the credit card). V Festival, lying a stones-throw from the Reading Weekend has, in previous years, been some vague form of weekend of rest but with the draw this year of Muse, Hot Chip, Kings of Leon and The Prodigy, it blows the August bank holiday knees-up’s retro metal fest out of the water both on eclecticism and on sheer fire power (fitting that Liam Howlett’s The Prodigy should headline the 4music stage as it was they who proclaimed themselves to be ‘Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned’- a statement that defines this year’s V fest fittingly).
Carrying the baggage of an 8-hour jet-lag, a hangover following a somewhat debauched night mingling, kissing and cavorting about with the likes of Biffy Clyro, Pussycat Dolls and Duffy (all kissing involving Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil) as well as a mammoth mound of camping equipment that never seems as luxurious once all set up…
Beyond the gates of Hylands Park, all expectations are but blank canvases, awaiting musical strokes. Chelmsford serves up the expected (or at least the images portrayed by The Prodigy) with the addition of a Marks & Spencers. The eccentric beast that is this year’s bill grabs attention from the moment of purchasing a slightly extortionate laminate and doesn’t let go until Richard Ashcroft & co. strum their last; from Siouxsie’s human interpretation of an escaped peacock parading through a scrap yard to Richard Hawley’s versions of love songs that make Valentine’s Day seem 100% respectable back to the Radio 1 A-list of The Pigeon Detectives and Scouting for Girls the mixed sonic sack holds something in store for well, almost anyone.
A feat with around the same probability as 2 days of sunshine at a British festival, a feat only foiled at the final hurdle. The heavens open just as the Chemical Brothers drop their last ‘block rockin’ beat’, Kaiser Chiefs bellow ‘Ruby’ for the 89th time and The Verve’s orchestra of several hundred synthetic violins synchronize, feeding the dying embers of their indisputable reign over this year’s festival circuit. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whether consciously or subconsciously you’re beating your heart out, word for word.
August 18th, 2008
The most amazing thing about this year’s UK V Festival? Muse? Prodigy? The Verve? Girls Aloud? Wellies? Kebabs? Nah… the sun shining on Chelmsford! Okay, okay so Stafford hasn’t had as much luck, but let’s be grateful for this mercy. The atmosphere here this weekend has been one of reckless abandon in the glorious summer sun. The punters were storming the stages - from the Kooks, The Kings Of Leon and the Stereophonics on the V Stage, the Reverend And The Makers to Duffy and The Kaiser Chiefs on the 4Music stage, from Siouxsie, Echo & The Bunnymen and Richard Hawley on the Union stage to The Twang , Hot Chip and Ian Brown in the JJB Arena.
Completely mental moments? Going from an absolutely heaving, thumping, raving crowd of glowing lunatics giving it up big time for The Prodigy on the 4Music stage to a dark, brooding, riveted crowd lapping up Matt Bellamy’s classical piano skills while Muse’s satellite dishes beamed out an amazing light show across the field of worshippers at the V Stage. The JJB Arena got so packed to heaving that you just couldn’t get in if you were 1 minute late for their opening numbers - I’m talking about the Chemical Brothers of course, and, er… Goldie Lookin Chain! These guys need to headline next year if crowd demand is anything to go by! Moment of sublime poetry came when the heavens finally opened last night on an unexpectedly sunburned Chelmsford and The Verve took to the stage. Well if it had to happen what better way for it to do so? Nobody minded as we were all mesmerised by Richard Ashcroft’s sublime delivery of History. Fantastic way to end an almighty weekend.
Coming up - gossip from the Louder Lounge and exclusive video clips of my intimate little chats backstage with the likes of the Futureheads, The Courteeners, The Guillemots, Noah & The Whale, The Young Knives, Bryn Christopher and Tokyo Police Club - as well as Road To V winners Matt Trakker. We’ve been getting down and dirty with the punters - in the campsites and the mosh pits. We have so much to share with you this blog is just fit to burst. So check back soon for more post-festival juice from the sunniest, sweatiest, most rock and roll collection of small fields in Essex, England this summer.
Check out DrMoore’s Flickr photostream for more amazing aerial shots of V Festival.
August 15th, 2008
The winners of the Road To V have been announced! Currently unsigned Matt Trakker and The Rebs are now set to open this weekend’s UK V Festival in Chelmsford & Stafford. They beat over 2,500 competition entrants and most impressed the judges - Carl Barat included - at the final heats in London and Liverpool. Matt Trakker (named after a character is M.A.S.K - remember that 80s cartoon, pop culture kids?) is a singer-songwriter from Hackney while The Rebs are from Southampton and love a good bit of synth pop. Hurrah. Curious? You should be. So make sure you catch them this weekend - as well as Muse, The Verve, Kings Of Leon, Prodigy, Kaiser Chiefs, Amy Winehouse, Stereophonics, Pigeon Detectives, The Zutons, Ian Brown, The Chemical Brothers, Guillemots and loads loads more of course…
You can listen to the V Festival as broadcast on Virgin Radio over the weekend via the magical radio pop up thing up in the corner of this very site. And if you miss that then watch the video footage of Matt Trakker and The Rebs on roadtov.com from 21 August.
Be sure to check back here pronto for exclusive video clips, interviews, gossip and more…
July 28th, 2008
The lineup for the Sessions Stage at the UK V Festival has been announced. Mick Jones, formerly of The Clash, and his Carbon/Silicon bandmates (including Tony James of Generation X) will now be gracing VFest. Here’s the full list of the Session Stage artists: Carbon/Silicon, Infadels, Sugarush, Beat Company, Bryn Christopher, Attic Lights, Team Waterpolo, One Eskimo, Lost Boys, The Midway State, Julian Velard, The New York Fund, Gary Go, The Dodos, Iglu And Hartley, Das Pop, Sparkadia, The Rushes, Animal Kingdom, The Troubadors, Arno Carstens, The Hazey Janes and Sons Of Albion.
They join the likes of Muse, The Verve, Kings Of Leon, Amy Winehouse, Kaiser Chiefs, Kooks, Lostprophets, Reverend And The Makers, Hot Chip, The Courteeners, Guillemots, Sam Sparro, Gabriella Cilmi and Noah And The Whale who are all gracing the various V Festival stages at Chelmsford and Stafford over the weekend of 16 & 17 August.
So there you have it - the countdown is well and truly on!
Fancy VIP tickets to the UK V Festival? Fancy blogging your festival adventures on this very website? Well then - fret no more and enter our frankly astonishing Global VPass competition and all of this and more could be yours…
For more Carbon/Silicon photos like this, check out aphrodite-in-nyc’s Flickr photostream.
June 19th, 2008
With a lineup including Rage Against The Machine, The Prodigy and Metallica, what would I be in store for at Germany’s largest music festival? Held at the same time as the slightly larger Rock-Am-Ring, Rock-Im-Park is held at the (awesomely named) Zepplinfeld (it kind of sounds like (Led) Zeppelin) area in Nürnberg, this 4 evening event was ready to rock – hence the name I think. The surrounds being where Hitler used to hold his rallies with the Nazis. So deeply entranced this venue is, why not create a little bit more history with a rocking music festival in 2008? Here we go:
It all started with a treasure hunt – with me sending my friend Stu on a wild goose chase around Munich trying to find me, granted this wasn’t the best thing to do, as he did in fact have the tickets, but hilarious nonetheless. Perfectly planned, by boredom mainly, it didn’t exactly go to said plan, with my red head friend missing his flight, therefore not being able to do the treasure hunt at all… oh well. So we met together in Nürnberg and gathered some essentials for the festival: Sambos, 3 x 5 litre kegs of beer, mixers for spirits and 600mls of water (hydration is overrated). The tram out to the festival was only a ten minute ride from the center of town, upon arrival was a scene of total destruction, these Germans know how to get drunk, and with 33 cent beers, it’s not hard to see why the sculling of beer is in the national high school syllabus. Walking to our campsite, we saw no less than about 40 people in different stages of passing out, i.e. with clothes, without and wet, dry, vomit over them or over their friends etc etc.
The first night was essentially a free for all and no one was allowed inside the festival however they set up a massive tent that was spinning tracks from most of the artists on the lineup. So as there were no bands to see, why not get hideously drunk and screw around? Previously we met a group of fellow campers from England, US, Norway and a fellow Australian, within a couple of hours of getting drunk most were nude and the UK gents showed us what an upside down waterfall was (think appendage and a receptacle further up your body…OK, they were just pissing in their mouths in front of hundreds and hundreds of people). Debaucherous and drunken, sounds like the start of most festivals…
Slow start to the day with a mini keg and a couple of mixers before we headed into watch a couple of bands: Sonic Syndicate, Pendulum, Eagles Of Death Metal, The Fratellis, Jimmy Eat World, HIM, Die Toten Hosen and Queens Of The Stone Age. Yeh, granted, it was a pretty decent day across a variety of genres, and interesting to see the massive German headliner being Die Toten Hosen (The Dead Pants). We had an awful position for QOTSA, being 10 meters from the front right in the middle, absolutely frigging awful! I could almost smell the tightness of the set, very good.
Pendulum’s live set was fantastic, hailing from Australia with seasonal musicians from across the world, the Drum N Bass fellas really got the predominantly rock crowd moving. With the double-drum kits, the speed of the Beats-Per-Minute was more impressive to watch.
Unfortunately Josh was not playing drums for Eagles of Death Metal, but there were thousands of female fans swooning over Jesse. Cherry Cola was definitely my stand out song with the whole German crowd chanting “Cherry Cola … mmm-n-mmm … Cherry Cola.” “I gotta feelin (Just Nineteen)” was brilliant, as were the German ladies yelling “I want you so hard” haha, little did they know about Jesse Hughes. Bizarre and hilarious, but rockin’ nonetheless.
The Fratellis I saw Just For The Hell Of It and really enjoyed the set, full of happiness and wholesomeness, I also was hanging around some damn attractive Mädchens so that may have skewed my judgement, but hey I was dancing with hot German lasses listening to The Fratellis, I’ve done worse things in my life than that.
QOTSA don’t need any introduction, it was quite possibly the tightest set I have ever seen from the rockers from the States, they were so harmonious, and I don’t believe a cue was missed in the over-an-hour-long-set. I’ll be a QOTSA fan for life.
The mornings of most festivals begin with waking up in your tent; and if you are lucky enough; to find out the name of your co-inhabitant after peeling your toungue off the roof of your mouth. Unfortunately for me the morning involved only my tongue, then lounging in the beautiful Nürnberg sun for a couple of hours, UNTIL… Rain. When I say rain, I really mean rain. The festival is practically flat and everything was under a good couple of inches of water, of course being the prepared festival goer I claim to be, I left my gumboots back at the hostel we inhabited prior to the gates opening – awesome! (Just on a side note to anyone who has persisted this far, if you want to meet some cool people you want to go to a festival with, hang out at a hostel in the local area for a couple of days prior and you’ll be bound to meet some like minded people, and voila you’ve got a campsite of 20 international music fans… then subsequent places to stay across the globe).
The rain jacket was essential to keep the camera dry, but everything else was bound to get soaked, so dirty socks, old shoes and shorts were the order of the day. The Streets were the band to see. Mike Skinner really is a sight, especially when you are that close to him, as everyone else was taking shelter in their tents and drinking whisky (Stu you bastard!). Decked out in trackies, no shoes and a t shirt, Mike has the coolest job in the world! He pretty much speaks whilst an awesome band backs him up with some amazing vocals from Leo ‘the Lion’. Mike makes you feel even more so that you are the only person watching them, and had the whole crowd sit down, then got off the stage, into the pouring rain and partied with the sitting down punters, then had everyone explode when he needed to get back on stage. The rain poured as did the whisky down Stu’s throat, so much so that he may have forgotten to meet me in the rain for Bad Religion. Prick.
So a solo Bad Religion experience was had, and my buddies who went back to the tent found a very happy Stu who was well into his whisky when they asked why he wasn’t meeting me as I was in not-too-good-a shape. Bad-Stu. Upon seeing the majority of Bad Religion, I checked out the über (you may hate this word but being in Germany, I grant myself the right to use it!) German band Fettes Brot. After solid sets from both bands, I decided to get back to the tent and put on some dry clothes, as I was soaked through to my Reginald Grundies and had granny wrinkles on both palms and soles. Getting back there I find a merry Stu asking had I been in the rain, my response: Throwing my wet jocks at his face.
Oh well time to party in my dry jocks with Serj Tankian formerly of System Of A Down, performing no System tracks, this was still immensely entertaining as his voice was arguably the most distinct voice at Rock-Im-Park.
Incubus managed to perform an ordinary drawn out set … Stage presence lads, please! The only entertaining part was when a punter climbed to the top of a light pole probably 35 meters off of the ground (read: one slip, he’s dead) and flew his Spanish flag, this provided mild entertainment and angst for people not wanting to witness a death whilst the likes of Drive and Wish You Were Here were playing in the background, so it wasn’t that bad, the fear of witnessing death and the tunes of an international band. Meh!
Bullet For My Valentine were a real surprise act for me, I was assuming emo punk, and what I received was the perfect lead into Rage Against The Machine, solid rock. RATM, reformed at Coachella last year, been around for donkeys, and are extremely political. They played a long set, they were the major drawcard for many punters, witnessed by the crowd form Bullet over the hill to Rage was like Sardines trying to squeeze another couple of friends into their cans. Positions were held in the crowd and fun was had, the only downside of the performance was that there only seemed to be one flow of songs, from Bombtrack into Killing In The Name Of for the blockbuster and well known finish to all Rage gigs with Zack De La Rocha yelling out profanities about someones mother who likes to engage in sexual activity… That said they stopped for a couple of minutes between each song, a little bit fragmented, but pretty darn sweet if you ask me.
Our Norwegian tramp (rocked up to the hostel without accommodation, rocked up to the festival without a tent, had a beard to his adams apple, would never turn down anything, drinks, food, whatever) had an exciting time at Rage, he was so excited that he somehow lost his belt, then during Killing Of The Name Of he managed to get sick of holding up his shorts with all his worldly possessions (money, cards, ID, passport) ripped the fuckers off and threw them at the stage. That’s right, as Lars (our delightful tramp) was yelling “Fuck You I Won’t Do What You Told Me” he threw his passport, his ticket home, his money and his ID at Rage Against The Machine. My money is on that that hasn’t happened since their reformation last year. Well he fucking-well showed them!
If you thought that the Saturday night at Germany’s biggest rock festival ended with that, then I’m sorry, but it doesn’t: Motörhead, The Prodigy and Justice were still on the bill. I only managed to catch a little of Motörhead and all of The Prodigy. You could imagine the crowds heading between these bands.
By and large my favorite band today were The Prodigy! With a back catalogue including Breathe, Smack My Bitch Up and Firestarter, these guys knew how to, and bloody well did blow our socks off! Fortunate enough to be at the front of the sound tent for such a show we could stand on the railings and watch a crowd truly devour an act. The crazy hair that we were used to in the 90’s have been replaced by some stinking hot suits, think jail stripes black and white, and dudes that dance around on stage for an hour and a half. I don’t think that I did The Prodigy any justice whatsoever, but if you’ve been to anything cool, these dudes were cooler.
Day three was an early one for the bands. Warnambool (Victoria) lads Airbourne were the first to hit the club stage, and through my hustling about how much these guys are an infusion of AC/DC and the gunners, we had ¾ of our campsite front and centre and not being one iota disappointed with the blistering 35 minute set. Dropping many songs from their debut record, they still played memorable tracks such as “Too Much Too Young Too Fast.” Unfortunately due to the early time slot it was all over as quickly as it begun.
The rain set in this time and it was time to go to the bar and admire from afar those on the Alternastage, fortunately we couldn’t hear Pete Murray perform. The rain subsided, the sun started shining and Hot Chip appeared – perfect band to dry up the event, an infusion of dance and live performance, the crowd was still relatively wary of the weather and missed the chance to get up close and personal with the guys from the UK. Obviously “Over and Over” was the last track but “Ready For The Floor” was stinging. The UK theme followed with Kate Nash. Solid performance, nothing too extraordinary about it.
There were however important events happening in the crowd. From my belief the local loony bin must have been broken into and transported to the festival to make up for the lack of crowds due to the rain, that or some people were coming down badly from Saturday night. Allow me to elaborate; Case 1 - Three gentlemen were walking through Kate Nash and they decided it was now time to run as fast as possible and to slide on their dry clothes through puddles of water… Piss funny but bloody insane. Case 2 – An Ali G look a like was dancing as hard as he could for the whole period of time during the break between the Hot Chip and Kate Nash. There was no music playing except on the inside of this dudes head. I would have loved to have been on the same planet as him, but I think he took the plane to the moon last night and hadn’t yet come down. Case 3 – A camping group were having their photo taken with a certain international tramp when after this photo a certain tramp yelled out “Hey Mike, piss on my face” low and behold, Mike didn’t disappoint and proceeded to fulfill this tramps desires.
Back to the music (then back to the tramp again I promise): Rose Tattoo pulled out the Hard Yakkas and belted out a set of Australian pub rock in the middle of Germany. In Flames sounded as cool as their name, and the light show looked as hot as their sounds. OK back to the tramp, it’s too funny not to…
OK so our favourite tramp decided to get drunk, it’s not as though he wasn’t drunk for the past four days, but he was fed a lot of whisky and beer in the hours leading up to the headliners for the night: Metallica. Bear in mind that our tramp was wearing a Metallica T-shirt from day one and had his heart set on seeing his namesake and his band mates. So not long after the whole piss in my mouth thing, Lars, I mean… our anonymous tramp, got retarded, nude and decided to go on a rampage.
A nude tramp, a can of beer, this man had to get to the stage, one problem: tents were in the way. Not a problem our friendly tramp thought of a way to deal with this, by swinging, kicking and destroying everything on his beeline to the gate. Never have I seen a grown man running nude through the campsites yelling DESTROY EVERYTHING and BURN CHURCHES, along with FUCK YOU I WON’T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME! Lars, I mean… the tramp, made it a good 800 meters, beyond our willing him to put clothes on as we didn’t like his chances of getting thorough the gate when he ran into the lovely festival POLIZEI. Prior to him being carted off to the cells, there were a couple of incidents where Lars thought that the only problem was that the police didn’t like his cock and asked them why, not the coolest thing. Then the police ripping up the plastic bag to get this man some decency, then my good self procuring [stealing] a pair of shorts, the same shorts he was still wearing after he got out of the cells post Metallica – So much entertainment, so little logic: You aren’t going to get into a public area after you smash over 50 tents, then ask the police officer whether they stopped you because they didn’t like your cock.
The Offspring was honestly like going back to my childhood and early teenage years. Not a bad way to kick off the start of the end of a great past couple of days, with classics like Pretty Fly, Come Out and Play, and Gotta Get Away. Yes they were entertaining but not as much so as the main event: METALLICA.
When James Hetfield asks you if it’s OK if Metallica go back to some of their earlier tracks from Kill ‘Em All 4 times in the one set, you know that you are in for something Kick-arse! That’s exactly what their 90 minute show was, old school Metallica! Lifting tracks from Master of Puppets, Kill ‘Em All, …And Justice For All, Ride The Lightning the night culminated in a smashing rendition of One. The heat from then lighters in the crowd was only exonerated by the flames that Metallica sent out when they ran off after their third encore. Truly awesome, and the crowd was pumped.
Once again the night doesn’t end with the massive headliner, there are other “smaller” bands playing deep into the night. Tonight it was The Verve and The Hellacopters. I chose The Verve as I needed something to calm me down after a pretty awesome show, and being 4 meters from the Verve, yes 4 meters, wasn’t a bad way to do it!
Of course shenanigans occurred later into the night, like not sleeping a wink, getting drunk off our faces, then going to work, only to throw up continuosly for the next 6 hours, and being sent home with a full days pay to sleep it off in the hostel: Did I mention it was called Rock-Im-Park? Truly Rocking!
For more photos of The Prodigy at Rock-Im-Park, see Herr Stern’s Flickr photostream
