Well, apologies for the lack of posts recently. Since handing in dissertation/birthday there was more revelry followed by exams followed by more revelry followed by moving out of Manchester. And in that time I managed to go to Rockness up in Inverness, Glastonbury Festival down in Pilton and graduate back in Manchester. So here we are: a mega triple post.
So, Rockness. Basically I was at the end of my first week of work experience at XFM in Manchester and just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I was offered a pair tickets, got cocky and asked for another, a quick phone call to Claudio to see if he was up for driving the 800 mile round trip, and jobs a good ‘un
We started as meant to go on with Cat, Vanessa and I seeing Justice at Sankeys on the Friday night – who were just an unfathomably immense wall of fist thumping neo-naxi boot stomping sound [the only time I’ve been to see DJs and moshed]. We had the best of intentions to at least catch one or two hours sleep but by the time we waited till finish at 5, fannied about with buses and walked a bit home it was 6am anyway: just enough time to grab a quick shower [lots of topless sweaty men down the front at Sankeys] and make Claudio a quadruple espresso.
Given that we didn’t know we were going until the day before I didn’t have any preconceptions or expectations, and no plans to see any bands in particular. Saturday night we caught Groove Armada [in the biggest tent I’ve ever seen – old skool Glasto dance tent eat your heart out] and The Chemical Brothers, who we watched from afar in the eeriest late night mist I’ve ever seen. I tried not to follow it too closely for fear of spoiling Sunday night at Glastonbury. On Sunday we saw, much to my delight, the Levellers, and a very good show they put on too – my first for a long time, and in the evening decided to sack off queueing to see Mark Ronson, stocked up on life-juice, and watched the the immensity of Daft Punk.
|pics|
|video to come…|
Glastonbury Festival needs no explanation, other than a quick reiteration of the vast numbers of people that came this year and a big thanks again to Will and Debs for sorting out tickets for a LOT of people.
Also my top tip – don’t mix beer, vodka and cider in a short space of time on not a great deal to eat. That is unless you enjoy missing 1980s ska legends and Brightonian super star DJs in intimate venues. Yes, I am still upset with myself.
Unfortunately that time had to come. The official end of our student lives. It sounds sad, but to be fair it was in the end a good old knees up. Despite myself being objected to a white wash hit and run from a bus, all the PPE crowd managed to collect their respective certificates and shake some old fart’s hand without tripping up or making a fool of themselves. There was a bit of a reception beforehand with most conversations starting with body language which read ‘oh you made it too’, briefly followed by ‘is that free booze you’re drinking there?’.
I made the snap decision to stay in Manchester that night and enjoyed a good meal in The Northern Quarter [one of those places I only managed to first visit in the dying moments of third year], a few drinks in Font, a good old bop in Sub-space, and then off to Manchester 235 Casino where I shamefully sat by the 25p Roulette all night and came out even. But then at least I didn’t have to call an attendant out because the machine wouldn’t give me my £1.25 back…
Anyway, a big good luck, well done and thank you to all my coursemates and people I’ve shared classes with over the past three years. I can only hope you become rich and famous, and that you’ll let me kip on your floor if I need to. Ta ra.
|pics|