4 A Levels + PPE Application != Plenty of time for blogging.
Meh.
Last Thursday was Lauren and Sian’s joint birthday party. It was good fun, and was a great opportunity to see everyone who would be leaving soon. One conversation:
Alice: How’s college going then?
McAsh: Well, it’s kinda like before except with more work and less friends.
Alice: Oh yeah, you used to be all like ‘Captain Year 13′ and now you’re just ‘Captain No-Mates’.
McAsh: Hahahahaha!
I had to leave dead early to get up in time for Oxford Open Day. I felt bad for leaving Lauren but I seemed to be in her good books after making her a card she seemed to like quite a lot (it took me ages, but was definitely worth it.) I promised we’d party hard on her actual birthday, the following Tuesday.
The Open Day was fantastic, but not very helpful. The plan was to go to work out which college I want to apply to, but every one I visited was fantastic. I now just want to get into Oxford all the more, and I will feel awful when I don’t. But hey ho, there we go.
Friday night I just went to bed, after an exhausting day.
Saturday I did nothing all morning and then went to work. After that it was town for Triss and India, and Kate’s birthday bashes. I went to Triss’ first at Bar Tonic and was delighted to see Stacey again. We chatted a bit and then a group of us left for Rescue Rooms.
Kate was there along with Cassie, Kirstie and Kirstie’s boyfriend Liam. I gave a card to Kate and introduced myself to Liam, who seemed very nice.
We all went into the courtyard and a bouncer I’d been talking to a couple of weeks ago was there. I started chatting to her.
The rest of the night involved me buying teapots with my mates and speaking for hours to Alex the bouncer. I also bought some garlic bread which was divine.
A group of us got the 3 bus back and Alan, Tom, Martin and Cassie all stopped at my house.
On the sunday morning I got up at 9 and had a shower and then put Yes on very loudly to wake everyone else up. We all got ready to go (as I had work at 10) and Martin and Tom went to Tom Collier’s house to pick something up. We all met again at 10 to 10 outside the co-op. Tom was going to uni that day so I said goodbye, and arranged a time to see him again soon.
I then had a six hour shift at the Co-operative, my last ever one. Everyone seemed genuinely sorry to see me go, just as I am to leave. I will miss everyone there very much.
Sunday night my mum returned from Mexico with a Che Guevara T-shirt for me. Very nice of her. =)
Monday I did some school work and then retired to bed fairly early to watch A Very Long Engagement, which Loran Perkins had kindly given me. It was amazing, end of.
Tuesday (or yesterday as you may call it) was Lauren’s birthday and a Long Drop gig. A group of us went there and shouted at them to ‘Get your tops off’. The gig was wicked, and they played very well. After that we went to Rescue Rooms and saw Ed, Teresa and Freya. It will be the last time I see Ed before uni, and probably Freya too.
Ok, I think we’re up to date now. Sorry it was so rushed, but better than nothing right?
In regards to the future:
Friday is the last time I will Phil and Martin before uni. Mega-town night.
Saturday/Sunday I am going to Pauls’ to celebrate his birthday. He is having a house party of 50 people, all are staying over, his parents are away and he has no neighbours but fields.
It sounds like the house party all other house parties strive to be.
Sunday I am seeing Teresa for the last time before she too goes. We are going to make a pie or crumble. Hurrah!
LeedsFest! - 7:04 pm - 01-09-2007
Thursday the 23rd
I awoke after not much sleep and finished off my packing. Grace arrived and my mum drove us both to the Broadmarsh Bus Station. We waited around for a bit and then Brooke and Gav appeared. After another period of waiting the coaches arrived and we jumped on.
2 hours later we jumped off at Leeds festival.
We met Pete and he helped Grace with her bags as we walked. After much strain to our backs Gav and I decided it’d be best to do two trips. Brooke and Grace said we should do it in one. However their bags were much lighter (and Grace already had Pete’s help) so we disagreed. Eventually Pete, Brooke and Grace left Gav and I sitting on the grass, each of us with a can of Carslberg. Pete kindly took a couple of our lighter bags aswell.
Half an hour later Brooke and Grace returned and carried another of our bags between us. They kept putting it down for a rest. I think they are very lazy.
Eventually we made it to the campsite, where many people were waiting for us. I got myself a Caprisun and chilled out in the sun.
I went to meet Paul and Camilla for a bit. We wandered around and came across our mutual friend Fran (also from Canterbury). We spoke for a bit and arranged to meet up that night. We all went to get me a wristband from the exchange. After a bit we decided to retire to our respective campsites and meet up later.
Back at the campsite I recieved a text from Emily English saying she wanted to come find us. I said I’d willingly meet her, and that was that.. We all chilled out in the campsite drinking beer.
When it became early evening we decided to head to the arena to catch Sky Larkin. A big crew set off but by the time we got there they had finished. Myself and Ollie picked up Cassie and ran as fast as we could in any direction, a couple of times. She loved it.. We came across a big group of people lying on the floor so myself and Kirstie decided to join them. Being as cool as I am, I took a photo of us all. It was sick. We then wandered over to a gig that was going on, some band I’ve never heard of, and nuzzled into the crowd. After a while we got bored so left. In leaving the crowd I stumbled across Giverny from Durham. It was quite a surprise.
We all headed back to the campsite for some more drinks. After a while I texted Paul to arrange to meet him again. I set off to meet him and Kirstie and Gemma came with me. We went to the wristband exchange but I had to go to the toilet so I told them to meet me where we were standing. I nipped to the toilet but when I returned Gemma and Kirstie were gone, but Paul was in their place. We wandered around shouting “Gemma! Kirstie!” for a while before giving up. We then visited the Duracell tent and the Oxfam tent, which were both wicked. I texted Camilla to tell her to meet us on ‘the path’ and Fran to ask where she was. Fran didn’t reply but Camilla said ok. We then realised we had no idea which path we were meeting on. I rang her phone but her mate at her campsite picked up and said Camilla had gone looking for us. We gave up hope and walked the site catching up and whatnot. Then, when we least expected it Camilla turned up out of nowhere, absolutely smashed. We then continued to walk around, this time three of us instead of two.
After a bit myself and Camilla went back to my campsite. Camilla said she was so drunk she didn’t know where her campsite was so she had to stay with us. In the middle of the night she was cold so she went and got her sleeping bag from her campsite and brought it back… Ridiculous. When I awoke she was gone.
Friday the 24th
I find it necessary at this point to make it clear that the fairly quiet night I had on the Thursday was not at all typical of the following nights. With that in mind I shall continue.
I awoke on Friday morning at about 830. Very little happened until we head down to the arena to catch Late of the Pier. The gig was good but not great, we then sat down in the NME tent while Pull Tiger Tail played, with an overpriced beer. I then went back to the campsite to relax before the next gig.
Far from being relaxing, the campsite was the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced (including you). After a couple of beers I was pretty drunk, just from extreme dehydration. After a spot of lunch we headed to the arena once more for the Maccabees. The walk to the arena tired me out so much that I couldn’t survive in the NME tent for very long, so I left Lauren and Travis and went and met Emily and her friend Kate and sat outside the tent listening to the music. After the gig I remet with Lauren and Travis, and also Tom and Martin. We went to the main stage to get some food and sat down to listen to Fall Out Boy’s ridiculous set.
We then once again returned to the camp for more drinking. I had a nap and when I awoke there were loads of people there. For some reason I had the song ‘Killing in the Name’ by Rage Against the Machine in my head, and decided to repeatedly sing/shout the lyric Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me! over and over again. It was awesome.
For the final gigs everyone wanted to go to see The Smashing Pumpkins or LCD Soundsystem. I wouldn’t have minded LCD Soundsystem but I figured it would be horribly packed in the NME tent (Klaxons were playing afterwards) so I didn’t know what to do. Kirstie told me she was going to New Found Glory on her own and I felt quite bad for her. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like them very much, but they are definately better than sitting alone at the campsite. So I decided to join her. Then Jim from LongDrop also said he’d go, so we were a wicked little group.
We all set off at the same time to our respective gigs but somewhere along the way we lost Jim. When we arrived at the gig, I was surprised to see how packed it was. To be honest, I was quite surprised they even exist anymore (I used to like one of their songs when I was in Year 9 quite a lot, but since then I’ve heard nothing of them).
The gig was good, if a bit mental. A few circle pits formed, and I went into one of them and pranced around like a baboon on bass. I seemed to fit right in.
If I were to review this on It’s not for the cock (which I won’t due to it not being interesting enough), it would go like this:
It’s not for the cock, it’s for ‘My Friends Over You’
They came on and played loads of songs I’d never heard, and then ‘My Friends Over You’.
It was ok.
You can now see why it didn’t quite make it onto the blog.
I had arranged to meet Fran and Paul at the ferris wheel so I dragged Kirstie along with me. We wandered around shouting “Fran! Paul!”. It was very reminiscent of the night before, only my company and the names shouted were reversed.
After 15 minutes of shouting in vain we left for the campsite.
Upon arriving, I was pleasantly surprised to see Paul waiting for me! I went and got some vodka and popped it into a bottle of cranberry juice and Kirstie held out a bottle of energy drink for me to put some vodka in too. Armed with these two bottles and 3 Carlsbergs we set off into the night.
This was easily among the two best nights I had all weekend. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what was good about it though. We drank on a hill for a bit, went to the Duracell tent, went to Paul’s tent and met some of his mates and generally walked around the complex for a bit. Myself and Kirstie left Paul and returned to the campsite at about 330.
I was surprised to see only Alex Whelan at the campsite upon returning. Assuming the others were out raving somewhere we both pulled up a seat and chatted about various things. After a while I decided to see if anyone was up. I went into Tom and Lauren’s tent and screamed “Are you awake?”.
They weren’t.
But then they were.
They acted like they’d really got out of bed the wrong side (not that they’d even got out of bed).
We then went to the campsite next to us and chilled out with them for a bit.
At 530 we both went to our respective beds and went to sleep, for about 2 and a half hours.
Saturday the 25th
I awoke at an unnecessary time (you do the maths) and ate breakfast (mini cheddars). Nothing happened until it was time to hit the bands. Myself, Pete and Grace left before everyone else so we could see the Pipettes (not because they’re good, but because they’re a laugh).
We settled down on the grass by the main stage and watched them play while having a chat. Then the most amazing thing happened.
Pete: Is that Seasick Steve?
McAsh: What? Where?
Pete: Over there!
McAsh: Where?
Pete: In the crowd
McAsh: Oh my god!
McAsh runs over to Seasick Steve with Pete and Grace following
McAsh: Seasick Steve, oh my god, you are amazing.
Seasick Steve: Well thanks, what’s your name?
Seasick Steve shakes hands with each of us one by one whilst we give him our names
McAsh: I saw you at Glastonbury twice and you were one of the highlights.
Seasick Steve: Thanks man, it’s all good.
McAsh: You’re amazing!
Seasick Steve: It’s all good.
This is a general gist. I can’t remember exactly what happened except for him saying “it’s all good” a fair few times and me thinking that he’s amazing.
After this we went back to our spot and watched the rest of the Pipettes’ set and then Little Man Tate’s. I was giddy with excitement still.
Then the Long Blondes came on, and started playing. I really like the Long Blondes. For ages their album was one of my favourites, so I know all the words and that jazz. This was the third time I’d seen them this year (first at Rock-City, second at Glastonbury) but the first time I properly noticed the bassist. I don’t want to speak for too long on this subject, so I will just link you to my review of them on “It’s not for the cock”.
After this is was once again back to the campsite. I can’t actually remember what we were doing but I have no doubt it was amazing. I charged my phone at one point (for a charge of £8!), which was incredibly necessary. I also had a short nap.
I had arranged to meet Gavin at 1900, and sure enough at 1830 he arrived at the campsite. The master plan was to go to see Kings of Leon, Patrick Wolf and then Ash. A lot of other people liked the sound of it, so we set off with a fairly strong crew.
Everyone seemed to love Kings of Leon, personally I found them average at best, but that might be due to my lack of knowledge of their songs. Somehow the group got split up and I was with Will and Glyn. We all set off for Patrick Wolf at the Carling Tent and arrived just as he was coming on.
Patrick Wolf was easily the best act I saw all weekend (possibly all year). Will didn’t seem as impressed. He later described it “That gay bloke? He was ok for a few songs but after a while he just gets on your nerves you know?”.
After this was Ash. They were alright but didn’t play Shining Light, which was foolhardy in my opinion.
Back to the camp again for drinks and then I set off to meet Paul. When I found him he was with a girl called Sophie. She was from his college but wasn’t camping with him. She seemed really nice, if a bit ditzy. We wandered around for a bit, visiting Paul’s campsite on the way. Tonight was a bit of a quiet night, so after a while we all returned to our respective campsites.
When I got back there were still a fair few people up. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur but I know for a fact that it included:
Kate trying to shout in a husky voice “Fuck you! I won’t do what you tell me!” and then me completely overshadowing her efforts.
Some guy telling us his mate was Phi Pots from ‘Britains Next Top Opera Singer’ (both of those names may be inaccurate but I cba to find out.
Role call (Shout everyone who’s sleeping’s name one at a time to wake them all up)
Tom not being able to sleep because of the Liquid Ecstasy he’d had earlier.
Bed at 530.
Sunday the 26th
I awoke at 830 and chilled out at the campsite for a bit before heading down to the arena for the Shins. They didn’t impress me greatly. We then went back to the campsite and chilled out some more. I felt a bit rough by this stage and quite wanted a nap, but I also wanted to chat to everyone so I decided against it.
For some reason, the majority of the campsite couldn’t be bothered to visit the arena during the afternoon. Will started flicking bits of pasta at everyone. He flicked some at me, so I threw it back at him. We truced. Then whilst walking to get something I stepped on a tub of margarine. I was wearing flip-flops and the margarine went all over my foot. As if this wasn’t enough, I then discovered an unwritten rule of the campsite: If someone steps on margarine with flip-flops on, everyone must then pelt him or her with raw pasta.
I wasn’t going to put up with this. I removed my shoe and began flicking the margarine from it. When I ran out of ammo I decided to retreat to where Lauren was, having decided she wasn’t man enough for this war. The food fight continued for a bit until Callum threw the tub of margarine. I can’t remember who he was aiming for, but he missed. Instead the tub of margarine landed top down plop on Lauren’s leg. Immediately everyone stopped throwing stuff. Callum came over apologising and explaining that he hadn’t been aiming for her. She picked up the tub and threw it right at Callum’s chest. He reacted well to it, and was very accepting, but it was nevertheless hilarious.
Then, for a reason I cannot explain, I was blamed for the food fight. Another unwritten rule of the campsite is: If a food fight begins, the responsibility and blame is solely down to the person who was first hit, and never the person who started the throwing. That’s whack.
A huge group then set off for Bloc Party. Martin had arranged to meet Emily at the merchandise stall near the Main Stage. We met her and went into the crowd. I was absolutely knackered so I sat down in the crowd with Pete and Grace. Emily then joined us at ground level but Pete and Grace decided to stand up for a song they liked (they never returned). Then Kirstie joined us at grand level…. wait a minute, you don’t care in the slightest who was sitting and who was standing do you? No, didn’t think so. Fast forward to Bloc Party finishing.
Myself and Emily decided to go and get some cups. You look confused. Well to cut down on litter Carling were offering 10p for every Carling Pint Cup you bring to them. So we set off scavenging.
I got one cup from a fire a load of people were standing around but some blokes started shouting at me so I gave it them back. They asked for the rest of my cups too but I was not standing for that.
I spotted two cups together lying on the ground about 10 feet away from. I walked towards them as fast as I could so no one would get it first. When I bent down to get it, it darted away from me.
It was at this moment I noticed the string.
And everyone laughing at me.
I felt like a scavenger.
By the time we returned to the rest of the group Arcade Fire had well and truly started. I enjoyed their gig very much but had never realised how similar their songs are. Ah well, lots of the same is good if it’s all quality.
Halfway into their set we left for Battles. They were fucking wicked but my tiredness got the better of me and I had to leave to sit down outside.
We all chose to skip the headliners (Red Hot Chilli Peppers, can you imagine anything more boring?) and set off for the campsite.
At the campsite we sat around drinking until everyone else returned and then we sat around drinking some more. 2 caffeine pills, and I don’t know how many sugar pills later, it was 1130. I had arranged to meet Paul (what a surprise eh?) at around 12 so when everyone said they were up for going out I was very eager for them to leave before 12.All the boys did, so we decided it’d be a boys night out. For some reason (I think it was a shoelace) myself and Gav fell behind the rest. It was time for me to meet Paul anyway so the two of us went there.
Paul was at the bottom of the Orange Campsite Hill with a bottle of Absolut Vodka mixed with some horrible juice. He said it was rank and that we all had to drink it before we raved. We set off for the Oxfam tent but we had not finished the vile mix by the time we arrived. We stood outside for a bit drinking it and then I started to enjoy the music I heard in a clothes stall next to us. I said “Let’s go rave there!” someone said “No, that’s lame,” but by that time I had set off. Luckily the other guys followed me. We all stood in the clothes tent dancing while people looked at the various T-Shirts. The guy who owned the stall walked over to us but not to tell us to leave. The four of us raved for a while, passing the bottle between us all. When it had finished Gav, Paul and I shook the stall-keeper’s hand and we all left for Oxfam.
Oxfam was amazing. They played loads of indie sing-a-longs which were pretty fun. One song came on by Kasabian, and I’d never heard of it, but everyone else seemed to know the lyrics. It was weird. One guy was wearing a hardhat, which Paul borrowed and then threw into the crowd. We joined a big group of people and all put our arms around each other and danced like we’d known each other for years. Then we saw a naked guy, and danced with him for a bit.
After Oxfam we went into the Relentless bar. They had stopped selling Relentless, so it was hard to tell what purpose it fulfilled. There were some chairs and an Xbox 360 but nothing of any interest. We left.
Next stop was Duracell. I have to say that once you’ve hit Duracell once, you know what to expect. We didn’t stay long.
After a communal wee we joined the short queue for the Silent Disco. There was a girl there who had been to Glastonbury and felt a bit let down by Leeds. I knew what she meant, if I hadn’t been in such a huge and interesting crew I’d have been quite let down myself.
The Silent Disco was amazing. At first we would shout to each other when we wanted to speak, but then we realised that if we signal to take the headphones off, it is the easiest thing in the world to just speak. The music was weird, it spanned Drum n Bass, 1940s music, the Beatles, 90’s pop and indie.
We left at closing time and went to a fire. People were running across it and throwing gas onto it. I felt mega rough so I didn’t enjoy it very much.
Eventually we left to the campsite, it took a while as we kept stopping. First stop was the Piccadily Rave. We didn’t stay here long as it got boring.
We then left to go on one of the rides at the fair. It was a swinging thing similar to the Ug Swingers at Alton Towers. It took forever to start but when it did it was awesome. We just raved while spinning around in the air. What more could you possibly ask for?
Then we hit a campsite rave. There was a group of people in circle, they would take it in turns to move into the circle and dance, a bit like in bboying but without the sick moves.
Finally after this we returned to the campsite. A few people went out with the megaphone to shout at people but I was too tired. It was cold so Paul, Kirstie and I went into my (Martin’s) tent to keep warm. We sat there chatting for a bit before Paul left and the two of us went to sleep.
This was around 6.
Monday the 27th
For some unknown reason Martin woke me up to tell me to pack away at around 8. The day was spent coating the trees in toilet paper and talking about how wicked the weekend had been.
Pete, Will, Gav, Brooke and I caught a bus at 1ish. After telling everyone how fit the bassist from the Long Blondes is, I fell asleep for an hour. I awoke at Broadmarsh Bus Station and got off the bus and waited for the bus to Bingham.
Got on it and went home.
Hung around and had a shower.
Went to Dad’s.
Went to bed at 7.
Woke the next day at 1 1.
