Sheftival 2012: Saturday 4th August

Words cannot describe how excited I was when I was told about Sheftival. I'd never heard anything about it, then my mate said 'oi raven, Toots and the Maytals are playing sheffield in a couple of weeks'. I couldn't believe it! Toots is a bloody legend, he is credited with inventing the word Reggae in the song Do The Reggay, he's one of the pioneers of reggae. To find out he's playing not far from me for only a tenner, was amazing! Couldn't miss it. There was loooads of people on the line-up, but I only went for Toots, and The Selecter.

I was very hungover from the night before - this was the day after the Skints, and I only ended up getting a couple of hours sleep anyway - so i almost, almost considered not going. But, I put Toots + the Maytals on the stereo, and it gave me the strength to power through my hangover and get the bus into town. I met Max and Alex, and we got the best hangover cure there is:

More Beer. Which quite frankly made me feel extremely ill, along with the train shaking about. But I just about managed 2 or 3. Anyway, we arrived at Don Valley Bowl where the festival was, about 6 o clock. It was the first time i'd been to DVB since the Arctic Monkeys homecoming gig last year (which was probably the best gig of my life).

It was weird seeing The Selecter. I saw them when I was about 3 years old, and it's probably my earliest memory. I remember being held by my mum whilst they were on stage - I don't remember the music, I just remember it being them. So to see them live nearly 15 years later was pretty weird! They managed to get the crowd going pretty well - lots of old Skinheads were skanking! A couple of people were definitely off their head aswell, haha. Their set was only short, 40 minutes at the most, but It was good. James Bond was probably the highlight of the set, along with On My Radio and Too Much Pressure.

After their set, we made it over to the Juju World Music stage. Macka B was on the stage, someone i'd never heard of, but was pretty good. He sang a song about what food he liked to eat, which was bizarre but pretty funny. There was a pretty long wait between Macka B and Toots, so we sat down for a bit and chilled. When he finally came on.. it was so so so so so good. He opened with Pressure Drop, which is a beautiful song!! One of my favourite Reggae songs ever. His set included the classics Monkey Man (famously covered by the Specials), 54-46 Was My Number, Louie Louie, Funky Kingston and many more. It was a great set and i'm so happy I can now say I've seen both The Wailers and Toots + The Maytals live. Arguably the 2 biggest reggae artists ever!

Friday 3rd August: The Skints @ The Leopard

This Friday was great. I got to see one of my favourite bands perform, which is always good. But they actually performed in my home town of Doncaster, which made it even more special. Doncaster rarely sees any big names play here - you could probably count the well known bands that have played here in the past few years on one hand. I've seen The Prodigy here, and Dizzee Rascal, and I think Plan B has played. But none of them were as good as this.

We started the day the same way most of my days out start - alcohol. 20 pack of Fosters, sat in the sun, listening to Reggae - it was good :)

After this we went straight to the venue, and just sat around chatting with people, having a couple of pints. It was fun, although i am having trouble piecing together exactly what happened, because I was pretty drunk. Anyway about half 7, 8, we went upstairs for the bands. This was my first time at The Leopard, which has been around for longer than I have I think. The upstairs part where the bands perform is tiny! But I loved it.. it was such a good atmosphere! The first band that were on are called The Beaus. They're a local band, i'd heard the name but never listened to them. But i'm definitely a fan, their set was pretty enjoyable and i've listened to a couple of their songs since and they're good.



Whilst we were watching these, Marcia and Jonathan from The Skints came out and watched them! I went over and got a photo with them, talked to them for a bit and then they left.

The Skints came on about half 9, and their set was amazing. Being so close to one of my favourite bands while they played live was just incredible! They played all their best songs (apart from Live East Die Young :( thats my favourite), including Roanna's Song, Rise Up, Culture Vulture, and Rubadub. They also played brilliant cover of Bob Marley + The Wailers classic Stir It Up. And, I think they filmed something there, part of a video or something. It was a great gig - they sound brilliant live and I was dancing nonstop all the way through. I'm jealous of their talent!

Afterwards, we hung around outside the back of the venue and just chilled, talked to a few people. Then we saw Jamie Kyriakides, the drummer, just chilling with his girlfriend! So we went over and had a chat - he was one of the nicest guys i've ever met!

We also got chatting to the guys from the Beaus, who were pretty sound, and they gave me a free t-shirt, woo. Me and my cousin Aiden decided to let ourselves backstage, which looking back probably was a bit out of order and I wouldn't have done If i was sober. But, it ended up in us meeting the guys and chatting with them for quite a while! We got a photo with them, but Aiden's camera was pretty blurry, so The Skints' photographer guy took one on his posh camera, and has said he'll email it to me! :D top bloke haha. All in all it was an amazing day, and I will definitely be buying tickets to see them again! They're playing Leeds Festival, so I'll see them there. And they're playing Leeds Cockpit in october - I should be going to University there hopefully, so i'll probably go to that too. I would definitely recommend their live gigs - it was bloody brilliant!

Tramlines Festival 2012

On Friday, Me, Max and Alex all trekked down to tramlines in sheffield. It's basically a free festival that pretty much every venue in sheffield takes part in, they all put bands on and stuff. And they always get a couple of well known band's/artists playing on the main stage, and a few local ones. Tbh, we only went for 2 bands, the day was more just about dossing in sheffield and having a day out. But it was well good.

We met up in town about 2 o clock. After my footlong bacon egg cheese and sausage subway (which is sort of becoming a regular thing for me now), we all went Tesco's to get our booze for the day. We ended up getting 24 can's of Carling for 16 quid. It.. wasn't very nice. Warm and flat, bloated you a lot, made you burp a lot, and we were all on the brink of vomiting at some point in the day.

Anyway we got our train and had a couple of cans each on there, then arrived in sheffield about half 3. None of us actually had a clue where we were going so we just wandered around. We got to Dev Green (main stage) about half 4ish, and they told us we'd have to drink all our booze before we went in. And we still had about 14, 15 cans left so we couldn't waste em. So we thought we'd just trek around sheff for a bit. We bumped into this guy called Slam - he was about 45, some old metalhead guy. But he was sound as a pound. We got chatting and he was like the coolest possible guy, he shared his vodka with us and everything. We literally just dossed around drinking with him until the gates opened at Dev Green, but we didn't even go in. We sat outside this bloody middle class bar finishing all our beer off. Don't think they liked us, we went in about 7 times to use their toilets. I had to run in at one point cos i almost threw up :( my mouth went watery and i went very light headed and my stomach was turning, it wasn't the nicest experience.

We went in Dev Green anyway, after we'd finished all but 3 of our beers., after that Violet May band which were a bit average by the sounds of it. We got approached by some very friendly lasses who Max was sure they fancied us, but they were definitely just blagging a pint off us because we had ID. Anyway, at this point we lost Slam :-( he said he felt like he was third wheeling so he left us. What a Lad. Anyway the ladies buggered off so we watched most of Dead Son's set - we missed most of it, but Shotgun Woman was amazing. I'll post a few links here now, they're a sheffield band, sound very Arctic Monkeys influenced.





very good. Great band and i proper wanna see em again. After about half hour, Reverend and the Makers were on. And they played an absolutely incredible set. I'd seen em before but they were a support act and i'd never really listened to em, so i didn't think it was great. But this was bloody amazing. Everyone there loved em, theyre a proper yorkshire band. Atmosphere was incredible, there was pits for every song. It was a bit rough but if anyone fell over everyone helped eachother up which was alrate. They opened with Bassline which is alrate but the rest of the set was so much better. You can see me bopping about in this video of it here!



They played so many good songs - I proper love 'Open your Window', and it was made even better cos Andy Nicholson came out and played bass on it! He used to be in Arctic blummin Monkeys! was so good. They filmed their new music video there aswell, so there's a chance we could be in the next Reverend and the Makers video! It's for Out of the Shadows, one of the best songs of their 3rd release.



They closed with Silence is Talking, which is a rate song. Everyone went mad for that, and these wristbands that theyd given out all flashed when it started, it was actually pretty amazing.



Quite frankly it was one of the best gigs of my life! Great atmosphere, can't believe this is the first time i've been to tramlines. Unfortunately we've not been off on the Saturday/Sunday because of either lack of money + throwing up :(. Missed a great band from Sheffield called Wet Nuns last night. Sort of really really heavy bluesy punky rock. They're good.



I will definitely come to Sheffield for Tramlines while i'm at uni. It was such a good experience and I can imagine it being even better when I'm old enough to legally buy a pint, rather than having to down warm beer :( Top Night.

The Stone Roses @ Heaton Park, 1st July 2012

I bought the tickets for this gig SOOO long ago. Like October or something stupid. I can't remember exactly when. I paid 120 pound for 2 tickets, and the next day, they were on ebay for £10,000. EVERYONE told me to sell them, to just do it, and that I was stupid for not doing it. But I knew it'd be worth it. These concerts were going to be incredible, and I was gonna be one of the lucky few that got to go. I say few - about 225,000 people got tickets - it was the fastest selling gig in history I think! It was a bit disappointing that they announced loads of European gigs before it - i mean these were meant to be the reunion shows - but nevertheless, I couldn't wait.

It was an amazing day. We got the bus into town about 10, got a McDonalds breakfast and then got on our coach. Apart from me and Daisy, everyone on that coach was at least 30 years old. It was clear these were original Roses fans from back in the day. Everyone was drinking, laughing, anticipating the days events.. It was a sick atmosphere! Eventually we arrived at Heaton Park - along with about 40 other coaches. There were Hundreds of people, and a fair few were wearing Reni Hats! Hehe. I remember walking to the queue, and that queue was one of the longest of my life. We were only actually stoof in it for about an hour and a half, but we were SO excited! I was also pretty nervous that we'd get searched and they'd find the vodka stuffed down me wellies. When those gates opened, us and thousands of other people LEGGED IT in. It was pretty funny seeing all these grown adults excited like little kids. We got a wristband that got us into the front pit, then went for a pint. The bar staff that served us were nice - I told them I was underage, and they just said for Daisy to give me her pint, and then for her to buy another one - so that was drinks sorted :P. We went into the front pit, sat down and chilled in the glorious sun, and waited for the first band.

By the time they came on, I was already pretty tipsy! Was on my third pint by this point. Had just enough to be able to dance like a dickhead to the band. They're a pretty unknown band, from manchester, called Dirty North. Reni namedropped them at the reunion press conference. They're an alright band, and they've got one song that sticks in my head so much! It's called Take Me Away.



Although no-one really knew who they were, they entertained everyone. There was a fair few people dancing, which can often be unusual for a support band haha. They were definitely a good opener!

Anyway, they finished their set, we went for what was probably the 5th piss of the day - Because i was drinking so fast I was pissing a lot. Must have been for 15 pisses while we were there. Got another 2 pints, and by the time we were back, The Justice Tonight Band were on. I was looking forward to these, because Mick Jones from The Clash plays with them! Was amazing to see such a legend on stage. Jon Mclure from Reverend and the Makers came on aswell, and they sung Should I Stay or Should I Go - one of The Clash's biggest tunes. Everyone was going mental for that one.

The atmosphere was getting even better at this point - possibly because everyone, including me, was getting more drunk. Infact, my memory after this part of the gig is a lot less clear. We went for 2 more pints and multiple more pisses at this point! I met a fellow Liverpool FC supported by the toilets and we had a good old conversation about all sorts. I remember being annoyed, because the music they'd been playing between bands wasn't that good - then they played True Faith by New Order while we were at the toilets, and I couldn't have a proper dance to it! Hehe. Anyway, we got back to the pit, ready for the third band of the day - The Wailers.

The sun came out as soon as they came on, was great! Of all the support bands, this is the one i was looking forward to the most - I've ALWAYS liked Bob Marley, so to see his band playing all his classics was amazing. I can't actually remember the setlist, but I remember them playing my favourites - Jammin, One Love, Three Little Birds, Exodus, and the highlight of their set, Buffalo Soldier. They were great - the first band of the night which engaged everybody for their entire set. I was definitely drunk at this point too - so I was dancing and singing without caring what other people thought, hehe.

After this, I don't remember what happened. We went for another drink + toilet break I think.. idk, it's a blur. But the main support act for the night, Plan B, really impressed! I was surprised at how good his voice was live - he's really talented! He opened with The Recluse, which is one of my favourites, and he did Prayin, and Stay Too Long. So that was my 3 favourites covered straight away! Then he went offstage, and some beatboxer came on.. and then Plan B and his band came back, theyd had a costume change, and they played some newer stuff - including Ill Manors, which is an absolute BANGER! Went a bit mad for that one.

So he went off.. and then that was it. No more support bands. Forget going for another pint/toilet break, we had to keep our spot, it was a good spot. And the crowd was getting tighter now. Now, and this is why I regret drinking.. I can't remember them walking on stage, which is always a great moment at any gig, but at a gig this monumental.. i wish i could remember it! But I do remember when Mani started playing I Wanna Be Adored.. that amazing bassline, followed by the amazing guitar skills of John Squire.. EVERYBODY was jumping up and down for that song!

Their setlist was amazing. Every song you could have wanted them to play, was played.

"I Wanna Be Adored"
"Mersey Paradise"
"(Song For My) Sugar Spun Sister"
"Sally Cinnamon"
"Where Angels Play"
"Shoot You Down"
"Bye Bye Badman"
"Ten Storey Love Song"
"Standing Here"
"Fools Gold"
"Something's Burning"
"Waterfall"
"Don't Stop"
"Love Spreads"
"Made Of Stone"
"This Is The One"
"She Bangs The Drums"
"Elizabeth My Dear"
"I Am The Resurrection"

I already believed it, but after this gig it was cemented into my mind that The Stone Roses are one of the best bands of all time, and are have THE most talented musicians! John Squire is insane at the guitar - yet so cool. He stands there, not a smile on his face, and plays the funkiest riffs. Mani has written half of the top 10 basslines ever - I Wanna Be Adored, I Am The Ressurection, She Bangs The Drums and Fool's Gold are 4 of the best basslines ever! And Reni - aswell as being an amazing drummer, his voice is amazing too, and paired with Ians it just sounds mindblowing. Ian isn't the best singer in the world - he's not even the best singer in The Stone Roses - but he is one of the best frontmen in rock n roll history. He just has a cool feel about him, the way he swaggers around the stage and doesnt give a shit about anything.

They closed with the best song - I Am The Resurrection. What a way to end a brilliant night. 3 Verses building up to that epic chorus - all 75,000 people there were screaming their hearts out to that song. There are no words to describe the atmosphere when that chorus hits - but its one of the best feelings i've ever experienced! They hugged at the end of the night, and stood on the stage in each others arms. As they walked off, Bob Marley and The Wailer's classic Redemption Song played, as a massive fireworks display went off. We watched that, then walked back to the coach. The atmosphere still felt great - and i was pumped full of adrenaline and alcohol which enhanced this feeling! As we got back onto the coach and slept on the journey back, I knew that that had to be one of the best gigs in history. It completely lived up to the hype and was completely worth the money and the wait. I know if I ever do see em live again, it will not be able to match that. Incredible.