Hey, you! Yeah you. That’s right. The person reading my blog. How are you? Are you enjoying yourself right now? Having a good time? I sure hope so. There shouldn’t be many reasons to be down right now. The sun is still out at this time of year, and things are moving on. We’re moving on up with new things on the horizon and from what I can tell, there shouldn’t be anything massively negative on anyone’s mind right now - with the exception of monetary turmoil.
That’s how I feel right now anyway, things are all good with the exception of money, but come the end of the month this will be remedied and I should be set. Can’t wait! I’ll be able to plan and spend and save and such. Money, yaaay!
Reading Festival was fucking ace, people. I’m not gonna lie, if you havn’t been yet you simply have to go in the next few years before you get just that little bit too old for it so you can fully appreciate it at this age. This year, the warm drink of choice was cans of pear Gaymers cider, which I have since found to be absolutely vile and dispicable. I can’t handle it any more regardless of how much I enjoyed it whilst I was actually there!
Radiohead headlining on the Sunday - whilst the complete polar opposite to last years festival - was exactly what was needed after a hectic weekend of drinking, smoking and dancing like crazy. They were fantastic too, I’ve never experienced a set quite like it. The best part about Radiohead for me (aside from them playing Paranoid Android live - ohhhh man) was how much Becky and Lewis enjoyed the gig too. They went in to it a bit unsure, bringing out the usual “Radiohead are depressing, meh” comments - and after the second song Becky’s mind was set, she’d completely changed her opinion on it all and really got in to it. I’m really glad this was the case as it meant I could enjoy the rest of the set with others enjoying the set - a great close to the festival.
As for the rest of it: Frank Turner was just superb. He commands so much crowd respect and participation it’s crazy, almost everyone in the tent was singing along and dancing along to his songs and that’s something I’ll keep with me for quite some time. I just wish I had people to see it with. It was the same with Crystal Castles, except everyone inside the tent was either pilled up to either the extreme that they were going absolutely crazy dancing with amazing energy, or they were wiped out on the floor staring gormlessly at the band. Either way, Crystal Castles live were another one of the bands I knew I had to see and I’ve come away feeling so glad I saw them.
Other great bands over the weekend include Kings of Leon - minus their little hissy fit at the crowd, they were great. Hearing tens of thousands of people sing Sex on Fire is an experience you have to…well, experience to understand. Bloc Party were right on form this time around with a brilliant set and the return of their fantastic laser show for Flux, which continues to impress me. The Prodigy were quite simply mind blowing; I’ve never seen anything like it. Absolutely everyone in the field was dancing their tits off - myself included - and the atmosphere was immense. I’d love to see them play again, but definitely outside in a festival setting like this. Couldn’t imagine an inside Prodigy gig.
Yeah Yeah Yeah’s were fairly mediocre (ending up in me dubbing them the Meh Meh Meh’s) with the exception of their acoustic, slow version of Maps which was magical once you got past the realisation you wouldn’t be hearing the fantastic drum beat - a slight disappointment. Maximo Park are a band I was looking forward to but left a very small impression on me, in that I can only distinctly remember Our Velocity being played to close the set - but what I do remember about it was that it was very good. I’d like to see them again to do them justice.
So yeah, everyone else I saw over the weekend (Kaiser Chiefs, Enter Shikari, Friendly Fires, Fall Out Boy and more) were all great too. The worst band of the weekend for me were Deftones - not knowing any of their music probably didn’t help, but after listening to their set, I know I don’t particularly want to go listen to it either. And the festival itself was brilliant. Great atmosphere, great people and a great time. Oh, and I acquired the new nickname Fuzzy Bear by nearby campers. Smooth or what?
Aside from the Festival, I’ve been working and really starting my new job since returning, and my my it’s been tough. The fact that I had an atrocious cold didn’t help me on my first day, meaning I made plenty of mistakes I shoulodn’t have, but things are looking up. The team are starting to gel a lot better and people are settling in to the way things work. I’m looking forward to the point where we’re no longer considered a new team, and instead we’re thought of as the regular HMV Camberley team. It’s sure an experience though, as well as a challenge and one I’m tackling head on right now. I’m bound to have both good and bad days but today itself was a good day, and I came back and was able to just relax and play some video games - something I’ve not done for a few weeks. My next day off is Wednesday, and I can’t wait to sink some quality time in to my Xbox.
Something I’m missing out on is the moving back to uni situation right now. Everyone is back off to uni and moving in to their own place and such, and I’m staying here at home. I feel like I’m missing out on something; I’d love to be one of the people off to move in to a house for the first time with a bunch of flatmates. I guess I miss James quite a bit, one of my workmates reminds me of him a little bit with the inside jokes we have which I realised earlier today. And that reminds me, I need to send him his copy of Call of Duty 4 and Street Fighter back soon. Ah well. It’ll have to be the end of the month, in which I’ll get paid and automatically lose half of it due to personal debts.
Ain’t life in Rapture Aldershot grand?
I am Lewis. Also known as Speller, or online as Dyson. 20 years old, now working at GAME. Blogging since October 2008.
